THE CRANIOLOGY OF THE PEOPLE OF SCOTLAND. 251 



regarded the discovery of urns from a cemetery at Sancton, Yorkshire, as the 

 limit of cremation known to him as practised by the Anglo-Saxons in the north 

 of England. The conversion of Edwin, the king of Northumbria and the Lothians, 

 did not take place until 625 a.d. 



Anglo-Saxon relics of various kinds and their crania have been described by 

 Rolleston, who contrasted the skulls with the Romano- British skulls also found in the 

 Frilford cemetery. Barnard Davis described nineteen skulls in Crania Britannica 

 and the Thesaurus Craniorum belonging to Jutes, West and South Saxons, East and 

 North Angles, only one of which was marked " Northumbrian Angle." Fourteen skulls 

 were dolichocephalic or mesodolichocephalic, three were bracbycephalic, and two meso- 

 brachycephalie. In sixteen both breadth and height were measured, and in eleven 

 the breadth exceeded the height, in one they were equal, and in two dolichocephali 

 the breadth was less than the height. F. G. Parsons has investigated* Saxon 

 skulls, probably Jutes, exposed at Folkestone and Broadstairs, those from the latter 

 place being in the same ground as two undoubted interments of the bronze age. Of 

 the six Jutes from Folkestone, one-half were dolichocephalic and the others meso- 

 dolichocephalic, the mean being 74 '1 ; the skulls from Broadstairs were described as 

 narrow and long, but certainly not low, and having high orbital apertures. 



In the section on the Long Cists (p. 226) I described the construction of graves 

 of that type and the absence of grave goods, which distinguished them from the 

 pagan neolithic and bronze-age burials, whilst their orientation associated them with 

 Christian interments. The question therefore naturally arises, at what period 

 subsequent to the adoption of Christianity did this form of burial come into use? 

 The conversion of the southern or Galloway Picts by St Ninian is said to date 

 from the close of the fourth century. In the latter half of the sixth century 

 St Columba converted Brude, the king of the northern Picts. Since the middle of 

 that centurv the Northumbrian Ano-les had extended their rule as far north as the 

 Firth of Forth, and doubtless with their strong pagan beliefs repressed Christianity 

 and its observances, destroyed its memorials and decimated the people. Hence in the 

 Lothians and south-eastern counties no definite relics of the early Christian period have 

 been preserved. Though Edwin, king of Northumbria, was baptised in 627, his people 

 remained in, or relapsed into paganism, and it was not until thirty years after, that 

 Aidan the missionary bishop accomplished the conversion of the northern Angles. 



In a previous section, p. 230, I directed attention to the number and orderly 

 arrangement of long cists in cemeteries in the Lothians, Roxburgh, Selkirk, Fife, 

 and Forfar, counties which had been occupied or invaded by the Angles and possibly 

 by Jutes. As Scotland became more settled in the Lowlands and the people con- 

 gregated in villages and small towns, graves would cease to be isolated interments, 

 but would follow a common plan in a prescribed area more or less associated with 

 Christian worship. I think it is not unreasonable to regard this type of grave as 



* Journ. Anthrop. Inst., vol. xli, 1911, and vol. xliii, 1913. 

 TRANS. ROY. SOC. EDIN., VOL. LI, PART I (NO. 5). 35 



