- •Published, April, 1939.
- •Introduction
- •Introduction
- •Introduction
- •Introduction
- •Introduction 78-82
- •Introduction 131-135
- •Introduction 297-298
- •Introduction 400-401
- •Introduction 510-511
- •List of maps
- •Introduction to the historical study of the white race
- •Statement of aims and proposals
- •Theory and principles of the concept race
- •Materials and techniques of osteology**
- •Pleistocene white men
- •Pleistocene climate
- •Sapiens men of the middle pleistocene
- •The neanderthaloid hybrids of palestine
- •Upper palaeolithic man in europe,
- •Fig. 2. Neanderthal Man. Fig. 3. Cro-Magnon Man.
- •Aurignacian man in east africa
- •The magdalenians
- •Upper palaeolithic man in china
- •Summary and conclusions
- •Fig. 12. Fjelkinge, Skane, Sweden. Neolithic.
- •Mesolithic man in africa
- •The natufians of palestine
- •The midden-d wellers of the tagus
- •Mesolithic man in france
- •The ofnet head burials
- •Mesolithic man in the crimea
- •Palaeolithic survivals in the northwest
- •Clarke, j. G. D., op. Cit., pp. 133-136.
- •38 Fiirst, Carl m., fkva, vol. 20, 1925, pp. 274-293.
- •Aichel, Otto, Der deutsche Mensch. The specimens referred to are b 5, ks 11032, ks 11254b, b 38, b 34, b 37, b 10.
- •Clarke, j. G. D., op. Citpp. 133-136.
- •Summary and conclusions
- •The neolithic invasions
- •(1) Introduction
- •1 Childe, V. Gordon, The Dawn of European Civilization; The Most Ancient East; The Danube in Prehistory; New Light on the Most Ancient East; Man Makes Himself.
- •And chronology '
- •The neolithic and the mediterranean race
- •Vault medium to thin, muscular relief on vault as a rule slight.
- •Iran and iraq
- •Vallois, h. V., “Notes sur les Tfctes Osseuses,” in Contencau, g., and Ghirsh- man, a., Fouilles de Tepe Giyan.
- •Jordan, j., apaw, Jh. 1932, #2.
- •Keith, Sir Arthur, “Report on the Human Remains, Ur Excavations,” vol. 1: in Hall, h. R. H„ and Woolley, c. L., Al 'Ubaid,
- •10 Frankfort, h., “Oriental Institute Discoveries in Iraq, 1933-34,” Fourth Preliminary Report, coic #19, 1935,
- •Civilized men in egypt
- •11 Morant, g. M., Biometrika, 1925, p. 4.
- •12 This summary of climatic changes in Egypt is based on Childe, V. G., New Light
- •18 Childe, op. Cit.Y p. 35. 14 Leakey, l. S. B., Stone Age Africa, pp. 177-178.
- •Brunton, Guy, Antiquity, vol. 3, #12, Dec., 1929, pp. 456-457.
- •Menghin, o., Lecture at Harvard University, April 6, 1937.
- •Childe, V. G., op. Cit.Y p. 64.
- •Derry, Douglas, sawv, Jahrgang, 1932, #1-4, pp. 60-61. 20 Ibid., p. 306.
- •Morant, g. M., Biometrika, 1927, vol. 27, pp. 293-309.
- •21 Morant, g. M., Biometrika, vol. 17, 1925, pp. 1-52.
- •Morant, op. Cit., 1925.
- •Neolithic north africa
- •(6) The neolithic in spain and portugal
- •The eastern source areas: south, central, and north
- •The danubian culture bearers
- •The corded or battle-axe people
- •The neolithic in the british isles
- •Western europe and the alpine race
- •Schlaginhaufen, o., op. Cit.
- •Schenk, a., reap, vol. 14, 1904, pp. 335-375.
- •Childe, The Danube in Prehistory, pp. 163, 174.
