ancient people, such, as the Iberians or Basques of the Pyrenees, the Lapps and Samoiedes,
and the Pelasgi, traces of-whom are still found in Greece.
* “ Next, in succession'to this aboriginal race, subsisting by fishing and hunting, comes
another with a cranium of a more lengthened oral form, and prominent and narrow occiput.
I think this second race .to have been of Gothic extraction, to have first commenced the
division of the land for agricultural purposes, and consequently to have had bloody strife
with the former inhabitants.....................
“ The third race which has inhabited Scandinavia came possibly from the North and
East, and introduced bronze into the country; the form of the skull is very different from
that of the two former races; It is larger than the first, and broader than the second, and
withal prominent at the sides. I consider this race to have been of Celtic origin.” The
fourth, or true Swea race, introduced into Sweden weapons and instruments ,of iron, and
appear to have been the immediate ancestors of the present Swedes. With this race
Swedish history fairly begins.1™
Prof. B e t z iu s , in the main, coincides with the opinion of Prof.
N il s so n . He applies to the Lapps the term Turanic, and regards
them a? the relies of the true Scandinavian aborigines — a people
who once occupied not only the southern part of Sweden, but also
Denmark, Great Britain, Northern Germany, and Prance. He calls
the Turanic skull, brachy-cephalic (short-head), and describes it as
short and round, the occiput flattened? and the parietal protuberances
quite prominent.17?
A cast of a Norwegian skull in the Mortonian Collection (No.
1260), is remarkable-for its great size. It belongs to the dolichocephalic
variety of B e t z iu s . The fronto-parietal convexity is regular
from side to side. The occipital region as a whole is quite prominent;
but the basal portion of the occiput is flat and parallel with
the horizon when the head rests squarely upon the lower jaw. The
glabella, superciliary ridges, and external angular processes of the
os frontis are very rough and prominent, overhanging the orbits and
inter-orbital space in such a manner as to give a very harsh and forbidding
expression to the face. The semi-circular ridges passing
back from the external angular process, are quite elevated and sharp.
The nasal bones are high and rather sharp at the line of junction;
orbits capacious; malar bones of moderate size, and flattened antero-
laterally; superior maxilla rather small in comparison with the inferior,
which is quite large, and much flared out at the angles. The
facial angle is good, and the whole head strongly marked.
According to Prof. B e t z iu s , the Swedish cranium, as seen from
above, presents an oval figure. Its greatest breadth is to its greatest
and water in the South Pacific Ocean, may have so circumscribed the geographical limits
of the Dinornis and Palapteryx, as to produce conditions that tended to diminish their
numbers preparatory to their final annihilation.”
177 Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, for 1847, p. 31.
178 See Muller’s Archives, for 1819 p. 575.
length as 1000 : 773. The external occipital protuberance is remarkably
prominent, so that the external auditory meatus appears to occupy
a more advanced position than is really the case. A plane passing
through the two meati, perpendicular to the long diameter of the
cranium, cuts this diameter nearly in the middle. The face is long,
but not very prominent, the inferior jaw well pronounced and massive’
while the inter-orbital space is large, as is generally the ease with the
Northern races of men.. From the skulls found in ancient tombs,
we may infer that this form has not varied for at least 1000 years.179
The Swedish form of skull, judging from the specimens in Morton’s
Collection, bears a family resemblance to the Norwegian, and
in several respects, is not unlike the Anglo-Saxon head figured in
the first decade of Crania Britannica. In the Anglo-Saxon, however,
the chin is more acuminated, and the maxillary rami longer.
The chief points of resemblance about the calvaria, are the slightly
elevated forehead, the* rather flattened vertex, and the inclination of
the parietalia downwards and backwards towards the occiput. This
latter feature is also possessed by the Norwegian cast referred to
above.
In the skull of a Swedish woman of the thirteenth century (No.
1249 of the Mortonian Collection), the singularly protuberant occiput
projects far behind the foramen magnum. The skulls of an
ancient Ostrogoth (No. 1255), and two ancient Cimbric Swedes (Nos.
1550 and 1532), evidently belong to the same peculiar type. These
four heads resemble each other as strongly as they differ from the
remaining Swedes, Finnd, Germans, and Kelts in the Collection.
They call to mind the kumbe-kephalse, or boat-shaped skulls of
Wilso n. So. 1v362, a cast of an ancient Cimbrian skull, from the
Danish Island of Moen, presents the same elongated form. It differs
from the four preceding skulls in being larger, more massive, and
broader in the forehead.
Nos. 117,1258, and 1488 possess the true Swedish form as described
above.
Two Swedo-Finland skulls (Nos. 1545-and 1546)—marked in my
manuscript catalogue as appertaining to “ descendants of colonists
who settled in Finland in the most remote times” — are broader,
more angular, and less oval than the true Swedish form. The horizontal
portion of the occiput is quite flat, and the occipital protuberance
prominent.
Three Sudermanland Swedes have the same general form. Three
Swedish Finns (mixed race) have a more squarely globular, and less
™ Ueber die Sehadelformen der Nordbewohner in Miiller’s Archiv., 1 ft45.