THE CELTIC TUMULI OF DORSET. 61 



in the South is partly due to the fact that, in Purbeck alone, many 

 more skeletons were found in the Tumuli there than anywhere 

 else, which may admit of the following explanation : Many of 

 these skeletons were found lying in the extended position in 

 Kist-vaens, or rude stone enclosures, which is exceptional in both 

 respects ; for in the majority of instances the body when unburnt 

 was deposited in the flexed or contracted posture within a simple 

 cist or grave. When exceptions to this rule occur, they seem to 

 indicate a later mode of sepulture ; which is also confirmed when 

 the skeletons are found more superficially deposited than the other 

 interments in the same Tumulus. But in Purbeck the skeletons 

 were often found laid at full length in Kist-vaens throughout the 

 same Tumulus. I think, therefore, that this exceptional mode of 

 sepulture, so frequent there, may identify those Tumuli in which it 

 occurs with a much later period of the Bronze ^Era than the 

 Tumuli in the other districts ; and it may be taken to imply the 

 dawn of new customs and manners arising from an intercourse 

 with a more civilized people. That people could hardly have been 

 other than the early Roman Colonists who settled themselves in 

 Purbeck and have left there abundant evidence of industrial 

 occupation in certain localities. 



The measurement of skulls had not begun to receive a few years 

 ago its due weight as an ethnological exponent, but has since 

 received a great deal of the attention of scientific observers with 

 very remarkable results. Few only of the skulls from the Tumuli 

 of Purbeck have been critically examined, but such as have been 

 submitted to this process confirm the Anthropological datum that 

 the Keltae were a round-headed (brachycephalous), negro-featured 

 (prognathous) race with an osseous development of limb indicative 

 of great stature and physical strength.* 



* Vide Crania Uritannica, by Drs. Thurnam and Davis. 



