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#0027
every feature of the skull and skeleton, when the remains of the people
of Lower Egypt are compared with those of Upper Egypt in the times
of the Old Kingdom or earlier. That our experience at Giza was not
exceptional will be realized at once if anyone accpiainted with the
physical characteristics of the Archaic Egyptian skull from the Thebaid
will glance at Plate XXXVI of Flinders Petrie's volume " Deshasheh "
(Egypt Exploration Fund's Report, 1898) representing some of these
Lower Egyptians. There is a marked increase m size and an alteration
in the form of the cranium; the pentagonoid shape has given place to
the beloid ; the protuberance of the occiput has gone ; the superciliary
ridges have become more prominent : the nose has lengthened and
become high-bridged, narrow and prominent, and has developed a
nasal spine ; the orbits have become larger, squarer, and the infero-
lateral corner has become dragged downward and outward ; the face
as a whole has become more orthognathous ; the zygomatic arches
have widened ; and most distinctive changes have occurred in the
mandible. The pointed form of the Predynastic jaw has gone and
been replaced by a broader, stronger body ; the ascending ramus has
become more vertical and longer (as well as relatively narrower) ; the
angle is now a nearer approximation to a right angle; and that curiously
distinctive feature, the exaggeration of the coronoid process (well seen
in No. 105, Flinders Petrie's Plate XXXVI) often crops up. We have
repeatedly observed these features in our large Giza series, as well as
in other material from Saqqara and Lisht; but we specifically refer to
Petrie's photographs because they afford an objective demonstration of
skulls, not selected by us, in illustration of the facts we have mentioned
elsewhere (see Annual Report 1907-8, Vol. II, Chapter II).
In other words, this addition of another four millimetres to the
mean breadth of the cranium in Lower Egyptians (as compared with
that of their contemporaries in Upper Egypt) is merely one manifes-
tation of a profound contrast between the physical traits of the people
of two parts of Egypt at this time.
Although we have reasons * for believing that the influx of aliens
—for there was certainly a racial mixture in Lower Egypt at the time
of the Pyramid-builders—was not very pronounced until the time of
the third or fourth dynasties, there had probably been an infiltration
* At present we are not at liberty to set forth these reasons, because they must be published
elsewhere before we may refer to them more categorically.
of Lower Egypt are compared with those of Upper Egypt in the times
of the Old Kingdom or earlier. That our experience at Giza was not
exceptional will be realized at once if anyone accpiainted with the
physical characteristics of the Archaic Egyptian skull from the Thebaid
will glance at Plate XXXVI of Flinders Petrie's volume " Deshasheh "
(Egypt Exploration Fund's Report, 1898) representing some of these
Lower Egyptians. There is a marked increase m size and an alteration
in the form of the cranium; the pentagonoid shape has given place to
the beloid ; the protuberance of the occiput has gone ; the superciliary
ridges have become more prominent : the nose has lengthened and
become high-bridged, narrow and prominent, and has developed a
nasal spine ; the orbits have become larger, squarer, and the infero-
lateral corner has become dragged downward and outward ; the face
as a whole has become more orthognathous ; the zygomatic arches
have widened ; and most distinctive changes have occurred in the
mandible. The pointed form of the Predynastic jaw has gone and
been replaced by a broader, stronger body ; the ascending ramus has
become more vertical and longer (as well as relatively narrower) ; the
angle is now a nearer approximation to a right angle; and that curiously
distinctive feature, the exaggeration of the coronoid process (well seen
in No. 105, Flinders Petrie's Plate XXXVI) often crops up. We have
repeatedly observed these features in our large Giza series, as well as
in other material from Saqqara and Lisht; but we specifically refer to
Petrie's photographs because they afford an objective demonstration of
skulls, not selected by us, in illustration of the facts we have mentioned
elsewhere (see Annual Report 1907-8, Vol. II, Chapter II).
In other words, this addition of another four millimetres to the
mean breadth of the cranium in Lower Egyptians (as compared with
that of their contemporaries in Upper Egypt) is merely one manifes-
tation of a profound contrast between the physical traits of the people
of two parts of Egypt at this time.
Although we have reasons * for believing that the influx of aliens
—for there was certainly a racial mixture in Lower Egypt at the time
of the Pyramid-builders—was not very pronounced until the time of
the third or fourth dynasties, there had probably been an infiltration
* At present we are not at liberty to set forth these reasons, because they must be published
elsewhere before we may refer to them more categorically.