The London skull
成果类型：
Article
署名作者：
Young, M
刊物名称：
BIOMETRIKA
ISSN/ISSBN：
0006-3444
发表日期：
1938
页码：
277321
关键词：
摘要：
The London skull was discovered in 1925 at a depth of 42 ft. during the excavations for Lloyd''s new building in the City of London. The age of the deposit in which the skull lay has been the subject of much discussion but the most recent investigations seem to indicate that the presumptive age of the skull must be at least Aurignacian and very possibly older (Mousterian or pre-Mousterian). The skull is very incomplete and comprises merely the occipital and left parietal bones in almost their whole extent and about a 3d of the right parietal. The anatomical and morphological features of the skull are 1st described and then an attempt is made to throw further light on its affinities by comparing in detail the measurements and relative proportions of the cranial characters that were determinable in the incomplete specimen with the corresponding characters in the following skulls or groups of skulls: (a) a no. of upper palaeolithic 5 skulls from European sites; (b) British skulls, including the Bury St. Edmunds fragment, of reputed late palaeolithic or earlier date (excluding the Piltdown and Swans-combe specimens); (c) 17th-century London and modern Scottish series; (d) [female] Neanderthal skulls from Gibraltar, La Quina and Saccopastore; (e) the Piltdown skull, and (f) the Swanscombe skull. In these comparisons both statistical methods and superimposition of contour tracings are used and their results seem to indicate conclusively that the London skull is of the modern type and resembles closely in its general form that of the upper palaeolithic period found at Solutre, and especially the specimen designated Solutre (V) 1924. So far as can be judged from the fragments preserved, it is also remarkably like the skull of the same presumptive age, i.e., late Acheulean or pre-Mousterian, found at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, and sometimes referred to as the Westley skull.