must be assumed that the dead man was not laid away in a coffin, but placed on the ground; that, in fact, he belonged to an earlier ‘period.’ How long ago that was can not be known, unfortunately, since no data are at hand; however, the bones are in a nearly fossilized condition, which allows the conclusion that they were deposited long ago.
The deformation itself furnishes no clue to a chronological conclusion. In Thévenot[1] is found the statement that, according to the account of a priest, probably in the 16th century, the custom prevails in some of the islands to press the heads of new-born babes between two boards, also to flatten the forehead, ‘since they believed that this form was a special mark of beauty.’ A similar deformation, with more pronounced flattening and backward pressure of the forehead, is shown on the crania which Jagor produced from a cave at Caramuan in Luzon. There are modes of flattening which remind one of Peru. When they came into our hands it was indeed an immense surprise, since no knowledge of such deformation in the South Sea was at hand. First our information led to more thorough investigations; so we are aware of several examples of it from Indonesia and, indeed, from the South Sea (Mallicolo). However, this deformation furnishes no clue to the antiquity of the graves.[2]
I have sawed one of these skulls in two along the sagittal suture. The specimen gives a good idea of the amount of compression and of the violence which this skull endured when quite young. The cranial cavity is inclined backward and lengthened, and curves out above, while the occiput is pressed downward and the region of the front fontanelle is correspondingly lacking. Likewise, a considerable thickness of the bone is to be noted, especially of the vertex. The upper jaw is slightly prognathous and the roof of the mouth unusually arched.
For the purpose of the present study, it is unnecessary to go further into particulars. It might be mentioned that all Lanang skulls are characterized by their size and the firmness of bone, so that they depart widely from the characteristics of the other Philippine examples known to me. Similar skulls have been received only from caves, which exist in one of the little rocky islands east from Luzon. They suggest most Kanaka crania from Hawaii, and Maiori crania from Chatham islands, and they raise the question whether they do not belong to a migration period long before the time of the Malays. I
- ↑ Rélations des diverses voyages curieux. Paris, 1591 (1663).
- ↑ [Chinese and Korean pottery are said to have been found with the deformed crania. Similar deformations exist in the Celebes, New Britain, etc. Head-shaping has been universal, cf. A. B. Meyer, Uber kunstliche deformirte Schädel von Borneo und Mindanao and über die Verbreitung der Sitte der kunstlichen Schädeldeformirung, 1881, 36 pp., 4°.—Translator.]
