CHAP, ix.] PHYSIQUE OF NEOLITHIC POPULATION. 311 



ment of the back of the head, termed by Dr. Broca 

 " dolichocephalic occipitale," as distinguished from the 

 " dolichocephalic frontale " of other races. The outline 

 of the face was oval, the supraciliary ridges being less 

 strongly marked, and the cheek-bones much less de- 

 veloped than in the round skulls, the upper and lower 

 jaws small, and the lower part of the face not projecting 

 beyond a vertical line dropped from the forehead (ortho- 

 races are continually coming into contact, and where life is removed 

 farthest from its natural and simple surroundings. But it does not apply 

 to people living under the conditions of those described in this chapter, nor 

 does it apply to simple communities at the present time. The same 

 habits of life, common to a tribe or a race of rude civilisation, coupled with 

 comparative purity of blood, certainly produced a greater uniformity in the 

 shape of the head, than that which we observe among ourselves. It seems, 

 therefore, to me little less than idle to say that the unity of type run- 

 ning through the whole of these Neolithic skulls is of no significance, 

 because in certain hatters' shops in Manchester, London, or Vienna, the 

 outline of the heads is so variable. In these cases the difference is brought 

 about by abnormal conditions of life, and the mixture of different races 

 through commerce. 



For practical purposes it is much more convenient to treat the long 

 and oval skulls under the same heading. As an example of it we may 

 take the description of the skull from the primary interment in the 

 barrow of Winterbourne Stoke, described by Dr. Thurnam (Mem. Anthrop. 

 Soc. i. 44) as follows : " The 'greatest length is 7 '3 inches (the glabello- 

 inial diameter 7*1 inches), the greatest breadth is 5'5 inches, being in the 

 proportion of 75 to the length taken as 100. The forehead is narrow 

 and receding, and moderately high in the coronal region, behind which 

 is a trace of transverse depression. The parietal tubers are somewhat full, 

 and add materially to the breadth of this otherwise narrow skull. The 

 posterior borders of the parietals are prolonged backwards, to join a com- 

 plex chain of Wormian bones in the line of the lambdoid suture. The 

 superior scale of the occiput is full, rounded, and prominent ; the inion 

 more pronounced than usual in this class of dolichocephalic skulls. The 

 superciliaries are well marked, the orbits rather small and long, the nasals 

 prominent, the facial bones short and small, the molars flat and almost 

 vertical, the alveolars short but rather projecting. The mandible is com- 

 paratively small but angular, the chin square, narrow, and prominent," 



