454 DESCRIPTION OF A SKELETON 



bone implement — period. - For the characters both of skull and 

 skeleton are intermediate between those of these two sets of men. 

 The short stature, the lowness of skull as well as of stature, and 

 the orthognathous character of the jaw, albeit a little exaggerated 

 by senile absorption, point to the earlier stock ; whilst the strength 

 of the bones, skeletal and cranial both, and the brachycephalic 

 character itself, incline us to the other view. The hypothesis of 

 crossing will cover and combine the facts. I should be slow, in 

 default of other evidence besides that which is furnished by the 

 osteological remains, to aver positively that this skull must have 

 belonged to a man of the Bronze period. The comparatively per- 

 fect condition of the teeth is, however, certainly in favour of the 

 claims of the former period, according to Mr. Mummery's examina- 

 tion of Dr. Thurnam's collection \ in which amongst sixty-eight 

 long-barrow skulls only two cases of decay were found, whilst 

 amongst thirty-two of the later period no less than seven such 

 cases were found. 



As individual peculiarities, the exceedingly low orbital index is 

 specially noteworthy, though some doubt may exist as to its ethno- 

 logical significance. Correlated with a comparatively full lower 

 jaw we have a comparatively vertical forehead ; the strength of the 

 ridges, on the other hand, overhanging the orbits, and above all, 

 the strength indicated by the temporal and other ridges for mus- 

 cular insertion on the back parts of the skull contrast father than 

 correspond with the weakness of the upper jaw. Something of this 

 last peculiarity, however, is due I think to senile atrophy, which 

 would have progressed further but for the persistence of the teeth 

 in their somewhat wasted sockets. 



Rheumatic exostosis had beset both vertebrae and long bones, 

 and had not spared the articular condyles of the lower jaw ; im- 

 pairing thus the happiness, or at any rate the enjoyment, of their 

 owner very considerably. 



The sutures of the skull are still unobliterated on the outer sur- 

 face at least of the skull ; this point Dr. Thurnam would have held, 

 I think, to be more common among the brachycephali of the Bronze 

 than among the dolichocephali of the Stone age. But it may have 

 been an individual peculiarity, and so may be taken to point neither 



1 For a discussion on this point see ' British Barrows,' p. 701 ; also Article XVI. 

 p. 302. 