- •Neolithic scandinavia
- •Introduction
- •Bronze age movements and chronology
- •The bronze age in western asia
- •The minoans
- •The greeks
- •Basques, phoenicians, and etruscans
- •The bronze age in britain
- •The bronze age in central europe
- •The bronze age in the north
- •The bronze age on the eastern plains
- •The final bronze age and cremation
- •Summary and conclusions
- •Race, languages, and european peoples
- •The illyrians
- •The kelts
- •Vallois, h. V., Les Ossements Bretons de Kerne, TouUBras, et Port-Bara.
- •We know the stature of Kelts in the British Isles only from a small Irish group, and by inference from comparison with mediaeval English counterparts of Iron Age skeletons.
- •Greenwell, w., Archaeologia, vol. 60, part 1, pp. 251-312.
- •Morant, g. M., Biometrika, 1926, vol. 18, pp. 56-98.
- •The romans
- •46 Whatmouffh. J., The Foundations of Roman Italy.
- •The scythians
- •88 Browne, c. R., pria, vol. 2, ser. 3, 1899, pp. 649—654.
- •88 Whatmough is in doubt as to their linguistic affiliation. Whatmough, j., op. Cit., pp. 202-205.
- •Fig. 29. Scythians, from the Kul Oba Vase. Redrawn from Minns, e. H., Scythians and Greeks, p. 201, Fig. 94.
- •Doniti, a., Crania Scythica, mssr, ser. 3, Tomul X, Mem. 9, Bucharest, 1935.
- •The germanic peoples
- •Stoiyhwo, k., Swiatowit, vol. 6, 1905, pp. 73-80.
- •Bunak, V. V., raj, vol. 17, 1929, pp. 64-87.
- •Shetelig, h., Falk, h., and Gordon, e. V., Scandinavian Archaeology, pp. 174-175.
- •70 Hubert, h., The Rise of the Celts, pp. 50-52.
- •71 Nielsen, h. A., anoh, II Rakke, vol. 21, 1906, pp. 237-318; ibid., III Rakke, vol. 5, 1915, pp. 360-365. Reworked.
- •Retzius, g., Crania Suecica, reworked.
- •78 Schliz, a., pz, vol. 5, 1913, pp. 148-157.
- •Barras de Aragon, f. De las, msae, vol. 6, 1927, pp. 141-186.
- •78 Hauschild, m. W., zfma, vol. 25, 1925, pp. 221-242.
- •79 Morant, g. M., Biometrika, vol. 18, 1926, pp. 56-98.
- •8° Reche, o., vur, vol. 4, 1929, pp. 129-158, 193-215.
- •Kendrick, t. D., and Hawkes, c. F. C., Archaeology in England and Wales, 1914-1931.
- •Morant, Biometrika, vol. 18, 1926, pp. 56-98.
- •Lambdoid flattening is a characteristic common to Neanderthal and Upper Palaeolithic man, but rare in the exclusively Mediterranean group.
- •Calculated from a number of series, involving over 120 adult males. Sources:
- •Peake, h., and Hooton, e. A., jrai, vol. 45, 1915, pp. 92-130.
- •Bryce, t. H., psas, vol. 61, 1927, pp. 301-317.
- •Ecker, a., Crania Germanica.
- •Vram, u., rdar, vol. 9, 1903, pp. 151-159.
- •06 Miiller, g., loc. Cit.
- •98 Lebzelter, V., and Thalmann, g., zfrk, vol. 1, 1935, pp. 274-288.
- •97 Hamy, e. T., Anth, vol. 4, 1893, pp. 513-534; vol. 19, 1908, pp. 47-68.
- •The slavs
- •Conclusions
- •The iron age, part II Speakers of Uralic and Altaic
- •The turks and mongols
- •I® Ibid.
