328 NOTICE OF A SKULL BROUGHT FROM THE CRIMEA. 
ealled its last resting place. The muscles, which still remained on 
the forehead, were dry and contracted, and across the forehead, and 
round the head, was a broad gold fillet, sufficiently indicating that 
the grave was tenanted by one who had occupied a high social rank. 
No other ornaments or relics were observed, the whole of those 
having doubtless been removed by the original riflers of the grave. 
Dr. Turner did not consider it a very serious aggravation of the 
desecration to which the dead had already been subjected, to possess 
himself of the skull, which struck him as one peculiarly marked with 
indications of former delicacy and beauty ; and through the kind in- 
tervention of my friend Dr. C. W. Covernton, it has since been 
transferred to me. 
From a comparison with other skulls procured by him, Dr. Turner 
at first inclined to the opinion that he had acquired the cranium of a 
Greek lady. The breadth at the parietal protuberances, however,, 
along with other marked features, differ essentially from the Greek 
type of head ; and as there were many Circassians among the wives 
of the most influential and affluent families in the city, the proba- 
bilities he conceives are, a priori, in favour of its being ascribed to a 
people celebrated for the beauty of its females, and for their frequent 
introduction both to Turkish and Greco-Russian households around 
the Euxire. An elaborately sculptured, but broken marble cross at 
the head of the grave, added additional proof that the once loved and 
lost beauty of some Kertch household, whose remains were subjected 
to such indignities, had been ranked, during her life-time, among the 
finest porcelain of human clay. Under the peculiar system which 
prevails in oriental households, however, and by which Christian as. 
well as Ottoman alliances are influenced, a wide area is embraced 
within the possible origin of the beauties who adorn such eastern 
homes ; and a comparison of the most strikingly marked character- 
istics of this head with the varying types of cranium pertaining to. 
what may be regarded, even in some respects philologically, as the 
European ethnic area, would rather suggest its classification among 
Armenian than Circassian forms. The materials however, for arriving, 
at any very definite conclusion are limited, and perhaps inadequate 
for positive generalizations; and it may suffice to put on record such. 
minute descriptions and measurements, as may afford the means of 
future comparison. 
The skull, as already indicated, is that of a female, of fully 30 
