128 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF 
Among the most prized crania in the collection of the Academy 
of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia is the celebrated Scioto Mound 
skull. But though on a former visit, I made the ancient mound 
crania an object of special study, this most remarkable example of 
' the series was not then included among them; and I now examined 
the original for the first time. The result of this examination was 
to satisfy me that the remarkable form and proportions of that skull 
are much more due to artificial influences than I had been led to 
suppose from the views published in the Smithsonian Contributions 
to Knowledge.* The vertical view, especially, is very inaccurate. 
In the original it presents the peculiar characteristics of what I have 
before designated as the truncated form: passing abruptly from a 
broad flattened occiput to its extreme parietal breadth, and then 
tapering with slight lateral swell, until it reaches its least breadth 
immediately behind the external angular processes of the frontal bone. 
The occiput has been subjected to the flattening process to a much 
greater extent than is apparent from the drawings ; but at the same 
time it is accompanied by no corresponding affection of the frontal bone, 
such as inevitably results from the procedure of the Chinooks and 
other Flathead tribes; among whom the desired cranial deformation 
is effected by bandages crossing the forehead and consequently 
modifying the frontal as much as the parietal and occipital bones. 
On this account, great as is the amount of flattening in this remark- 
able skull, it is probably due solely to the undesigned pressure of 
the cradle-board acting on a head of markedly brachycephalie pro- 
portions and great natural posterior breadth. The forehead is fully 
arched, the glabella prominent, and the whole character of the frontal 
bone is essentially different from the Indian type. The sutures are 
very much ossified ; and even to some extent obliterated. So early 
as 1857, when discussing Dr. Morton’s theory of one uniform cranial 
type pervading the whole ancient and modern tribes of North and 
South America, with the single exception of the Esquimaux, I 
remarked: I think it extremely probable that further. investigation 
will tend to the conclusion that the vertical or flattened occiput, 
instead of being a typical characteristic, pertains entirely to the 
class of artificial modifications of the natural cranium familiar to the 
American ethnologist alike in the disclosures of ancient graves, and 
in the customs of widely separated living tribes.t 
* Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley; pl. xlvii. and xlviii. 
+ Edinburgh Philosoph. Journal, N.S. vol. vii. p. 24. Canadian Journal, vol: ii. p. 406. 
