588 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— H. 



SECTION H— ANTHROPOLOGY. 



(For reference to the pubb'cation elsewhere of communications entered in the 

 following list of transactions, see p. 686.) 



Thursday, September 6. 



Discussion on Human Distributions in Scotland, opened by Prof. T. H. 

 Bryce. 



Prof. T. H. Bkycb. — Maps of distribution of constructions and relics of the Stone 

 and Bronze Ages in Scotland raise the question how far such maps afford a basis for 

 conclusions regarding the source of the cultures and the routes they followed to reach 

 Scotland. 



A glance at a map of the physical geography of North Britain shows how small 

 is the amount of land desirable for occupation compared to the total area, and a 

 map of the density of population at the present day indicates conditions which must 

 have prevailed from the earliest times. Apart from areas of special density recently 

 developed in the coal and iron districts, the general distribution of the population 

 has been much the same throughout. 



In the fully developed Bronze Age a uniform culture extended all over Scotland, 

 and from that period onwards until early Christian and Viking times Scotland is 

 probably to be considered a unit area. It is a question how far maps for individual 

 types of fictilia would reveal their source. 



It is obvious that such maps can only be provisional due to incompleteness of 

 the record, and in regard to constructions of early times there is always the possibility 

 of error due to clearing in agricultural operations. 



The distribution of Megalithic tombs contrasted with short cists with beaker urns 

 suggests that the beaker folk reached Scotland from south and east, while the chamber 

 builders came from south and west, and the maps pomt to the blending of the two 

 cultures. It is now known that a few long cairns occur on the east coast, and it may 

 be that many have been cleared off the cultivated land ; but the fact that the 

 uncultivated upland districts of Selkirk, Peebles, Lanark and the Lothians show no 

 Stone Age monuments invites inquiry. The hypothesis stated above holds in a 

 general way. A map contrasting the distribution of beaker urns with food-vessel 

 urns supports the conclusion that the latter type of vessel was later in time, and that 

 it spread more widely. 



Forts, earthen and stone, seem to be more or less uniformly distributed, but a 

 map of the brochs brings out the local character of their distribution, except for a 

 southern extension, which cannot but have some significance. 



Prof. Alex. Low. — On Five Long Cist Burials in Kincardineshire. 



The five long stone cists were unearthed at three separate sites along the Kincardine- 

 shire coast. The sides and roofs of the cists were formed of undressed flat stones, and 

 in one instance the floor was paved with flat stones ; the inside measurements were 

 about 5 ft. 6 in. long and 18 in. wide. In each cist were the remains of a skeleton in 

 the extended position. Of the five skeletons three were those of males and two were 

 those of females. 



From an examination of the skeletal remains we have evidence of a people of 

 rather low stature — about 5 ft. 6 in. in the case of the males and 4 ft. 11 J in. in the 

 case of one female — with somewhat broad skulls and square shallow orbits. The 

 limb bones are well marked but not heavy. The femora show more torsion than usual 

 and antero-posterior flattening of their shafts below the trochanters ; the tibiae show 

 lateral flattening of the upper third of their shafts. 



Mr. A. 0. CuRLE.— TAe Development of the Hut Circle in Scotland. 



Dwellings of the people in Neolithic times. Lack of definite evidence, though 

 the occurrence of hut sites in the vicinity of the chambered cairns is suggestive. Hut 

 sites of the Bronze Age definitely recognised by the discovery of pottery within them. 

 The simplest forni of hut circle — an oval with a surroundiner bank of turf. Invariable 



