THE RANGE OF NEOLITHIC DOLICHO-CEPHALI AND BRACHY-CEPHALI.
Relation of Human Remains to those found in Tumuli in Britain.
--The Dolicho-cephali and Brachy-cephali.--Their Range in
Britain and Ireland--in France.--The Caverne de l’Homme Mort.
--The Sepulchral Cave of Orrouy.--The Tumuli.--In Belgium.
--The Sepulchral Caves of Chauvaux and Sclaigneaux.--The
Dolicho-cephali of the Iberian Peninsula--Gibraltar--Spain.
--Cueva de los Murcièlagos.--The Woman’s Cave near Alhama
in Granada.--The Guanches of the Canary Isles.--Iberic
Dolicho-cephali of the same race as those of Britain, France, and
Belgium--Cognate or Identical with the Basque Race.--Evidence
of History as to the Peoples of Gaul and Spain.--The Basque
Populations the Oldest.--The Population of Britain.--Basque
characters in Present Population of Britain and France.--Whence
came the Basques?--The Celtic and Belgic Brachy-cephali.--The
Ancient German Race.--General Conclusions.
_The Relation of the Human Remains to those found in British Tumuli._
Before we examine the relation of this ancient neolithic race of men to
those who have left their remains in tumuli and caves in other regions,
it is necessary to define the cranial terminology, as adopted by
Professors Busk, Huxley, Dr. Thurnam, and other high authorities. The
term “cephalic index” indicates “the ratio of the extreme transverse to
the extreme longitudinal diameter of the skull, the latter measurement
being taken as unity” (Huxley).
The most convenient classification of crania is that adopted by Dr.
Thurnam and Professor Huxley,[117] and based on the cephalic index.
I. Dolicho-cephali, or long skulls with cephalic index at or below ·73
Subdolicho-cephali ” ” from ·70 to ·73
II. Ortho-cephali, or oval skulls ” ·74 to ·79
Subbrachy-cephali ” ·77 to ·79
III. Brachy-cephali or broad skulls at or above ·80
It has been objected that skull form is of no value in determining
race, because it varies so much at the present time among the same
peoples, presenting the extremes of dolicho- and brachy-cephalism as
well as every kind of asymmetry. This, however, is due to our very
abnormal conditions of life, and to the mixture of different races
brought about by the needs of commerce, as in Manchester and Vienna, as
is pointed out by Mr. Bradley.[118]
In prehistoric times, neither of these causes of variation made
themselves seriously felt. There was little, if any, peaceful movement
of races, but war was the normal condition, and society was not
sufficiently advanced to remove man from the influence of his natural
environment. The objection may therefore be dismissed as not applicable
to the skulls in question.
The extent to which abnormal conditions of life are capable of
modifying the shape of skulls may be gathered from the comparison of
the skull of an Irish hog with that of its ancestor the wild-boar, or
even that of a hyæna kept in confinement with that of a wild animal of
the same species. (See Osteol. Series, Brit. Mus.)
_The British Dolicho-cephali and Brachy-cephali._
The materials for working out the craniology of Europe, in prehistoric
times, do not justify any sweeping conclusion as to the distribution
of the various races, but those which Dr. Thurnam (_op. cit._) has
collected in Britain offer a firm basis for such an inquiry. In the
numerous long barrows and chambered “gallery graves” of our island,
which from the invariable absence of bronze, and the frequent presence
of polished stone implements, may be referred to the neolithic age, the
crania belong, with scarcely an exception, to the first two of these
divisions. In the round barrows, on the other hand, in which bronze
articles are found, they belong mainly to the third division, although
some are ortho-cephalous. Sometimes, as in the case of Tilshead, the
crania in the primary interment, over which the long barrow was raised,
are long, while those in the secondary, which have been made after the
heaping up of the barrow, are broad.
On evidence of this kind Dr. Thurnam concludes, that Britain was
inhabited in the neolithic age by a long-headed people, and that
towards its close it was invaded by a bronze-using race, who were
dominant during the bronze age. This important conclusion has been
verified by nearly every discovery which has been made in this country
since its publication. The long skulls graduate into the broad, the
oval skulls being the intermediate forms; and this would naturally
result from the intermingling of the blood of the two races. There
may, however, have been a tendency towards ortho-cephalism in the
dolicho-cephali, without any admixture of foreign blood, since absolute
unity of form could not be expected.
The skull of the primary interment in the barrow of Winterbourne Stoke
is taken by Dr. Thurnam as typical of the dolicho-cephalic class.
