ON THE INTERMENTS OF PRIMITIVE MAN. 61 



leaving behind the bronze rivets with which it had been 

 affixed. Hence this secondary interment evidently be- 

 longed to the later or Bronze period. 



The human skulls found in the barrows have afforded 

 the foundations for some of the most decided of the re- 

 sults of barrow digging. The late distinguished Swedish 

 craniologist, Professor Retzius, some years ago saw that 

 the simplest division of skulls, as to their general form, 

 was into two sections, according to their relative length 

 those which are proportionately long and narrow, or dolicho- 

 cephalous ; and those which are comparatively short and 

 broad, or brachycephalous. Retzius has observed that the 

 various races of man distributed over the world were 

 mostly and in a general manner to be classified under 

 these two sections. The examination of the skulls de- 

 rived from British barrows soon showed that the great 

 majority of them belonged to the latter class of brachy- 

 cephalous, or short skulls. But it was found that there 

 are two distinct kinds of barrows in Britain : one of these 

 may be said to be the greater barrows, the other the 

 smaller barrows. In some portions of England, as in 

 Wiltshire and the adjoining counties, the latter are to be 

 occasionally met with, whilst in the Derbyshire, Stafford- 

 shire, and Midland districts it is the round barrows that 

 prevail to a very great extent. It has been affirmed by 

 a close observer, who has had a good deal of opportunity 

 of opening the much rarer and much more difficult to 

 explore large barrows, which he has called the long barrows, 

 that the skulls from these interments generally belong to 

 the dolichocephalous or long series, whilst it is universally 

 admitted that the skulls from the smaller or round bar- 

 rows are distinguished by being short or brachycephalous. 

 Now upon these observations, combined with numerous 



