Find Spot record MDO24642 - Skull found at Bettiscombe Manor, Bettiscombe

A curiosity found at Bettiscombe Manor. The skull is of unknown date and origins, and is probably female.

The skull is complete except for the mandible and a break in the left zygomatic arch. The whole bone structure is rather lightly made and the muscle markings are not prominent. It is probably a female skull aged between 25 and 30 years, probably nearer 30. The fontanelles are closed buth the sutures have not ossified; there is no metopic suture. The permanent teeth are erupted and have been lost, the root cavities are clear and the only one missing is the third molar on the left side. I think this tooth has erupted and been lost and healed over but only an X-ray would determine whether there is an unerupted molar on this side.

Measurements of the Skull:

1. Maximum length = 18.3 cm.; maximum breadth = 13.6 cm. Cephalic index = 74.3.
2. Basi-bregmatic height = 12.7 cm.; basi-bregmatic length = 18.3cm., giving a cephalic height index of 69.4.
3. Inter-zygomatic breadth = 12.3 cm.; facial length = 6.1 cm., giving a superior facial index of 50.
4. The measurements from the basion to the nasion and the prosthion are identical, giving a gnathic index of 100.
5. Length and breadth of orbit are almost the same (length = 3.3 cm., breadth = 3.9 cm.) giving an orbital index of 87.
6. The breadth of the anterior nares is 2.6 cm. and the length 2.9, giving a nasal index of 44.
7. The palate is very flat and quite small.

I think all this quantitative data lead to just one conclusion; that this is a normal European skull, a bit small in its overall dimensions but certainly not negroid. There is one point which I am sure will be asked and that is how old is the skull? I don't think this can be determined by me but just as a suggestion it seems to me that there is impregnation in the bone as though it had been buried at some time, and I think some ancestor of the Pinneys must have dug up or turned up a skull from one of the hill-top burials and it has been kept in the house ever since.

GILBERT CAUSEY.

(The skull was examined on June 8th 1962 by Sir William Collins, Professor of Human and Comparative Anatomy, Royal College of Surgeons of England.)

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1963, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1962, 123, 124-5 (Serial). SDO62.

Record last edited

Jun 9 2014 3:46PM