Further researches and observations on the two principal forms of ancient British skulls : with tables of measurements / by John Thurnam.

  • Thurnam, John, 1810-1873.
Date:
[1867]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Further researches and observations on the two principal forms of ancient British skulls : with tables of measurements / by John Thurnam. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    one of *71.* There is, however, no doubt that this small series is much more dolicliocephalous than any yet published as from round barrows, and that the mean breadth-mdex ap- proximates closely to that of the true long-barrow skulls. The two first alone (Nos. 1 and 2), are of the usual round barrow type, and have a breadth-index of '81 and ‘80. The other seven vary from ‘67 to '74 (average ^O6), which are dolicho- ceplialous and long-barrow breadth-indices. Upon looking at the history of these skulls, as deducible from Mr. Shipp's memorandum, from a letter with which he has favoured me, as well as from the narrative of the opening of most of the barrows in which they were found, given in Mr. Warne's recent work, The Celtic Tumuli of Dorset, I see great reason to doubt whether, of the entire number, more than one was derived from a really 'primary interment in a circular barrow of the British period. Four or five are, indeed, avowedly from “superficial or secondary deposits. Another (No. 8), is from a cemetery of the Roman period at Spettisbury,t and from no round barrow at all. Another (No. 9), is considerably affected by posthumous lateral flattening. Two others (Nos. 4 and 5), are from an interment, the character of which, as an ancient British barrow, may be doubted : consisting as it did of a slight “ swelling of the turf on Kingston Down, barely twelve inches above the surrounding surface, with a layer of flints covering seven skeletons lying side by side and east and west, in a shallow grave one foot deep.* Both these skulls have a quite recent appearance, and retain decided traces of the ani- * There are really eleven skulls and calvaria, and ten (excluding “No. 10”), capable of being measured. The last, (Nos. 11 and 12 of Mr. Shipp’s Me- morandum, forming one specimen) has a breadth-index of -73, and its addition to the series does not affect the mean breadth-index, which I still make '72. The mean height-index of the ten skulls is '74. f See Proc. Soc. Antiq., iv, 188. I Warne, Celtic Tumuli of Dorset (Part 2); Kingston Down Tumulus, Twelve, p. 11. In my observations in the text, I assume the genuineness of these nine or ten skulls. It must not be forgotten, however, that they bear no labels inscribed at the time of their discovery; and that when presented to the Anthropological Society, they had been in Mr. Shipp’s possession for a period of twenty years'. The circumstances are not favourable to their cor- rect identification; though this is certainly possible.