CEMETERY AT FRILFORD. 611 



VI. Conclusions suggested hy an 'Examination of the Human Kemains 

 found at Frilford, 



The cranial and other osteological peculiarities of the human 

 remains which I have examined from the Frilford cemetery seem 

 to me to throw sometimes a very unambiguous, and sometimes, it 

 must be confessed, a more or less questionable light upon certain 

 of the moot points in the political and natural history of the period 

 in which their owners lived. Among those points may be specially 

 mentioned the often-raised and very variously answered questions, 

 as to the extent to which ^ the Anglo-Saxon Conquest was 

 equivalent to an extirpation of the population previously in oc- 

 cupation of this country^, and as to the physical and more par- 

 ticularly the cranial characters of the Romans and Romanized 

 Britons. But it is worthy of note that very indubitable evidence, 

 at least as to some of the social and moral peculiarities ^, of the 

 conquered and the conquering races respectively, may be gathered 

 from a careful examination of their bony remains *. 



I have subjoined in a tabular form the results of my examination 

 of the sometimes fairly complete, sometimes exceedingly incomplete, 

 remains of 123 burnt or buried bodies which have come into my 



* For the question of the extent to which the Celtic population were destroyed by 

 the Saxon Invasions, see Pearson's ' History of England during the Early and Middle 

 Ages,' i. 99-103, 1867 ; Freeman's 'Norman Conquest,' i. 18, 20; Akerman, 'Archae- 

 ologia,' p. 38, Second Report, Brighthampton ; Turner's ' Anglo-Saxon History,' i. 31 1 ; 

 Wylie, ' Fairford Graves,' p. 8; Kemble's 'Saxons in England,' i. 21 ; D. Wilson, 

 'Anthropological Review,' iii. 81. 



^ For the various views which have been held as to the Eoman cranium, see 

 Ecker, 'Crania Germaniae,' p. 86, 1865; Ecker, 'Archiv fttr Anthropologic,' i. 2, 

 p. 279, 1866 ; ii. I, p. no, 1867 ; Holder, Ibid. ii. i, p. 58 ; His, 'Crania Helvetica,' 

 pp. 39, 40 ; His, 'Archiv fiir Anthropologic,' i. 1, p. 73, 1866; His and Vogt, Mor- 

 tillet's 'Matdriaux pour I'Histoire de I'Homme,' August 1866, pp. 522, 523; 'Crania 

 Britannica,' p. 23, chap. ii. and pi. 49 ; Davies and Thurnam, cit. ' Indigenous Races,' 

 p. 312; Maggiorani, cited by Ecker, 'Cran. Germ.' p. 88, and 'Arch, fur Anth.' 

 i.e.; cited by v. Baer, 'Bull, Acad. Imp. Sci.' St. Petersburg, i860, p. 58, fig. g; 

 Edwards, ' Des Caractbres Physiologiques des Races Humaines,' p. 50 ; Nott and 

 Gliddon, 'Indigenous Races,' p. 311, and Cardinal Wiseman, cit. in loco. 



^ As to the supposed degeneracy of the Britons, see Kemble, ' Saxons in England,* 

 ii. 294, i. 6 ; 'Encyclopaedia MetropoL' xi. 378; Zosimus, cit. *Mon. Hist. Brit.* 

 Ixxviii. vi. 6. 



* As the German periodical, the ' Archiv fiir Anthropologic,' is conducted under the 

 joint editorship of Ecker and Lindenschmit, and as the latter, I apprehend, is as well 

 known among archaeologists as the former is among biologists, no apology will be needed 

 for the constant reference which I shall have to make to its pages. It may be well to 



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