An account of some skulls discovered at Brandon, Suffolk / by Charles S. Myers.

  • Myers, Charles S. (Charles Samuel), 1873-1946.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of some skulls discovered at Brandon, Suffolk / by Charles S. Myers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    conclusions are substantially those of Ecker, and come to the more exhaustive papers of Gildemeister. This anthropologist divides the Beihengraber type into two divisions, according as the parietal eminences are strongly or feebly developed. In certain features the Brandon skulls appear to agree with the one division, in others with the second division which Gildemeister, to my mind somewhat arbitrarily, has thus made. Like Ecker,(g) he lays stress on the absolutely peculiar prominence of the occiput, the height of the orbits, the delicacy of the upper jaw, the length of the palate and the degree of orthognathism, features all of which are noticeable to a varying extent in the ellipsoid group of the present series. Out of the seven skulls (three male, Nos. 713, 736, 738, and four female, Nos. 708, 710, 746, 759), which perhaps most markedly bear the Grave-Bow or “Batavian”1 characteristics, not one allows of the usual measurements being completely taken. I am unable, therefore, to present collaterally the indices of the Brandon skulls with those of the Alemannic crania. But to my mind there is little lost by this, since the averages deduced by His, Ecker, v. Holder and Virchow from their respective measurements differ from each other considerably. The average cephalic index of the type is variously computed to be 70*7, 71*3, 72 and 74'9. The height-index ranges from 67 to 78*2. Lastly Gildemeister shows three female skulls in the Bremen collection which have a nasal index of 54‘0, 634, 55'0 respectively. However, in spite of the obvious admixture of alien blood in later times, there is every reason to believe that the Grave-Bow ty pe, which so many anthropologists have empha¬ sised, formerly existed pure. The types which Gildemeister figures may therefore be accepted as genuine, in spite of the subsequent penetration of the allied Saxon and of eastern elements. I venture to say that the outlines of these skulls as seen in the accompanying plate convince one with far greater eloquence than would a column of indices and measure¬ ments. History and physical anthropology tend thus to show the settlement of Alemannic tribes at Brandon. Beddoe speaks of the Alemannic as a fair-haired people sprung from a stock common to the Saxons and Franks. Now dark and red hair has also been found in Alemannic graves. The predominance of black hair in Brandon at the present day would therefore lead one to conclude that the pure Alemanni had a high index of nigrescence or that the dark-haired British have prevailed over their fair invaders. 1 Except that they are lower and have a more prominent temporo-parietal region, the “ Batavian ” resembles the Grave-Row types.