“The greatest length is 7·3 inches (the glabello-inial diameter 7·1
inches); the greatest breadth is 5·5 inches, being in the proportion
of 75 to the length taken as 100. The forehead is narrow and receding,
and moderately high in the coronal region, behind which is a trace of
transverse depression. The parietal tubers are somewhat full, and add
materially to the breadth of this otherwise narrow skull. The posterior
borders of the parietals are prolonged backwards, to join a complex
chain of Wormian bones in the line of the lambdoid suture. The superior
scale of the occiput is full, rounded, and prominent; the inion more
pronounced than usual in this class of dolicho-cephalic skulls. The
superciliaries are well marked, the orbits rather small and long; the
nasals prominent, the facial bones short and small; the molars flat
and almost vertical; the alveolars short, but rather projecting. The
mandible is comparatively small, but angular; the chin square, narrow,
and prominent.”[119]
Dolicho-cephalic skulls in general (and in part ortho-cephalic) are
possessed, according to Dr. Thurnam, of the following characters (Vol.
iii. p. 69):--“The supraciliary ridges are less strongly marked than
in the brachy-cephalic. There is none of the prognathism, exaggerated
malar breadth or great width of the nasal openings, which give such
an air of savageness and ferocity to the New Caledonians and Caroline
Islanders; but the very reverse of all these. They are indeed more
orthognathic even than many Europeans, and the facial characters
generally are mild, and without exaggerated development in any one
direction.” Their faces are oval. The upper jaw is small, and the
sockets of the incisors and canine almost vertical. The supra-occipital
region is full and rounded, and there is a post-coronal annular
depression on the skull, termed by Dr. Gosse “tête annulaire.” The
length is mainly due to the development of the occiput, a condition
that is termed by M. Broca “dolicho-cephalie occipitale,” as
distinguished from the “dolicho-cephalie frontale” of other races.
The teeth are worn flat. The bones associated with the skulls of this
character show that the stature of the race was short, 5 feet 5 inches
being the average height.
In the brachy-cephalic, or broad skulls, on the other hand, the
supraciliary ridges are more strongly marked than in the preceding
group; the cheek-bones are high and broad, the sockets for the front
teeth are oblique, and the mouth projects beyond the vertical dropped
from the forehead, presenting the character of prognathism. The face,
instead of being oval, is angular or lozenge-shaped. On the back of
the head the occipital tuberosity, or probole, is the most prominent
feature, and there is also generally an occipital flattening, which may
have been caused by the use of an unyielding cradle-board in infancy.
The entire maxillary apparatus is so largely developed, that the
term “macrognathic,” introduced by Professor Huxley, is particularly
applicable to them. The “type mongoloide” of Dr. Pruner-Bey is closely
allied to, if not identical with, this form of skull.
The stature of the British brachy-cephali is much greater than that of
the dolicho-cephali, the average for the adult male being 5 feet 8·4
inches, according to Dr. Thurnam.
The human remains from the caves and chambered-tombs of Denbighshire
belong to the first of these divisions, in the possession of every one
of the characters assigned to it by Dr. Thurnam, although the crania
belong to the ortho-cephalous portion of the series, that is, tending
towards broad-headedness. It may therefore be inferred that they belong
to the same race as the neolithic raisers of the long-barrows, a race
which we shall presently see to be identical with the ancient Iberians
and modern Basques.
_The Range of the Dolicho-cephali in Britain and Ireland._
The same class of human remains has been obtained from caves in other
districts in Great Britain. In the Oxford Museum a human skull, from
the cave of Llandebie, possesses cephalic index of ·72; while a second,
from the cave of Uphill in Somersetshire, explored by Mr. James Parker
in 1863, measures ·723. (See p. 197.) The latter was associated with
rude pottery, charcoal, and the remains of the following animals: the
wild-cat, dog, fox, badger, pig, stag, _Bos longifrons_, goat, and
water-rat. Most of the remains belong to young individuals, and some
have been gnawed by dogs, wolves, or foxes.
In Yorkshire a human femur presenting an enormous development of
the linea aspera, which implies the possession of the platycnemic
character, has been met with in a cave in King’s Scar, near Settle (see
p. 113), and fragments of a long skull are preserved in the Museum at
Leeds from that of Dowkerbottom.
Professor Turner has described[120] the remains found in a cave in
the Old Red sandstone on the shore of the bay of Oban in 1869 by Mr.
Mackay. There were two human skeletons, along with the broken and burnt
bones of the roe and stag, limpet-shells, flint nodules, and flint
flakes. One of the leg-bones is platycnemic, and the fragments of skull
may probably be referred to the dolicho-cephalic type.
