These most ancient mummies appear to have been prepared with but little bitumen, and to have undergone desiccation by some primitive and simple process of embalming; such, for example, as first saturating the body in natron, and then subjecting it to heat in an oven. It is also to be remarked, that in these two heads the brain has not been removed through the nostrils, according to the general custom, for the ethmoid bone is unbroken; and the cranial contents could therefore only have been withdrawn through the foramen magnum at the base of the skull.
This last remark also applies to sixteen other heads of this series; whence I was at first led to suppose that they could not pertain to a very remote epoch. But when we find that the oldest remains are similarly characterized, and bear in mind that the removal of the brain through the nose was a conventional part of the more perfect art of embalming, may we not suppose that this imperforate state of the cranium points to an early epoch of Egyptian history, before mankind had resorted to those elaborate methods of preserving the dead body which are so remarkable in the _Theban_ catacombs? It has been conjectured, that the proximity of the Natron Lakes to the city of Memphis gave rise to the custom of embalming; and it is not an improbable supposition that the profuse employment of bitumen was a subsequent refinement of the art. This suggestion derives some support from another fact; namely, that in every instance in which I have observed the brain to have been removed through the nose, the bones and integuments are much more charged with bitumen than in the imperforate crania.
It may, perhaps, be conjectured by some that the Pelasgic heads of this series belong to the Ptolemaic epoch, and hence pertain to the Greek inhabitants of that age: but it must be remembered that the rule of the Ptolemies lasted but about three hundred years; whereas the Egyptians were themselves the masters of Memphis, and entombed their dead in its necropolis more than two thousand years before either the Persians or Greeks effected the conquest of the country, no less than during the period of and after these epochs of foreign domination.
Of the sixteen adult Pelasgic skulls in this series, two or three are small; yet the whole number gives about 88 cubic inches for the average internal capacity of the cranium, or size of the brain, while the mean of the facial angle is 80°. The seven Egyptian crania have a mean internal capacity of 80 cubic inches, and a facial angle of 77°.