Derbyshire (England) -- Antiquities; Derbyshire (England) -- History
These skeletal remains throw an interesting light upon the contemporary
inhabitants of Derbyshire. Unfortunately, when Bateman was so actively
engaged in opening barrows, anthropology was in its infancy. He and his
colleagues rarely gave more than the cephalic index and femoral length,
and even these not always. The terms used in describing the skulls,
as “boat-shaped,” “oval and elevated,” “medium,” “rather short,”
“platycephalic,” “evenly rounded,” etc., do not admit of precise
interpretation, and probably no exact value was attached to them. From
all sources sufficient particulars of about 85 Bronze Age skulls found
in Derbyshire are available to allow of the following classification:
Dolichocephalic skulls, approximately 16
Mesaticephalic ” ” 25
Brachycephalic ” ” 44
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85
This intermixture of skull-forms has long been observed in the barrows
of this age elsewhere in the country, and is generally recognized
as indicating the intrusion of a round-head people upon the Neolithic
long-heads, the intermediate form being the result of intermarriage
between the two stocks. The proportion of these different forms in
Derbyshire is of peculiar interest, because, as the Rev. Dr. Greenwell
pointed out in his _British Barrows_, the dolichocephalic and
brachycephalic skulls are found in about equal numbers in the barrows
of the wolds, whereas in those of the south-west of the island the
latter very greatly preponderate. Hence, in Derbyshire, the ratio, like
its geographical position, is roughly intermediate, and thus naturally
confirms his conclusion, “that the earlier long-headed people were more
completely eradicated by the intrusive round-heads in Wiltshire than
they were in East Yorkshire.” The general experience has been that the
brachycephalic skeletons indicate a race of more powerful physique than
the people with whom they intermingled. Assuming that the length of
the femur or thigh-bone is 27.5 per cent. of the stature in life, the
average stature of twenty-one men was 5 ft. 7⅓ ins., and of seven women
5 ft. 0½ ins. The difference between these statures, nearly 7 ins.,
considerably exceeds that which obtains in England to-day, and must
probably be set down to the effects of early child-bearing and hard
work on a poor and irregular diet upon the Bronze women.
[Illustration: Fig. 10.—Brachycephalic Skull from Grinlow. Side and Top
Views. (Scale = ⅓.)]
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