CERTAIN ANCIENT BRITISH SKULL FORMS. 133 
:@ general indication of good-form in these fine capacious skulls, which 
is apparent in every aspect. . . On a review of the whole series 
‘of Anglo-Saxon crania which have come under our notice, we are led 
to conclude that this pleasing oval, rather dolichocephalic form, may 
best be deserving the epithet of typical among them.”* All the three 
examples are male skulls: 
L. D.| F.B/P. B.|0.B. |] P. .| 2 @, 
1. Uley Chambered Barrow Skull ..... Soll Wy Ai io OW a) inal | ralloy 
2. Oooirorl Sianmllsoodod ceddebbacooces 6.8 | 4.6 | 5.7+| 5.1 | 4.7 120. 
Sp Isibinetion Seo oe sang sdeacoub ae 7.5 | 4.7 | 5.3 | 4.6 | 4.9 |20.9 
Each of the above examples presents the features of the type to 
which it belongs with more than usual prominence, so that if the 
“mean of a large series were taken, the elements of difference between 
‘the three would be less strongly defined. The ditlererces are, how- 
ever, those on which their separate classification depeucs; and they 
thus illustrate the special points on which any cranio:ugicai sow parison 
for ethnological purposes must be based. Of the tiree sk:1..s, the 
-era and race of one of them (No. 3) are well determined. It is that 
of a Saxon, probably of the seventh or eighth century, of the race of 
the South Saxons, descended from Ailla and his followers ; and recovered 
dn a district where the permanency of the same ethnic type is illus- 
‘trated by its predominance among the rural population at the present 
day. Another of the selected examples, No. 2, is assumed by Dr. 
‘Davis, perhaps on satisfactory grounds, to be an ancient British, .e., 
Celtic Skull. It is indeed a difficulty, which has still to be satisfac- 
torily explained, how it is that if this brachycephalic type be the true 
British head-form, no such prevalence of it on modern Celtic areas 
is to be found, as in the case of Saxon Sussex connects the race of its 
ancient pagan and christian cemeteries, by means of the characteristic 
ovoid skull, with the Anglo-Saxon population of the present day. 
‘The historical race and era with which Dr. Davis appears to connect 
the Barrow-builders of Wiltshire, is thus indicated in the Crania 
Britannica :— Region of the Belge, Temp. Ptolemei, A.D. 120.” 
The Belgz of that era—then apparently comparatively recent .in- 
,truders, and by some regarded as not Celtic but Germanic—were dis- 
placed, if not exterminated; but the modern Britons of Wales are 
* Crania Britanica, Dee. iv., pls. 39, 40. 