- •Introduction to the study of the living
- •Materials and techniques
- •Distribution of bodily characters
- •Distribution of bodily characters
- •Distribution of bodily characters
- •2. Skin of tawny white, nose narrow,
- •Hair Flaxen
- •Gobineau, a. De, Essai sur Vinegaliti des races humaines.
- •Meyer, h., Die Insel Tenerife; Uber die Urbewohner der Canarischen Inseln.
- •46 Eickstedt, e. Von, Rassenkunde und Rassengeschichte der Menschheit.
- •Nordenstreng, r., Europas Mdnniskoraser och Folkslag.
- •Montandon, g., La Race, Les Races.
- •Large-headed palaeolithic survivors
- •Pure and mixed palaeolithic and mesolithic survivors of moderate head size56
- •Pure and mixed unbrachtcephalized mediterranean deriva tives
- •Brachtcephauzed mediterranean derivatives, probably mixed
- •The north
- •Introduction
- •The lapps
- •I Wiklund, k. B., gb, vol. 13, 1923, pp. 223-242.
- •7 Schreiner, a., Die Nord-Norweger; Hellemo (Tysfjord Lappen).
- •8 Gjessing, r., Die Kautokeinolappen.
- •10 Kajava, y., Beitr'dge zur Kenntnis der Rasseneigenschaften der Lappen Finnlands.
- •17 For a complete bibliography of early Lappish series, see the lists of Bryn, the two Schreiners, Geyer, Kajava, and Zolotarev.
- •Schreiner, k. E., Zur Osteologie der Lappen.
- •Gjessing, r., Die Kautokeinolappen, pp. 90-95.
- •Hatt, g., Notes on Reindeer Nomadism, maaa, vol. 6, 1919. This is one of the few points regarding the history of reindeer husbandry upon which these two authorities agree.
- •The samoyeds26
- •Scandinavia; norway
- •Iceland
- •Sweden64
- •Denmark62
- •The finno-ugrians, introduction
- •Fig. 31. Linguistic Relationships of Finno-Ugrian Speaking Peoples.
- •Racial characters of the eastern finns
- •The baltic finns: finland
- •The baltic-speaking peoples
- •Conclusions
- •The british isles
- •R£sum£ of skeletal history
- •Ireland
- •Great britain, general survey
- •Fig. 32. Composite Silhouettes of English Men and Women.
- •The british isles, summary
- •Introduction
- •Lapps and samoyeds
- •Mongoloid influences in eastern europe and in turkestan
- •Brunn survivors in scandinavia
- •Borreby survivors in the north
- •East baltics
- •Carpathian and balkan borreby-like types
- •The alpine race in germany
- •The alpine race in western and central europe
- •Aberrant alpine forms in western and central europe
- •Alpines from central, eastern, and southeastern europe
- •Asiatic alpines
- •The mediterranean race in arabia
- •Long-faced mediterraneans of the western asiatic highlands
- •Long-faced mediterraneans of the western asiatic highlands: the irano-afghan race
- •Gypsies, dark-skinned mediterraneans, and south arabian veddoids
- •The negroid periphery of the mediterranean race
- •Mediterraneans from north africa
- •Small mediterraneans of southern europe
- •Atlanto-mediterraneans from southwestern europe
- •Blue-eyed atlanto-mediterraneans
- •The mediterranean reemergence in great britain
- •The pontic mediterraneans
- •The nordic race: examples of corded predominance
- •The nordic race: examples of danubian predominance
- •The nordic race: hallstatt and keltic iron age types
- •Exotic nordics
- •Nordics altered by northwestern european upper palaeolithic mixture: I
- •Nordics altered by northwestern european upper palaeolithic mixture: II
- •Nordics altered by mixture with southwestern borreby and alpine elements
- •The principle of dinaricization
- •European dinarics: I
- •European dinarics: II
- •European dinarics: III
- •European dinarics: IV
- •Dinarics in western asia: I
- •Dinarics in western asia: II
- •Armenoid armenians
- •Dinaricized forms from arabia and central asia
- •The jews: I
- •The jews: II
- •The jews: III
- •The mediterranean world
- •Introduction
- •The mediterranean rage in arabia
- •The mediterranean world
- •7 Lawrence, Col. T. E., The Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
- •The Distribution of Iranian Languages
- •The turks as mediterraneans
- •Fig, 37. Ancient Jew.
