THE BUILDERS 



worth while to remember that cup-markings also 

 occur on natural rocks and boulders in Switzerland, 

 Scandinavia, Great Britain (where there is a good 

 example near Ilkley in Yorkshire), near Como in 

 Italy, and in Germany, Russia, and India. 



Of the builders of the megalithic monuments 

 themselves we cannot expect to know very much, 

 especially while their origin remains veiled in 

 obscurity. Yet there are a few facts which stand 

 out clearly. We even know something about their 

 appearance, for the skulls found in the megalithic 

 tombs have in many cases been subjected to 

 careful examination and measurement. Into 

 the detail of these measurements we cannot enter 

 here ; suffice it to say that the most important of 

 them are the maximum length of the skull from 

 front to back and its maximum breadth, both 

 measures, of course, being taken in a straight 

 line with a pair of callipers, and not round the 

 contour of the skull. If we now divide the maxi- 

 mum breadth by the maximum length and multiply 

 the result by ioo we get what is known as the 

 cephalic index of the skull. Thus if a skull has 

 a length of 180 millimetres and a breadth of 135, 

 its cephalic index is iff X 100, i.e. 75. It is clear 

 that in a roundish type of head the breadth will 

 be greater in proportion to the length than in a 

 narrow elliptical type. Thus in a broad head the 

 cephalic index is high, while in a narrow head it 



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