The same class of human remains has been obtained from caves in other districts in Great Britain. In the Oxford Museum a human skull, from the cave of Llandebie, possesses cephalic index of ·72; while a second, from the cave of Uphill in Somersetshire, explored by Mr. James Parker in 1863, measures ·723. (See [p. 197].) The latter was associated with rude pottery, charcoal, and the remains of the following animals: the wild-cat, dog, fox, badger, pig, stag, Bos longifrons, goat, and water-rat. Most of the remains belong to young individuals, and some have been gnawed by dogs, wolves, or foxes.
In Yorkshire a human femur presenting an enormous development of the linea aspera, which implies the possession of the platycnemic character, has been met with in a cave in King’s Scar, near Settle (see [p. 113]), and fragments of a long skull are preserved in the Museum at Leeds from that of Dowkerbottom.
Professor Turner has described[120] the remains found in a cave in the Old Red sandstone on the shore of the bay of Oban in 1869 by Mr. Mackay. There were two human skeletons, along with the broken and burnt bones of the roe and stag, limpet-shells, flint nodules, and flint flakes. One of the leg-bones is platycnemic, and the fragments of skull may probably be referred to the dolicho-cephalic type.
The same type of skull has also been obtained by the Rev. Canon Greenwell, from the neolithic tumuli of Yorkshire, along with the same group of animals as in the caves at Perthi-Chwareu, the Bos longifrons, goat, horse, dog, and stag; and Professor Rolleston, F.R.S., informs me that some of the associated human leg-bones are platycnemic. It is also recognized by Professor Huxley as identical with his river-bed type of skulls from alluvial deposits near Muskham in the valley of the Trent, Ledbury Hall in the valley of the Dove, and in Ireland from the bed of the Nore in Queen’s County, and from that of the river Blackwater. To it also Professor Huxley refers[121] five or six out of the seven skulls obtained by Mr. Laing from the stone cists in the burial mound at Keiss in Caithness, and associated with rude weapons and implements of bone and stone. They probably belonged to the inhabitants of the neighbouring burgh, or circular stone dwelling, in and around which were the broken bones of the following animal remains: the Bos longifrons, goat, stag, hog, horse, dog, fox, grampus or small whale, dolphin or some other small cetacean, great auk (Alca impennis, now extinct in Europe), lesser auk, cormorant, shag, solan goose, cod, lobster, and shell-fish. A lower jaw also of a child, broken after the same manner as other refuse bones, is considered by Professor Owen and Mr. Laing to prove that human flesh was sometimes used for food. The reindeer was living in the district at this time, since its remains have been identified by Dr. Campbell from the Harbour mound, one of the many refuse-heaps in the neighbourhood.
The same kind of skull is also described by Professor Wilson under the name of “boat-shaped” or “kumbe-cephalic,” from the ancient stone chambers and tumuli of Scotland.[122]
In the Table on the next page, showing the relative size and shape of the more important long skulls of Britain and Ireland, it will be seen that the extreme long-headedness of those from the long barrows is not possessed by those either of the caves and tombs of Denbighshire or of the river-bed type of Huxley, represented by the skulls from Muskham, Ledbury, Blackwater (Ireland), and Keiss.
The greater breadth of the skulls from the caves and tombs of Denbighshire, as compared with those of the typical long skulls from the long barrows, may possibly be due to a mixture with the broad-headed race. In that case, however, none of the tallness, or prognathism, of the latter has been handed down. It is most probably a mere variation within the limits of one race, and is unaccompanied by the fusion of dolicho-cephalic with brachy-cephalic characters, such as M. Broca and Dr. Thurnam have observed in the skulls from tombs and caves in France.
| Skulls. | Length. | Breadth. | Height. | Circum- ference. | Latitud. or Ceph. Index. | Alt. Index. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean of 48 males, Brit., Thurnam, long barrows | 7·7 | 5·5 | 5·62 | 21·3 | ·715 | ·730 |
| Mn of 19 females, Brit., Thurnam long barrows | 7·45 | 5·3 | 5·3 | 20·6 | ·710 | ·730 |
| Mn of 10 skulls, Perthi-Chwareu Cave | 7·07 | 5·5 | 5·6 | 20·0 | ·765 | — |
| Skull from Llandebie Cave | 7·3 | 5·3 | — | — | ·720 | — |
| ” Uphill | 7·36 | 5·43 | — | — | ·723 | — |
| Mean of 6 skulls from Keiss. (Huxley) | 7·22 | 5·45 | 5·19 | — | ·755 | ·716 |
| Skull from Muskham (Huxley) | 7·0 | 5·4 | — | — | ·770 | — |
| ” Ledbury Hall (Huxley) | 7·15 | 5·5 | — | — | ·770 | — |
| ” Blackwater, Ireland (Huxley) | 7·2 | 5·65 | — | — | ·780 | — |
From the examples given in the preceding pages it is evident that, in ancient times, long-headed men of small stature inhabited the whole of Britain and Ireland, burying their dead in caves, but more generally in chambered tombs. They were farmers and shepherds, and in this country in the neolithic stage of culture. In the solitary case offered by the Harbour mound at Keiss they were cannibals.[123]