Ce ————— 
DERIVED FROM ANATOMY, HISTORY, AND THE MONUMENTS. 101 
this place the stones were obtained for building the Pyramids of Gizeh, and many later 
structures, down to the epoch of the Ptolemies. Mr. Gliddon was present at the exhu- 
mation of several of these crania, yet, owing to their extremely fragile state, but one 
reached me in safety, and for this Iam indebted to the kindness of Mr. Mash. They 
were found in rude sarcophagi of limestone, and wrapped in coarse matting. These 
remains, which were discovered in 1837-38, are supposed to have pertained to the master- 
quarrymen. 
The head figured is of an elongated oval form, with a moderate frontal development 
and low coronal region. The nose is strongly salient and aquiline, and the whole cra- 
nial structure thin and delicate-—I. C. 89 cubic inches. F. A. 79°. Pelasgic form. 
Remarks on the preceding series of Crania.—A mere glance at this group of skulls will 
satisfy any one accustomed to comparisons of this kind, that most of them possess the Cau- 
casian traits in a most striking and unequivocal manner, whether we regard their form, 
size, or facial angle. It is, in fact, questionable whether a greater proportion of beautifully 
moulded heads would be found among an equal number of individuals taken at random 
from any existing European nation. The entire series consists of sixteen examples of 
the Pelasgic and seven of the Egyptian form, a single Semitic head, one of the Negroid 
variety, and one of mixed conformation. Of the antiquity of these remains there can be 
no question; and with respect to a part of them, those from the Pyramid of Five Steps, 
we have evidence of a more precise character. 
These most ancient mummies appear to have been prepared with but little bitumen, 
and to have undergone desiccation by some primitive and simple process of embalming; 
such, for example, as first saturating the body in natron, and then subjecting it to heat in 
an oven. It is also to be remarked, that in these two heads the brain has not been re- 
moved through the nostrils, according to the general custom, for the ethmoid bone is 
unbroken; and the cranial contents could therefore only have been withdrawn through 
the foramen magnum at the base of the skull. 
This last remark also applies to sixteen other heads of this series; whence I was at 
first led to suppose that they could not pertain to a very remote epoch. But when we 
find that the oldest remains are similarly characterized, and bear in mind that the removal 
of the brain through the nose was a conventional part of the more perfect art of embalm- 
ing, may we not suppose that this imperforate state of the cranium points to an early 
epoch of Egyptian history, before mankind had resorted to those elaborate methods of 
preserving the dead body which are so remarkable in the Theban catacombs? It has 
been conjectured that the proximity of the Natron Lakes to the city of Memphis gave rise 
to the custom of embalming; and it is not an improbable supposition that the profuse 
employment of bitumen was a subsequent refinement of the art. This suggestion derives 
some support from another fact; namely, that in every instance in which I have observed 
the brain to have been removed through the nose, the bones and integuments are much 
more charged with bitumen than in the imperforate crania. 
It may, perhaps, be conjectured by some that the Pelasgic heads of this series belong 
to the Ptolemaic epoch, and hence pertain to the Greek inhabitants of that age: but it 
must be remembered that the rule of the Ptolemies lasted but about three hundred years; 
whereas the Egyptians were themselves the masters of Memphis, and entombed their dead 
VOL. IX.—29 
