Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/181

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FOSSIL MAN (BRITAIN AND BELGIUM)
125

in civilisation awls and borers of flint ; needles, beads, and ornaments of bone and ivory. Over this came a bed of yellowish clay in which were still found bones of the mammoth as well as flint implements. And, finally, there was a mass of clay and fallen rocks without relics of any kind. (See section of the cave, Fig. 28.)

The supposition that these bodies were buried in graves dug for the purpose is, according to MM. Fraipont and Lohest, inadmissible. The most reasonable explanation that can be given is that the Spy men died in front of the grotto which had served as their place of abode, on the soil which had partly accumulated from their kitchen debris. (Archives de Biologie de Gand, 1886, p. 668.)

The osteological characters of one of the Spy crania (Figs. 29 and 30) correspond in a remarkable degree with those of the Neanderthal skull, as will be seen from a few of Professor Fraipont's comparative measurements :—

  Spy. Neanderthal.

Antero-posterior diameter (max.)
Transverse
Frontal (min.)
" (max.)
Horizontal circumference
Cephalic index
mm.
200
140
104
114
580
70
mm.
200
144
106
122
590 (571?)
72

As regards the great development of the superciliary prominences, the low retreating forehead, the depressed and elongated form of the cranium, both these skulls present a more brutal appearance than any human skull known up to the time of the Java discovery. The fragmentary condition of the Neanderthal skull prevents us carrying the comparison any further. The Spy skull was associated with nearly the whole skeleton, and, according to Fraipont, its entire anatomical characters bear out the same lowness of type. The jaws are deep and powerful, the chin slopes away from the teeth downwards and backwards, and the teeth and alveolar border have a striking prognathic appearance. The last molar teeth do not sensibly differ in size from those immediately in front of them. The long bones differ materially from those of the