- •North africa, introduction
- •Fig. 38. Ancient Libyan. Redrawn from
- •The tuareg
- •Eastern barbary, algeria, and tunisia
- •The iberian peninsula
- •The western mediterranean islands
- •The basques
- •The gypsies
- •Chapter XII
- •The central zone, a study in reemergence
- •Introduction
- •8 Collignon, r., msap, 1894.
- •9 Collignon, r., bsap, 1883; Anth, 1893.
- •Belgium
- •The netherlands and frisia
- •Germany
- •Switzerland and austria
- •The living slavs
- •Languages of East-Central Europe and of the Balkans
- •The magyars
- •The living slavs (Concluded)
- •Albania and the dinaric race
- •The greeks
- •Bulgaria
- •Rumania and the vlachs
- •The osmanli turks
- •Turkestan and the tajiks
- •Conclusions
- •Conclusion
- •Comments and reflections
- •The white race and the new world
- •IflnrlrH
- •Alveon (also prosthion). The most anterior point on the alveolar border of the upper jaw, on the median line between the two upper median incisors.
- •Length of the clavicle (collar bone) and that of the humerus (upper arm bone);
- •Incipiently mongoloid. A racial type which has evolved part way in a mongoloid direction, and which may have other, non-mongoloid specializations of its own, is called incipiently mongoloid.
- •List of books
- •Index of authors
- •54; Language distribution, 561, map; Jews in, 642; Neo-Danubian, ill., Plate 31, Jig. 4.
- •Map; classified, 577; racial characteristics, 578-79; ill., Plate 3, fig. 3.
- •Ill., Plate 6, Jigs. 1-5; survivors in Carpathians and Balkans, ill., Plate 8, figs. 1-6; Nordic blend, ill., Plate 34, figs.
- •61; Associated with large head size, 265, 266. See also Cephalic index, Cranial measurements.
- •Ill., Plate 36, fig. 1. See also Great Britain, Ireland, Scotland.
- •Ill., Plate 30, fig. 2.
- •85; Von Eickstedt’s, 286-88; Gzek- anowski’s system, 288-89; author’s, 289-96; schematic representation, 290, chart; geographic, 294- 95, map.
- •396; Cornishmen in France, 512, 514.
THE
NEOLITHIC INVASIONS
115
ters
and cist graves. Most of these dry land burials, which were not, in
most cases at least, Lake Dwelling cemeteries, contain human remains
of Mediterranean type, although a few brachycephals have been found
in them.69
The
most extensive single series is that from the cist cemetery of Cham-
blandes, with ten male and eight female skeletons.70 (See
Appendix I, col. 14.) These remains are those of small, light-boned
Mediterraneans, dolicho- to mesocephalic, mesorrhine, and shallow
jawed, with very little metrical sex differentiation. Basically,
these Chamblandes people resemble the smaller groups of
predynastic Egyptians very closely, but are even closer to Muge.
There seems to be a perceptible negroid element in the Chamblandes
groups, which accentuates the African relationship. In vault size
and height, they do not resemble the Danubians.
The
Chamblandes culture was mid-Neolithic, and probably represents the
northward intrusion of a semi-nomadic tribe or band from northern
Italy, where cist burials of the same type have been found.71
Since the Chamblandes physical type is an excellent example of the
small Mediterranean race, that type must, therefore, have been
prevalent in the Early and Middle Neolithic of northern Italy. Its
presence furthermore illustrates the complexity of ethnic
movements in Neolithic Europe.
