in a Barrow at Rockleg. 



73 



itself incline us to the other view. The hypothesis of crossing will 

 cover and combine the facts. I should be slow, in default of other 

 evidence besides that which is furnished by the osteological remains, 

 to aver positively that this skull must have belonged to a man of 

 the bronze period. The comparatively perfect condition of the teeth 

 is, however, certainly in favour of the claims of the former period, 

 according to Mr. Mummery's examination of Dr. Thurnam's 

 collection, 1 in which amongst sixty- eight long barrow skulls only 

 two cases of decay were found, whilst amongst thirty-two of the 

 later period no less than seven such cases were found. 



" As individual pecularities the exceedingly low orbital index is 

 specially noteworthy, though some doubt may exist as to its ethno- 

 logical significance. Correlated with a comparatively full lower jaw 

 we have a comparatively vertical forehead ; the strength of the ridges, 

 on the other hand, overhanging the orbits, and above all the strength 

 indicated by the temporal and other ridges for muscular insertion on 

 the back parts of the skull contrast rather than correspond with the 

 weakness of the upper jaw. Something of this last peculiarity, 

 however, is due I think to senile atrophy, which would have pro- 

 gressed further but for the persistence of the teeth in their somewhat 

 wasted sockets. 



<( Rheumatic exostosis had beset both vertebra? and long bones ; and 

 had not spared the articular condyles of the lower jaw ; impairing 

 thus the happiness, or at any rate the enjoyment, of their owner 

 very considerably. 



"The sutures of the skull are still unobliterated on the outer 

 surface at least of the skull ; this point Dr. Thurnam would have 

 held, I think, to be more common among the brachycephalic of the 

 bronze than among the dolichocephalic of the stone-age. But 

 it may have been an individual peculiarity, and so may be taken to 

 point neither way. A peculiarity, rare, I think, in ancient skeletons, 

 is noticeable here ; the clavicles are those of a left-handed man ; the 

 right humerus being, however, longer considerably than the some- 

 what more roughly marked left one. 



1 For a discussion on this point see " British Barrows," p. 701. 