The same type of skull has also been obtained by the Rev. Canon
Greenwell, from the neolithic tumuli of Yorkshire, along with the
same group of animals as in the caves at Perthi-Chwareu, the _Bos
longifrons_, goat, horse, dog, and stag; and Professor Rolleston,
F.R.S., informs me that some of the associated human leg-bones are
platycnemic. It is also recognized by Professor Huxley as identical
with his river-bed type of skulls from alluvial deposits near Muskham
in the valley of the Trent, Ledbury Hall in the valley of the Dove, and
in Ireland from the bed of the Nore in Queen’s County, and from that
of the river Blackwater. To it also Professor Huxley refers[121] five
or six out of the seven skulls obtained by Mr. Laing from the stone
cists in the burial mound at Keiss in Caithness, and associated with
rude weapons and implements of bone and stone. They probably belonged
to the inhabitants of the neighbouring burgh, or circular stone
dwelling, in and around which were the broken bones of the following
animal remains: the _Bos longifrons_, goat, stag, hog, horse, dog, fox,
grampus or small whale, dolphin or some other small cetacean, great auk
(_Alca impennis_, now extinct in Europe), lesser auk, cormorant, shag,
solan goose, cod, lobster, and shell-fish. A lower jaw also of a child,
broken after the same manner as other refuse bones, is considered by
Professor Owen and Mr. Laing to prove that human flesh was sometimes
used for food. The reindeer was living in the district at this time,
since its remains have been identified by Dr. Campbell from the Harbour
mound, one of the many refuse-heaps in the neighbourhood.
The same kind of skull is also described by Professor Wilson under
the name of “boat-shaped” or “kumbe-cephalic,” from the ancient stone
chambers and tumuli of Scotland.[122]
In the Table on the next page, showing the relative size and shape of
the more important long skulls of Britain and Ireland, it will be seen
that the extreme long-headedness of those from the long barrows is not
possessed by those either of the caves and tombs of Denbighshire or of
the river-bed type of Huxley, represented by the skulls from Muskham,
Ledbury, Blackwater (Ireland), and Keiss.
The greater breadth of the skulls from the caves and tombs of
Denbighshire, as compared with those of the typical long skulls
from the long barrows, may possibly be due to a mixture with the
broad-headed race. In that case, however, none of the tallness, or
prognathism, of the latter has been handed down. It is most probably a
mere variation within the limits of one race, and is unaccompanied by
the fusion of dolicho-cephalic with brachy-cephalic characters, such
as M. Broca and Dr. Thurnam have observed in the skulls from tombs and
caves in France.
+--------------------------------------+-------+--------+-------+--------+--------+------+
| | | | | |Latitud.| |
| SKULLS. |Length.|Breadth.|Height.|Circum- |or Ceph.| Alt. |
| | | | |ference.| Index. |Index.|
+--------------------------------------+-------+--------+-------+--------+--------+------+
|Mean of 48 males, Brit., Thurnam, | 7·7 | 5·5 | 5·62 | 21·3 | ·715 | ·730 |
| long barrows | | | | | | |
|Mean of 19 females, Brit., Thurnam | 7·45 | 5·3 | 5·3 | 20·6 | ·710 | ·730 |
| long barrows | | | | | | |
|Mean of 10 skulls, Perthi-Chwareu Cave| 7·07 | 5·5 | 5·6 | 20·0 | ·765 | -- |
|Skull from Llandebie Cave | 7·3 | 5·3 | -- | -- | ·720 | -- |
| ” Uphill | 7·36 | 5·43 | -- | -- | ·723 | -- |
|Mean of 6 skulls from Keiss. (Huxley) | 7·22 | 5·45 | 5·19 | -- | ·755 | ·716 |
|Skull from Muskham ” | 7·0 | 5·4 | -- | -- | ·770 | -- |
| ” Ledbury Hall ” | 7·15 | 5·5 | -- | -- | ·770 | -- |
| ” Blackwater, Ireland ” | 7·2 | 5·65 | -- | -- | ·780 | -- |
+--------------------------------------+-------+--------+-------+--------+--------+------+
From the examples given in the preceding pages it is evident that, in
ancient times, long-headed men of small stature inhabited the whole of
Britain and Ireland, burying their dead in caves, but more generally in
chambered tombs. They were farmers and shepherds, and in this country
in the neolithic stage of culture. In the solitary case offered by the
Harbour mound at Keiss they were cannibals.[123]
_The Range of the Brachy-cephali._
No human remains of the brachy-cephalic, or broad type, as defined
by Dr. Thurnam have been obtained from the caves in Britain. The
evidence, however, is decisive that, in the Bronze age, a tall,
round-headed, rugged-featured race occupied all those parts of Britain
and Ireland that were worth conquering, and drove away to the west or
absorbed the smaller neolithic inhabitants. And the identity of their
skull-form, in the series of interments in the round and bowl-shaped
barrows, extending from the Bronze age down to the date of the Roman
occupation of Britain, shows that, both in the North and the South,
this large-sized coarse-featured people was in possession at the time
of the Roman conquest.
