DOI Artikel:
Smith, Grafton Elliot: Anatomical report (A)
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18101#0031
ANATOMICAL REPORT.
At the outset it is desirable to explain the aims and significance of
the anatomical work, the general results of which will be sketched in
these Bulletins from time to time, and to indicate briefly the methods
employed in the field to attain these objects.
The accounts to be given in these reports will be little more than
memoranda of the data collected in the course of field work. The
material collected will be submitted to a more thorough examination
in Cairo later on and the results of this investigation will be more
fully discussed in special publications, in which also the complete
account of the field work will be given.
It is the first duty of the anatomist working in conjunction with
the archaeologist to supply the latter with information, derived from
the study of human remains, which is of essential importance in the
interpretation of many of the results of the archaeological investiga-
tion. In this category are included the determination of sex ; the
estimation of age ; the suggestion of affinities between different bodies
based upon anatomical resemblances, i.e. family likenesses; the apprec-
iation of facts indicative of race ; and the results of the examination
of the condition of the bodily remains, especially with reference to the
evidence of (a) mutilations—such, for example, as circumcision—
practised on the body before death, which have some definite ethno-
logical value, and (b) attempts to preserve or embalm the body after
death.
The second object of the anatomical work, and that to which most
time and attention is devoted, is purely anthropological—the study of
all the human remains brought to light with a view to the classifica-
tion of their distinctive features and the determination of their racial
characteristics. In pursuance of this aim, two perfectly distinct series
of observations are made. First and foremost, the outstanding features
and racial characters of every individual are carefully studied and
At the outset it is desirable to explain the aims and significance of
the anatomical work, the general results of which will be sketched in
these Bulletins from time to time, and to indicate briefly the methods
employed in the field to attain these objects.
The accounts to be given in these reports will be little more than
memoranda of the data collected in the course of field work. The
material collected will be submitted to a more thorough examination
in Cairo later on and the results of this investigation will be more
fully discussed in special publications, in which also the complete
account of the field work will be given.
It is the first duty of the anatomist working in conjunction with
the archaeologist to supply the latter with information, derived from
the study of human remains, which is of essential importance in the
interpretation of many of the results of the archaeological investiga-
tion. In this category are included the determination of sex ; the
estimation of age ; the suggestion of affinities between different bodies
based upon anatomical resemblances, i.e. family likenesses; the apprec-
iation of facts indicative of race ; and the results of the examination
of the condition of the bodily remains, especially with reference to the
evidence of (a) mutilations—such, for example, as circumcision—
practised on the body before death, which have some definite ethno-
logical value, and (b) attempts to preserve or embalm the body after
death.
The second object of the anatomical work, and that to which most
time and attention is devoted, is purely anthropological—the study of
all the human remains brought to light with a view to the classifica-
tion of their distinctive features and the determination of their racial
characteristics. In pursuance of this aim, two perfectly distinct series
of observations are made. First and foremost, the outstanding features
and racial characters of every individual are carefully studied and