ON THE PEOPLE OP THE LONG-BARROW PERIOD. 383 



to that at which the bodies found headless were interred, and that 

 the skulls of these latter were removed at that time from their 

 natural connections, and placed near the chamber. It is, however, 

 plain that such an explanation as this combines the ossuary theory, 

 which it would employ for the skeletons found undisturbed, with 

 the view of holding that these interments are to be considered the 

 successive interments of a family powerful enough to command the 

 use of a barrow, which view it would employ for the skeletons found 

 at a distance from the chamber. It is possible that it may be right 

 so to combine these views. 



Osteology and Craniography . — A few general remarks may be 

 made as to the entire collection of human bones obtained from the 

 long barrow, ' Swell i.,' before we proceed to give in detail the 

 craniography of the skulls which have admitted of reconstruction. 

 We have definite proof of the presence of eight skeletons in this 

 barrow ; of these eight skeletons, three belonged to children, and 

 five to adults. Of the five adults, four had been aged ; of the four, 

 two had been men, two women. The fifth adult had been a man 

 of from twenty-four to thirty years of age. Of the three children, 

 one was about two years old ; the other two were about seven 

 months at most. The four skulls which belonged to aged adults 

 have been reconstructed. The skulls of the two adult females will 

 be observed to differ greatly in size, the one being veiy large, the 

 other very small ; whilst the two adult female skeletons resemble 

 each other in a point eminently characteristic of savage life — to 

 wit, in showing that their owners were disproportionately short in 

 stature, as compared with the male members of their tribe. The 

 leg bones of the females give them a stature of 4 feet 10 inches and 

 4 feet 9 inches, against a stature of 5 feet 6 inches in the males ; 

 and a similar tale is told even more emphatically by a comparison 

 of their respective collar-bones. The average difference between 

 the male and female stature ' of civilised races is about fialf this 

 amount. 



In two cases of the aged adults considerable loss of teeth had 

 occurred before death ; in the two others, precisely the reverse was 

 the case. The young man, as might be expected, had retained his 

 entire complement of teeth — in the upper jaw, at least, which alone 

 we recovered in his case. The male lower jaws have the alveolar 



1 See 'Archaeologia,' xlii. p. 447- 



