DOI article:
Smith, Grafton Elliot: Anatomical report (A)
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18101#0035
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corn-like in distribution. Finally, two other members of this series
exhibit no negro features and would be indistinguishable from the
Egyptian series if it were not for their great stature and the proportions
of their limbs. In all of these people, without exception, we find the
greatly elongated bones of the lanky Sudanese negro of the present
day. It is worthy of special note that, in this group of extended burials
—unlike all the other groups, all the bodies are adult males, not a
single child's or woman's body being found.
All of the bodies in these cemeteries which retained the necessary
evidence were circumcised.
In addition to these varied graves, Cemetery No. 7 contains several
tombs of the time of the New Empire (eighteenth and nineteenth
dynasties). Skeletons were obtained from two of these. From one
pit (No. 3), parts of nineteen bodies were obtained. Eight of these were
typical Egyptian men of medium height, and the others were small
women (five Egyptians, four negresses, and one negro-mixture), and a
child of Egyptian type about three years of age. From another pit
(No. 2), three Egyptian women's skeletons were obtained. (See Sup-
plementary Report, p. 37).
In the cemetery (No. 5) on the island of Biga, we meet with a state
of affairs vastly different from that found in any of the sites on the
mainland. It is a Christian burial place, and bodies, varying in number
from one to nineteen, were put into vaults (PI. X). Amongst these
corpses are a certain number of negroes and other people as yet indis-
tinguishable fromEgyptians and Nubians(Berberines); but the majority
of the bodies so far examined conform to a physical type which does
not occur in any of the native races of Egypt or Nubia and for the like
of which we have to seek further afield—to Syria and the south-eastern
shores of Europe.
In these people the head is much bigger and broader than that of
either the Egyptian or the Negro and of quite a different form, and
the features of the face present an equally marked contrast (Pis. XX
and XXI). When compared with the long narrow Egyptian face
(PI. XIX), that of these Biga foreigners seems short and broad, and
the nose is narrow and exceptionally prominent, like that of many of
the modern inhabitants of Syria and south-eastern Europe. They
corn-like in distribution. Finally, two other members of this series
exhibit no negro features and would be indistinguishable from the
Egyptian series if it were not for their great stature and the proportions
of their limbs. In all of these people, without exception, we find the
greatly elongated bones of the lanky Sudanese negro of the present
day. It is worthy of special note that, in this group of extended burials
—unlike all the other groups, all the bodies are adult males, not a
single child's or woman's body being found.
All of the bodies in these cemeteries which retained the necessary
evidence were circumcised.
In addition to these varied graves, Cemetery No. 7 contains several
tombs of the time of the New Empire (eighteenth and nineteenth
dynasties). Skeletons were obtained from two of these. From one
pit (No. 3), parts of nineteen bodies were obtained. Eight of these were
typical Egyptian men of medium height, and the others were small
women (five Egyptians, four negresses, and one negro-mixture), and a
child of Egyptian type about three years of age. From another pit
(No. 2), three Egyptian women's skeletons were obtained. (See Sup-
plementary Report, p. 37).
In the cemetery (No. 5) on the island of Biga, we meet with a state
of affairs vastly different from that found in any of the sites on the
mainland. It is a Christian burial place, and bodies, varying in number
from one to nineteen, were put into vaults (PI. X). Amongst these
corpses are a certain number of negroes and other people as yet indis-
tinguishable fromEgyptians and Nubians(Berberines); but the majority
of the bodies so far examined conform to a physical type which does
not occur in any of the native races of Egypt or Nubia and for the like
of which we have to seek further afield—to Syria and the south-eastern
shores of Europe.
In these people the head is much bigger and broader than that of
either the Egyptian or the Negro and of quite a different form, and
the features of the face present an equally marked contrast (Pis. XX
and XXI). When compared with the long narrow Egyptian face
(PI. XIX), that of these Biga foreigners seems short and broad, and
the nose is narrow and exceptionally prominent, like that of many of
the modern inhabitants of Syria and south-eastern Europe. They