Coffey, Brown, & "Westeopp — Prehistoric Burial, Wicklow. 561 



some distance apart from each other. The head is stated to have lain 

 partly on its back. 



The grave was not carefully searched when opened. Subsequently 

 some boys entered the chamber, and are said to have found an nrn. 

 The urn was unfortunately broken in pieces, either through careless 

 handling or intentionally, and the fragments dispersed. Two pieces 

 were recovered by Mr. Sutton and shown to us. They are of th 

 usual "food vessel" type so frequently associated with this class of 

 interment. 



The skeleton is said to have been entire at tlie time of its dis- 

 covery, but the skull and most of the long bones were much damaged 

 and broken, and the spongy bones were reduced to powder by rough 

 handling before we arrived. All the bones are very fragile and brittle 

 from loss of animal matter and very much weathered, those of the 

 right side, on wliich the body is said have lain, much more so than 

 those of the left ; in fact from damp they are much reduced in size. 

 The bones recovered and kindly given us by Mr. Sutton were, the 

 calvarium, much broken (the skull had been entire at the time of the 

 find, but had suffered from rough handling), the inferior maxilla, 

 fractured across a little to the right of the symphysis. Both clavicles, 

 upper third and head of right humerus, lower two-thirds of left 

 humerus, both ulnae (the right greatly weathered), the left radius, 

 lower part of right radius, two cervical and two lumbar vertebrae, 

 part of right acetabulum, right femur, upper two-thirds of left femur, 

 head and upper half of left tibiae, lower ends of both tibiae, left os 

 calcis and astragalus. 



The calvarium was in fragments at the time it came into our 

 hands, but has been set up for measurement ; it is much weathered 

 and broken, most of the base and the right temporal bone being gone. 

 It is of considerable size, and well shapen. Viewed in norma verticalis 

 it is a broad oval in outline ; in norma lateralis the forehead is seen to 

 be upright. The glabella and superciliary ridges are of fair size, the 

 mastoid process is large and laterally bulged, as noticed in the crania 

 found in the tumulus at Old Connaught, Bray, in 1893. 



The sutures are fairly complex and contain two ossa wormiana, in 

 the lambdoid suture, one just at the lambda and the other just above 

 the right asterion. The metopic suture is open. The sagittal suture 

 is obliterated for about 50 mm. at the obeliou. Though the right 

 temporal bone is missing, yet as the maximum breadtli is evidently 

 parietal the cephalic index is obtainable, the skull was mesaticephalic 

 with an index of 79*4. 



