Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

Aboriginal Indian Remains in Jamaica by J. E. Duerden / 239
are often masked by the lateral bulging of the walls of the cranium. The obelion
is usually flat, and so is the occipital squame. This artificial deformation, as
it is a combination of the “annular deformation” and of the “simple frontal deformation”
(also known as the “deformation toulousaine”), is analogous to the
“macrocephaly” of the ancients (cf. Broca, Instructions Craniologiques, 1875,
p. 156); but instead of lengthening the skull it appears to shorten it.
Viewed from above, the axis of the greatest diameter is seen to be placed
rather far back; the head form may be described according to Sergi’s nomenclature
as “Sphenoides rotundus.” The sides are well fi lled, the greatest diameter
usually occurring on the squamous portion of the temporal just below the
suture.
In a front view, the broad flat receding forehead is typical, the glabella and
supraciliary arches are moderately prominent. The orbits are generally large and
rounded, but the nose is subject to great variation. The nasals may be fairly narrow
and arched transversely, or very broad and flattened; the apertura pyriformis
may be narrow or broad, in the majority of cases its lower margin has the
appearance known as the forma infantalis.
A side view of the crania shows the receding frontal with its slight posterior
annular swelling, the shallow anterior parietal annular groove, and the parietal
eminences.
The end view of a typical cranium is very characteristic, it appears as a transversely
elongated oblong with somewhat convex sides and perhaps a slight median
keel.
The palate is usually broad and horseshoe shaped.
The sutures as a rule are very simple— but there are a good many wormian
bones; these are especially characteristic of the temporal squame— usually
there is a long anterior wormian which extends across the pterion, and not
infrequently there is one at the hinder border of the squame. Wormians frequently
occur in the lambdoidal suture; but the “os inca,” and similar separate
ossifications, are not specially common.
The average cranial capacity of 7 crania is 1282 (min. 1100, max. 1470).
With two exceptions, they are all microcephalic.
The cephalic index of 16 crania is 88.36 (min. 81, max. 93). Thus all are
brachycephalic. The average glabello- occipital length is 167.6 (min. 154, max.
177). The [24] average maximum breadth is 147.7 (min. 136, max. 163).
The length- height index averages 73.2, that is metriocephalic (min. 67.8,
max. 77.7). The breadth- height index averages 83.4 (min. 74, max. 89.1).
The average gnathic or alveolar index of 15 crania is 99.9 (min. 90, max.
107). The figures are very evenly distributed between the ortho-, meso-, and
prognathous groups.