Macalister, &c. — Bronze-Age Cams on Carrowkeel. 343 



From the number of bones which were not completely ossified at the 

 extremities, it is e\ident that many of the people biuied in the cams were 

 under twenty-five years of age. None showed signs of senility. 



The crania were megacephalic, but only five could be satisfactorily 

 measured, and even these were incomplete ; the capacity of the largest was 

 about 1520 ccm. In point of shape they were pentagonoid, ovoid, and with 

 cephalic index hovering on the limit between dolieho- and mesaticephaly, 

 ranging from 73 to 76. From the general appearance of the curvatures of the 

 unmeasurable fragments they seemed to have been of the same pattern. One 

 was platybasic, as if rickety. The orbits were all megaseme and the nasal 

 skeleton leptoprosopic. The muscular crests were fairly well marked, the 

 teeth large and showing considerable wear, but only one or two showed signs 

 of disease. The jaws were orthognathous, and the countenance long with 

 moderately prominent cheek-bones. The chin was in some long and 

 prominent, in others receding, and the angles of the jaws of two were 

 prominently curved. Altogether the characters are practically those which 

 are commonest among the people of the west of Ireland at the present day. 



Attention has been directed of late by Keith to the shapes and sizes of 

 teeth, as a criterion of date, those of Palaeolithic crania being supposed to be 

 thicker-necked than those of later time. In these skulls the measurements 

 were singularly uniform, the two lower molars having a proximo-distal crown 

 measurement of 11, a labio-lingual of 11, and a crown height of 6. The neck 

 was proximo-distally 9'5, labio-lingually 9, and the height 20. The other 

 teeth were of a similar proportional size, showing that they correspond to 

 the measurements of the teeth of the later crania and differ from those of the 

 !MousLerian age. 



6. SUMMAKY A>;D C0^"CLUSI0NS. 



We may fairly claim that the investigation of the group of monuments 

 described in the foregoing pages has given us a remarkably full picture of 

 the life and customs of the Bronze Age in Ireland. It is true that no object 

 of metal or stone witnessing to the high technical skill to which the people 

 of this period are known to have attained came to light. It is also true that 

 none of the cams showed any marks of the artistic influences which radiated 

 from the civilization of the eastern Mediterranean, and which are so strikingly 

 evidenced by the incised decoration of the analogous monuments in Meath. 



In the remains of the settlements we find at least a hint of the nature of 

 the dwellings of the Bronze-age people ; and of the considerations that led 

 them to a choice of site. In the imposing series of cams on the mountain- 

 top and their contents, we find mirrored liie physical character, social 



K.I.A. PKOC, VOL. XXIX., SECT. C. [47] 