The size and shape of the typical broad crania may be gathered from the
first two columns of the following Table, which is an abstract of those
published by Dr. Thurnam in “Crania Britannica,” and the “Memoirs of
the Anthropological Society.”
_Measurements of British Brachy-cephali, and Gaulish and Belgic
Brachy-cephali and Dolicho-cephali._
Column-heading Key:
A Date.[B]
B Length.
C Breadth.
D Height.
E Circumference.
F Latitudinal or Cephalic index.
G Altitudinal index.
+-------------------------------------+-------+----+-----+----+----+------+-----+
| SKULL. | A | B | C | D | E | F | G |
+-------------------------------------+-------+----+-----+----+----+------+-----+
| | | | | | | | |
|TYPICAL BROAD SKULLS.--BRITAIN. | | | | | | | |
| Mean of 56 males, Brit. Round | {N.} |7·28|5·9 |5·6 |21·1| ·81 | ·77|
| Barrows | {B.} | | | | | | |
| Mean of 14 females, Brit. Round | {I.} |6·9 |5·6 |5·3 |20· | ·81 | ·77|
| Barrows | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
| LONG AND SHORT SKULLS.--FRANCE. +-------+----+-----+----+----+------+-----+
| Tumulus, Noyelles-sur-mer-Somme | N. |6·9 |5·6p |5·5 |20·3| ·81 | ·79|
| “Grotto,” Nogent les Vièrges, Oise | N. |7·2 |5·8p |5·5 |21· | ·80 | ·76|
| ” ” ” ” | |7·3 |5·2p |5·2 |20·1| ·71 | ·71|
| ” ” ” ” | |7·1 |5·7p |5·2 |20·8| ·80 | ·73|
| ” ” ” ” | |6·9 |5·9p |5·5 |20·9| ·85 | ·79|
| ” ” ” ” | |7·3 |5·4p |5·5 |20·6| ·74 | ·75|
| ” ” ” ” | |7·4 |5·2p |5·6 |20·8| ·70 | ·75|
| Dolmen Du Val, Senlis, Oise | N. |6·6 |5·6p |5·4 |19·7| ·84 | ·81|
| ” ” ” ” | |7·1 |5·5p |5·6 |20·2| ·77 | ·78|
| ” ” ” ” | |7·2 |5·5 |5·8 |20·8| ·76 | ·80|
| ” ” ” ” | |7·2 |5·8 | -- | -- | ·80 | -- |
| ” Chamant ” ” | N. |7·4 |5·3 | -- | -- | ·71 | -- |
| ” ” ” ” | |7·1 |5·5 | -- | -- | ·78 | -- |
| ” ” ” ” | |7·4 |5·5 |5·4 | -- | ·74 | ·72|
| Cave, Orrouy, Oise |N.B.(?)|7·4 |5·8 |5·3 |21·2| ·78 | ·72|
| ” ” ” | |7·1 |5·8p |5·3 | -- | ·77 | ·74|
| ” ” ” | |7·2 |5·4p |5·7 |20·1| ·75 | ·81|
| ” ” ” | |7·1 |5·9p |5·6 |20·7| ·83 | ·78|
| ” ” ” | |6·7 |5·5p |5·4 |19·2| ·82 | ·80|
| ” ” ” | |6·6 |5·6p |5·5 |19·9| ·85 | ·83|
| ” ” ” | |7·2 |5·9 |5·4 |20·9| ·81 | ·75|
| ” ” ” | |6·8 |5·75 |5·1 |20·4| ·84 | ·75|
| ” ” ” | N. |7·4 |5·8 |5·7 | -- | ·78 | ·77|
| ” ” ” | |7·2 |5·9 | -- |20·8| ·81 | -- |
| Lombrive, Ariège | N. |6·7 |5·5 |5·5 |19·2| ·82 | ·82|
| Dolmen, Meudon, Seine et Oise | |7· |5·95p|5·9 |20·7| ·85 | ·84|
| ” ” ” ” | |7·2 |5·7 |5·5 |20·8| ·79 | ·76|
| Lozerres | |7·3 |5·8p |5·7 |21· | ·79 | ·78|
| Tomb, Maintenon; Eure et Loire | |7·25|5·5 | -- |20·3| ·75 | -- |
| ” ” ” ” | |7·7 |5·5 | -- |20·8| ·71 | -- |
| Tumulus, Bougon, Deux Sèvres | |6·7 |5·4p | -- |20· | ·80 | -- |
| Dolmen, Meloisy, Côte d’Or | N. |7·3 |5·5 | -- |20·9| ·75 | -- |
| Avignon(?), Vaucleuse | |6·9 |5·8 | -- |20·7| ·84 | -- |
| ” ” | |7·8 |5·5p | -- |21·8| ·70 | -- |
| Genthod, Geneva | I. |7·4 |5·6p |5·5 |21·1| ·75 | ·74|
| ” ” | |6·9 |5·6p |5·4 |20·5| ·81 | ·78|
+-------------------------------------+-------+----+-----+----+----+------+-----+
| Mean | |7·1 |5·6 |5·5 |20·5| ·78 | ·77|
| Judge’s Cave, Gibraltar (Busk) | (?) |6·9 |5·4 |5·4 |19·5| ·792| -- |
| Chauvaux Cave (Virchow) | N |7·35|5·3 |5·3 | -- |71·8 | 1·8 |
| Sclaigneaux Cave. Skull 1. (Arnould)| N |7·35|6·5 |5·4 | -- |81·1 |73·7 |
| ” ” ” 2. | |7·25|6·25 |5·25| -- |81·6 |70·6 |
| ” ” ” 3. | |6·9 |5·75 | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| ” ” ” 4. | |6·95| -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
+-------------------------------------+-------+----------+----+----+------+-----+
[124] N, Neolithic; B, Bronze; I, Iron.
