138 DESCRIPTION OP AN ANCIENT TUMULAR CEMETERY.

examination of English tumuli, we must regret that so little attention has been paid to the size and form of the skull, and in general to the characteristics of the skeleton. For the most part, no notice whatever has been taken of them, or, if alluded to at all, it has been in the most meagre and un- satisfactory manner. England is perhaps of all countries that in which the most valuable conclusions might be deduced from a collection of crania, such as Dr. Prichard has sug- gested should be formed from its different barrows.^ It is, no doubt, in part, the consequence of this neglect, that, in the present state of ethnological science, we are so little able, from the form of the skull, to decide as to the race to which human remains found in the tumuH of this country are to be attributed. Some explanation may be thought due for dwelling so much at length on a subject not usually recognised as coming within the scope of archaeological inquiry. The double light, however, which this inquiry, — ^whicli falls under the head of the pcdcBtaphia of Dr. Prichard, — is calculated to throw upon archaeology and ethnography, ought, I think, to be ac- cepted as sufficient apology ; and I shall proceed to examine whether, in the instance before us, we can derive any aid from the forms of the skulls, towards determining the race to which this cemetery is to be attributed. The accompanying plate of crania' shows, as has been already pointed out, that the skulls from Lamel-hill are of an elongated, rather than round, form ; that they are, for the most part, small ; and that in the forehead they are low and narrow ; whilst they are fuller in the middle-head, where, in many cases, they exhibit a pecuhar pyramidal conformation. The main features of these crania are their rather small size and their lengthened oval or dolicocephalic form. Whilst their de- velopment must be admitted, for the most part, to be poor, they still ftill under the first class and first order of Professor Retzius' arrangement, viz. : DolichoccjjlialcB orthognatJicB? •" Natural History of Man, 184.3, p. 192. comprise, — a, the side or profile view; Physical History of Mankind, 3rd edition, and 6, that of the summit of the skull as 1841, vol. iii., pp. xxi., 199, 393. seen from above,and taken so as to embrace ' In this plate the sketches of the crania, as complete a view of the entire calvaria whicli I owe to the kindness of a friend, as possible. This latter mode of viewing and which are taken with Morton's era- the cranium is of the first importance in niograph, are drawn to the same scale, of reference to Professor Retzius' classifica- ratlier less than one fourth the diameter. tion. Two sketches of ten of the crania, and one ^ Retzius divides the different nations of of each of two others, are given. These men into two classes. The Dolichocephala,