The
racial prpblems exposed by the study of Neolithic man in
Switzerland apply equally to France, which presents an even
more complex archaeological situation. Along the whole Atlantic
coast, and most of all in Brittany, dolmens and other kinds of
megalithic monuments were built in abundance. The north of France,
especially the Paris Basin, formed the westernmost reflection of the
Danubian invasions from the east, through the mixed cultures of
southern Germany, but in the Paris Basin this culture was mingled
with megalithic elements, since many of the burials are in hewn
underground vaults and in dolmens.
The
southeast of France contained a surviving cave culture, while the
whole eastern section of the country, in the valley of the Rh6ne and
the borders of Switzerland, was occupied by farmers with the same
blend of Mesolithic and Neolithic cultural elements which in
Switzerland appear in the western Lake Dwellings. Both
Dechelette and Menghin derive the agricultural element in the French
Neolithic south of the Paris Basin from North Africa.72
Although,
if one may judge by the number of finds made, France was a densely
populated country during the Neolithic, the distribution of
Dechelette,
J., Manuel
d’archaeologie prehistorique.
Menghin,
O., Weltgeschichte
der Steinzeit.
Schlaginhaufen, o., op. Cit.
Schenk, a., reap, vol. 14, 1904, pp. 335-375.
Childe, The Danube in Prehistory, pp. 163, 174.
116
THE
RACES OF EUROPE
people
was very uneven. It is very likely that large areas, notably in the
Massif
Central,
the mountain core of south-central France, where a thin soil and
granite base are inimical to agriculture, were still inhabited
throughout the Neolithic time span by scattered bands of Mesolithic
hunters and grubbers. The bulk of the population lived in the great
river valleys.
As
an indication of the head form of the French Neolithic people, we
may turn to a compilation of 608 crania, out of which 43 per cent
are dolichocephalic, 38 per cent meso-, and 19 per cent
brachycephalic.78 Although this distribution is not
bimodal, there are at least two types present, a long and a round
one.
The
long-headed type or types belong clearly to the Mediterranean
category. Although most series include brachycephalic crania, a few
are purely long headed. Some of them, such as the series from
L5Homme Mort and Loz&re 74 (see Appendix
I, col. 15), are low dolichocephals, with means of 72; these
approach but do not quite approximate the British Long Barrow
standards of size. The skulls from the corridor tomb of Vaudancourt,
Oise, are of full Long Barrow size, and the stature of the skeletons
is tall. Thus there was, apparently, here and there, a tall, large,
and very longheaded element in the French Neolithic, related to
that which predominated in the British Isles. It was rarely,
however, pure.
The
mesocephalic crania are, as a rule, larger in vault size than most
of the Mediterranean groups which we have studied, such as the
Danubians, the Ghamblandes series, and the Mesolithic skulls
from Muge. One suspects that the mesocephaly so common among
Neolithic French crania may, in part, be due to a mixture between a
Megalithic, rather than a small Mediterranean, dolichocephalic type
with brachycephals. This is supported by the evidence of stature,
for means of French Neolithic series run to 164 and 165 cm., taller
than the majority of Mediterraneans proper.
In
certain definite ways, the long-headed crania of the French
Neolithic, as a whole, show a western affiliation: the vaults are
wider than they are high, and the noses are leptorrhine or low
mesorrhine. In these respects they differ from the Danubians, as
well as in size; and in the vault form, they differ from the Corded
group. These peculiarities further strengthen the similarity between
the longer and larger examples, and the British Long Barrow type. We
may conclude from this that most of the Mediterranean racial
element in France came from North Africa and the Mediterranean,
and little from central and eastern Europe.
78
Salmon, P., REAP, vol. 5, 1895, pp. 155-181. Series re-divided to
agree with conventional partitionment of cranial index.
74
Unpublished measurements by Mrs. Ruth Sawtelle Wallis.
