The associated stone articles are celts of polished greenstone, similar to that found in the neolithic cave at Perthi-Chwareu ([Fig. 38]), flakes, a greenstone chisel, querns and rubbing-stones, a whetstone perforated for suspension, and a fragment of an armlet made of alabaster. A small lump of coarse plumbago may have been used for personal ornament.
The human remains examined by Professor Busk belonged to a large number of individuals of all ages, and are for the most part in a fragmentary condition. Some of the thigh-bones are carinate, and remarkable for the enormous development of the linea aspera and the thickness of their walls ([Fig. 57]), the medullary cavity being reduced to a small size, as in those figured from the tumulus at Cefn. Some of the tibiæ are platycnemic, presenting the peculiar lateral flattening which first attracted the attention of Dr. Falconer and Professor Busk ([Figs. 49, 50, and 51]), but which M. Broca has since determined in the tumuli and caves of France, and I have discovered in those of Denbighshire (p. 177).
Figs. 62, 63, 64.—Cranium from Genista Cave (Busk).
The only two crania sufficiently perfect to allow of a comparison being made, from Genista Cave No. 3, are perfectly symmetrical, and belong to a high type ([Figs. 62, 63, and 64]). “They are dolicho-cephalic, quite orthognathous, and wholly aphanozygous. In one the frontal sinuses are considerably more developed than they are in the other, but in neither is there any thickening of the supra-orbital border” (Busk). The teeth are worn flat. They both belonged to men in the prime of life. A third skull, from Genista Cave No. 1, belongs to the same type. The measurements of the two most perfect skulls are given in the same table as those from North Wales (p. 171).
Gibraltar has also been occupied in ancient times by broad-headed men, similar, in M. Broca’s opinion, to those interred in the cave of Orrouy. In 1864 human bones, together with a skull (for measurements see [p. 199]), were dug out of the Judge’s Cave by Sir James Cochrane. The tibiæ are platycnemic, and the skull is described by Professor Busk as being “perfectly symmetrical, brachy-cephalic, slightly prognathous, but with vertical teeth, aphanozygous. The forehead is well arched, and the supra-orbital border slightly elevated, the orbits being square, and the nasal opening elongated and pyriform.” The cephalic index is ·792. The age of these skeletons is uncertain.
Spain.—Cueva de los Murcièlagos.
Professor Busk[128] calls attention to the fact, that a long skull similar to that from Gibraltar has been found in Spain, in an ancient copper-mine of the Asturias, together with hammers made of antler, and that it bears “the closest possible resemblance” to the Basque skulls, described by M. Broca, from Guipuscoa on the Spanish and St. Jean de Luz on the French side of the Pyrenees. He points out, also, the resemblance which exists between the crania figured by Don Gongora y Martinez, from the caverns and dolmens of Andalusia and those under consideration; finally arriving at the conclusion that “a pretty uniform priscan race at one time pervaded the peninsula from one end to the other, and that this race is at the present day represented by, at any rate, a part of the population now inhabiting the Basque provinces.”
In the work of Don Manuel Gongora y Martinez[129] referred to, there is a most interesting account of the prehistoric antiquities of Andalusia. Several interments are described in the Cueva de los Murcièlagos, a cave running into the limestone rock, out of which the grand scenery of the southern part of the Sierra Nevada has been, to a great extent, carved. In one spot, a group of three skeletons was met with, one of which was adorned with a plain coronet of gold, and clad in a tunic made of esparto-grass, finely plaited, so as to form a pattern which resembles some of the designs on gold ornaments from Etruscan tombs. At a spot further within, a second group of twelve skeletons lay in a semicircle, around one considered by Don Manuel to have belonged to a woman, covered with a tunic of skin, and wearing a necklace of esparto-grass, a marine shell pierced for suspension, the carved tusk of a wild boar, and earrings of black stone. There were other articles of plaited esparto-grass, such as baskets and sandals; flint flakes, pieces of a white marble armlet, polished axes of the type of [fig. 38], bone awls, and a wooden spoon, together with pottery of the same type as that from Gibraltar, fragments of charcoal, and bones of animals.
Although, in this cave, there were no traces of metal, except gold, in a second, in the same neighbourhood, similar interments were met with in association with copper (bronze) implements, and with pottery of the same kind.