ANCIENT BRITONS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 90, 16 April 1923, Page 7

ANCIENT BRITONS

GRAVES INVESTIGATED

MEN SMALLER THAN TO-DAY

RHEUMATISM A SCOURGE THEN.

(TOIHiB PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPMIOHT.)

(FCBUSJJSD IN IBg TIMS.)

(Received 16th April, 9 a.m.)

LONDON, ,14th April.

Mr. F. G. Parsons, F.R.G.S., Professor of Anatomy at London University, in an article published in "The Times," outlines the results of explorations proceeding in ancient British burial places. He states that recent excavations have enabled thorough investigations. The opening of a. new road, ikar Margate, exposed many rows' of skeletons, evidently of persons buried fully clothed, with ornaments and weapons. "Many of the graves confirm the story in Tacitus that the pagan Saxon wives slew themselves when their husbands died. The average height of the men was 5 feet 6 inches, compared with 5 feet 9 inches for the middle-class to-day. The average height of the women was 5 feet 44 inches, Well-worn teeth showed that much of the" food consisted of grain. Apparently the ancients suffered terribly from rheumatism..

"The majority died before forty, and the proportion of adolescents buried between the ages of fifteen and twenty years was very great.. ■ TKe dead were normally buried with their feet towards the rising sun, generally on the souths era slope of a hill. \ "Ths ornaments and precious stones found prove that they by no means were savages. They possessed the germs of refined taste. . A knife was buned with every man, woman, and child; and with the men also were the spear and shield. Inware instances swords and battleaxes were found" in the graves of the ohiefs."