NOTES ON A HUMAN SKULL FOUND AT WENDON. 247
peaty bed under which it lay, I give the following notes on a
similar deposit, discovered between Saffron Walden town and
the eastern part of Audley End park, during sewerage exca-
vations, in 1911 and 1912. Here, under what are known as the
Swan Meadows, situated at present stream level, the trenches
revealed a peaty deposit, containing numerous horse and cattle
bones at a level of about 8 feet from the surface. At this level
also were found two pieces of Roman pottery and several of the
narrow lobed-edged horse shoes, said to be Late Celtic. Late
Mediaeval pottery, etc., occurred in the surface layers only.
The peat was believed by the engineers to extend to a depth of
over 20 feet, as their piles of that length were driven down to the
head without difficulty. This deposit is also in the upper valley
of the Cam or Granta, only about 11/2 miles from the Wenden
deposit and at about the same level above O.D.
A comparison between the depth of the Roman level of the
peat in the Swan Meadows and that of the Wenden skull would
seem to suggest either that the latter is of pre-Roman age,
which is supported by the megaceros antler, or that some
fifteen feet of clay and peat accumulated in the upper Cam
Valley between Roman and late Mediaeval times.
Mr. E. T. Newton, F.R.S., has kindly examined the few other
bones from this deposit which are preserved with the skull at
Saffron Walden, and reports that they represent the following
animals :—
Red deer (Cervus elaphus). Antler and skull.
Roe deer (Capreolus capraea). Lower jaws.
Ox, Longfaced—? (Bos longifrons ?) Horn-core.
Pig (Sus scrofa). Teeth.
There is also the large antler of Cervus megaceros, the "Irish
Elk," the occurrence of which with the foregoing fauna is of
interest.
A few specimens of drift-wood from the peat are as yet not
positively determined.
REPORT ON THE WENDEN CRANIUM.
By Dr. A. KEITH, 29th March 1913.
This skull is of importance because it is apparently of
Neolithic date, and not from a tomb, as is the case with
most known crania of that period, but from a river bed
deposit. Its date may be at any time between 2000 to 5000 B.C.,