Record

RefNoAP/44/5
LevelFile
TitleUnpublished paper, 'On the distorted skull found at Wroxeter [England], with a mechanico-chemical explanation of the distortion' by Henry Johnson
CreatorJohnson; Henry
Date13 June 1862
DescriptionJohnson writes on excavations that have recently taken place at Wroxeter, the site of the ancient Roman city of Uriconium [Viriconium Cornoviorum]. Upwards of 20 skulls were excavated, nine of which Johnson describes as 'more or less deformed'. As these skulls were found lying under less than two feet of light earth, whilst those which were buried under, and pressed by, seven feet of rubble or heavy earth were not distorted, he thinks that the pressure theory alone will not satisfactorily account for the phenomena. He suggests that that some chemical agency was at work in the former case which did not operate in the latter.

Marked on front as 'Archives Oct 23 [18]62'. Includes one page of figures labelled 'Deformed crania from Wroxeter'.

Subject: Archaeology / Chemistry

Received and read 19 June 1862. Communicated by Erasmus Wilson.

Whilst the Royal Society declined to publish this paper in full, an abstract of the paper was published in volume 12 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'On the distorted skulls found at Wroxeter (Salop), with a mechanico-chemical explanation of the distortion'.
Extent67p
FormatDrawing
Manuscript
PhysicalDescriptionInk on paper
Digital imagesView item on Science in the Making
AccessStatusOpen
RelatedMaterialDOI: 10.1098/rspl.1862.0029
Fellows associated with this archive
CodePersonNameDates
NA7637Wilson; Sir; William James Erasmus (1809 - 1884)1809 - 1884
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