Eskimo Osteology c39 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE CRANIA 



Eleven male and fifteen female crania were available for study, the others 

 being so fragmentary that it was impossible to make any measurements on them. 

 It was decided to compare the present series with the Eskimo crania in the Royal 

 College of Surgeons Museum, London, and this proved a most profitable venture. 

 At the same time the crania have been contrasted with those of various other 

 races, very distant and divergent in type. In this way many facts of striking 

 significance have been elicited. It was decided to discuss the results for the 

 male and female crania separately as sex exerted strong influence upon the 

 indices, particularly the orbital. 



Some of the skulls had been bleached to an almost dazzling white colour 

 from prolonged exposure to alternating periods of rain and sunshine during the 

 summer months. The outer table of bone showed in many cases various degrees 

 of erosion from the persistent effects of the above agencies. The characteristic 

 keel-shape of the cranial vault in the line of the sagittal suture, which is a frequent 

 feature of the Eskimo skull, was visible only in eight of the male crania. None 

 of the female skulls exhibited it. 



The mastoid processes and other points of muscle attachment, such as the 

 occipital curved lines, crest and protuberance, were strongly developed in the 

 male crania, showing that the individuals had led very active lives. The great 

 feature of the Eskimo skull, however, is the extent of the areas of attachment of 

 the masticatory group of muscles. Thus the temporal lines were well marked 

 and situated high up on the sides of the cranium, in this way reducing the 

 stephano-zygomatic index very markedly in some of the crania. For example 

 the latter index fell to 58-1 in one male skull and to 64-5 in one female cranium' 

 These represent the lowest ebb for this index, so far as the writer can ascertain' 



The zygomatic arches of the Eskimo skull form obtrusive bars of bone for 

 the attachment of their powerful masseteric muscles. The lateral projection 

 of these arches constitute a striking feature of the skull when it is examined 

 from below. The result is that the spaces that are left for the passage down- 

 wards of the temporal muscles are amazingly large (see Fig. 4), thus indicating 

 that these muscles must attain to a very robust degree of development. The 

 writer conceived the idea of taking measurements of the lower end of the temporal 

 fossa, that is to say from the inner surface of the zygoma to the infra-temporal 

 crest on the great wing of the sphenoid. This gap proved to be as much as 

 29mm. in one male skull and 27 mm. in one female skull, these distances being, 

 far greater than in the average type of European cranium, and likewise greater 

 than in two low grade Melanesian skulls recorded by the writer, (*) where the cor- 

 responding dimensions proved to be 25 • 5 mm. It was therefore evident that the 

 temporal muscles must have been massively developed in order to fill up these 

 unusually wide spaces. Again, the external pterygoid plates were exceptionally 

 wide — as much as 20 mm. in one female skull (XIV F-16), while the tuberosity 

 of the palate bone exhibited a greater degree of prominence than usual, both 

 facts indicating of course that the external and internal pterygoid muscles were 

 strongly developed and vigorous in their action's. , In many cases the posterior 

 border of the external pterygoid plate was pulled backwards into slender pro- 

 longations, produced obviously by the persistent traction of the external ptery- 

 goid muscle. The abnormal size of the external pterygoid plates of the Eskimo 

 skull, together with their significance has been already pointed out by Brierley 

 and Parsons. (^). 



