Cave Hunting

fn, St. Asaph.-The Chambered Tomb near Cefn.-Interments in Tomb and Caves of the same age.-Contents of Tomb and Caves.-Description of Huma

n in the Bronze or Iron stages of culture. We shall, however, find that they were used by the neolithi

in Great Britain

up clustering round a refuse-heap at Perthi-Chwareu, a farm high up in the Welsh hills, about ten mi

5

efuse

k masses of hard rock, separated by soft beds of shale, and contains large quantities of producti, crinoids and corals. The strata dip to the south, at an angle of about 1 in 25, and form two parallel ridges, with abrupt faces to the north, and separated from each other by a narrow valley, passing east and west along the strike. The remains sent by Mr. Darwin were obtained from a spa

miliaris

ulpes-T

axus-Th

rofa-T

reolus-The

aphus-The

ircus-T

ns-The Celti

ballus-T

phibius-The

imidus-

iculus-Th

Ea

mals, had been used for food. Possibly the hare may also have been eaten, but its remains were scarce, and belonged to adults. Some of the bones had been gnawed by dogs. The only reasonable cause that can be assigned for the accumulation of the remains of these animals is, that the locality was inhabited by men of pastoral habits, but yet to a certain extent dependent

s not date so far back as the epoch of the reindeer, mammoth, rhinoceros, and cave-hy?na. The presence of the Celtic short-horn throws no light upon the antiquity, because for centuries after it had ceas

5

ulchral

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ve at Perthi-Chwareu.

roe-deer and stag, horse, and large birds. Mixed with these, as we proceeded, we began to find human bones, between and underneath large masses of rock, that were completely covered up with red silt and sand. As these were cleared away, we gradually realized that we were on the threshold of a sepulchral cave. In the small space then excavated, human remains, belonging to no fewer than five individua

day, after an hour's work, a human skull was found near the roof of the cave, resting on a femur; then eleven feet explored brought to light a large quantity of human bones, including nine femurs. The third and fourth days were devoted to clearing out the cave (Fig. 36–7 B) up to this point, and to excavating about four feet further in, or fifteen from the entrance. During the work two teeth of a horse were found, resting on the floor near the entrance, and nine more about ten feet within the cave; also a boar's tusk of remarkable size, and close by a mussel and cockle-shell, and valve of Mya truncata, along with a quantity of human and other bones; including five skulls, more or less perfect,154

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of Cave at P

ghout the cave, and a great many rounded pebbl

lls belong to that type which Professor Huxley terms the "river-bed skull." Some of the tibi? present the peculiar flattening parallel to the median line, which Professor Busk denotes by the term platycnemic, and some of the femora were traversed by

ertical position of one of the femora, as well as the fact that the bones lay in confused heaps, it is clear that the corpses had been buried in the contracted posture, as is usually the case in neolithic interments. And since the area was ins

those from the dolmens of France, and subsequently in the celebrated skeletons found in the cave of Cro-magnon. I have also observed the same peculiar flattening of the tibia in the only fragment of human bone obtain

d at the same time as the human skeletons, but, from the fact that some of them are gnawed by dogs, it is most probable that they were accumulated while the cave was used as a dwelling. If the bodies were placed on an old

ried in the same crouching posture. From one on the farm of Rhosdigre we obtained a perfect celt of polished greenstone which had never been used (Fig. 38), toge

th and Kuhlock, and I have observed them also among the remains from Kent's Hole. The celt was most probably, fro

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e Celt, Rhosdigre

as obeyed the commands, of the neolithic inhabitants. I have met with similar evidence of the use of dog's flesh for food among the broken bones which Canon Greenwell obtained from the neolithic tumul

flint flakes, but by the burial in a contracted posture,97 and the fact that the skulls are identical

re the accumulation of charcoal, broken bones, and fragments of pottery below some of the human skeletons, proved that it had been used for a habitation before it was used for a burial-place. It i

