DOI article:
Smith, Grafton Elliot; Derry, Douglas Erith: Anatomical report: dealing with the work during the months of January and February 1910
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18106#0026
— 21 —
measurements, but also on the appreciation of the very definite biological
characters which serve to distinguish the skeletons of different indi-
viduals and groups of varied dates and provenance, examined by us in
cemeteries ranging from Giza, in Lower Egypt, as far south as Dakka,
in Nubia, and representing every period in the vast span of time from
Early Predynastic burials made fifty-five centuries ago up to Christian
burials of the seventh century.
The mere statement of the means of the cranial breadths of a
varied assortment of groups, drawn deliberately in many instances
from sources other than our own observations, serves to illustrate and
express the reality of the distinctive features upon which we have been
relying, but which are less easily presented in an objective manner.
Our estimate of the mean breadth of the Early Predynastic male
cranium, 132 millimetres, is so near to that obtained by Thomson and
Randall-Maclver from a series from neighbouring sites in the Thebaid,
namely Abydos and El Amrah, that we can assume it to represent the
average cranial breadth of the earliest known men in Upper Egypt.
In the transition from Early to Late Predynastic periods in Upper
Egypt this mean breadth increased from 132 to 133-5 millimetres and
remained almost constant at this figure until the end of the First
Dynasty, if we exclude the mean obtained from the crania from the
Royal Tombs, which is more than 4 millimetres greater than that of
the plebeian population.
A similar increase of 1-2 millimetres took place in the transition
from the Protodynastic (133-7 millimetres) to the Early Dynastic
(second to fourth dynasties) period in Upper Egypt, when the mean
breadth became almost 135 millimetres. The mean of the Early
Dynastic (A-group) population of Nubia is 134-3 millimetres, but
the mean cranial breadth of the Lower Egyptian population in the
time of the Old Kingdom (fourth to sixth dynasties) suddenly jumps
up to 139 millimetres, a figure which accords well withRandall-MacIver's
139-2 millimetres, obtained from Flinders Petrie's material from
Medum and Deshasheh, attributed to the third, fourth and fifth
dynasties, as well as with the mean 139-7 millimetres obtained from
the measurements of a series of crania from Giza, which series is in the
Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, London. This increase in
the mean breadth of the cranium is no isolated phenomenon, but is one
of the numerical expressions of a profound contrast recognizable in
measurements, but also on the appreciation of the very definite biological
characters which serve to distinguish the skeletons of different indi-
viduals and groups of varied dates and provenance, examined by us in
cemeteries ranging from Giza, in Lower Egypt, as far south as Dakka,
in Nubia, and representing every period in the vast span of time from
Early Predynastic burials made fifty-five centuries ago up to Christian
burials of the seventh century.
The mere statement of the means of the cranial breadths of a
varied assortment of groups, drawn deliberately in many instances
from sources other than our own observations, serves to illustrate and
express the reality of the distinctive features upon which we have been
relying, but which are less easily presented in an objective manner.
Our estimate of the mean breadth of the Early Predynastic male
cranium, 132 millimetres, is so near to that obtained by Thomson and
Randall-Maclver from a series from neighbouring sites in the Thebaid,
namely Abydos and El Amrah, that we can assume it to represent the
average cranial breadth of the earliest known men in Upper Egypt.
In the transition from Early to Late Predynastic periods in Upper
Egypt this mean breadth increased from 132 to 133-5 millimetres and
remained almost constant at this figure until the end of the First
Dynasty, if we exclude the mean obtained from the crania from the
Royal Tombs, which is more than 4 millimetres greater than that of
the plebeian population.
A similar increase of 1-2 millimetres took place in the transition
from the Protodynastic (133-7 millimetres) to the Early Dynastic
(second to fourth dynasties) period in Upper Egypt, when the mean
breadth became almost 135 millimetres. The mean of the Early
Dynastic (A-group) population of Nubia is 134-3 millimetres, but
the mean cranial breadth of the Lower Egyptian population in the
time of the Old Kingdom (fourth to sixth dynasties) suddenly jumps
up to 139 millimetres, a figure which accords well withRandall-MacIver's
139-2 millimetres, obtained from Flinders Petrie's material from
Medum and Deshasheh, attributed to the third, fourth and fifth
dynasties, as well as with the mean 139-7 millimetres obtained from
the measurements of a series of crania from Giza, which series is in the
Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, London. This increase in
the mean breadth of the cranium is no isolated phenomenon, but is one
of the numerical expressions of a profound contrast recognizable in