_The Range of the Dolicho-cephali and Brachy-cephali in France in
the Neolithic Age.--The Caverne de l’Homme Mort._
The researches of M. Broca and Dr. Thurnam into the caves and tombs of
France prove that the small dolicho-cephali and the tall brachy-cephali
lived in that country in the neolithic age. We are indebted to the
former for a most important account of the Caverne de l’Homme Mort,
which reproduces all the essential points which we have observed in the
sepulchral caves of Denbighshire.
The Caverne de l’Homme Mort[124] is situated in a lonely ravine that
penetrates the wild limestone plateau, in the south-west of the
department of Lozère, near the hamlet of Vialle, in the commune of St.
Pierre des Tripiés. It was discovered by the peasants, and its contents
were partially disturbed by their search after hidden treasure before
it was explored by Dr. Prunières. In front of the cave was a platform,
composed of earth mingled with fragments of charcoal, forming a layer
about forty centimetres thick, in which were the stones of seven
hearths, flint-flakes and scrapers, lance-heads, broken bones of the
hare, fallow-deer, roe, pig (or wild-boar). All the flints were worked,
and one lance-head had been chipped out of the stump of a celt and
presented portions of the polished surface, thus fixing the neolithic
age of the accumulation. Coarse pottery was also met with.
The bones of the hare were very abundant, and proved that there was no
prejudice against the use of its flesh. In the caves of Perthi-Chwareu
we have also seen that this was the case.
The refuse-heaps ceased abruptly at the entrance of the cave, at
a point where the traces of a wall, composed of large stones, was
visible. Immediately behind this were human bones, in a thick layer
of dry sand, scattered about in the wildest confusion, which was
probably the result of successive interments, as well as of subsequent
disturbance by burrowing animals and treasure-seekers. Two bone-points
and a flint arrow-head were the only implements discovered within the
sepulchral chamber.
Two small human bones, bearing undoubted marks of having been burnt,
were discovered in the refuse-heap; but they do not, as M. Broca justly
observes, imply the practice of cannibalism, since they may have fallen
out of the burial-place, and subsequently have come into contact with
the fire on one of the hearths.
It is impossible to estimate the number of interments in this cave.
Exclusive of the many skulls which have been destroyed or lost, M.
Prunières obtained nineteen very nearly perfect, which are described by
M. Broca as seven male, six female, three of uncertain sex, and three
children. They are remarkable for the softness of their contours, the
delicacy of their features, and the orthognathism of their faces. The
forehead is wide and high, and the vertex and the occipital region of
the skull well rounded. The cephalic index varies between ·680 and ·78,
the mean of the whole series being ·732.
M. Broca remarks, that these crania contrast strongly with those of
the present broad-headed inhabitants of the district, and that they
differ from those found in the dolmens by M. Prunières in their greater
length, in the smallness of their features, and the weakness of their
muscular impressions. The study of the bones of the skeleton confirms
these differences. The men who buried their dead in the Caverne de
l’Homme Mort were smaller than the dolmen builders, their bones were
more slender, and they were altogether a less muscular race. They are
considered by M. Broca to represent the neolithic aborigines; and
if his description and measurements be compared with those of the
dolicho-cephali of Britain, given by Dr. Thurnam (p. 191 _et seq._),
it will be seen that they are identical with the latter, which is the
oldest race yet known to have occupied Great Britain since the close of
the pleistocene period.
