OF PREHISTORIC TIMES IN BRITAIN. 2S1 



DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 

 Plate XLI. 



Fig. 1. Side view of partially reconstructed skull of Sus scrofa, var. domesticus, wanting nasals and inter- 

 inaxillaries, from late Celtic interment at Arras, East Riding of Yorkshire. Oxford Museum. 



It is, as Nathusius has well pointed out, I. c. p. 147, by no means always easy to be absolutely 

 certain as to the question whether a particular pig's skull belonged to a wild or to a domesticated 

 individual. The difficulty is increased when the animal is young, as in this case, the last molar 

 having only just come into use, and the animal consequently being only about 18 months old, 

 and when as the small size generally, and especially the small size of the third molar and the 

 canine, may be taken, I believe, to indicate that it is of the female sex. It is true that the 

 paucity of cusps in the molars has been taken as indicating the wild state; a comparison, 

 however, of the male and female molar series in Sus cristatus has suggested to me that the 

 greater size of the molars really depends upon a greater supply of blood, such as the male 

 molars would get, by virtue of sharing the greater supply lavished on the canines, and such as 

 a well-fed domesticated animal's molars would get in common with all its other structures and 

 organs. The comparatively vertical occipital squama is one main anatomical point in favour 

 of this skull having belonged to a domesticated specimen ; the pterygoid, on the other hand, 

 has much of the obliquity characteristic of the wild Sus scrofa, var. ferus. When we consider, 

 however, that this skull was found in an interment containing a human body, together with 

 portions of another skull of a pig of the same age, the probability that it belonged to a tame 

 individual appears to be very great. The subjoining measurements show that the lacrymal bone, 

 though not so long relatively to its height as is often the case in the non-domesticated Sus 

 scrofa, is yet longer than it is in Sus indicus, or in any of the Eastern pigs from which Sus 

 indicus can with any probability be supposed to have descended. 



inches. 

 Length from anterior external angle (apex) of frontal to middle of occipital ridge 5 - 9 



Length from apex of frontal to apex of maxilla 4" 1 



Length from anterior border of orbit to temporal ridge 38 



Length from anterior border of orbit to posterior l - 4 



Greatest width of occiput 2'4 



Length of molar series 23 



Height of occiput 3 - 8 



Height of lacrymal 0'7 



Length of lacrymo-malar suture - 8 



The difference here noted between the height of the lacrymal and the length of its lower 

 border amounts but to a tenth of an inch ; but in the female of Sus indicus, with the same stage 

 of dentition, PI. XLIL fig. 4, the height of the lacrymal, instead of being one tenth of an inch 

 less, is 0-35 inch greater in length than its lacrymo-malar border. 

 Fig. 2. Skull of Sus scrofa, var. ferus, old 5 , from alluvium of Thames valley, obtained for the Oxford 

 University Museum from the cutting for the drainage works near Iffley, 1876, by Professor 

 Prestwich, F.R.S. 



This skull combines the general contour and the slender snout of Sus scrofa, var. ferus, with 

 a lacrymal bone differing little in its proportions from the lacrymals so characteristic of the 

 Asiatic pigs, less Sus verrucosus (and celebensis). The fronto-parietal region does not form one 



