Page:Archaeologia volume 38 part 2.djvu/205

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at West Kennet, Wiltshire.
421

barrow near Stonehenge, Sir R. C. Hoare found "a skull, which appeared to have been cut in two by some very sharp instrument, and as nicely as any instrument of Savigny could have effected."[1] In 1855 the writer found in a cist in the curious long barrow near Littleton Drew, the fragments of a skull, "the fractured edges of which were very sharp, suggesting the idea of having been cleft during life."[2] Attention having been directed to the subject, other instances of skulls thus cleft and fractured may perhaps be observed and described. Such appearances may easily be overlooked, or, if noticed, misinterpreted; but it will be admitted that their occurrence is curious, and has an important bearing on the estimate to be formed of the general grade of civilization of those who must be regarded as our remote ancestors.

  1. Archæologia, vol. xix. p. 48; Ancient Wilts, vol. i. p. 163.
  2. Crania Brit. No. 24, p. 3. Wilts Arch. & Nat. Hist. Mag. vol. iii. p. 172.