THE CRANIOLOGY OF THE PEOPLE OF SCOTLAND. 219 



The skull of the adult in the Moredun cist, though much damaged, enabled 

 Professor Bryce to estimate its form and proportions (Table VII). The cranium 

 was ellipsoidal in the norma verticalis, vertex flattened, no sagittal crest, the 

 sides rounded, the parieto-occipital slope gradual, the occipital probole slightly 

 marked, the frontal bone full and rounded, the glabella and supraciliaries not pro- 

 jecting, the upper orbital rim thin, characters which suggested that the skull was 

 that of a woman. The maximum length was 192 mm., the basi-bregmatic height 

 140 mm., the maximum breadth 144 mm. The cephalic index was 75, the vertical 

 index 72*8. The skull was dolichocephalic and the vertical index, less than the 

 cephalic, was metriocephalic. The face was high leptoprosopic and the jaw 

 orthoo-nathous. 



In 1908 a cairn and interments were explored at the Black Rocks, Gullane, East 

 Lothian, by Dr Edward Ewart and Mr Alexr. 0. Curle.* The cairn consisted 

 of whinstone boulders placed on the shore between high-water mark and the line 

 of the 20-foot beach. Six human skeletons were found in the cairn, some of which 

 were in the contracted position, but in no case was one enclosed in a built cist. 

 Near one of the skeletons a small spiral ring of bronze was found, and beneath 

 another was a rust-corroded, fragile, disc-shaped iron knife-dagger, 7 inches long 

 and f inch broad. A disc or whorl of sandstone 2| inches in diameter, and per- 

 forated in the centre, was found at one end of the cairn. In the neighbourhood 

 of this cairn were others similar in type, though some were smaller in size and con- 

 tained single burials. In -only one of these did a cist appear to have been noticed. 

 It was thought that a number of skeletons had been buried in these cairns. So 

 many interments in a comparatively limited area point to the locality being an 

 ancient cemetery. 



Three skulls were procured, which enabled Dr Waterston to examine and 

 obtain some measurements. In one, an adult male, the cephalic index was 76 '5, the 

 vertical 74'9 ; in a second, an adult female, with a metopic suture, the cephalic index 

 was 72 "3, the vertical 71 '7 ; in a third adult the coronal, sagittal and lambdoid sutures 

 were obliterated, the skull had a subscaphocephalic character and was so elongated 

 in relation to the breadth that the cephalic index was only 67 '3 and the vertical 

 64 9 (Table VII). A femur showed strongly marked platymery ; also an articular 

 facet for the tibia above the inner condyl due to great flexion of the knee in the 

 squatting posture. Waterston estimated, from the length of the femur and tibia, 

 the stature of the individual at 5 feet 3 inches. 



The characters of the crania approximated to dolichocephalic and not to brachy- 

 cephalic proportions, and the burial of the bodies in the sand which surrounded the 

 boulders, and not in built cists, together with the presence of the iron knife, points, 

 notwithstanding the bronze ring, to the interment having been made at or later than 

 the transition from the bronze to the iron period. These interments may have been 



* Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot, vol. xlii, 1908. 

 TRANS. ROY. SOC. EDIN., VOL. LI, PART I (NO. 5). 31 



