244
THE ESSEX NATURALIST
Frontal chord .......... 112 mm Bi-dacryonic arc ........ 34 mm
Parietal chord .......... 111mm Bi-dacryonic chord .... ?23 mm
Occipital chord ........ 96 mm Biasterionic breadth .... 104 mm
Foraminal length ...... 36 mm Cranial capacity ........ 1270 cc
Foraminal breadth ...... 29 mm Cephalic index ............ 78.5
Simotic chord .......... 7 mm Sex ............ probably female
Age at death, ca. 25-30 years
The skull is in remarkably good condition with all of the
sutures clearly defined on both tables. No wormian bones are
present and the frontal, parietal, temporal, and sphenoid bones
meet at a single point making an x-shaped pterion. The supra- 
and infra-orbital foramina are all singular.
The dentition with the exception of the left upper first and
second molars has been lost post-mortem. There is some crown-
wear to these two molars with some exposure of dentine, but no
visible evidence of oral disease. The buccal aspects have some of
the enamel chipped off, but this is probably the result of post-
mortem damage.
Two congenital sutural anomalies were discovered during the
examination. The first concerned the retention of the medio-
frontal suture—metopism, the second, a patent pre-maxillary
suture of the palate. The metopic suture was probably thought
to be too obvious to mention in the original report, but the
anomalous palatal suture was only discovered by the present
author after a thin coating of clay was washed from the palate.
Of these discontinuous morphological traits, metopism has been
studied as a percentage frequency in various populations but
little has been published about British prehistoric material.
Figures (Ackerknecht, 1953) for Iron age/Romano-British as
9.91%, Anglo-Saxon as 8.30% and 17th C. London as 9.09% of
the population have been published. No figures for frequency of
occurrence of the anomalous palatal suture have been published
to my knowledge, but its occurrence is unlikely to be frequent.
A third anomaly noted was the presence of cribra orbitalia
(osteoporosis of the orbits), the perforations being most extensive
on th© roof of the left orbit. The cause of cribra is still unknown
but cases of it have been noted in archaeological material from
many parts of the world, particularly ancient Egypt. Possible
causes have been suggested by Ackerknecht (1953) as deficiency
disease (avitaminosis) and generalised eye infection.
Judgment on the original dating of this skull as Neolithic must
in this case be held suspended until the associated peaty-clay and
its contents are re-examined.
References
Ackerknecht, E. H. (1953). Paleopathology; a survey. Anthropology
To-day, : 120-127. Chicago.
Brothwell, D. R. (1963). Digging up Bones. : 96. London.
Maynard, G. (1914). Notes on a human skull found at Wenden, Essex.
With a report on the cranium by A. Keith. Essex Nat., 17: 244-248.