118 



The Thirty-third General Meeting. 



have asked Mr. Goddard, the owner of the field, for permission to 

 explore this interesting relic, and although this opportunity had 

 passed, he hoped that now that the matter had been brought before 

 the public some steps would be taken to investigate it. 



In thanking Mr. Morris on behalf of the Meeting for his remarks, 

 the President re-echoed the hope that steps would be taken to 

 investigate the matter thoroughly. 



This was followed by a paper on " Ringsbury Camp/'' by the 

 Rev. W. H. E. Mc. Knight, which, in the absence of that gentleman, 

 was very kindly read by Mr. James Sadler, of Purton; and then 

 Mr. William Cunnington, F.G.S., exhibited and commented on 

 several specimens of skulls of the dolichocephalic form, which had 

 been taken from the famous long barrow known as " Bowlsbury 

 Tump/ 5 near Heytesbury, opened by himself and Mr. Henry 

 Cunnington, Hon. Curator of the Society, under the auspices of 

 this Society, in June last. The skulls found are of much interest, 

 all of them being of the long (dolichocephalic) shape. They confirm 

 the views of our late fellow-Member, Dr. Thurnham, who first 

 discovered the fact that the people who erected the long barrows 

 possessed longer skulls than those of the people of the round barrows, 

 who succeeded them, and longer than those of any of the modem 

 races of Europeans. They are apparently the most ancient inhabi- 

 tants of this island of whom any record exists. No implements of 

 metal of any kind have been found in their interments, and their 

 pottery is of the rudest kind, without any ornaments. The only 

 traces of art found in Bowls Barrow are flint flakes, struck off in 

 making implements, and an oval quartzite pebble, which has been 

 used at both ends as a hammer. The skulls, or fragments of skulls, 

 of at least fourteen individuals were found on the late occasion : 

 more than half of these had been cleft or fractured, apparently at the 

 time of death. Several of them were shown at the Meeting; also 

 specimens illustrating the differences between the long skulls of the 

 long barrow type, and the shorter skulls o£ the round barrow period. 



As all these papers will appear in the Magazine, they need not be 

 further mentioned here : needless, too, to say that their authors were 

 severally thanked from the chair, and that the approbation of the 



