A Fifth Journey in Persia (Continued)

I am afraid I did not make myself quite clear about the question of the longheaded people in the Balkans.I had to mention them, and the thing would have borne considerable expansion; but the difficulty which Dr. Evans feels, and we all feel, is this: How is it that you have a well-marked and very persistent patch -we do not know that it is more than a patch-of long-headed people among the Bosnian tombs at a period so very much later than that at which we have wellmarked broad-headed people so much further west?Either the broad-headed people came by way of the north route out of Asia, or they came by way of the south route.I hope that I have satisfied others besides myself that the north route was closed.If they came by the south route, how is it that they have left this patch, or that this patch of broad-headed peoples in Balkan lands has survived ?My suggestion for dealing with that difficulty is to suppose that the tomb-type is of significance; and that, thanks to their tomb-type, one is justified provisionally in regarding these Bosnian long-heads as an intrusion (of a kind which has frequently happened since) of pastoral people out of the steppes into the Balkan peninsula who have pushed considerably far afield into an area where bro ad-headed man did not follow, and where possibly he never had been.I suggest that the reason is, that (so far as we know) the geology and geography of that area are such as to make it neither forest nor lake-land.Dr. Shrubsall's point about the Guanches is explained, I think, if one interprets Deniker's " Atlantic-Littoral " type as the result of the intrusion of " Dinaric " tall short-headed folk among a "Mediterranean" population, long-headed and short.Thus interpreted, the distribution of the "Atlantic-Littoral" type reveals itself as a series of stepping-stones between the south-western fringe of " Dinaric " man and the Guanche and other short-headed outliers in north-west Africa.That is why I have included the " Atlantic-Littoral" people in my map-analysis of Deniker's conclusions: it is the south-western counterpart of his " Eastern " race in central Russia, and his Russian patches of " Cevenoles " are the analogue of the Guanches.Dr. Wright's suggestion as to the comparative study of funeral rites leads to very instructive results already; but one of the points still in suspense is, how far funeral rites can be regarded as really deep-seated characters of human groups.One can learn to bury one's dead a fresh way; one cannot learn a fresh shape for one's head.In the case of the southern analogues of the Kurgans, even, I only venture to adduce them in this argument because I think there is sufficient evidence on the physical side to justify the assumption of early long-headed intrusion southwards from the Kurgan area proper

Ancient history · Political science · Eurasian Exchange Networks · History