Under this head, Retzius includes the crania of people of both Celtic and Germanic race. The opinion, however, of Professor Nillson, that the type of the old Celtic cranium is intermediate to the true dolichocephalic and brachycephalic forms, is, I think, well founded; the oval of the Celtic cranium, according to this view, being usually shorter than in the skulls of a decidedly lengthened oval form, and longer than in those of an obviously shortened oval form.[1] A more extended comparison of crania may be required to establish these views satisfactorily; but, so far as they go, it will be seen that they are in favour of the human remains from Lamelhill being those of a Teutonic rather than a Celtic people.
In alluding to the conformation of the head in the Celtic races, Dr. Prichard observes that he has seen about half a dozen skulls found in different parts of England in situations which rendered it highly probable that they belonged to ancient Britons. All these partook of one striking characteristic, viz., a remarkable narrowness of the forehead compared with the occiput, giving a very small space for the anterior lobes of the brain, and allowing room for a large development of the posterior lobes. The few crania which I have myself seen from early British tumuli correspond very much with Dr. Prichard's description. They had, for the most part, a shortened oval form; ample behind, and somewhat narrow and receding in the forehead. The cranium from the undoubtedly British tumulus at Gristhorpe, near Scarborough, has this general form; it is, however, unusually large, and not deficient in frontal development; its form, too, is in some respects fine, particularly as regards the full supra-orbital region, and the high and fully developed middle head. Sir R. C. Hoarc, who made very extensive examinations of the British tumuli of Wiltshire, in describing a chambered tumulus at Stony Littleton, in Somersetshire, observes that the two skulls found in this barrow were totally different in their formation from those from any other barrow he had examined, with one exception, in being characterised by a remarkable
- ↑ Report of British Association, 1847, p. 31.
or those with a lengthened oval form of cranium; and the Brachycephalæ, or those with crania of a shortened oval form. Each of these classes he subdivides into two orders: the orthognathæ, or those with upright jaws, and the prognathæ, or those with prominent jaws. The brachycephalic crania of Retzius nearly correspond with the pyramidal division of Dr. Prichard, and embrace the skulls of the Lappes, Finns, Tartars, and Mongols,—people of the Turanian, or Ugro-Tartarian family.
