Notes on the Fenland; with A Description of the Shippea ManHughes, Thomas McKenny
Science
Notes on the Fenland; with A Description of the Shippea Man
Hughes, Thomas McKenny
Geology -- England -- Bedford Level
"In norma verticalis the skull is ovoid-pentagonoid euryme-topic with
conspicuous rounded parietal eminences, slight flattening at the
obelion and a convex planum interparietale below it (Fig. 8).
[Illustration: Fig. 8.]
"In norma lateralis the brow ridges are conspicuous; above them is the
sulcus transversus from which the frontal ascends with a fairly uniform
curve to the bregma. The frontal sagittal arc above the ophryon
measures 112 mm. and its chord 116. Behind the bregma the parietals
along the front half of the sagittal suture have a fairly flat outline
to the medio-parietal region, behind which the flattened obelion is
continued downwards with a uniform slope to the middle of the planum
interparietale whence it probably descended by a much steeper curve to
the inion, which is lost. The parietal sagittal arc, including the
region where there was probably a supra-lambdoid ossicle, was about 140
mm. and its chord 121 but the curve is not uniform.
"In norma occipitalis the sagittal suture appears at the summit of a
ridge whose parietal sides slope outwards forming with each other an
angle of 138°, as far as the parietal eminences. From these the sides
drop vertically down to the large mastoid processes. The intermastoid
width at the tips of the processes is 115, but at the supramastoid
crest is 148 (Fig. 9).
[Illustration: Fig. 9.]
"In norma frontalis the conspicuous feature is the brow ridge. This
gives a kind of superficial suggestion of a Neanderthaloid shape, but
the broad and well arched frontal dispels the illusory likeness. The
jugal processes jut out giving a biorbital breadth of 115 mm. while the
least frontal width is 97 and the bistephanic expands to 125. There is
a slight median ridge on the frontal ascending from the ophryon, at
first narrow but expanding at the bregma to 50 mm. The surface of this
elevated area is a little smoother than that of the bone on each side
of it.
"The other long bones are mostly broken at their extremities. The
femora are strong and platymeric. The postero-lateral rounded edge,
which bears on its hinder face the insertion of the gluteus maximus,
taken in connexion with the projection of the thin medial margin of the
shaft below the tuberculum colli inferior causes the upper end of the
shaft to appear flattened. The index of platymeria is ·55. The femoral
length cannot have been less than 471 mm. The man was probably of
middle stature, not a giant as was the Gristhorpe man. The tibiæ are
also broken at their ends, they are eurycnemic (index ·80) with sharp
sinuous shin and flat back, the length may have been between 335 and
340 mm. The humeri are also bones with strong muscular crests, and the
ulnæ are smooth and long. The fibula was channelled. There is nothing
in the bone-features which is inconsistent with the reference of the
skull to the Brachycephalic Bronze Age race.
[Illustration: Fig. 10.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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