EARLY MAN 



affords no satisfactory evidence in this respect, except that brachycephalic 

 skeletons have occasionally been described as powerful and large. The 

 fact is, any conclusion drawn from a comparison of the available femoral 

 lengths is vitiated by the frequent uncertainty as to sex and head-form ; 

 and more so by the circumstance that very few of these lengths have 

 been recorded in the case of the distinctively dolichocephalic skeletons, 

 whether of the Neolithic or the Bronze age. 



A comparison, however, of these femoral lengths in which the sex is 

 known leads to an interesting result. In twenty-one male skeletons the aver- 

 age length was i8'53 in. ; in seven female skeletons, 16*75 m> These 

 lengths, taken as 27*5 per cent of the stature in life, represent an average 

 stature of 5 ft. 73 in. for the men, and of 5 ft. o| in. for the women. The 

 difference between these average statures, nearly 7 in., considerably 

 exceeds that which obtains to-day in England and other civilized coun- 

 tries, and must probably be set down to the effects of early child-bearing 

 and hard work on a poor and irregular diet, in the case of the Bronze- 

 age women. On the other hand the Bronze age compares favourably in 

 this respect with the Neolithic age, from which we may infer that with 

 advancing civilization woman's lot had already undergone amelioration. 



With regard to the distribution of funeral vessels in respect to 

 head-form, the data are too slender to afford reliable inferences, for in 

 only eight interments with drinking cups and eleven with food vessels, is 

 the shape of the associated skull given. But it is noteworthy that the 

 former vessels are relatively more frequent with long and medium skulls, 

 and the latter with broad skulls. 



Circles. Of the dozen or more structures in the county popularly 

 known as ' Druidical circles ' two are conspicuous for their magnitude, 

 and are among the finest in the country. These are the famous circle of 

 Arborlow near Hartington, and the little known ' Bull-ring ' at Dove 

 Holes near Chapel-en-le-Frith. The literature of the former is volu- 

 minous, no other antiquity in the county having been so much written 

 about, while the latter has only been noticed by one writer, Pilkington, 

 in his Present State of Derbyshire, 1789. Allowing for the circumstance 

 that the one retains its ' megaliths ' and the other is shorn of them, these 

 circles so closely resemble one another that it is beyond doubt they were 

 the work of the same age, if not of the same hands ; and the similarity 

 is not confined to the structures themselves, each being closely associated 

 with a barrow or mound of unusually large size. Each consists of a 

 central circular area of the natural surface, bounded by a wide but 

 shallow ditch, on the outer margin of which is a rampart consisting of 

 its throw-out, both being discontinued on opposite sides to form en- 

 trances. These entrances or causeways are approximately north-west and 

 south-east at Arborlow, and are more nearly north and south at Dove 

 Holes. The dimensions of the two circles are practically identical. In 

 each the diameter from crest to crest of the rampart is 250 ft., and the 

 extreme diameter is from 20 to 30 ft. greater, while that of the central 



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