418 Rev. Wm. Greenwell on Two Ancient Interments. 



pins might be used to fasten anything of the nature of a 

 shroud as well as the dress. 



The bones had gone very much to decay ; and the only 

 part of the skeleton which was preserved was the skull, and 

 that only in an imperfect condition. It is quite evident, 

 however, from what remains of the skull, that the buried 

 person was a man, of mature age, and of robust make. For 

 the following account of the skull and the description of its 

 features I am indebted to Professor Rolleston, of Oxford. 

 " The calvaria is brachycephalic ; the forehead is low, broad, 

 and sloping. The parie to-occipital region also has the obliquity 

 so characteristic of the male sex. The ridges for the origin 

 of muscles, and the frontal sinuses point, by their extensive- 

 ness, in the same direction. The great width, length, and 

 capacity of the skull are combined with a contour which I 

 have several times met with in British skulls of the earlier 

 bronze, but never in the pre-bronze period. All the sutures, 

 in the portion of calvaria left, are obliterated internally, but 

 the Pacchionian pits and the channels for the meningeal 

 arteries are comparatively shallow, and for these as for other 

 reasons, I do not think the owner of this skull was an old 

 man, nor even beyond 45 years of age at the time of death. 

 The calvaria measures in each case approximately : Extreme 

 length, 7*5 ; extreme breadth, 5'95 ; circumference, 21*5 ; 

 giving a cephalic index of '79." 



The skull was of that type, which, so far as the limited 

 means at our disposal allows us to judge, appears to have 

 been the prevalent one in Northumberland at the period to 

 which the burial at Wooler may be referred. Two descrip- 

 tions of heads have been found throughout Britain, which 

 may safely be attributed to a time antecedent to the arrival 

 of the Romans in this country ; the one a long one, and the 

 other a round one, and with the latter of these the skull in 

 question is to be classed. The dolicho-cephalic, the long 

 skull, seems, from the evidence of the barrows, to be the 

 earlier form, and to belong to a time before a knowledge of 

 metal was possessed by the inhabitants of Britain : this long- 

 headed people were succeeded, and probably subjected, by a 

 stronger-made, round-headed race ; by whom, though they 

 were conquered, they were certainly not extirpated, for 

 numerous remains of them are found in the same barrows, 

 and buried undoubtedly at the same time, with the round- 

 headed people. These latter may be considered as belonging 



