130 DESCRIPTION OF AN ANCIENT TUMULAR CEMETERY.

flatness of the forehead — f route valde depresscV'^ Many at least of the so-called Roman skulls which have been exhumed at York are no doubt those of Britons who had adopted the Roman customs, and were buried in the Roman manner. So far as I have seen, these crania have, in general, a rather shortened oval form, though in many cases the forehead is full and moderately wide.^ With regard to the form of the head in the ancient Germans, we have, as Dr. Prichard observes, no informa- tion in classical writers ; and the only record, so far as I am aware, of the cranial development in the remains found in Anglo-Saxon tumuli in this country, is that by Lord Albert Conyngham. This nobleman, in 1841, opened between sixty and seventy barrows at Breach Downs, in Kent, and, in describing their contents, he makes the " passing observation, that the skulls found in these graves are, with one exception, of inferior organisation."^ This " inferior organisation" of crania from tumuli which are undoubtedly Saxon is important in connexion with the gene- rally inferior frontal development and small size of the skulls from Lamel-hill. The modern Germans, as is well known, have large heads, with the anterior part of the cranium ele- vated and fully developed ; but this, there can be little doubt, is in some degree the result of modern civilisation. On the other hand, too, there seem reasons for thinking that those' buried at Lamel-hill were for the most part persons from the lower and less cultivated ranks of society, — of ceorl, rather than of corl, kind, — in whom the frontal development would probably be less marked. Another peculiar feature in the human remains from Lamel- hill is the almost uniformly flat and worn condition of the crowns of the teeth. In the Roman-British skulls found at York, the teeth, so far as I have seen, are mostly very per- fect, and their crowns not worn down. The same appears to have been the case in the remains from British tumuli examined by Sir R. C. Hoare, who observes : " The singular beauty of the teeth has often attracted our attention; we have seldom found one unsound or one missing, except in ' Archacologia, vol. xix., p. 4.'}. In this aniplo, the skull of Aurelius Snperus, description of Sir R. C Moarc, vc must centurion of the sixth legion, which regret the ahsence of more accurate ana- was found in an inscribed coffin in the tomical details. castle-yard at York. See Wellbeloved's - Some of these crania are, no doubt, Eburacum, p. 1 1 0. those of Roman soldiers; as, for ex- • Archaeologia, vol. xxx., p. 17.