DISTORTIONS OF THE HUMAN CRANIUM. 



region is more capacious than any other."* The one female skull' 

 he describes as that of a woman of probably fifty years of age ; the 

 other that of a girl not more than seven years of age ; but "it is 

 remarkable that both, although not quite agreeing in form with that 

 of the man, exhibit the same dolichocephalic conformation." Mr. 

 Davis, in his concluding remarks, again reverts to the " pre -Celtic 

 hypothesis," and adds : " If we assume with those who receive this 

 hypothesis, that the possessors of these long crania were a race dis- 

 tinguished by a particular kind of sepulchres, stone chambers, or 

 chambered barrows, it must not be overlooked that dolichocephalic 

 crania are still met with in other barrows and cists." But this 

 argument is based on a wholly incorrect view of the question. The 

 Egyptians were pyramid-builders, but all Egyptians were not in- 

 terred under pyramids, or in chambered catacombs. The chambered 

 barrows cannot be regarded as common places of sepulture, but as 

 tjie costly and laboriously constructed sepulchres of royal or noble 

 dead ; and in this respect their osteological contents present a 

 striking analogy to those of the noble Inca race recovered from the 

 ancient cemeteries of Peru, mingled with the crania of a markedly 

 diverse type. 



Through the kindness of Dr. Thurnam, I have been favoured with 

 his notes of a singularly interesting exploration of a chambered bar- 

 row at "West Kennet, near the celebrated megalithic circles at Abury, 

 in Wiltshire, as prepared for the Crania Britannica. The tumulus, 

 he remarks, is one of the largest known, measuring 335 feet in 

 length ; and appears to have been surrounded by an inclosing range 

 of upright monoliths surmounted by horizontal slabs, somewhat in 

 the style of Stonehenge. It had been entered at various former 

 periods, and bore evidence suggestive of its having been searched in 

 Roman times. But the skeletons had only been partially disturbed ; 

 and it still contained considerable remains of primitive pottery and 

 various implements of flint ; but no traces of metal. The chamber 

 contained six skeletons ; five being probably of males, from 17 to 

 60 years of age, and the sixth that of an infant. With one excep" 

 tion, as Dr. Thurnam notes, they were of less than middle stature, 

 and two of the skidls were remarkable for distinct traces of fracture, 

 unequivocally inflicted before death. The following are his minute 

 observations on the most remarkable of the crania : — 



• Crania Britannica, Dec. IV. pi, 33. (4) 



