1(3 PREHISTORIC TREPHINING. 



which rondelles were discovered in the interior of skulls, it must be ad- 

 mitted that this amiable theory rests upon a very slender foundation. It 

 seems much more pi'obable that their presence in the locality in which they 

 were found was due to accidental causes, such as the pi'essure of roots, or 

 the movements of Avorms. Mortillet and Pruniferes both mention finding 

 small bones of the hand or foot inside of crania. 



As regards the extent and range of the relics indicating this singular 

 custom, it may be said that, in France, the department of La Loz^re has 

 produced the greatest number. " This, however, is probably due to the vig- 

 orous researches of Pruniferes and others in that region. Throughout the 

 south and southeast of France discoveries of trephined skulls gontinue to 

 be made. Broca states that the custom certainly prevailed throughout the 

 entire neohthic or polished stone period, as trephined skulls have been 

 found in the cavern of L'Honnne-Mort, in La Lozere, which belongs to the 

 earliest part of that age, and in the grottoes of Baye, belonging to its close. 

 While it is not surprising that no trace of the custom should have been 

 discovered in the relics of the palteolithic or mesolithic ages, it is certainly 

 remarkable that it should have disappeared with the neolithic age so com- 

 pletely. It is perhaps not too much to say that no authentic instance of the 

 discovery of a trephined skull from the bronze period is on record Doubt- 

 less the rapidly increasing custom of incineration of bodies must be regarded 

 as a pi'incipal cause. M. de Baye has found cranial amulets in tombs of a 

 later epoch, and infers that the custom of trephining still prevailed." This 

 does not, however, follow, as the amulets may have been preserved through 

 many generations. 



At the meeting of the International Congress of Prehistoric Anthro- 

 pology held at Brussels, in 1872, Dr. G. A. Lagneau read a paper entitled, 

 "Sur les cranes de Furfooz"; and in the discussion which followed the meas- 

 urements of some Esthonian crania were given by M. Quatrefages. In the 

 plate'^ illustrating the latter, one skull has an aperture about the center 

 of the coronal suture which strikingly resembles the beveled edges pro- 



"Bull. Soo. d'anthrop. de Paris, 1876, 2'^" s6t., xi, 121. 



'6 Congrfes interDatioual d'anthropalogie et d'arcMologie pr^historiques. Compte rendu, 6">' ses- 

 sion, tenue h Bruxelles en 1872, Bruxelles, 1873, 558. 



