300 PRINCIPAL SIR W. TURNER ON 



to the vertex. The parietooccipital slope was gradual, and the occipital squama 

 projected behind the inion. The zygomatic arches were flattened, and the skull was 

 cryptozygous. The Stephanie diameter was 6 mm. less than the asterionic. 



Norma lateralis. — The forehead inclined backwards and upwards, the glabella and 

 supraorbital ridges were moderate ; the nasion was not depressed ; the bridge of the 

 nose was 19 mm. long, straight, feebly projecting though not flattened ; the interorbital 

 diameter was 22 mm. The cranium rested behind on the cerebellar occipital fossae. 

 The frontal and parietal longitudinal arcs were almost equal ; the injury to the occipital 

 bone did not admit of the occipital arc being measured (PL XL, figs. 58-60). 



Norma facialis. — The floor of the nose was separated from the incisive region by a 

 sharp ridge : the maxillo-nasal spine was moderate. The height of the nose in propor- 

 tion to the width of the nares was less than in A, and the nasal index, 47 '8, was 

 leptorhine ; the canine fossae were deep ; the upper jaw was not projecting,- and the index 

 was orthognathous, 88*3. The orbital borders were sharp, and the aperture was 

 roundish and megaseme, 97*1. The palato-maxillary arch was shallow, and too much 

 injured to measure. The teeth had been lost. 



The cranial sutures were on the whole simple, and not obliterated ; the parieto- 

 squamous were broad ; the left asterion had a Wormian bone. The spinous processes were 

 not ossified to the temporals. No special variations were noted. The vertical index, 

 77'6, was hypsicephalic, and higher than the cephalic index, 75'3, which was fractionally 

 above the numerical dolichocephalic limit ; the breadth-height index was hypsisteno- 

 cephalic. The cranial capacity of C was low even for a woman, only 1060 c.c, but 

 the dimensions generally of the skull were small and indicated a person of low stature. 



It is not possible definitely to associate the skulls collected by Major Irvine with 

 the races to which they belonged. Seistan, from its relation to the frontiers of Persia, 

 Afghanistan, and Baluchistan, is liable to have its people intermingled with Persians, 

 Afghans, and Baluchis. Further, the country, having been subjected to successive 

 invasions from the north, other tribes and races may have settled there. Neither is it 

 possible to state definitely to what period the skulls should be referred. They were 

 found lying loose in a mound of sand, and apparently without any objects along with 

 them which could give a key to their age. As is well known, dry sand is a remarkable 

 preservative of bones, and from their bleached appearance they had probably at times, 

 when the sand shifted, been exposed to the sun. As they were found on the site of 

 the city of Zahidan, which was destroyed more than five hundred years ago, they 

 might have been the skulls of its ancient inhabitants ; but on the other hand they might 

 have belonged to people who in much more recent years had camped on the site. 



The evidence of the race and date of burial being therefore so incomplete, one has, 

 in attempting to discriminate their history, to rely upon the characters of the skulls 

 themselves. 



The males belonged to large-brained people, with massive heads, brachycephalic, or 

 approximating thereto. The nose was not flattened, the nasal index was low, the face 



