CH A P T E R IX
Group I is
negroid.
Group ii
is nonnegroid.
D E TAILED EXAMINATION OF TH E PERIODS FROM TH E EARL Y
PREDYNAST IC TO TH E F IFTH D YN A ST Y
Up to the present we have been occupied in describing the details of the various
methods employed in the present work.
It now remains for us to subject the several periods to an analysis based upon such
of these methods as seem to us to yield the most definite results. We shall be unable
to make any extensive use of Professor Sergi’s system, which, owing to the circumstances,
it was impossible to apply to the entire collection, though we must remind the reader that
where we had the opportunity of testing the system it appeared to us to lead to no
fruitful conclusions. The same may be said, with certain limitations, of the ‘ biometrical |
method for the reasons given in Chapter VIII. Accordingly we are left with the data
furnished by the employment of Frequency Curves and percentages, by the graphic analysis
of the distribution of correlations and the graphic analysis of types.
In Chapter IV we explained the method whereby we were able to determine the
existence of two groups amidst the population with which we are dealing. In the three
periods now under examination we have ample evidence of the occurrence of such groups,
and it may not be amiss to state here what interpretation we place upon this circumstance.
There seems little reason to doubt that the features of Group i betray a negroid influence.
In every character of which we have a measure they conform accurately to the negro
type > and in many respects, as may be seen from the photographs, they exhibit
appearances which, judged by the eye, certainly lend very strong additional support to this
view. Amongst such we may note, in the specimens which we have at our disposal,
the modelling of the forehead, the interocular width, and that peculiar form of nasal
aperture described by the French as gouttière simienne. The excavators at El Amrah
noted on several occasions that the hair which adhered to the scalp was curly, as
distinguished from other hair of a straight or wavy kind, which also occurred in the
graves1.
On the other hand, the characteristics of Group h are decidedly those of a nonnegroid
stock.
In addition to the two main components there are a certain number of specimens
which cannot be assigned to either group. These are sometimes contradictory forms
resulting no doubt from crossing, and at other times intermediates, which may be either
half-breeds of more stable strain or intruders of alien origin. These opposed groups
apparently lived together on terms of equality and friendship at the earliest period of
1 I t might be remarked also that some dolls found in the graves were represented with curly black hair.
In general, however, we do not concern ourselves with such evidence. T h e rudely-carved faces in ivory and
slate, the steatopygous figures o f women, &c. &c., have furnished material on which various authors have already
exercised their ingenuity. W e are on much safer ground in dealing with the skulls, as to which we know two facts
that can never unhesitatingly be asserted o f figures or drawings, viz. :__
( 1 ) T h a t they represent real and not imaginary types.
(2) T h a t they represent individuals who lived in E g yp t and not in some other country.
which we have any knowledge. An examination of the tomb equipment has shown that
neither can be considered as superior to the other in wealth or position at this time,
whatever may prove to be the case in later ages. (Cf. Appendix, pp. 115-117.)
The non-negroid stock is throughout numerically stronger than the other, the
relative proportion varying from time to time and from place to place. Thus in the
Early Predynastic period the negroid stock is represented by 24 per cent, in the males
and 19! per cent, in the females1, the non-negroid by 4 8) per cent in the males and
44 per cent, in the females. In the Late Predynastic the negroid males are 24- per cent,
and the negroid females 28 per cent, as against 44! per cent, males and 38! per cent,
females of the non-negroid stock. In the First Dynasty the females are equally divided
between both stocks (29 per cent.), while in the males the non-negroid has still the
preponderance. The divergencies between localities should not be overlooked ; there are
just twice as many females of the negroid stock at Hou in the first three periods as there
are on the neighbouring sites of El Amrah and Abydosa.
Acting on the suggestions of Sergi, Kollmann, and Meyer, we were naturally desirous
of ascertaining whether or no:.there was evidence of a pygmy stock in either or all of
the first three periods. Professor Kollman’s conclusion3 that there was a pygmy element
amounting to something like 20 per cent, of the entire population of Abydos in this
archaic time, appears to us to be based upon insufficient evidence, resting as it does
entirely upon the occurrence of small skulls with low capacity. Instances of this kind
have frequently occurred during our investigations, and we have subjected all the examples
to a rigorous examination. Fortunately for us we possess in some cases the long bones
belonging to the skeleton of which the skull is a part, and in many other cases we have
the measurements of the limbs though not the actual bones themselves. On investigation
of these it soon appeared that the skulls which we had assumed to be typical pygmy
crania were in reality often associated with bodily proportions well up to the average
standard of the people. Reversing the process and taking into consideration only the
femora of short length, or in other words the smaller individuals, we found that such
individuals exhibited all varieties of head-size and capacity. In the cases where there
was a correspondence between the size of the head and the smallness of the stature we
further analysed the specimens to ascertain whether or no they displayed any uniformity
of type. The numbers were not large and therefore perhaps our inferences are not
conclusive, but it was noted that the specimens ranged through all the scale of the facial
and nasal indices and did not display any. common characteristics.
It seems to us, therefore, that at present we have no such evidence as would justify
us in assuming the existence of a pygmy stock, for the number of small individuals is only
such as might be expected to occur in the sériation of a considerable population according-
to height. -
As to what the general stature of the living population may have been we. decline
to commit ourselves, at any rate for the present, to any standards based on theoretical
reconstructions. It may be useful, however, to tabulate the femoral lengths (maximum
length) of the various series for which we possess the data, in order to determine whether
the stature, whatever its absolute measurement maybe, varies from period to period.
1 V id e Tab les ii and in, p. 53.
■ T h e Hou specimens can readily be picked out in the tables o f the supplement (Charts I and I I , a, b, c) as
their catalogue-numbers are all over 1,000.
8 C orresp ondenz-B latt der D eutschen anthropologischen G esellsch a fl, nos. 1 1 and 12, 1902.
Group i is
negroid.
Group 11
is nonnegroid.
Prof. Kollman’s
theory
o f the
existence of
a pygmy
element
examined.