422 ETHNICAL FORMS AND UNDESIGNED ARTIFICIAL 



he justly regards as assignable to a more remote antiquity than others 

 explored by him, invariably yield the elongated form of cranium. 

 "Although the mounds of this character," he remarks, "have not 

 been numerous, the interments within the chambers they contain 

 have been many, and apparently continued over some length of time. 

 In these the boat-shaped (kumbecephalic) skull has uniformly been 

 found by me, rarely accompanied by any instrument, but in one or 

 two cases with arrow-points of flint."* To this opinion subsequent 

 researches extending through successive years to 1858, appeared to 

 him to lend additional confirmation ; and in his " Ten Tears' Dig- 

 gings in Celtic and Saxon Grave Hills," published in 1S61, much 

 additional evidence is produced. On the exploration of the cham- 

 bered tumulus of Eingham Low, in 1855, one of its large cists was 

 found to contain a quantity of human bones partially disturbed. 

 " These," he states, " have since been ascertained to include the 

 remains of twelve individuals, comprising two infants and ten adults, 

 mostly exhibiting the lengthened form of skull I have before observed 

 to be constantly found in tumuli of the same description as the pre- 

 sent."f Again, when describing researches in Longlow barrow, 

 which led to the discovery of a megalithic cist, or sepulchral chamber, 

 Mr. Bateman remarks : " This is the first opportunity we have had 

 of exploring an undisturbed cist in a chambered cairn of this peculiar 

 structure. It is on this account a discovery of unusual interest, and 

 when compared with the results of previous or subsequent excava- 

 tions in similar grave-hills, yields to none in importance. The mound, 

 composed of stone, enclosing a chamber or cist formed of immense 

 slabs of stone, occasionally double or galleried, indicates, in this part 

 of the country at least, a period when the use of metal was unknown, 

 the sole material for the spear and arrow being flint, which is often 

 carefully chipped into leaf-shaped weapons of great beauty. The 

 interments within these cists have in every case been numerous, and 

 apparently long continued. They are marked by a strongly defined 

 type of skull, styled by Dr. "Wilson kumbe-kephalic, or boat-shaped, 

 the more obvious features being excessive elongation, flattening of the 

 parietal bones, and squareness of the base, producing, when viewed 

 from behind, a laterally compressed appearance, which is enhanced by 

 the sagittal suture being sometimes elevated into a ridge. The 



* Journal of Archceol. Association, Vol. VII., p. 211. 



t Ten Years' Diggings in Celtic and Saxon Grave Hills, p. 95. 



