Human Skull from the Freedown, Ringwould, Kent continued - Archaeologia Cantiana

that the skeleton was interred with "its knees up," i.e. in the lateral couched posture, but whether right- or left-sided is not known. There was no accompanying archæological evidence.
   The skull.   This, after careful restoration, reveals itself as the very imperfect skull of an adult, middle-aged male. The vault alone is preserved, together with the greater part of the two temporal bones: the mandible, lacking one ascending ramus, is also present, as also a piece of the hard palate (represented by two maxillary fragments) and some upper teeth.
   Evidence of the male sex is seen in the well-developed supraciliary ridges (confluent mesially), the slope of the brow, the configuration of the stout external angular processes of the frontal bone, the size and robustness of the (right) mastoid process and the emphatic secondary markings upon the little that remains of the planum occipitale. In general the vault is long and narrow: the cephalic index is 72·5 (i.e. dolicocephalic).
   A metopic suture is present. The frontal sinuses are capacious; they extend mainly vertically and laterally and but little into the orbital roof. The frontal eminences are moderately prominent and the frontal bone exhibits a median "keeling". The minimal frontal diameter is about 100 mm.; the maximum (glabella-occipital) length is 189 mm.; the biparietal breadth is 127 mm., being exceeded by the bi-asterionic, which is 137 mm.

The parietal eminences are fairly prominent, the two parietal "fields" being separated by a distinct obelionic median groove, which ends at the lambda. From the asterion the vault tapers rapidly backwards, and the small, prominent occiput projects as a well-circumscribed "boss" from the rest of the skull. The right temporo-mandibular joint shows no signs of osteo-arthritic disease. The mastoid processes are of the highly pneumatic variety.
   The maxillary (palatal) fragments show nothing noteworthy; the remaining maxillary teeth show considerable crown-wear, with local enamel-denudation, but are well formed and healthy.
   The mandible lacks the left ascending ramus and the condylar part of the right. Each ascending ramus is relatively narrow; the horizontal ramus is long and narrow, terminating in a very prominent mental region. Mandibular secondary markings are everywhere emphatic. A full complement of teeth remained in situ at death; these all (especially molars 1 and 2) manifest severe crown wear with some denudation of the enamel, as well as tartaric incrustation upon their lingual aspects. They are, however, free from all signs of caries, pyorrhœa or other disease.
The pelvic fragment is relatively uninformative.
   The left femur measures 1' 6 5/8" in length. This would give the individual an approximate height of 5' 8 1/4".