THE
NEOLITHIC INVASIONS
117
The
geographical distribution of Neolithic crania by head form can be
partially determined from Salmon’s study.76 In all,
forty-one departments are represented, covering less than half of
France. Of these forty-one, only fifteen departments, one-sixth of
France, have ten or more crania each. As far as we can tell from
this fragmentary distribution, there were two centers of high
brachycephaly, one in the Auvergne region, crossing the Rh6ne to
Savoie, and fading out in the Massif
Central;
the second in the north of France, from Paris over to the Meuse. The
Atlantic coastal region below Brittany, and the west central part of
France, were dolichocephalic strongholds during the Neolithic.
The
range of indices in the French Neolithic extends from 63 to 97,
which is practically the normal range for the world. Whole groups of
over thirty skulls (as at Beaumes Chaudes), found in single caves,
are entirely long headed, showing that some purely dolichocephalic
local populations existed in Neolithic France, as they do in
parts of the country today 76 (see Appendix I, col. 16);
while smaller interments contain wholly brachycephalic clusters.
Hyperbrachycephaly had already developed as an evolutionary
phenomenon, for twenty-five out of Salmon’s six hundred and eight
crania have indices between 85 and 97. Others over 90 were found in
the Swiss collection. This extreme head form was not, apparently,
as common then as it is today.
Salmon’s
list luckily contains data as to mode of interment as well as to
cranial index and locality. Most of the crania come from either
megalithic tombs or caves. Rock shelters and caves contain the
same head form ratio as the total for France; and this is also true
of the totality of megalithic tombs. Brachycephalic crania are
found in all kinds of interments; there is nothing of an
archaeological nature to distinguish them socially or ethnically
from the others. They were, therefore, an integral part of the
Neolithic population in all sections where they have been found.
They cannot have belonged to a separate, unified group of
immigrants, but formed rather a residual element in the total
population, with a strong genetic impulse for the perpetuation and
increase of its peculiar head form, regardless of other racial
factors.
The
further examination of this problem of western European
brachycephaly can best be pursued by a study of Belgium, which
formed an extension of the archaeological province of northern
France during the Neolithic. Most of the sites of this period come
from the Ardennes hills, from the present Walloon-speaking part of
Belgium, for the swamps and fens of the Flemish country offered
little inducement to Neolithic farmers.
76
Salmon, op.
cit.
Bonin,
G. von, considers the Beaumes Chaudes series a Palaeolithic
survival into Neolithic times. HB, vol. 7, 1935, pp. 216-217.
118
THE
RACES OF EUROPE
It
is perhaps for this reason that Neolithic Belgians were even more
brachycephalic than their relatives in France—out of seventy
skulls of both sexes,77 one-half have cranial indices
above 80. The largest series, that of Hastiere,78 has a
mean of 79.8; and a high variability.79
Among
the readily available published crania one may seriate eighteen male
specimens 80 for which adequate measurements have been
given. The eighteen adult male skulls divide themselves naturally
into two subgroups, of eight and ten, respectively. The first
ranges in cranial index from 74 to 77; the second from 80 to 83.
This natural division is so marked that it would be futile to
seriate the eighteen as a whole, for the mean would fall at a point
unrepresented by a single specimen. Seven female crania which
accompany this series likewise have none in the middle brackets.
The
dolichocephalic group of eight male skulls belongs to a normal,
Mediterranean type, mesocephalic, and relatively low vaulted. The
brachycephals (see Appendix I, col. 17), the important group for our
present purpose, may serve, through comparison, to help
elucidate the problem of western European Neolithic
brachycephaly.
In
Switzerland we had only a few individual crania for study; in France
the brachycephalic crania are mingled in individual series with
dolichocephalic ones. In the small Belgian group of ten males,
however, we have a purely brachycephalic series for comparative
purposes.81
In
searching for the prototype of these Neolithic Alpine skulls, one
turns naturally to the few Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic crania
of brachycephalic type for comparison.82 In vault
diameters, the Neolithic skulls correspond nearly to the Ofnet ones
of the same sexes, but the female examples are smaller than those
from the Upper Palaeolithic. All specimens, of all three
periods, are low vaulted.