5

n the neighbourhood o

he possession of Mrs. Williams Wynn, discovered in 1833, in a cave at Cefn, by Mr. Edward Lloyd,98 is a human skull and lower jaw, along with platycnemic limb-bones. They were found mingled with the bones of goat, pig, fo

nimals were found in the same fragmentary condition. Flint flakes also occurred in both; and what is more important, the platycnemic160 limb-bones in both imply a somewhat similar mode of life in the people to whom they belonged. This body of evidence, in favour of the interments having been made by the same race of men who lived some time in Denbighshire, seems to me of greater weight than that to the contrary afforded by the difference of ·008 in the altitudinal indices of the skulls. After a comparison of the carefully prepared measurements of the crania published in the "Crania Britannica" with those published elsewhere, I cannot resist the conviction, that if similar mod

of the occupation of man, probably of the neolithic age. From a dark layer composed of loam, black with fragments of charcoal, a flint arrow-head, a cor

inhabited at two different ages. In the upper or prehistoric stratum were broken bones of the dog, badger, goat, Bos longifrons, a

Tomb near Ce

h, in 1869, led to a systematic examination of its contents by Mrs. Williams Wynn, under the superintendence of the Rev. D. R. Thomas, myself, and th

ere exposed, and these were broken before any scientific observation was made. The Rev. D. R. Thomas, however, rescued m

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n of Chambere

have been scattered, it is impossible to ascertain the exact number of the burials. I have, however, restored one skull and examined seven frontal bones, and other remains, which indicate that there were at least twelve persons, varying in age from infancy to full prime, buried in this tomb. In addition to these, there is a large box of bones in the possession of the Rev. D. R. Thomas, as well as other remains in other hands. But although the exact number of bodies interred cannot be made out, there is full proof that there were too many to h

ed posture, along with flint scrapers and fragments of rude pottery. In the latter the original contents have disappeared. To speak in general terms, the chamber and passage belong to the class of tombs which Dr. Thurnam names "Long Barrows," and Professor Nilsson "Ganggr?ben," and which

of slabs, and provided with a narrow passage 10 feet long by 2 feet 6 in width, opening to the north, and fenced off completely from the chamber by a slab, as in the preceding case. Both the chamber and the passage were full of human remains of all ages, buried in a contracted posture; the numbe

in the older bones. The skulls, from the second of the two chambers, agree so exactly with those from the ca

b with Interments in the Cav

who buried their dead in the caves of Perthi-Chwareu and of Cefn. The crania and the limb-bon

ng to that high authority, was derived from the subterranean house in which the deceased lived, and in which he was buried after his death, after the fashion of the Eskimos at the present day. The plan of the houses, like that of the ancient Lycian dwellings described by Sir Cha

or by the latter having been inhabited by man, and thus the idea of the dead resting in his own house would be the cause of burial both in caves and chambered tombs. It is not

e short-horn (Bos longifrons), the horse, and hog. They are also proved to have been neolithic, not merely by the discovery of a polished stone axe in

ts of Caves and

ne chambers may be gathered from the

ase among the neolithic dwellers in the Swiss Pfahlbauten. We shall see in the next chapter th

6

eolithic Caves and C

s.

e

rt

e No.1. Cave

sdi

1

sdi

.

sdi

T

Ca

dd

idd

r C

X X X X

X X X

X X X X

t-horn X X X

X X X X

X

X X X X

X X X X

X

X

X X X

X X

X X X X

X X X

X

X X

X

X X X

X X X

e Human Remains b

of the Ethnological Society," January 1871, I am indebted to the kindness of

man Remains. By Pro

ntrod

ding to a list furnished by Mr. Boyd Dawkins, are as under; but167 I belie

rfect skulls, some, however,

welve ma

nes or humeri-four

. Six

five odd ones of the right side, and seven of the lef

eight of the left side, and apparently none of them in pa

Eight a

calcanea, or

in this cavern could not have been less than sixteen, and may have b

n, of which there must have been abun

n Cave there w

One m

One h

. Two

pair of t

pair of l

in the t

tions of s

wo right

A pair

A right

one that has come under my ob

e Bones from the Cave

o among them (but these are apparently the younger bones) are fragile; the majority, however, are as firm as common churchyard bones, and some have quite the natural degree of hardness. They are of a lightish-yellow colour, do not adhere to the tongue, and afford scarcely a

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Skull from Sepulchral

e subject of what I have to remark on this portion of the skeleton. But in the subjoined Table I. (p. 171) I have giv

htly and evenly arched; and the forehead, though not high, is vertical, and169 slightly compressed on the sides. The sutures are all open and finely serrated. The frontal sinuses are distinct though small. The supra-orbital ridge is thin, but rather prominent towards t

l, muscular man, in the prime of life, and a

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Skull from Sepulchral

pressions are even more strongly170 developed than in the former, and especially the temporal ridges immediately above the external angular processes. The left maxilla remains loosely attached, containing the two bicuspid teeth, which are of small

rst true molar is fully out, but not in the least worn. The incisors and canines have fallen out. The former, from the size of the a

e lambdoidal suture into the parietals. It requires, perhaps, some imagination to perceive the slight traces of a corresponding depression in the forepart of the skull; but I think a faint depression may be there perceived on careful inspection. The effect of

erior fontanelle, descends obliquely, and is crossed behind the occiput and brought back and tied in front. This band, or "serre-tête," he states, is worn during the first year, and for a longer period by female children than by males. Dr. Lunier gives pretty nearly the

ensions of Perth

Parietal breadth. Occipital breadth. Zygomatic breadth. Frontal radius. Vertical radiu

ence.

l transverse arc. Vertical transverse arc. Parietal transverse arc. O

- - - - - - - 21·2 - 5·0

4·9 5·0 5·2 4·4 - 3·7 21·6 15·9 5·5

4·2 4·5 4·7 4·1 3·2 3·0 19·0 14·7 4·9

4·4 4·6 4·7 4·3 3·9 3·6 23·5 16·9 5

- 4·0 4·3 4·6 4·0 - - 18·5 -

4·3 4·5 4·8 4·2 - - 19·8 14·6 4

- - - 4·6 4·0 - - -

4·1 4·3 4·5 4·1 - 3·4 19·5 - 4·

- 4·3 4·5 4·7 4·2 3·5 ?3·42 20·0 15·3

- 4·6 4·6 4·7 4·0 - 3·8 21.0 15·1

- - 4·5 4·6 4·9 4·5 - 3·6 - -

4·6 ?4·45 4·8 4·9 4·3 - 3·7 20·1 -

9 5·0 5·0 ?5·05 ?4·35 4·2 4·2 20·9 -

enist

5·2 4·7 4·8 4·9 ?4·25 4·1 ?3·75 20·6 14·0

2 ?4·75 4·9 5·1 4·9 4·0 ?3·65 20·8 15·3

index of the young skull, No. 3, is omit

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Fig.

e trochanter minor. At about two inches below that process, or at a point corresponding with the lower part of the insertion of the pectineus muscle, the shaft measures ·9 × 1·45, whilst in three other ordinary femora with which I have compared it, the bone at the corresponding part measures ·9 × 1·20, ·9 × 1·10, ·9 × 1·15, showing that the Perthi-Chwareu femur is unusually expanded laterally in the upper part of the shaft. The consequence is to give the bone at that part a peculiar aspect, which is especially seen in an acute internal angle, and one rather less acute externally, instead of the usually rounded internal and external borders. (2) The

shortest about 5 ft. 2 in., no doubt a woman. The mean perimetral index of the eight femora is ·186, which shows, in comparison with the usual thickness of well-formed male thigh-bones of the present day, a certain degree of slenderness. That this is not altogether owing to the circumstance that the bones include

d five more or less defective. The principal dimensions and proportions of t

nsions, &c., of Pe

Length.

diam

prox

d.

ci

nce.

post

iamet

tran

diam

aft.

x. L

in

2·8 3·2 140

2·7 2·9 120

3·0 3·0 135

2·5 2·5 125

·5 ?2·75 100

- - 135 ×

- - 140 ×

- - 130 -

- - 135 ×

2·7 ?2·86 129

ner border of the bone, which is usually about an inch and a half below the nutritive foramen. The latitudinal index represents the relation that the transverse diameter bears to the antero posterior, and it is employed to indicate, with some degree of precision, the actual amount of compression or flattening of the shaft

oportions, &c., o

Length.

diam

prox

d.

ci

nce.

post

iamet

tran

diam

aft.

