NOTES ON THE STATURE, ETC., OF OUR ANCESTORS 
IN EAST YORKSHIRE. * 
By THE LATE J. R. MORTIMER. 
Tuts subject should be of sufficient interest to induce those who 
now occupy the district to endeavour to ascertain the character- 
istic physique and customs of their remote ancestors. Were they 
giants, dwarfs, or a mixture of types very much like ourselves ? 
Some light may be cast upon this interesting question by 
referring to my ‘ Forty Years Researches.’ From 300 burial 
mounds of the neolithic and bronze periods I have disinterred 
the remains of 893 bodies of which 322 had been cremated and 
571 inhumed. From the former little can be gathered as to 
the physical conditions of the individuals when alive; but of 
the latter interesting information can be obtained, such as their 
varying statures, their different types of head, the position in 
which the body had been placed in the grave, as well as the 
various articles which accompanied the interments. 
I possess the measurements of 106 skeletons of this period, 
of which 35 (33 per cent.) possessed long skulls with a mean 
breadth index of 70.7 and an average computed stature of 
66 inches ; 29 (30.7 per cent.) had short skulls with an average 
breadth index of 84.2 and a mean computed stature of 64.3 
inches ; while 40 (38 per cent.) are intermediate and have an 
average breadth index of 77.7 and a computed stature of 64.4 
inches. The breadth index of the three types of skull ranges 
from 65.4 to 92 and even up to 98.5.f These measurements 
include males and females indiscriminately. The greatest 
computed stature in this series of skeletons is 72.8 inches, and 
the least stature is 56.4 inches, the average stature of the three 
types is 64.9 inches. Coming down to more recent times— 
the Early Iron Age—which probably began in England about 
500 B.C., we find in East Yorkshire a race of settlers physically 
much below their predecessors of the Stone and Bronze periods. 
These men were of a smaller stature and possessed more uni- 
formly long heads. I have the measurements of the bones of 
59 males and females of this later period. Of these 42 (71 per 
cent.) are long heads with a medium breadth index of 72.2 and 
a computed stature of 62.5 inches, while only 2 (3.4 per cent.) 
are short heads with an average breadth of 81, and a com- 
puted stature of 61.9 inches; while 14 (23.7 per cent.) are 
intermediate, with a medium breadth of 77 and a computed 
a 
* Read at the Portsmouth Meeting of the British Association. 
+ But this remarkably short skull must not be regarded as belonging 
to the Bronze Age, as it was accompanied by a piece of corroded iron, the 
size of a large nail—probably an iron fibula—See ‘ Forty Years’ Researcnes,’ 
Pp: 235, Barrow C. 46. 
1j11 Sept. 1. 
