examination of English tumuli, we must regret that so little attention has been paid to the size and form of the skull, and in general to the characteristics of the skeleton. For the most part, no notice whatever has been taken of them, or, if alluded to at all, it has been in the most meagre and unsatisfactory manner. England is perhaps of all countries that in which the most valuable conclusions might be deduced from a collection of crania, such as Dr. Prichard has suggested should be formed from its different barrows.[1] It is, no doubt, in part, the consequence of this neglect, that, in the present state of ethnological science, we are so little able, from the form of the skull, to decide as to the race to which human remains found in the tumuli of this country are to be attributed.
Some explanation may be thought due for dwelling so much at length on a subject not usually recognised as coming within the scope of archaeological inquiry. The double light, however, which this inquiry,—which falls under the head of the palœtaphia of Dr. Prichard,—is calculated to throw upon archaeology and ethnography, ought, I think, to be accepted as sufficient apology; and I shall proceed to examine whether, in the instance before us, we can derive any aid from the forms of the skulls, towards determining the race to which this cemetery is to be attributed. The accompanying plate of crania[2] shows, as has been already pointed out, that the skulls from Lamel-hill are of an elongated, rather than round, form; that they are, for the most part, small; and that in the forehead they are low and narrow; whilst they are fuller in the middle-head, where, in many cases, they exhibit a peculiar pyramidal conformation. The main features of these crania are their rather small size and their lengthened oval or dolicocephalic form. Whilst their development must be admitted, for the most part, to be poor, they still fall under the first class and first order of Professor Retzius' arrangement, viz.: Dolichocephalæ orthognathæ.[3]
- ↑ Natural History of Man, 1843, p. 192. Physical History of Mankind, 3rd edition, 1841, vol. iii., pp. xxi., 199, 393.
- ↑ In this plate the sketches of the crania, which I owe to the kindness of a friend, and which are taken with Morton's craniograph, are drawn to the same scale, of rather less than one fourth the diameter. Two sketches of ten of the crania, and one of each of two others, are given. These comprise,—a, the side or profile view; and b, that of the summit of the skull as seen from above,and taken so as to embrace as complete a view of the entire calvaria as possible. This latter mode of viewing the cranium is of the first importance in reference to Professor Retzius' classification.
- ↑ Retzius divides the different nations of men into two classes. The Dolichocephalæ,
