"In fact, the slight elevation of the frontal, its narrowness, and
the form of the orbit, approximate it more nearly to the cranium of
an Ethiopian than to that of an European: the elongated form and the
produced occiput are also characters which we believe to be observable
in our fossil cranium; but to remove all doubt upon that subject I have
caused the contours of the cranium of an European and of an Ethiopian to
be drawn and the foreheads represented. Plate II., Figs. 1 and 2, and,
in the same plate, Figs. 3 and 4, will render the differences easily
distinguishable; and a single glance at the figures will be more
instructive than a long and wearisome description.
"At whatever conclusion we may arrive as to the origin of the man from
whence this fossil skull proceeded, we may express an opinion without
exposing ourselves to a fruitless controversy. Each may adopt the
hypothesis which seems to him most probable: for my own part, I hold it
to be demonstrated that this cranium has belonged to a person of limited
intellectual faculties, and we conclude thence that it belonged to a
man of a low degree of civilization: a deduction which is borne out
by contrasting the capacity of the frontal with that of the occipital
region.
"Another cranium of a young individual was discovered in the floor of
the cavern beside the tooth of an elephant; the skull was entire when
found, but the moment it was lifted it fell into pieces, which I have
not, as yet, been able to put together again. But I have represented the
bones of the upper jaw, Plate I., Fig. 5. The state of the alveoli and
the teeth, shows that the molars had not yet pierced the gum. Detached
milk molars and some fragments of a human skull proceed from this same
place. The Figure 3 represents a human superior incisor tooth, the size
of which is truly remarkable. [2]
"Figure 4 is a fragment of a superior maxillary bone, the molar teeth of
which are worn down to the roots.
"I possess two vertebrae, a first and last dorsal.
"A clavicle of the left side (see Plate III., Fig. 1); although it
belonged to a young individual, this bone shows that he must have been
of great stature. [3]
"Two fragments of the radius, badly preserved, do not indicate that the
height of the man, to whom they belonged, exceeded five feet and a half.
"As to the remains of the upper extremities, those which are in my
possession consist merely of a fragment of an ulna and of a radius
(Plate III., Figs. 5 and 6).
"Figure 2, Plate IV., represents a metacarpal bone, contained in the
breccia, of which we have spoken; it was found in the lower part above
the cranium: add to this some metacarpal bones, found at very different
distances, half-a-dozen metatarsals, three phalanges of the hand, and
one of the foot.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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