The skull found lying in the bottom of the canoe was of the oval or elliptical (_Dolicho cephalic_) type, characteristic of the natives of western or southern Europe. There is a theory that in primeval times in Erin there were two races, each distinctly marked both by features and the form of the cranium. The one possessed thick elliptical skulls, low foreheads, deep orbits, high cheek-bones, prominent mouths, and narrow chins; the other had round, or globular (_Brachi cephalic_) skulls, possessed more intellect, and less marked features. Wilde observes that the two fragments of human skulls discovered in the crannog of Lagore[258] (_ante_, p. 204) partook of the character of the long-headed race, whilst the antiquities found with them would lead to the belief that the persons to whom the skulls had belonged did not live later than the tenth century. Good examples of both races may still be seen amongst the modern Irish. “There are reasons for considering that the Ardakillen skull belonged to a young adult, or to a man in the prime of life. This opinion is based upon the fact that the coronal and sagittal sutures were not obliterated. (The coronal suture is the name given to the line of articulation between the frontal and parietal bones; it forms a _vertical transverse_ line over the top of the front of the skull. The sagittal, or interparietal suture, occupies a _median longitudinal_ position between the two parietal bones.) The coalescence into one plate of bone (calvarium, or skull-cap) of the frontal and the two parietal bones, and the consequent obliteration of the sutures (coronal and sagittal), generally occurs between thirty and forty years of age; however, the period at which this union commences, and the order in which it proceeds, is subject to so much variation, that no more than an approximation to the age of the skull is attainable thereby. “Examination of the teeth remaining in one side of the upper jaw--the opposite side of the jaw was broken away--showed that the third molar tooth (_dens sapientiæ_) had been erupted.