Although the remains comprise seventeen adult males and the same number
of females, some of the skulls are so defective that measurements and
notes of value could be made only on those of ten males and thirteen
females.
In examining and arranging these specimens, the first realization
of importance is that, while the majority clearly belong to one
type, there are a few that must be classed apart. The main type, as
will be noted later and more plainly from the measurements, is that
characterized by dolichocephaly to mesocephaly, and agrees with that
prevalent among other Lenape as well as other Eastern tribes. The
additional type is brachycephalic. Among the twenty-five skulls of
adults there are four of the brachycephalic type, all females. A
few additional examples existed evidently among the children; and
several of the remaining skulls may be transitional as a result of
admixture. The brachycephaly is so marked that it can not be due to
normal individual variation within the series, and if we exclude this
possibility the only remaining conclusion is that the broad-heads could
not have been Lenape, except by adoption. The individuals represented
by these skulls might have come from western Pennsylvania, where
brachycephaly seems to have prevailed at least in some districts;
or from farther southwestward, from a region to which points the
intentional deformation among the “Munsee” crania. These possibly
represent the Shawnee, who came from that section and who, according to
growing indications, while speaking Algonquian were of a different type
physically.
The admixture of this type existed evidently also among other branches
of the Lenape, and to a more limited extent among various other tribes
of the Atlantic states. The writer called attention to this mixture in
1902,[15] and will return to the subject in the second part of this
memoir, which deals with Eastern skulls in general.
[15] _Crania of Trenton_, op. cit.