The
Neolithic Alpine faces, insofar as we can judge, run somewhat
smaller and narrower than do most of the earlier ones; the orbits
are much the same, but the noses seem smaller in size. On the whole,
the Neolithic brachycephalic crania are less rugged and much
smoother than the earlier examples, more globular, and more
infantile. The faces look, in many cases, little different from
those of the Mediterraneans which accompany them. The stature of
these brachycephals varies, but is greater than that of the
accompanying long-heads, reaching 165 or 166 cm. for
Including
those on Salmon’s list and others.
Salmon,
1895, 33 crania.
78
Range = 72-88, <j
= 3.65.
Anvers,
3; Sandron, 10; Pr6alle, 4; Grotte du Docteur, Huccorgen, 1.
These
crania come from the same series as the dolicho- dhes, Sandron and
Pr£alle, plus the Huccorgne cranium. There is no such thing as an
exclusively
brachycephalic Neolithic group of any size from any one place.
SolutrS
#2, #5, Le Placard (1881). Solutr6 #1 and #3, and Le Placard F and
B, are high mesocephals. Among Mesolithic crania, Ofnet 1800, 1801,
1802, 1806, 1815.
THE
NEOLITHIC INVASIONS
119
males
in the few ascertainable instances. This correlation would favor the
Upper Palaeolithic comparison.
It
is impossible, in an orderly and logical manner, to explain the
presence of these ancestral Alpines during the Neolithic in
Europe west of the Alps, north of the Pyrenees, and south of the
Rhine. But certain hypotheses 83 merit discussion,
and by elimination of lesser probabilities we may narrow the field.
The most important of these hypotheses are:
The
Alpine brachycephals came into the area in question during the
Neolithic period,
as
part of an agricultural invasion,
from
the east.
This theory, which has been accepted as fact by the majority of
anthropologists for some thirty or more years, may be practically
ruled out. All the evidence in existence serves to contradict it.
The
Alpine brachycephals came into the area in question during the
Mesolithic,
as
part of a preagricultural invasion,
from
North Africa by way of the Iberian Peninsula.
This theory is based upon the discovery of allegedly brachycephalic
crania at Muge in Portugal. Vallois has recently shown that the
Muge crania are in reality of Mediterranean type, and that most, if
not all, of the alleged brachycephaly was due to the post-mortem
deformation of a few skulls. Hence, in its usual form, this
theory may also be considered unlikely, although less improbable
than the first.
The
Alpine brachycephals are Afalou type round-heads,
carried
up to western Europe with the Mesolithic movements from North
Africa,
or
from Asia by some unknown Mesolithic movement.
We have already suggested that the Ofnet skulls might have had some
such origin. But the Alpine crania are smaller, and more globular.
The faces are much smaller, though similar in proportions.
These differences may possibly be explained by mixture with
smallheaded and short-statured Mediterraneans.
The
Alpine brachycephals represent a continuation of the Aurignacian
brachycephalic tendency found at Solutre.
The Azilian culture was a blend of Capsian and Magdalenian
elements. It is possible that a brachycephalic element from
Palaeolithic France passed into this Mesolithic cultural
expression, and was carried over into the Neolithic, which retained
many Mesolithic cultural forms.
The
Alpine brachycephals are the result of a genetic tendency toward a
globular skull form acting on a dolichocephalic group.
Without reasonable doubt, there has been a tendency toward an
increase in brachycephaly in the Alpine racial zone in modern
times. We are as yet unaware of its true cause and of its
mechanism. But we cannot, for various reasons, suppose that the
Neolithic Alpines were merely brachycephalized Mediterraneans. They
were often taller, and had larger vaults, lower orbits, shorter
faces,
The
hypothesis that they were the ancestors of the Lapps serves in no
direct way to explain their origin, and will be dealt with later.