ANCIENT BRITONS.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17740, 17 April 1923, Page 9

ANCIENT BRITONS.

GRAVES UNEARTHED. OLD THEORY CONFIRMED. (BT CAnr.K—PBE3S ASSOCIATION—COPYBIOET.) (ACTSTRALIAK AN3J JJ.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, April 15. Professor F. Parsons, Professor of Anatomy, London University, in an article in "Tho Times," outlines the results of explorations proceeding in ancient British buriaf places. He states that the recent excavations have enabled thorough investigations to be made.

Tho opening of a new road near Margate has exposed many rows of skeletons, evidently buried fully clothed with ornaments and weapons. Many of the graves eohtain pairs of skeletons which may confirm Tacitus's story that pagan Saxon wives slew themselves when their husbands died. The average height of the men was sft 6in, compared with sft 9in for tho middle-class of to-day. The average height of the women was sft 4iin. Well worn teeth showed that much of their food consisted of grain. Apparently the ancients 'suffered terribly from rheumatism, and the majority died before forty. The proportion of adolescents buried between the ages of fifteen and twenty was very groat. The dead were normally buried with their feet towards tho rising sun, and generally on the Sputh slope of a hill.

Ornaments and precious stones found prove that they were by no means savages, but possessed germs of refined taste. A knife was buried with every man, woman, and child, and with the men there was also a spear and a shield. In rare instances, swords and battJeaxes were found in the graves of the chiefs.