THE ANCIENT PERUVIANS. 



107 



PLATE III 



ANCIENT PERUVIAN. 



A skull with a singularly flat and retreating forehead, and projecting face. 

 The narrowness of the head, however, is not remarkable, and very slight 

 pressure, if any, has been applied to the frontal bone. The latter presents a 

 rounded ridge extending from the nasal bones backwards to the sagittal suture, 

 which elevation would probably have been obliterated if much compression had 

 been resorted to. On the other hand, a friend has suggested that this ridge may 

 be the result of compression itself, from ligatures which have pressed up the bones 

 proximate to the frontal suture of infancy ; yet such a result could hardly have 

 followed unless the compression was ingeniously withheld from that part of the 

 forehead. Again, on plates XVII and LV of this work, two skulls are figured in 

 which this frontal ridge is as strongly developed as in any others in my possession, 

 and yet are obviously devoid of mechanical agency. Of the few skulls of ancient 

 Peruvians that have come under my notice, the larger number possesses this ridge 

 in a striking degree, and it is least obvious in those instances where the flattening 

 process is most evident, for example in plate V. 



MEASUREMENTS. 



Longitudinal diameter. 



Parietal diameter. 



Vertical diameter. 



Frontal diameter. 



Extreme length of head and face, 



Inter-mastoid arch, • 



Inter-mastoid line. 



6.5 inches. 



5.2 inches. 

 5.1 inches. 



4.3 inches. 

 8.3 inches. 



14.5 inches. 

 4. inches. 



