"The calvaria is large, dark coloured and much broken. The base, facial
bones and part of the left brow ridge and glabella are gone. The
sutures are coarsely toothed and visible superficially although
ankylosis has set in in the inner face. The bone is fairly thick (8·10
mm.), and on the inner face the pacchionian pits are large and deep on
each side of the middle line especially in the bregmatic part of the
frontal and the post-bregmatic part of the parietals. The superior
longitudinal groove is deep but narrow, and, as far as the broken
condition allows definite tracing, the cerebral convolution impressions
are of the typical pattern.
[Illustration: Fig. 7.]
"The striking feature is the prominent brow ridge due to the large
frontal sinus. The glabella was probably prominent and the margins on
each side are large and rough and extend outwards to the supraorbital
notches. The outer part of the supraorbital margin and the processus
jugalis are thick, coarse and prominent (Fig. 7).
"In norma verticalis the skull is ovoid-pentagonoid euryme-topic with
conspicuous rounded parietal eminences, slight flattening at the
obelion and a convex planum interparietale below it (Fig. 8).
[Illustration: Fig. 8.]
"In norma lateralis the brow ridges are conspicuous; above them is the
sulcus transversus from which the frontal ascends with a fairly uniform
curve to the bregma. The frontal sagittal arc above the ophryon
measures 112 mm. and its chord 116. Behind the bregma the parietals
along the front half of the sagittal suture have a fairly flat outline
to the medio-parietal region, behind which the flattened obelion is
continued downwards with a uniform slope to the middle of the planum
interparietale whence it probably descended by a much steeper curve to
the inion, which is lost. The parietal sagittal arc, including the
region where there was probably a supra-lambdoid ossicle, was about 140
mm. and its chord 121 but the curve is not uniform.
"In norma occipitalis the sagittal suture appears at the summit of a
ridge whose parietal sides slope outwards forming with each other an
angle of 138°, as far as the parietal eminences. From these the sides
drop vertically down to the large mastoid processes. The intermastoid
width at the tips of the processes is 115, but at the supramastoid
crest is 148 (Fig. 9).
[Illustration: Fig. 9.]
"In norma frontalis the conspicuous feature is the brow ridge. This
gives a kind of superficial suggestion of a Neanderthaloid shape, but
the broad and well arched frontal dispels the illusory likeness. The
jugal processes jut out giving a biorbital breadth of 115 mm. while the
least frontal width is 97 and the bistephanic expands to 125. There is
a slight median ridge on the frontal ascending from the ophryon, at
first narrow but expanding at the bregma to 50 mm. The surface of this
elevated area is a little smoother than that of the bone on each side
of it.
"The other long bones are mostly broken at their extremities. The
femora are strong and platymeric. The postero-lateral rounded edge,
which bears on its hinder face the insertion of the gluteus maximus,
taken in connexion with the projection of the thin medial margin of the
shaft below the tuberculum colli inferior causes the upper end of the
shaft to appear flattened. The index of platymeria is ·55. The femoral
length cannot have been less than 471 mm. The man was probably of
middle stature, not a giant as was the Gristhorpe man. The tibiæ are
also broken at their ends, they are eurycnemic (index ·80) with sharp
sinuous shin and flat back, the length may have been between 335 and
340 mm. The humeri are also bones with strong muscular crests, and the
ulnæ are smooth and long. The fibula was channelled. There is nothing
in the bone-features which is inconsistent with the reference of the
skull to the Brachycephalic Bronze Age race.
[Illustration: Fig. 10.]
"In the following Table are recorded the measurements of the different
regions. The two crania which I have selected to compare with it are
(1) a Round-barrow skull from near Stonehenge (No. 179 in our
Collection) and (2) the Gristhorpe skull, to both of which it bears a
very strong family likeness.
Shippea Stonehenge
Hill (No. 179) Gristhorpe
Maximal length 194 185 192
Maximal breadth 153 153 156
Auricular height 135 132 133
Biorbital width 115 112 117
Bistephanic width 128 132 133
Least frontal width 97 103 106
Biasterial 120 127 125
Auriculo-glabellar radius 116 113 114
Auriculo-ophryal radius 113 111 105
Auriculo-metopic radius 134 127 124
Auriculo-bregmatic radius 137 132 134
Auriculo-lambdoid radius 104 102 115
Length and breadth index 78·87 82·7 81·25
"The resemblance to the two Round-barrow skulls of the Bronze Age is
too great to be accidental, so we may regard this as a representative
of that race, possibly at an earlier stage than the typical form of
which the two selected specimens are examples (Fig. 10).
"The mandible also resembles that of the Gristhorpe skull in general
shape of angle and prominence of chin.
"The measurements are as appended:
Shippea Stonehenge
Hill (No. 179) Gristhorpe
Condylo mental length 131 -- 130
Gonio mental length 100 -- 99
Bigoniac 115 -- 116
Bicondylar 139 -- 141
Chin height 32 -- 33"
Cambridge:
PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS