Note on the animal remains found at Cissbury / by Prof. Rolleston.

  • Rolleston, George, 1829-1881.
Date:
[1876?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Note on the animal remains found at Cissbury / by Prof. Rolleston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    from the fatal pitfall. They were found immediately below the ditch bottom. No bone of red deer, Cermis elaphus, has come from this pit to my knowledge ; a single tyne may have come from it, but its presence in this series I incline to refer to accidental mixing in more recent times than those just alluded to. An undetermined fragment of bone, which may have formed part of a bone implement, is also referred to this “ Skeleton Pit.” I have had entrusted to me, or found myself in this pit, bones of the shrew mouse, of the field mouse, of the toad, and a few teeth of a cub fox. I am not able to attach any importance to them. The important vertebrate animals in this series are, by their presence, the pig, the goat, and the roe, and by their absence, the red deer and the domestic ox, though possibly some of the few and fragmentary bones spoken of above under the heading Bos primigenius may be rcferrible to that variety of the species. In the Skeleton Pit—Skeletons of Sus scrofa v. domesticus are ' j Scapula; Represented by— 4 right 4 left 3 right ) tt „ , g, • iLumeri 3 leit ) 3 right ] TJ| 3 left j U1U8C 3 Radii 2 1ef!lfc]Fem0ra 2kf)Mia 3 right Pubic bones Fragments of 6 lower jaws, the youngest with complete milk dentition, the oldest with third molar not quite in use. Four sets of cervical vertebrae— Of which set No. 1 is complete, and will fit with a set of 8 dorsal, 5 lumbar, and 2 sacral. Set No. 2 is also complete, and will fit with a set of 12 dorsal and 4 lumbar. Section No. 3 consists of 3 cervical vertebra?, which will fit with a set of 14 dorsal and 4 lumhar ver- tebra?. Set No. 4 consists of 6 cervical ver- tebra?, which will fit with a set of 10 dorsal vertebrae and 3 lumbar, with which a right pubic bone and the jaws of a pig, certainly under five months, may be connected as parts of one skeleton. A fifth set of vertebrae, containing no cervicals, but 6 dorsals and 1 lumbar. In addition to the vertebrae here specified, there are 2 sacral, 1 caudal, 1 dorsal, and 3 lumbar, which cannot very easily be referred to any one of t he five sets, but which, from one reason or another, do not speak very positively to the presence in the series of any part of a sixth skeleton. This fact, however, is proved beyond question by the lower jaws and the fragments of lower jaws contained in the collection. In addition to the bones already enumerated of the domestic pig, there were very large numbers of ribs, nearly all broken, and a considerable number of phalangeal bones. IY.—The mollusca found in the Sheldon Pit and their hearing on its date. The mollusca found in tke Skeleton Pit, though, they do not throw any light upon the habits, furnish an almost perfect