x. L

in

3·15 3·4 130

·2 3·5 150 ×

2·95 3·0 120

2·95 2·9 140

2·9 2·8 130

3·0 3·2 140

2·8 2·8 140

2·6 2·8 120

2·6 2·8 120

3·0 2·9 120 ×

2·8 2·9 120 ×

?2·75 2·7 120

2·5 2·4 100 ×

?2·88 2·9 126

ean proportions given i

one, viz. in the antero-posterior diameter of the shaft, which, notwithstanding the smaller size generally of the b

that, in proportion to their length, the Welsh bones a

·730, varying in the former case from ·538 to ·700, and in the latter from ·642 to ·850; but the last is probably an exceptional case. In accordance

more compressed or flattened than the usual run of modern Euro

culiar conformation has been observed in this country, the circumstance is of some intere

Congress of Prehistoric Arch?ology for the year 1868 (p. 161); and about the same time, or in May 1864, M. Broca109 independently observed the same condition in tibi? procured from the dolmen of Chamant (Oise), and afterwards in bones from the dolmen of Maintenon (Eure-et-Loire). Similar bones have since been noticed in other lo

gical significance. But before doing so I would remark that there appear to be two forms of platycnemism, apparently indicative of some difference in the cause or nature of this aberration from the more usual shape of the bone. To save

posterior surface of the bone, is bisected by another (a d), dr

is behind the transverse line is to that of the anterior as 274 to 1,000, whilst in Fig. 48, taken from M. Broca's outline of the Cro-magno

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igs.

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s. 49,

ken from the most platycnemic of the Perthi-Chwareu tibi?, the proportion in one only differs in any considerable177 degree from the extreme normal proportion shown in Fig. 47

nce it may be in the consideration of questions relating to platycnemism, I am not prepared to discuss; but as in all probability it is connected with a difference in the cause of the deformation (if it be deformation), I have tho

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s. 52,

would be difficult to find any other points of resemblance between the Cro-magnon platycnemic men and those whose remains were met with in the Gibraltar caves, although the platycnemism is of the same kind in

, to a certain extent, platycnemic; but it is by no means so much so as the human platycnemic bone. The tibia of a male gorilla in the College of Surgeons has a latitudinal index of ·681, and that of a female of ·650, whilst that of the chimpanzee is ·611, or exactly the mean of the Perthi-Chwar

n organ of support and progression; in the other, for the most part, of prehension. This necessarily involves a considerable difference in the proportions, &c., of the muscles by which the greater mobility and adaptability of the foot, and more particularly of the digits, are ensured. Would it not, then, be admissible to inquire how far, at any rate, posterior platycnemism may be connected wit

t would not, perhaps, be difficult to ascertain whether it is a vera caus

regoing data we

r large dimensions of the cranium, whose form presents nothing very remarkable, and is pretty near

however, appear to pass, by gradual transition, into the Keiss and Perthi-Chwareu shape, through such a form as that of the Towyn-y-capel skull figured by Professor Huxley;112 and the who

educed from the lengths of the long bones, being little more than 5 feet), the tallest being 5 ft. 6 in.,

ones are rather thick, and the muscular im

tar bones and in those from Cro-magnon (as figured by M. Broca), the difference consisting in the fact that in the two latter instances the bone is expanded backwards behind the transverse plane at the interosseous ridge as mu

ains from the

s submitted to my in

f which are nearly complete, and one constitut

poral, probably belonging to the sam

eft and two right, one of the latter wantin

mains of three individu

″·1. The profile outline of the forehead is slightly receding; the frontal sinuses moderately developed; and the supraorbital border thin and acute, whilst the glabellar eminence is large and prom

n and sharp; the external angular process prominent and thick. Glabellar eminence large and prominent. The nasals remain in situ, and project almost, if not quite, horizontally forwards, with a rapid curve at first, and then straight out. The general contour of the bone is exactly

ckened. Owing perhaps to the greater prominence of the sinuses, the glabella does not appear so protuberant as in the other instances.181 The nasal bones remain and project forwards in the same curious fashion a

as before said, the last-described frontal may have belonged. The left parietal is quite perfect; and a considerable portion of the right also remai

mporal bone, the external auditory foramen is large, the mastoid process of moderate size, but the digastric fossa is wide and deep. The channels for the middle meningeal artery and its branches are large and deep; and very deep depressions on the sides of the sagittal suture show that the glandul? Pacchioni must h

h much alike, differ sufficiently to show that they did n

deep elongated pit instead of a roughened elevation as usual. The antero-posterior and transverse diameters of the shaft, about 1? inches below the trochanter minor, are ·85 × 1·4; and the shaft at this part, like that of the above-described from Perthi-Chwareu, presents a rather acute or narrow external and internal border i

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Fig.

