FiKTCHER I CRANIAL AMULETS OR ROXDELLES. 13 



veiy blunt and the bone twice as thick as that of a child of six years of age, 

 the operation was completed in eight minutes; the dog recovered rapidly 

 without any symptom of fever." 



It is a curious fact that the amulets or rondelles, in the great majority 

 of instances, have been cut from skulls which had undergone, and a long 

 time survived, surgical trephining. Many of these skulls exhibit immense 

 openings, unmistakably of post-mortem workmanship, but with a fragment 

 of the original cicatrized edge of the surgical operation remaining. (See 

 Plates V and VI.) 



Many crania have been discovered with the characteristic opening indi- 

 cating surgical trephining long* since cicatrized, but which had been sub- 

 jected to no post-mortem operation. Why these exceptions should occur it 

 is impossible to discover. Possibly they were due to the law of demand 

 and supply, and the amulets not being wanted at the time, the skulls were 

 left undefaced. 



Quite a large number of these so-called amulets or rondelles have been 

 discovered, and are to be seen in the museums of Europe.^- Some of them 

 are very regular in outline, and very considerable labor has been bestowed 

 upon them to produce a polished surface and rounded edges. The rondelle 

 discovered by Professor Pruniferes in the interior of a skull, and which first 

 drew attention to the subject, is highly polished and beveled at the expense 

 of the outer table. (Plate I, fig. 1.) These carefully prepared amulets have 

 a very diff"erent appearance from the fragments of cranial bone which are 

 found in ancient burial places. The latter are more or less discolored and 

 eroded by the moisture and mineral ingredients of the soil in which they 

 have rested. The rondelles, on the other hand, have a dry, hard surface, 

 and are almost of the color of old ivory. This is probably due to their 

 having been worn as ornaments or amulets for a very long time; perhaps 

 by many successive owners. Other amulets are of irregular shape, being 

 eUiptical, trapezoid, oi- triangular. Some amulets have been found with a 



" Bull. Soe. d'anthrop. de Paris, 1877, 2me siSr., xii, 400; 477. 



'^Pruniferes. Sur les cranes performs et les rondelles craniennes de I'^poqiie n^olithiqne. Assoc, 

 fianfaise pour I'avauceiueut des seieuees. Compte rendu, 3""' sess., Lille (1874), Paris, 1875, 597-037. 



. La cremation dans les dolmens de La Lozere. Nouvelles rondelles craniennes. Dolmens de 



la Maicouifero et tombelle de Boujoussac. Ibid., C""" sess., Le Havre (1877), Paris, 1878, 675. 



