XVIII. 



ON THE PEOPLE OF THE LONG-BARKOW 

 PEEIOD. 



Introductory Remarks. — In this paper I propose to give in detail 

 a description of the examination of three long barrows situated 

 near the little village of Nether Swell, in the county of Gloucester, 

 prefacing this account by some general remarks — firstly, as to the 

 physical characteristics of the people of the long barrow period; 

 secondly, as to the possibility of dividing that period into successive 

 epochs ; and thirdly, as to the rationale of the various modes of dis- 

 posing of the dead observable in those early tumuli. In these 

 prefatory remarks I shall not confine myself to the facts observed 

 in the Gloucestershire explorations, but shall use, for purposes of 

 comparison, my records of the investigation of similar barrows 

 carried on by me in Yorkshire and elsewhere, with the valuable 

 assistance of Canon Greenwell. 



Looking at the osteological remains as a whole, perhaps the most 

 striking point is the great disproportion in the sizes and the 

 lengths of certain of the long bones, and, by consequence, in 

 heights, of the male and female skeletons respectively. The male 

 skeletons were very ordinarily about 5 feet 6 inches in height, as 

 against a height of but 4 feet 10 inches attained to by the female. 

 The average difference between the statures of males and females in 

 civilised races is about half this amount, whilst a precisely similar 

 disproportion is observable at the present day between the stature 

 of individuals of the two sexes amongst savages *. The clavicles 



1 The late Sir Andrew Smith, K.C.B., informed me, that from extensive observa- 

 tions, carried on for a period of seventeen years, in South Africa, he could assure me 

 that the Amakosa Kaffirs to the eastward of the colony averaged near 5 feet 8$ inches, 

 women 5 feet \ inch. (See • Archaeologia,' 1870, vol. xlii. p. 457, where I put this 

 observation, and a number of other measurements bearing upon this point, on record.) 



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