1905-6.] Human Skeleton , with Prehistoric Objects. 285 
adjacent localities were dolichocephalic ; hut, on the other hand, 
that both forms Avere found, almost in equal proportions, in the 
round barrows and other graves of the Bronze Age. Although 
Dr Thurnam’s aphorism, “ Long barroAvs, long skulls ; round 
barrows, short skulls,” is not strictly accurate, it undoubtedly 
conveys an important ethnological fact, which is thus stated by 
Professor Rolleston : — “No skull from any long barrow, that is 
to say, in no skull undoubtedly of the Stone Age, examined 
by us, has the breadth been found to bear so high a relation as 
that of 80 : 100 of the length.” The more recent discoveries of 
human remains in the Oban caves ( Proc . Soc. Antiq. Scot., 
vol. xxix. p. 410), and in the chambered cairns of Arran {ibid., 
vol. xxxvi. p. 74 et seq.), also lend support to the same view. 
A new and wider significance has been given to the above 
generalisation by the Hon. John Abercromby in a paper com- 
municated by him to the Anthropological Section of the British 
Association held at Belfast in 1902, and published in the 
Journal of the Anthropological Institute for the same year 
(vol. xxxii. p. 373), in Avhich he advocates the hypothesis that 
the beaker, or, as it was formerly called, “ drinking-cup,” is the 
oldest Bronze Age ceramic in Great Britain, and that it Avas an 
imported type from Central Europe, by Avay of the Rhine valley. 
In the discussion Avhich folloAved the reading of this paper, Dr 
T. H. Bryce made the following remarks : — “Not the least interest- 
ing feature of Mr Abercromby’s valuable paper is the Avay in 
which his conclusions conform Avith the general trend of the 
evidence derived from the study of skull forms. Wherever the 
beaker has been found in this country associated with human 
remains, the skull has been brachycephalic in proportions, and 
the region from Avhich he derives this ceramic is Avithin the 
area of the ‘ Alpine ’ broad-headed type ” {ibid., p. 396). Since 
then, Dr Bryce {Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., vol. xxxix. p. 418) has 
tabulated the records of some tAvelve cist-interments Avhich disclose 
this relationship betAveen beakers and brachycephalic skulls. To 
these may be added another example from Duns, in Berwickshire 
{ibid., vol. v. pp. 240, 279), Avhich, together with the Largs 
specimen, make fourteen in all. It must not, however, be 
forgotten that beakers are not exclusively confined to short, 
