Page:Prehistoric Britain.djvu/61

Rh The skull was originally found by workmen, broken up by them, and most of the pieces thrown away on the spot. As many fragments as possible were subsequently recovered by the authors, from which the skull was restored. Half of a human mandible was found in a patch of undisturbed gravel by Mr. Dawson close to the place where the skull occurred. From the abstract in the Society's Proceedings are taken the following descriptive extracts:

"Two broken pieces of the molar of a Pliocene type of elephant and a much-rolled cusp of a molar of Mastodon were also found, besides teeth of Hippopotamus, Castor, and Equus, and a fragment of an antler of Cervus elaphus. Like the human skull and mandible, all these fossils are well mineralized with oxide of iron—many of the water-worn iron-stained flints closely resemble the 'eoliths' from the North Downs, near Ighthan. Mingled with them were found a few Palæolithic implements of the characteristic Chellean type. The gravel at Piltdown rests upon a plateau eighty feet above the river Ouse, and at a distance of less than a mile to the north of the existing stream.

"The skull (which unfortunately lacks the bones of the face) exhibits all the essential features of the genus Homo, with a brain capacity of not less than 1070 c.c, but possibly a little more. It measures about 190 mm. in length from the glabella to the inion, by 150 mm. in width at the widest part of the