On the ancient British barrows of Wiltshire, and the adjoining counties : and on the inferences to be deduced from them / by John Thurnam.

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

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the ancient British barrows of Wiltshire, and the adjoining counties : and on the inferences to be deduced from them / 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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    inches in the one, and 5 feet 9 inches in the other, the average difference being no less than three inches. XI. The cranial type of the ancient Iberians has not yet been so conclusively ascertained as is to be desired. But the examination of the large series of skulls of modern Spanish Basques, at Paris, as well as of such Spanish and Portuguese skulls as exist in English and Dutch collections, altogether justifies the presumption that the Iberians of antiquity were a decidedly dolichocephalous people. XII. The British brachycephali of the bronze period are to be regarded as an offshoot, through the Belgic Gauls, from the great brachycephalous stock of central and north-eastern Europe and Asia; in all the countries of which—France, Switzerland, South Germany, Bohemia, Poland, Russia, and Finland—the broad and short cranial type is still the prevailing one. ’I he earlier British dohichocepkali of the stone period were, we think, either derived from the ancient Iberians, or from a common source with that people. Not only was Spain peopled by the Iberian race, but even in historical times, a considerable part of Gaul; and there is no improbability in the conclusion of its having occupied the British Islands likewise, as is, indeed, asserted by some ancient historians.1 XIII. As to the origin of the Iberians themselves, it is better to confess our ignorance, than to indulge in premature speculations. Some, as Professor A' ogt, would bring them from America, by way ot a lost Atlantis, or “ connecting land between Florida and our own 1 Dionysius and his paraphraser Priscian, say expressly that the Cassiterides were peopled by the Iberianspopulos tenuit quas fortis Iberi.” [Dion., Perieg. v., 563; Priscian, Per teg. v., 578.] The Cassiterides are termed by these writers the Western isles whence tin proceeds—a. mere paraphrase of the word Cassiterides. Under this last designation, as used by the ancients, not only the Scilly Isles, but the Damnonian promontory and coasts were generally included. The very ancient notice of the Cassiterides preserved by Strabo, represents the inhabitants as nomadic and pastoral, clothed in long tunics, covered by black mantles; a garb identical with that of the ancient Iberians of Spain, who are likewise described by the geographers, Diodorus and Strabo, as melanchlce.ni, or black robed. [Diod. Sic., lib. v., c. 33; Strabo, lib. hi. c. 3 §7;c. 5. §2.] ’