The most In the two different race-stocks the contrast of facial index is most pronounced at
pom^TiTthe Hou (Twelfth to Fifteenth Dynasties) and least at Shekh Ali (Eighteenth Dynasty),
formulated Conversely the difference in the width of nose is least at Hou and greatest at Shekh Ali.
above. The median of ortho-prognathism is consistently more prognathic in the negroid than
in the non-negroid females.
the'p'hys'icai To resume the thread of the direct physical history after the interruption noticed
history from in the Third and Fourth Dynasties. A long interval, perhaps between one and two
illfp h thousand years, separates the series of the First and Second Dynasties from that of the
Eighteenth Sixth to Twelfth. And from the evidence which has been cited in the preceding
paragraphs it would seem that the population of the Thebaid has undergone certain
changes in the interval. The juxtaposition of opposite races still persists, and in the
men their proportionate representation is very much the same as it was before. The
characteristics of the male population in general are very little altered, and the non-negroid
stock amongst them has undergone no appreciable modification. In the negroids,
however, there is evidence that the head is becoming slightly rounder, a modification
which is directly correlated with the observed increase in the height of the vault.
In the females the negroid element is represented by a much smaller proportion than
in the immediately preceding periods; but our series shows this race-stock, though
numerically weak, yet with all its characteristics well pronounced. In the non-negroid
stock the first point to be remarked is the considerable reduction in stature, as judged by
the femoral length, which is a centimetre and a half less than it was in the Predynastic
periods. Were this reduction unassociated with any change in the cranial capacity it
would be expected that the women would prove to have rounder heads. As a matter of
fact the cephalic index has increased, but we are faced with the difficulty that the capacity
has not increased but has decreased since the First Dynasty. So that the increase in the
roundness of the head must be accounted for by an increase in the height of its vault1 ;
and this suggestion is in complete accordance with the facts recorded, namely a notable
increase in the percentage of women with high vaults in the general population.
It is perhaps worth suggesting that the diminution in the robustness of the women,
as shown by the decrease in their stature, may possibly be connected with an alteration
in their habits of life, such as would take place in the transition from a state in which the
struggle for existence obliged the females to share the labours of their husbands to
a state in which the respective spheres of activity of the two sexes had been more exactly
defined.
Before proceeding to discuss the nature of the four succeeding series it will be well to
eliminate an exceptional group of specimens which undoubtedly constitute a foreign
colony. They belong to the Twelfth to Fifteenth Dynasties and are included in the
tabulation of the other examples of that date from Hou. The graves from which they
were obtained have been described in Chapter I, and it is sufficient to recall that the
burial customs and the tomb-equipment were quite unlike those of the native Egyptians
of the same period. It is therefore very interesting to find that the physical attributes of
the people buried in these so-called ‘ Pan-graves ’ completely corroborate the archaeological
evidence of an intrusive race-element. The catalogue-numbers may be readily identified
in Charts I g and II g ; they are i o i—115 for the males and i o 2a—n o for the females.
The measurements reveal a remarkable homogeneity and the males in particular exhibit
a strongly-marked racial type. The cephalic index of the six male specimens is uniformly
1 See J o u r n . A n th r o p , I n s t ., vol. xxxiii, p. 165.
low and in every case below the average of the general population of the time, while Review of
their vertical index is at the same time higher than the average. None of the males are llllSl 1 , . . ° a history from
ortnognatftic, two are extremely prognathic; and the only specimens in which the nose tfae Sixth
could be observed were very platyrhine. The eight male femora available for Eighteenth
measurement gave a median of 466 mm. to 480 mm., which is at least a centimetre and r)ynasties-
a half longer than the typical femur of the contemporary natives.
The circumstance that this knot of individuals displays characteristic negroid features
taken in connexion with their proved association with a particular style of pottery
manufacture appears to justify us in the assumption that the ware referred to was made
by this, a negroid, people. Now the same highly peculiar ware and the same unusual
style of grave have up to the present only been met with in the Early Predynastic time.
It seems therefore quite a reasonable conjecture that the makers of this pottery in the
Early Predynastic period were a negroid people of the same strain as that found in this
colony of Twelfth Dynasty date; though, on the other hand, it is possible that these
immigrants merely brought back an art which they had originally learned from their
non-negroid neighbours but which the latter had forgotten.
In considering the succeeding series, viz. two of the Twelfth to Fifteenth Dynasties
and two of the Eighteenth, it becomes evident that we have to deal with two sections of the
population which were differentiated by the social conditions of the time. In each of the
periods represented (Twelfth to Fifteenth and Eighteenth Dynasties) the specimens
examined are taken from two distinct cemeteries, though the distance separating the sites is
not many miles. Now the remarkable fact appears that in the examples obtained from
the cemeteries at Abydos the median of the cranial capacity is 100 cc. greater for the
males than it is in those obtained from either Hou (Twelfth to Fifteenth Dynasties) or
Shekh Ali (Eighteenth Dynasty). Correspondingly the heads of the Abydos people are
slightly rounder than those of the inhabitants of Hou and Shekh Ali. Unfortunately
there are no data by which to gauge any differences of stature which may have existed
between the two social classes, but the fact that the increase in the cranial capacity of the
Abydos people is correlated with a rise in the cephalic index justifies us in assuming that
probably there was little if any difference in this respect. Such an increase in the cranial
capacity might reasonably be ascribed to higher culture and a more refined manner of life.
The general population at Hou (Twelfth to Fifteenth Dynasties) and at Shekh Ali
(Eighteenth Dynasty) conforms fairly closely to that of the earlier periods, whilst the
general population of Abydos resembles rather the people buried in the Royal Tombs of
the First and Second Dynasties. It will be useful therefore to consider here what
archaeological evidence there is which may bear upon these points.
Every archaeologist is aware that Abydos was the most sacred place in ancient
Egypt f°r the worshippers of Osiris. To be buried there in the neighbourhood of his
god was the ambition of every pious person, but naturally such a privilege was beyond
the hopes of the very poor, and, as the space in the cemeteries decreased, was more and
more restricted to the wealthier sections of the community. At Shekh Ali, on the other
hand, the individuals who were thrown promiscuously into a pit without any of the
accessories of tomb-furniture were probably either paupers or at the least persons of an
inferior class. Those who were buried at Hou were no doubt of better standing, but the
equipment of the tombs and the unostentatious style of their construction suggest that
their owners belonged only to such a bourgeois class as was found at Denderah in the
preceding period.