674: Proceedings of the Royal Trkh Academy, 



96' 5 ; taking the auricnlo-radial measTirements the length -height 

 index is 63-8, and the hreadth-height index is 86 ; but the two 

 latter indices are only to be regarded as approxiniate, owing to the 

 difficulty of getting accurate radial measurements. The cranium is 

 therefore dolichocephalic and tapeinoeephalic. 



I have taken measurements, descriptions, and photographs of a 

 considerable number of ancient and mediaeval Irish crania, but many 

 more skulls will be required to be studied before it will be possible to 

 speak with any degree of certainty on Irish craniology. In the mean- 

 time I venture to publbh this find as it has some interest, and will 

 compare this cranium with one or two of the skulls that have pas?ed 

 through my hands. 



The classical prehistoric Irish crania are the Phoenix Park 

 specimens found in cists in Phoenix Park, Dublin, a little over half a 

 century ago. Two of these are in the Academy's Collection in the 

 Science and Art Museum, and I take this opportunity of thanking the 

 Council of the Academy for permission to measure the skulls in that 

 collection, the more important indices of these crania will be found in 

 the following table. Casts of these skulls are in the Grattan Collection 

 now in the Museum of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical 

 Society.* It will be observed that they form a fairly continuous 

 series, to which I have added a skull, collected by the late Mr. Bell in 

 the county Tyrone, which carries the series a step further. This skull 

 is also represented by a cast in the Grattan Collection. Unfortunately, 

 I have not had access to the original specimen of this skull, or of 

 Phoenix Park 2f o. 3, but as the indices I calculated from measurements 

 made on the casts of the Phoenix Park crania agreed very closely with 

 those made on the skulls themselves, we may safely regard the indices 

 of these two crania as correct. The detailed measurements of all these 

 crania will be given in the memoir on Irish Craniology which I am 

 preparing. 



PflCEyix Pabk Ceaxia. 



A. — Khttaen in Tumulus of Knoch-Maraidhe, Phcenix Park, Duhlin. 



Xo. 1. — Cranium of an adult maU. The glabella and supra-ciUary 

 ridges are very prominent ; there is a slight sagittal keel immediately 

 above the ophryon, which disappears between the fairly prominent 

 frontal eminences. The vertex is somewhat flattened; there is a 



Cf. Proc. EoT. Irish Acad. 3 , ii., 1S&3, p. 760. 



