“Examination of the teeth remaining in one side of the upper jaw—the opposite side of the jaw was broken away—showed that the third molar tooth (dens sapientiæ) had been erupted.
“The many marks of cutting instruments upon the skull were found chiefly over the vertex and the frontal and occipital regions. In many the force had been applied at right angles to the cranium, resulting in nicks or linear marks; in several horizontally, so as to slice or shave off a portion of the outer table of the bone. In no case was there a perforation of the inner table apparent, nor a fracture or fissure of the entire thickness of the skull, whence it might be inferred that the weapons were not of any great weight; the force of the blows might have been broken by protecting headgear, thick coils of matted hair, or by defensive movements of the arms. There were no appearances to negative the idea that all, or the majority of, the cuts were received about the same date. They have all the characters of ante mortem injuries, as contrasted with such injuries as the skull is liable to from rough usage, or from its being knocked about. From the distribution of the marks it may be assumed that the man was in an upright or semi-upright position. In the hacking of a dead and prostrate enemy the wounds would be on the part of the head which was uppermost.
“Though there is no single wound which must have proved fatal ex necessitate rei, death might have ensued from the accumulation of injuries, from concussion, erysipelas, or secondary inflammation of the brain or its membranes.”[259]
COUNTY LEITRIM.
Twenty crannogs were discovered in this county during the working of the Commission for the arterial drainage of Ireland: these sites have all been identified.
Drumaleague may be cited as a good example of a lacustrine dwelling: the form circular, and, with the exception of the hearth-stones, it was composed wholly of wood, principally alder. Drumaleague lake, situated in the vicinity of Lough Scur, was originally about a mile in length. The level of the water having been lowered thirteen feet, two crannogs became visible, as also a canoe—hollowed out of a single trunk of oak—eighteen feet long, twenty-two inches broad, square at stem and stern, and having apertures or row-locks cut in the sides.
Fig. 234.—Plan of Crannog in Drumaleague Lake. Scale, twenty feet to one inch.