2D0 



Notes on some Ancient British Skulls 



are mesaticephalic. Of these ancient skulls only the two referred 

 to belong to the latter group; the other four are dolichocephalic, 

 having indices ranging between 70 and 75. In the fundamental 

 form of the head the majority of these ancient skulls therefore, 

 differ from the form of the skull in the present race of the British 

 Isles. The long-shaped skulls are chiefly found in the long barrows. 

 They also occur occasionally in round barrows; but in the latter the 

 predominant form of skull is brachy cephalic, and no br achy cephalic 

 skulls are found in the primary interments in long harrows. In long 

 barrows hyperdolichocephalic skulls are often found, and in the 

 round barrows the hyperbrachycephalic form as frequently occurs. 

 The skulls interred in the long barrows are usually found associated 

 with worked flints of a more or less rough character, while in the 

 round barrows metals are not infrequently found, indicating that 

 the dolichocephalic race were tjie inhabitants of the country anterior 

 to the brachycephalic. The various objects found in the numerous 

 barrows of this later race indicate that it must have invaded and 

 conquered, or driven before it, the dolichocephalic race ; and hence 

 we are able to account for the presence of dolichocephalic skulls 

 occuring in round barrows, as in the case of the skull from the 

 round barrow at Shalbourne. 



In all the skulls, as far as could be determined (some of them 

 being in a broken condition), the height is less than the bread th, 

 with one exception, namely, the skull from Aldbourne. This is 

 what usually exists in the human race. 



When we examine more particularly the characters of these 

 crania, we find that there are two different types. The two 

 skulls from Oldbury are what is termed coffin-shaped, that is 

 to say the sides of the skull are flat from the point of greatest 

 width towards the front and back, in the others the side walls are 

 curved regularly and so that the skull is of a markedly ovoid form. 

 The two forms can be easily distinguished by placing one of the 

 Oldbury skulls side by side with that from Monkton cist and viewing 

 the two from above. The want of sufficient material prevents the 

 determination of the degree of importance of these two forms being 

 properly estimated, but it seems not unlikely that the long barrow 



