Abstract
A BRONZE AGE TUMULUS AT DuNSTABLE.—Man for February contains a report of the opening of one of the barrows (No. 5) of the “Five Knolls Tumuli” at Dunstable by the University College and Hospital Anthropological Society of London. This is the most northerly of the mounds. It is regular in shape, with a diameter of 50 ft. and a height of 5 ft. The remains of thirteen individuals were discovered. With one exception, those skeletons which showed no sign of disturbance were buried in the extended position with the head raised. The one exception was that of a female of Mediterranean type which lay in a crouched position in an oval cist cut into the chalk, the sole furniture being a flint knife. The skull showed a remarkable advanced symmetrical thinning. This feature is discussed by Prof. Elliot Smith in a note, in which he points out that this peculiarity is rare in Europe but common in the aristocracy of ancient Egypt from the third to the nineteenth dynasties. The only features common to the other skeletons from the barrow are presented by the limb bones. The cranial forms vary, though within narrow limits, being all mesaticephalic. In the lower limbs the femurs are all platymeric. Remains of two cremation burials were found, one accompanied by a cinerary urn of late bronze age type, which it may be assumed is of later date than the burial by inhumation near which it was found.
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Research Items. Nature 119, 404–406 (1927). https://doi.org/10.1038/119404a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/119404a0