At a little distance from the sepulchral cave, and in the same ravine,
M. Broca explored a large cavern, which had been occupied, probably by
the same people, since the same kind of instruments were discovered as
in the refuse-heap. So that we have here, side by side, the abode and
the sepulchre of the same ancient tribe.
_The Sepulchral Cave of Orrouy._
The sepulchral cave of Orrouy (Oise) described by M. Broca, in which
the remains of about fifty individuals were interred, furnished both
types of skull, united, according to Dr. Thurnam and M. Broca,[125] by
a series of intermediate forms, that prove a fusion of blood between
the broad- and the long-headed peoples. On referring to the preceding
Table (p. 199) it will be seen that the cephalic index varies from
·75 to ·88. Eight out of the series of twenty-one skulls united the
characteristic dolicho-cephalous fore-head with the brachy-cephalous
middle and hind-head. “We have here,” writes Dr. Thurnam, “a veritable
hybrid form of cranium, resulting from the mixture or crossing, under
certain circumstances unknown to us, of a dolicho-cephalous with a
brachy-cephalous race.”
“... In the Orrouy skulls of hybrid form, two encephalic
growth-tendencies appear to me distinguishable; one, the longitudinal
or fronto-occipital; the other a transverse, or bi-parietal and
temporal one. Now the remarkable supramastoid depressions, visible
in the hindhead of these skulls, seem to be well explained by the
idea of an intersection or crossing of these two tendencies in the
brain-growth; corresponding, as they must have done, to the angles
formed by the posterior surfaces of the middle, the lower surfaces
of the posterior and temporal lobes of the cerebrum, and the upper
surface of the cerebellum.”[126]
In eight out of thirty-four humeri the fossa of the olecranon is
perforated.
The human remains occurred in the same confusion as at Perthi-Chwareu,
and were associated with fragments of coarse pottery, flint flakes, and
bones of ruminants. The occurrence of polished stone celts indicates
the neolithic age of the interment.
_Skulls from French Tumuli._
Both long and broad skulls also occur in the chambered tombs of France,
although the latter by far predominate. Those from the Long Barrow at
Chamant are dolicho-cephalic and ortho-cephalic, with cephalic index
ranging from ·71 to ·78 (Broca), and other similar cases are quoted by
Dr. Thurnam from Noyelles-sur-Mer, Fontenay, and other tumuli. In the
large sepulchral chamber at Meudon, that contained 200 skeletons, the
majority of the skulls were brachy-cephalic, although twenty of them
were of the ortho-cephalic type. This mixture may be accounted for,
most probably, by the two races, which are clearly defined from each
other in Britain, being intermingled in France.
Dr. Thurnam, summing up the whole evidence as regards the distribution
of races in the tombs of Gaul, concludes that the two races came
into contact in Gaul at an earlier period in the neolithic age than
in Britain. And this must necessarily have been the case from the
geographical position of our island, which could only be invaded, in
those times, by the races in possession of the contiguous mainland of
France and Belgium. Both these regions must have been conquered before
an invasion could have taken place.
_The Dolicho-cephali of the Iberian Peninsula, Gibraltar._
The researches carried on from 1863 to 1868, by Captain Brome, aided by
Dr. Falconer and Professor Busk,[127] into the caves of Gibraltar, have
resulted in the proof that, in the neolithic age, that barren rock was
inhabited by a race of men identical with that which is found in the
long barrows and caves of Great Britain.
The enlargement of the military prison on the top of Windmill Hill
revealed the existence of a deep fissure, containing dark earth,
mingled with charcoal and broken bones, which led into a series of
chambers. The upper of these is described by Captain Brome as being
completely choked up to the roof with earth, charcoal, and decomposed
bones of mammals, birds, and fishes, flint flakes, and pottery. Below
were two floors of stalagmite, filled with loose stones and earth,
through which a shaft penetrated into a fissure at a lower level,
leading into a lower chamber that had a free communication with the
surface, since the current of air was so strong as to extinguish the
lamps. In this also human remains and works of art were met with. The
passages were very complicated, and in some of them a red breccia
contained the remains of the pleistocene mammals, the spotted hyæna,
the _Rhinoceros hemitœchus_, and others. This series of passages and
chambers is described by Captain Brome and Professor Busk as “Genista
Cave No. 1.”
