618 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H 
10. Red Coloration on Ancient Bones from Nubia. 
By Dovauas E. Derry, M.B., Ch.B. 
At the International Congress of Anthropology and Archology held at 
Monaco in 1896 a discussion took place on the subject of the red coloration 
occasionally found on bones in ancient graves. Various views were advanced 
as to the reason of such staining, and the general opinion appeared to attribute 
it to burial of the body upon a bed of ochre, as this substance had been found 
in quantity in the graves. A suggestion was also made that the body had been 
painted red before burial, or that the bones themselves were painted red after 
removal of the tissues, either naturally or by artificial means. 
During the progress of the work of the Archzological Survey in Nubia, - 
several instances of the phenomenon which formed the subiect of the above- 
mentioned discussion were met with. Dr. Wood Jones found in one grave two 
bodies upon whose bones a red pigment was deposited, which could easily be 
cleaned off. He suggested that it was probably the only lasting traces of a 
coloured fabric which had lain in close contact with the body, and thought the 
pigment might be red hematite. On chemical examination it proved to be 
‘an ochreous clay mixed with quartz grains.’ Bodies were also found lying 
upon and covered with matting composed of dried alfa-grass stems, the edges 
of which had been dyed red; and Mr. A. M. Blackman, attached at that time to 
the same- Expedition, describes a grave in which the body had apparently been 
wrapped in leather thickly impregnated with red pigment, the leather lying in 
quantities below the bones, though there were traces of it above as well. 
Through the kindness of Mr. C. M. Firth, head of the Archzological Survey, I 
am enabled to show samples both of the matting and also of the leather. 
In the following year I found in a grave of the Middle Nubian period, circa 
2000 B.c., a body of which the bones were coloured a deep brick-red tint. From 
the distribution of the pigment it was clear that the colour was derived from a 
garment placed round the body after it had been flexed for burial, and some 
small lumps of red matter, much worm-eaten, which were found amongst the 
bones are almost certainly the remains of leather. 
Professor Elliot Smith has pointed out that it was the custom during the 
Twenty-first Dynasty in Egypt to paint the mummies of men with a material 
which chemical examination has shown to be a mixture of red ochre and gum. 
Thus all our Egyptian and Nubian cases lend no support to the hypothesis 
that red staining of bones is evidence of mutilation of the body before burial, 
but prove undoubtedly that the ochre was used as a pigment to colour grave 
clothes or the matting in which the bodies were sometimes wrapped. 
11. An Egyptian Macrocephalic Stull, with the Bones of the Skeleton. 
By Dovatas E. Derry, M.B., Ch.B. 
A skeleton illustrating the above condition was found at Shurafa, near Heluan, 
on the East bank of the Nile, by Mr. R. Encelbach, working on behalf of the 
British School of Archeology, and the bones have been very kindly lent to the 
writer by Professor Flinders Petrie for examination and description. 
The remains are those of an adult man of small stature, but the skull is quite 
abnormal in size, its capacity being double that of an average British cranium, 
though it is apparent that the increase is almost entirely in the cranial vault, 
both face and base of skull being practically normal. It exhibits a slight but 
definite asymmetry due to a bulging of the right parietal region, and the nose 
and face have a definite inclination to the left side. 
The great weight of the skull. and brain have caused a flattening of the 
occipital condyles, and for the same reason the external occipital protuberance 
and superior curved line are unusually well marked in correspondence with the 
increased strain on the muscles attached thereto. 
The impressions of the cerebral conyolutions on the inner surface of the 
parietal bones are larger and more distinctly marked than in a: normal skull, 
pointing to considerable cerebral pressure which was probably greater on the 
right side, as shown by the bulging of the right parietal bone. 
This excessive pressure has influenced the development of the bones of the 
—— ea, we 
