the bones has produced this appearance, it seems, after a certain time, to have induced a peculiar density and hardness, somewhat resembling that of semi-fossilised bones, which has rendered them less susceptible of further change. The bones found at a greater depth, and particularly those of skeletons previously undisturbed, have less of the eroded character externally, and are generally lighter and more fragile, and of a darker colour. This difference is particularly seen in the crania, many of which are very thin and decayed, and even present large holes in the side placed most deeply in the earth, which, in several instances, had completely filled the skull. In many cases, the bones of the cranium have become curiously twisted, apparently by the pressure of the soil.
The skeletons are those of persons of both sexes, though those of males probably preponderate. Out of twenty sets of pelvic bones, which were all I obtained for examination, I was, however, induced to assign about an equal number to each sex. Generally speaking, the skeletons appear to be those of persons of middle age; and the lower jaws of only two decidedly old persons were found. The skeletons of two children of less than two years, that of another about eight, and those of two or three young persons of from twelve to fifteen years of age, were exhumed. Many of the skeletons must have been those of men, of a stature varying from six feet to at least six feet four inches. The thigh bones in several (at least nine) instances, measure from nineteen to twenty-one inches and a half in length.[1] One broken thigh bone, of great thickness and strength, could not have measured less than twenty-two inches and a half. This thigh bone may have been that of a man of a stature of not less than six feet eight inches. I subjoin, in a note, the length of a considerable number of the principal bones of the limbs which were measured previously to their being re-interred.[2]
The teeth are almost uniformly much worn down, as if from the use of food of the coarsest and hardest kinds. This condition, which, as we shall see, is probably in some degree characteristic, is observed even in the incisor teeth.
A few of the bones present marks of disease. One thigh
- ↑ In the skeleton, found in the tumulus at Gristhorpe, near Scarbro', which, when articulated, measured more than 6 feet 2 inches, the thigh bone has a length of 1912 inches. Though some inferences may be drawn from the length of the thigh bone, there is no certain relation between this and the stature.
- ↑ Of 114 femora, 48 measured from 18 to 21 inches and upwards; of 92 tibiæ, 24 measured from 15 to 17 inches; of 81 humeri, 35 measured from 13 to 15 inches; and of 57 ulnæ, 12 measured from 11 to 1314 inches in length.