A second, or “Genista, No. 2,” was discovered by Captain Brome opening
on the surface near the West Cliff, with its floor covered with
stalagmite, under which was the same class of remains as that above
mentioned. Subsequently a third and fourth, “Genista, 3 and 4,” were
explored with the same results, of which the latter, opening on the
face of a vertical cliff 40 feet below the summit, from its difficulty
of access must have been used as a place of refuge rather than of
habitation or burial. With this exception, the whole group of Genista
Caves contained human bones, resting in the greatest confusion, and
proving that since the bodies had been interred the contents had been
disturbed, either by the burrowing of animals or by the action of
water, pools of which were present in some of the chambers. Evidence of
the former presence of water was to be seen in the sheets of stalagmite
on most of the floors. The same confusion would result, as is suggested
by Professor Busk, by interments at successive times. The intimate
association of the fractured bones of the animals, and the charcoal,
broken pottery, and other traces of occupation, with the human bones,
may be accounted for in the same manner as the similar mixture of
remains in the caves of Denbighshire. If the caves had been inhabited
at one time, and subsequently set apart for burials, the human bones
would become intermingled with the accumulation of refuse on the floors
by the causes above mentioned.
The bones of the animals associated with the human remains belong,
according to Professor Busk, to the domestic ox of various sizes,
goat, ibex, hog, arvicola, hare, rabbit, badger, dog, and a species
of phocæna, fish, birds, and marine and land molluscs. The pottery is
for the most part hand-made, coarse and imperfectly burnt; and the
vessels in some cases had singular perforated spouts, similar to those
still in use by the Kabyles of Algeria, and some of the Berber tribes.
Some of it, however, is of a fine red ware turned in the lathe, and
probably introduced at a later period, even, as remarked by Mr. Franks,
after the Roman occupation of Spain, to which he refers a bronze
fish-hook, the only metallic article found in the group of caves. The
implements of bone consist of a needle, and rounded pins and spikes.
One cannon-bone of a small ox bears marks of sharp cuts with an edge of
metal, inflicted probably, as Professor Busk suggests, “in an attempt
to hamstring the animal, as is sometimes done at the present day in
the Spanish bull-ring.” It may possibly be more modern than the stone
implements found in the same cave.
The associated stone articles are celts of polished greenstone,
similar to that found in the neolithic cave at Perthi-Chwareu (Fig.
38), flakes, a greenstone chisel, querns and rubbing-stones, a
whetstone perforated for suspension, and a fragment of an armlet made
of alabaster. A small lump of coarse plumbago may have been used for
personal ornament.
The human remains examined by Professor Busk belonged to a large number
of individuals of all ages, and are for the most part in a fragmentary
condition. Some of the thigh-bones are carinate, and remarkable for the
enormous development of the _linea aspera_ and the thickness of their
walls (Fig. 57), the medullary cavity being reduced to a small size,
as in those figured from the tumulus at Cefn. Some of the tibiæ are
platycnemic, presenting the peculiar lateral flattening which first
attracted the attention of Dr. Falconer and Professor Busk (Figs. 49,
50, and 51), but which M. Broca has since determined in the tumuli
and caves of France, and I have discovered in those of Denbighshire
(p. 177).
[Illustration: FIGS. 62, 63, 64.--Cranium from Genista Cave (Busk).]
The only two crania sufficiently perfect to allow of a comparison being
made, from Genista Cave No. 3, are perfectly symmetrical, and belong to
a high type (Figs. 62, 63, and 64). “They are dolicho-cephalic, quite
orthognathous, and wholly aphanozygous. In one the frontal sinuses are
considerably more developed than they are in the other, but in neither
is there any thickening of the supra-orbital border” (Busk). The
teeth are worn flat. They both belonged to men in the prime of life.
A third skull, from Genista Cave No. 1, belongs to the same type. The
measurements of the two most perfect skulls are given in the same table
as those from North Wales (p. 171).
Gibraltar has also been occupied in ancient times by broad-headed
men, similar, in M. Broca’s opinion, to those interred in the cave of
Orrouy. In 1864 human bones, together with a skull (for measurements
see p. 199), were dug out of the Judge’s Cave by Sir James Cochrane.
The tibiæ are platycnemic, and the skull is described by Professor Busk
as being “perfectly symmetrical, brachy-cephalic, slightly prognathous,
but with vertical teeth, aphanozygous. The forehead is well arched, and
the supra-orbital border slightly elevated, the orbits being square,
and the nasal opening elongated and pyriform.” The cephalic index is
·792. The age of these skeletons is uncertain.
_Spain.--Cueva de los Murcièlagos._
Professor Busk[128] calls attention to the fact, that a long skull
similar to that from Gibraltar has been found in Spain, in an ancient
copper-mine of the Asturias, together with hammers made of antler,
and that it bears “the closest possible resemblance” to the Basque
skulls, described by M. Broca, from Guipuscoa on the Spanish and St.
Jean de Luz on the French side of the Pyrenees. He points out, also,
the resemblance which exists between the crania figured by Don Gongora
y Martinez, from the caverns and dolmens of Andalusia and those under
consideration; finally arriving at the conclusion that “a pretty
uniform priscan race at one time pervaded the peninsula from one end to
the other, and that this race is at the present day represented by, at
any rate, a part of the population now inhabiting the Basque provinces.”
