Cave Hunting: Researches on the evidence of caves respecting the early inhabitants of EuropeDawkins, William Boyd
History
Cave Hunting: Researches on the evidence of caves respecting the early inhabitants of Europe
Dawkins, William Boyd
Antiquities, Prehistoric -- Europe; Caves -- Europe; Europe -- Antiquities; Prehistoric peoples -- Europe
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).
[Illustration: 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.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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