ox SKULLS OF OXEN FROM NEWSTEAD. 249 



12. On Skulls o£ Oxen from the Roman Military Station 

 at Newstead, Melrose. By J. C. Ewart, M.D., F.R.S., 



F.Z.S.* 



[Received ami Road February 7, 1911.] 

 (Text-figures 63-91.) 



Professor Marcellin Eoule, in his recent work on the Grotto of 

 Grinialdit, states that Cuvier, Riitimeyer, Nehring, Gaudry, 

 Boyd Dawkins, Duerst, and other naturalists who have studied 

 the Quaternary Bovida; have regarded the Urus {Bos tauvus 

 primigenius) as identical with our modern Bos taurus, of which it 

 was probably the aircestor, and fi'om which it difltered only by its 

 greater size. 



Though many naturalists since the days of Cuvier have 

 dii-ected their attention to the history of Domestic Cattle, the last 

 word has not yet been said about their origin, hence in dealing 

 with the remains of cattle from the Roman Military Station 

 at Newstead, Melrose, the investigator must still bear in mind 

 that a fi.nal answer has not yet been given to the question — Are 

 modern European cattle descended from the Urus, Bos taurus 

 primigenius ? When discussing the origin of British cattle 

 Pi'of . Hughes remarks : " Caesar mentions that thei-e were large 

 herds of domesticated cattle in Britain, and we know from 

 numerous excaA^ations into Roman and Roman-British rubbish- 

 pits that these belonged not to the Urus but to Bos longifrons. 

 This, then, is the native breed with which we must start in all our 

 speculations as to the origin and development of British oxen. 

 The Romans found that breed here and no other." 



Writing about the Celtic Shorthoi'n {Bos longifaons Owen, 

 Bos hrachyceros Riitimeyer) Mr. Lydekker says, " It is, and can be, 

 nothing but a variety of Bos taiirus " derived from the wild Urus 

 -at a very remote epoch — ^" the occurrence of remains o'i an 

 apparently similar breed in the prehistoric lake-dwellings of 

 Switzerland suggests that the breed may have been established 

 prior to the separation of Britain fi-om the Continent " % , 



■ Bos frontosus Nilsson, Lydekker also regards as a variety of 

 the Urus, and as there was no other primitive Wild Ox in Europe, 

 xind an Eastern derivation being in the highest degree improbable, 

 Lydekker says that all the domesticated breeds of European 

 cattle must trace their ultimate ancestry to Bos •j^'i'^nigenitos. 

 While satisfied that the Domestic Cattle of Eui'ope are descended 

 from Bos jjrhnigenitcs, Lydekker thinks it is quite probable that 

 the origin of the humped cattle of India (Bos indicus) may be, at 

 least in part, diflierent. 



* The author is indebted to Mr. James Curie, Priorwood, Melrose, tor the use of 

 the Oxen skulls found at Newstead. 



f ' Les Grottes de Grimaldi,' tome i. fascicule iii., 1910. 

 X ' Wild Oxen, Sheep, and Goats,' p. 18, 1898. 



