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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    these megalithic long barrows are forty in number, twenty- seven being presumably those of men, and thirteen of women. The principal measurements of all are given in Table I, appended to this paper, from which it appears that not a single skull is brachycephalic, and that scarcely any deviate materially from the narrow elongate type. The breadth-index of the forty skulls ranges from -67 to ’75 (in one instance only ‘77) ; the average breadth-index is '715. O SKULLS FROM CHAMBERED LONG BARROWS IN GLOUCESTERSHIRE AND NORTH WILTS.—BREADTH-INDEX. No. of Skulls. Range. Mean. 40. ... -67 to-77. ... ’71s. In South Wilts, on Salisbury Plain, as on other parts of the chalk downs of the south of England, destitute of stone fit for the construction of chambers, long barrows are found similar in external form to the chambered ones of North Wilts and Gloucestershire. Some of these were explored early in this century by Sir R. C. Hoare and Mr. Cunnington, and were found to cover interments of entire skeletons under the broad and high, generally the east, end of the barrow; but in every instance without ornament, weapon, or other object of bronze or of any other metal. As, however, none of the skulls had been preserved, it was impossible to say what was their type; whether dolichocephalic, like those from the chambered long barrows of North Wilts and Gloucestershire ; or brachycephalic, like those from the circular barrows so numerous on these downs and plains. After many unsuccessful attempts at excavating a long bar- row having the original interment intact, I succeeded, as nar- rated at length in my former paper, in meeting with one such at \\ interbourne Stoke, and with another containing six skele- tons in the same year, 1 863, in the parish of Tilshead (East). In 1864, I re-opened the long barrow called Bowlsbury, and obtained from it four skulls and calvaria, left in it sixty years previously by Mr. Cunnington. In each instance the skulls from the primary interments were of the long narrow type, similar to those from the chambered barrows of North Wilts and Gloucester. None were brachycephalous. At the same