A report on the excavated skulls of the Edo-period from the Tsubue site of Kurashiki city in Okayama prefecture

Abstract

Observations were made on 28 Japanese skulls (14 males, 10 females and 4 unsexed) of the middle or later Edo-period (1688-).
The skulls had been excavated in 1977 at the Tsubue site in Kurashiki city. Measurements and indices were shown in the original table. Results for the Tsubue skulls were compared with those of the present day and Edo-period skulls in Kinai district.
The Tsubue skulls have shown a long cranial length. Especially median sagittal parietal length and posterior portion of outer acustic porus have elongated on an anthropometrical basis.
In the facial part of Tsubue skulls, orbital height and nasal breadth are larger than those of compared skulls.
Anthroposcopically, frequencies of hypoglossal canal bridging, Inca bone, accessory infraorbital foramen and accessory mental foramen are scarcer than those of the other groups of Japanese skulls. Though the Tsubue skulls have revealed above mentioned characteristics, the skulls resemble Kinai skulls in anthropological feature.