J.Y. Akerman, Esq., F.S.A., Local Secretary for Berkshire, communicated the following report of excavations in an ancient cemetery at Frilford, near Abingdon, Berks.

  • John Yonge Akerman
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: J.Y. Akerman, Esq., F.S.A., Local Secretary for Berkshire, communicated the following report of excavations in an ancient cemetery at Frilford, near Abingdon, Berks. 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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    The measurements of this skull are as follows:— Length, glabella to occipital squama . „ to apex of squama Greatest breadth at post inferior angle of parietals Breadth from one parietal tuberosity to the other Circumference, greatest Zygomatic breadth Orbital breadth ....... Greatest ft’ontal breadth ..... Frontal length ....... Parietal length ....... Occipital length ...... Frontal radius Nasal radius ....... Vertical radius of parietal ..... Occipital radius ....... Ma.xillary radius ...... Greatest height from occipital foramen to vertex 19t 4i 4 4'/1 ^ 2 4i 4| 4f 46 ^ To q ^ TO 47o 4'?o 4 4 9 ^ 10 CRANIUM (female) MARKED B. The female skull marked B was found with a small Roman coin just beside its jaw, and had a green copper staining on the right side af the palate and of the lower jaw. It is a larger skull, as the annexed measure- ments shew, in most dimensions than skull A; but it belonged to an indi- vidual of about the same age, though of the opposite sex, most probably, inasmuch as the muscular ridges are smaller, as also the teeth, the cerebellar fossffi more tumid, the facial and palatal bones slighter, and the orbital edges of the frontals sharper than in that skull. The interparietal diameter is large, as it is often in female skulls. The nasals lead one to suppose that their ])Ossessor had a Roman nose, as they slope gently forwards from their junc- tion with the glabella, and expand and rise considerably at their lower ends. The two anterior molars below on both sides appear to have been lost during life, those on the right side a considerable time before death, and with a good deal of irregular bony deposit about their sites; the sockets of those on the left side are still partly unfilled up or unabsorbed, the remain- ing molar on this side is attacked by caries. The two posterior upper left molars were likewise lost during the lifetime of the possessor; the three on the right side are in place, and diminish much in size from the first to the third. The mastoids are remarkably small in this skull; the spines of the sphe- noid remarkably large, and there are several adventitious bony deposits upon the skull, the bony structure of which is of considerable density. The measurements are as follows :— Length ....... Breadth (greatest is at parietal tuberosities) Circumference Zygomatic breadth Orbital breadth ...... Greatest frontal breadth .... Frontal length Farietal length Occipital length ...... Frontal radius ...... Parietal and vertical radius Occipital radius ' 8 5i 20i 4f 4 4:i 51 5 5h 4 7 ^ T8 4//i> ’ TO 4'/1 ^ To