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Fig.

ss the inner border is very acute, and the outer more so than in the common form of femur. The shaft lower down is not so strongly carinate as

m.com/file/upload/201606/29/10

Fig.

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Fig.

e pit for the origin of the popliteus muscle is deeper and perhaps larger than in most bones of the same size. The texture of the cortical substance is quite eburneous; and it is extremely thick, so that the medullary canal is reduced to a calibre of little more than 0″·25 in its longest

same point as in the other bones, 1 × 1·25, or pretty nearly in the usual proportions. Nevertheless the bone, throughout its whole remaining extent, is less rounded on the inner side of the shaft than is usual. The troch

x of ·620. The shin is remarkably sharp and prominent, and rather curved over to the outer side; and the apparent compression or tendency to platycnemism may in some measure be referred more to the production in front of the anterior

shaft, at the middle, measures 1″·1 × ·65; so that the latitudinal index is about ·640, showing a slight degree of compression. The entire length of the bone may b

least frontal diameter. The forehead also is perhaps a little more reclined. The most striking feature in two of the specimens, and which appears also to have existed in a third, is the extraordinary projection forwards of the nasal bones. In the present case this may probably be regarded as a family peculiarity; but with reference to it, it should be remembered that M. Broca113 has184 described a very similar

ception of the very dense femur, they adhere to the tongue; and they are all deeply stained with manganous oxide, by which the substance even of the hardest portions is stained to a depth of

s were deposited at Perthi-Chwareu, or to one which had lived under similar conditions. But the cranial data are hardly sufficient to allow of any satisfactory inference being drawn from them: and as regards the tibi?, it has already b

the Cefn Cave,

locality is a nearly entire calvaria, wanting the

pening, with short radiating lines of fracture proceeding from it;

not adhere to the tongue. Judging from its aspect alone, it would not appear to be of any very great antiqu

the cephalic or latitudinal index is ·770, and the altitudinal ·702. It belongs, the

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1.-Skull from Cave

ch, since in the present case it cannot be looked upon as denoting a mere family relationship, may reasonably be regarded as indicative of some affinity of race. The chief difference observable in this view of the two skulls is the greater development of the frontal sinuses in the Borris calvaria. The occipita

itudinal is but very little greater than it would be were the skulls reduced to the same breadth. They may both, therefore, be regarded as "low," or, as this class of skull might be termed, in the euphonious language of craniologists, "tapinocephalic." One great peculiarity of t

be open. The mastoid processes and all oth

eat-bed or ancient forest, 30 feet below the sea-level, at Sennen, near the Land's End, in Cornwall; and a brief notice and outline figure of it will be found in the "Natural H

and St. Asaph) would appear to have a common character, and to be of

alic. Individual exceptions are of course not unfrequently met with, more especially among very mixed races, such as the modern English; but I am myself acqua

rule among ancient and, consequently, l

xception, except in an individual here and there, being in two Karén skulls, in which, although

m, more than half of which are brachy-187cephalic, and most of the others nearly so, the mean cephalic index of 21 skulls being ·790, whilst the mean altitudi

ulls also appear to be far more common among the ancient than am

iscan skulls, I find the following h

L. Ind.

es alluvium at Old F

e deposit at East H

e deposit at Batter

deposit at London Bri

lus at Stanshope

che skull

che skull

t. Asaph's

re from the rule in question was more frequent among the unmixed or little-mixed races of ancient times than it is amongst similarly unmixed races of the present day; and whether

usions as to

or subbrachy-cephalous, and of fair average capacity. The face was oval and the cheek-bones were not prominent. Some of the individuals were characterised by the peculiar flattening of shin (platycnemism), which probably stood in relation to the free action of the foot that was not impeded by the use of a rigid sole or sandal. This character, however, is neither peculiar to race, nor to b