The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-07 00:00:00

Anthropological Eociety.

At a meeting of this society on Tuesday evening
—Mr. Bendyshe in the chair—two papers were read
relating to the craniological peculiarities of the
aboriginal inhabitants of this country. The first
paper, by Dr. J. 1 hurnam, was entitled " Further
Researches and Observations on the Principal
Forms of Ancient British Skulls," in which he en-
deavoured to prove, by the results of recent re-
searches among the grave mounds of Wiltshire and
Gloucestershire more particularly, the skulls of the
earliest inhabitants were of the long form, and that
they were succeeded by a race who possessed round
skulls. The conclusions to which he arrived are that
the skulls from the primary interments in the long
barrows of Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, and
it is believed of South Britain in general, are of
a strongly marked dolicho-cephalic, or long-headed,
type, having a mean breadth index of .71, which is
much lower than that of any modern European
people. No objects of metal nor of decorated pot-
tery are known to have been in these interments,
but implements only of stone, bone, or horn. On
the other hand, the skulls from the primary inter-
ments in the round barrows of the same district are
more or less round, having a mean breadth index of
.81, which is much higher than is now found among
the population of any part of England or Wales.
Objects of bronze, some of iron, and richly deco-
rated pottery are often found in these barrows,
with or without stone implements. Without
asserting that there is any necessary connection
between the forms of the barrows and of the
skulls interred with them, the general relation
between the two was strongly pointed out
by Dr. Thurnam, who contended that those
people with the long heads were the true primeval
race, and that they were succeeded by a more pow-
erful and civilised people, who, gradually extend-
ing themselves, became dominant throughout the
island. The sepulchral monuments of the earliest
people show that they buried their dead without
cremation, that they possessed herds of small short-
horned oxen, and that they subsisted largely by the
chase of the red deer and wild boar, that some of
their customs were extremely barbarous, and that
they sacrificed many human victims whose cleft
skulls are found in these tombs. The round-headed
people buried in the round barrows seem to have
been more civilised, as was inferred from the more
common use of bronze implements, and the explora-
tions of their tombs show that the burning of the
dead was with them the prevailing, though not ex-
clusive, mode of burial. The appearances are in-
deed consistent with what we are told of the fune-
rals of the Gauls by Caesar. Dr. Thurnam conjec-
tured that this more civilised race conquered the
earliest inhabitants, and reduced them to slavery or
drove them into the interior parts of the island.
These two races thus made known to us by mo lern
researches in their tumuli :may, he considered, be
identified with the two peoples, strongly contrasted
in their manners, described by C3ar in his " Com-
mentaries." The latter or brach-cephalic were the
agricultural people of the maritime districts, believed
to have emigrated from Belgic Gaul, and the doli-
cho-cephalic were the pastoral and less civilised
people of the interior, whom Dr.l hurnam conceived
were probably originally Iberic.
In the second paper, by Mr. C. Carter Blake,
some skulls from the round barrows near Blandford
were described, which were considered to invalidate
the theory of Dr. Thurnam as to the connection be-
tween the forms of barrows and of the skulls found
within them, and the conclusions to which Mr. Blake
arrived were that the state of materials at present at
our disposal preclude any generalisation as to the pre-
valence of a bracho-cephalic type of skull in the round
barrows of the south of England, and that a much
larger series of skulls from the long as well as from
the round barrows must be measured before any
conclusions can be arrived at as to their cranial cha-
racteristics.

A long animated discussion took place after the
reading of the papers, in which the Rev. Dunbar
Heath, Dr. Hyde Clarke, Dr. Hunt, Mr. Lmcprey,
Dr. Charnock, Mr. Higgins, and other gentlemen
took part. The meeting adjourned at a late hour.