294 



NATURE 



[November 12, 1914 



DENTAL MUTILATIONS IN NEOLITHIC 

 HUMAN REMAINS. 



]\.TR. J. W. JACKSON, of the Manchester Museum, 

 ^^^ has reprinted from the Journal of Anatomy ami 

 Pliysiology (vol. xlix.) an interesting^ paper on dental 

 mutilations in Neolithic human remains. These were 

 first brought to light in the case of the celebrated 

 Galle}- Hill skeleton, and further examples have now 

 been discovered at the cave known as Dog Holes, on 

 Warton Crag, Lancashire. In these latter examples 

 the lower jaw was remarkable for the absence of the 

 second premolar teeth on each side, and for the oblitera- 

 tion of all traces of the alveoli. 



It is well known that during the rites of tribal 

 initiation among the natives of Australia, the Ashantis, 

 the Masai, and Sudanese tribes, and others, some oi' 

 the lower teeth are removed. Prof. Elliot Smith has 

 described a similar case in Ptolemaic-Roman burials 

 in Nubia, and it prevailed in early Egypt. The 

 occurrence of similar examples in British Neolithic 

 interments is thus of considerable interest. Mr. Jack- 

 son is inclined to regard the practice in Britain as 

 g^enetically related to similar customs elsewhere, par- 

 ticularly in eastern Africa, and he assumes that its 

 occurrence among' the early Egyptians some 3400 

 years B.C. represents a date only slightlv earlier than 

 that of the Neolithic age in Britain. It seems evident, 

 he urges, that these early Neolithic people had retained 

 some remnant of a rite ^ or custom, formerly in use 

 among themselves, or adopted from neighbouring 

 tribes during their migration from their early home 

 in the East. 



Further, Mr. Jackson thinks we may assume from 

 the presence of mutilations in so few of the jaws of 

 what may be regarded as one clan or family group 

 that, as in the case of some Australian aborigines, 

 the significance of the operation might likewise have 

 been lost, and that the practice became degraded into 

 a merelv optional custom through the isolation of the 

 tribes in their northward migration, or through some 

 advance in civilisation. In any case, the investigation 

 may result in establishing' a cultural chain linking 

 the British Neolithic tribes with the pre-Dynastic 

 Egyptians, by way of the Iberian Peninsula and 

 northern Africa. 



GEOLOGY AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



'T'HE Australian meeting' of the association was re- 

 ■■■ markable for the extended nature and great 

 interest of the excursions which had been arranged by 

 the various local committees. 



An advance party arrived in \\ estern Australia on 

 July 22, and were conducted by Prof. Woolnough, of 

 the University of Western Australia, to the Irwin 

 River, two hundred miles north of Perth, where sec- 

 tions were examined showing Permo-Carboniferous 

 beds unconformably overlain by Jurassic rocks. The 

 Permo-Carboniferous series includes near its base a 

 bed of Conglomerate, the Lyons Conglomerate, which 

 is shown by its numerous striated pebbles to be of 

 glacial origin. The Lyons Conglomerate has been 

 proved to extend for a distance of two hundred miles 

 and is believed to be contemporaneous with similar 

 beds in other parts of Australia and in South Africa, 

 South America, and India. 



On returning to Perth sections of pre-Cambrian 

 slates at Armadale Brick Pits, and of crush-con- 

 glomerates of similar age at Helena River were 

 examined, and on July 28, several additional members 

 having joined the party, a start was made for the 

 Stirling Ranges, 250 miles to the south, where highly 



NO. 2350, VOL. 94] 



contorted quartzites of unknown age were seen. 

 Again turning northwards, the .Archaean gneisses of 

 the Toodyay railway section, which are covered un- 

 conformably by quartzite, probably of Huronian age, 

 were visited, and, finally, an examination was madf 

 of the Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie area, both the under- 

 ground workings and the surface plants receiving 

 attention. On August 4 the party sailed from Fre- 

 mantle for Adelaide. 



From Adelaide a number of chemists and geologists 

 visited Port Pirie, where the smelting works of the 

 Broken Hill Proprietary Company were inspected, and 

 whence a trip was made across Spencer's Gulf to the 

 iron ore deposits at Iron Knob, whence the ore is now 

 sent to the company's new ironworks at Newcastle. 

 New South Wales. The party then proceeded to 

 Broken Hill by special train, and spent a day in the 

 examination of the underground and surface exposures 

 of the famous lead-silver vein. 



Another party visited the Cambrian glacial beds ofj 

 the .Sturt River and the Permo-Carboniferous tillites* 

 of Hallett's Cove, passing thence over the Upper Cam^ 

 brian limestones, with Archaeocyathus, of Sellick's Hill 

 to the In man Valley, where the striated surfaces 

 underlying the Permo-Carboniferous tillites were first 

 described by Stirling, and returned to Adelaide by 

 way of the Mount Lofty Ranges. 



At Melbourne, which was reached on August 13, 

 the first meeting of the section was opened with an 

 address by Prof. E. W. Skeats on the geology of \'ic- 

 toria, in which the general structure of the colony 

 was described, particular attention being devoted to 

 the areas covered by the official excursions. There 

 followed a paper by Dr. T. S. Hall on \'ictorian 

 graptolites, after which Prof. Johannes Walther ex- 

 hibited and described a series of lantern slides in colour 

 illustrating rock-disintegration by change of tempera- 

 ture and other phases of denudation characteristic of 

 arid regions. 



Prof. A. P. Coleman dealt with the climatic condi- 

 tions of the Early pre-Cambrian. He referred to the 

 desert conditions which are believed to have occurred 

 during the Keweenawan or Torridonian period, and to 

 the Ice age of the Huronian, and announced that 

 recent work in Canada showed the action of watt^r and 

 a cool climate on the Sudbury series of pre-Laurentian 

 age, and even in the still older Grenville and Keewatin 

 series. "These are the earliest known formations, 

 so that air and water worked in the usual way at the 

 beginning of recorded geological time." Prof. Skeats 

 read a paper on the Tertiary alkali rocks of Victoria, 

 and Dr. H. S. Summers dealt with the origin and 

 relationship of the same. 



The morning of August 18 was devoted to a joint 

 discussion with members of Section E on the physio- 

 graphv of arid lands, which was opened by Sir Thomas 

 H. Holland, and continued bv Sir Charles Lucas, 

 Prof. W. M. Davis, Prof. J.' W. Gregorv, Prof. 

 Albrecht Penck, Dr. Griffith Taylor, Mr.' E. C. 

 Andrews, Mr. A. L. Du Toit, Mr. Kenvon, Dr. W. F. 

 Hume, Mr. H. T. Feirar, Mr. D. M. S. Watson, and 

 others. 



The final day of the Melbourne meeting was devoted 

 to the Tertiarv deposits of south-eastern Australia. 

 Papers on this subject were contributed bv Mr. F. 

 Chapman, Dr. T. S. Hall, Dr. G. B. Pritchard, Mr. 

 R. Bullen Newton, ProL J. W. Gregory, Mr. D. J. 

 Mahony, and Mr. H. Herman, and were followed by 

 a general discussion on the age and sequence of the 

 strata. 



The excursions during the Melbourne meeting in- 

 cluded one to the area round Mount Macedon, where 

 several exposures of alkali rocks, including anortho- 

 clase trachyte, dacite, grano-diorite, and solvsbergite. 



