Page:Natural History Review (1861).djvu/181

Rh of stag's-horn, two boar's-tusks, which had been cut off, and three incisor-teeth of a stag perforated at the root, was found near Plau, in siliceous sand, six feet below the surface. A very high antiquity was assigned to this grave, as it was wholly unprotected by any masonry, and afforded no trace of cremation having been practised, nor any implements of stone, clay, or metal. Dr. Lisch, who had been struck with the unusual prominence of the supraorbital border, the wide root of the nose, and the strongly retrocedent frontal, accompanied the account of the finding with this remark:—"The formation of the skull indicates a very remotely distant period, at which man presented a much lower degree of development. Probably this grave belongs to the autocthonous population." I succeeded, with some trouble, in putting together the skull, which, as well as the skeleton, had been broken to pieces by the labourers, from the twenty-two fragments transmitted to me. Notwithstanding the great similarity in the form of the forehead between this skull and that from the Neanderthal, the prominence of the supraorbital ridges in the latter is more marked, and they are completely continuous with the orbital-margin, which is not the case in the former. But the skulls are essentially distinguished by their general form, which in the one is long-elliptical, and in the other rounded. In the skull from Plau, a portion of the upper jaw with the teeth, and the entire lower jaw, have been preserved; it is orthognathous. The bones are thick, but very light, and adhere strongly to the tongue. The muscular impressions on the occiput above the mastoid process are very strongly developed; the sutures are wholly unossified; the last upper molar on the right side has not yet come through the alveolus; the teeth are worn away, the entire crown in some of the molars having disappeared; the lower canine teeth are far larger than the incisors, and project in front of the row of teeth; the foramen incisivum in the upper jaw is very large, exceeding 4mm in width. The wide and short ascending ramus of the lower jaw rises at a right angle. The muscular impressions on the lower jaw are also well marked. On the right parietal bone is an elongated indentation, apparently caused by a blow. The dimensions are as follows:—