SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—H. 458 
$ The above estimates are based upon the most recent calculations by geologists 
that the whole Pleistocene or age of man, including four glacial and three interglacial 
epochs, extended over not less than 1,000,000 years prior to the 15,000-year period 
when the Scandinavian ice-shect retreated so far northward as to leave southern 
Scandinavia, known as Scania, free for human habitation. 
Prof. Sercio Serci1.—Neanderthal Man in Italy : the Saccopastore Skull. 
} 
. The Neanderthaloid skull of Saccopastore (Rome) found in 1929 has been the 
_ subject of successive communications as it was gradually freed from the gravel which 
_ covered it. Though somewhat damaged, it is one of the best preserved neandertha- 
loids, especially at its base, which is entire. It appears to belong to a woman about 
thirty years old, as may be inferred from the condition of the teeth and the sutures. 
The cranial capacity does not exceed 1,200 c.c., and, along with that of the Gibraltar 
skull, the lowest of its type. The development of the face in comparison with that 
_ of the brain case is still more marked than in the La Chapelle skull. The foramen 
_ magnum is set rather forward, as happens in the living races of mankind. The 
plane of the aperture of the foramen slopes forward with a very marked degree of 
negative inclination. For these reasons the individual must certainly have held her 
head erect, and walked like modern men. The different position and inclination of the 
foramen of the La Chapelle skull must be attributed to artificial causes, especially 
to a defect in the reconstruction of the base. The horizontal profile of the skull 
coincides in a surprising way with that of La Chapelle. The maximum horizontal 
circumference is 520 mm., very near that of La Quina (515). The approximate 
cephalic index is 78-4, very near to that of Gibraltar (77-9). The curve of the profile 
is unsymmetrical. The supraorbital ridges have been destroyed, but they seem to 
have been widely extended sideways. ‘The region of the lambda is occupied by a 
complex arrangement of supernumerary ossicles, a common occurrence in Neander- 
thaloids, which shows the morphological instability of the super-inial part of the 
occiput, which is in course of evolution. 
The vault is flattish, with a low angle of frontal slope (74°) and also of occipital 
(70-5°), with values very close to Gibraltar. The platycephaly is well marked, with 
height-length index 60-2, which equals that of La Quina (60-09?), and is very close 
to Gibraltar, and with height-breadth index of 76-76, the lowest hitherto encountered. 
The calvarial index determined on the glabella-inion line is 44:30, which indicates 
a less marked platycephaly than that determined on the glabella-lambda, which has 
the value of 26-50, very near that of the La Quina skull (25-3). This results from 
‘the prominence of the part of occiput included between the lambda and the inion, 
in which the parieto-occipital sagittal curve resembles that of the Gibraltar skull 
and differs from that of the skulls of La Quina and La Chapelle, which project 
wedge-shaped backwards. The prominence of the inferior frontal gyrus is well 
developed about the pterion, a sign of special development of the pars triangularis 
and of the foot of the third frontal convolution. In norma occipitalis the outline is 
eyeloid and unsymmetrical; its lower limit is marked by the strong relief of the 
occipital protuberance. 
The face is very large and shows a notable morphological height (85), very large 
orbits (left breadth 45, height 39? orbital index 86, area of the aperture 1755), piriform 
aperture wide and low (naso-spinal distance 59, greatest width 31, nasal index 52-54) ; 
bridge of nose extraordinarily prominent in front by the very marked forward 
development of the maxilla. The nasal bones are wide and meet at an obtuse angle. 
Viewed from the side the nose is rather concave below the fronto-nasal suture. The 
anterior surface of the maxilla is swollen and projects forwards. The alveolar arcade 
is very broad, short and rounded. The remaining teeth—the three molars and the 
econd premolar on the left, the second and third molar on the right—are large ; 
the first and second molars of equal size, the third smaller, all with a considerable 
ymount of wear on the masticating surface, more marked on the lingual side. Among 
derthaloid finds that of Gibraltar most closely resembles that of Saccopastore 
ts dimensions generally and in its general and special morphology. 
he Saccopastore skull was found with the remains of large fossil mammals, 
has antiquus, Rhinoceros Mercki, Hippopotamus major, in river or lake deposits 
Tich in volcanic materials which belong to the period at which the lower valley of 
the Tiber was taking shape to assume its actual topographical appearance. These 
