Haddon — Neolithic Cist Burial at Oldbridge, Co. Meath. 583 



William Wilde, on the other hand, recognised Neolithic skulls from 

 Somersetshire as identical with certain Irish skulls. Any skulls from 

 Ireland I have seen, which have shown characters similar to the 

 Neolithic skulls from England, are of later date, but Huxley describes 

 them from chambered tombs, peat mosses, and river deposits of Ireland. 

 I think we may conclude, as regards Ireland, that although it is 

 doubtful whether the Neolithic people were there at as early a date 

 as in Britain, they were certainly there later." (Lecture delivered at 

 the Eoyal Institution, "Nature," vol. li., Nov. 15, p. 67 ; Nov. 22, 

 p. 90, 1894.) 



Thanks to the researches of Sergi, and of several French anthro- 

 pologists, we now know a good deal about the Mediterranean race. 

 The indices I have given demonstrate that it extended into Ireland in 

 Neolithic times, and the head forms of the three first skulls mentioned 

 in this paper are common among MediteiTanean people. Sergi says 

 that the ovoides (Oldbridge) is found from Egypt to the Iberian 

 peninsula, and that it occurred very frequently in Ereneh Neolithic 

 interments (Solutre, Laugerie-Easse, Grenelle, I'Homme-Mort, etc.), 

 and equally frequently in the long barrows of England. The sphenoides 

 stenometropus (Phoenix Park, No. 1) is very common in the Mediter- 

 ranean, and the same applies to the more typical sphenoides (Phoenix 

 Park, No. 2). These Irish crania are also orthognathic, a feature 

 which they share with the Long-barrow people of Britain ; this also 

 is very characteristic of the skulls from the Caverne de I'llomme Mort, 

 and the existing Spanish Basques ; the Guanches and the Corsicans 

 are also extremely orthognathous. Similarly these same people are 

 equally leptorhine (cf . table on p. 579), but, according to Shrubsall, the 

 mean female Guanche nasal index is 41-5, the index of the Spanish 

 Basques is 44-7. The important orbital index tells the same tale, the 

 index of the Spanish Basques is the lowest of any living European 

 people, but it is lower in the skulls of the Cav^erne del'Homme Mort, 

 and of the Guanche mummies. Therefore, not only do these three 

 Irish crania belong to the Mediterranean race, but to the Iberian group 

 or division of that race. 



Among other problems of Irish ethnology to be solved by cranio- 

 logical study is the question whether we had representatives of the 

 short, swarthy, black-haired, brachy cephalic race of Central Europe 

 (the " Celtae " of Julius Caesar, and Broca, the " Auvergnats " or 

 "Ligurians"^ of some authors, or the "Type de Grenelle" of P. 



' Sergi and some other anthi-opologists regard the ancient Ligurians as belonging 

 to the dolichocephalic Mediterranean raco. 