In the work of Don Manuel Gongora y Martinez[129] referred to, there is
a most interesting account of the prehistoric antiquities of Andalusia.
Several interments are described in the Cueva de los Murcièlagos, a
cave running into the limestone rock, out of which the grand scenery
of the southern part of the Sierra Nevada has been, to a great extent,
carved. In one spot, a group of three skeletons was met with, one of
which was adorned with a plain coronet of gold, and clad in a tunic
made of esparto-grass, finely plaited, so as to form a pattern which
resembles some of the designs on gold ornaments from Etruscan tombs.
At a spot further within, a second group of twelve skeletons lay in
a semicircle, around one considered by Don Manuel to have belonged
to a woman, covered with a tunic of skin, and wearing a necklace of
esparto-grass, a marine shell pierced for suspension, the carved tusk
of a wild boar, and earrings of black stone. There were other articles
of plaited esparto-grass, such as baskets and sandals; flint flakes,
pieces of a white marble armlet, polished axes of the type of fig. 38,
bone awls, and a wooden spoon, together with pottery of the same type
as that from Gibraltar, fragments of charcoal, and bones of animals.
Although, in this cave, there were no traces of metal, except gold, in
a second, in the same neighbourhood, similar interments were met with
in association with copper (bronze) implements, and with pottery of the
same kind.
These interments in caves are of the same order as those from
Gibraltar; and since the skulls agree with those from the latter, there
can be little doubt but that, in the neolithic age, the long-headed
small race under discussion had possession of the southern provinces.
_The Woman’s Cave, near Alhama._
This conclusion derives additional support from the discoveries
subsequently made by Mr. McPherson[130] in the Woman’s Cave, near
Alhama, in Grenada, of implements of bone, flint, and greenstone of the
neolithic age, mingled with charcoal, pottery, and human skeletons of
the same type as those from Gibraltar. The human skull, figured by Mr.
McPherson, is dolicho-cephalic, and the thigh-bone is remarkable for
the extreme development of the _linea aspera_, which assumes the form
of a stout ridge sweeping from one extremity of the shaft to the other.
This long-headed race, burying their dead in caves, also erected
dolmens in Andalusia. In the dolmen of De los Eriales[131] human
remains were discovered along with bronze (copper?) lance-heads, and
pottery of the same sort as that of the caves. It is, therefore,
evident that the practice of burial in caves, and of erecting dolmens,
was carried on by the same people in Britain, in France, and in Spain.
_The Guanches of the Canary Isles._
The Guanches,[132] the ancient inhabitants of the Canary Isles, are
considered by Berthollet, Glas, and other high authorities, to be
allied to the Berbers of North Africa in language. At the time of
their discovery and conquest by the Spaniards, they are described by
Miss Haigh as being unacquainted with the use of any metal, and as
fashioning their weapons out of a black, hard stone. The Guanches of
Teneriffe lived principally in caves, preferring for their winter
residence those near the coast, and “in the summer those in the
higher parts in the interior of the island, whence they could enjoy
the fresh air of the hills.” Some of these caves have been excavated
by the hand of man, and are divided into square chambers, containing
rock-hewn benches, “and deep niches made to contain vessels of milk
or water.” They had also stone houses, thatched with straw or fern.
They also buried their dead in sepulchral caves, belonging each to a
family or clan, entrances to which are carefully concealed, and are
now discovered only by accident. In them the dead were placed either
upright, or lying side by side on wooden scaffolds, after having been
prepared with salt and butter and thoroughly dried and wrapped in the
tanned skins of sheep or goat. In some cases the prepared body was
placed in the sitting posture.
They were possessed of a settled government by “Menceys,” or chiefs
subordinate to one head, and were divided into “nobles and common
people, and had a code of punishment for the robber, murderer, and
adulterer.”
Their food consisted of sheep and goats, roasted barley ground between
two stones, and the fruit of the arbutus, date-palm and fig, as well
as fish and rabbits. Their fences were made of reed, their ropes and
nets of rushes, and their baskets, mats, and bags, of palm-leaves. They
manufactured vessels out of clay or hard wood, needles of fishbones,
beads of clay, and they especially excelled in the art of tanning. The
civilization of this very interesting people may fairly be taken to
be a fragment of that of North Africa and of Europe in the neolithic
age, protected by insulation from the influences by which it was swept
away from the countries bordering on the shores of the Mediterranean,
just as the old Norse customs and legends are preserved by the present
inhabitants of Iceland in greater purity than in Norway.
The Berbers are viewed by Professor Busk as of the same non-Aryan stock
as the Basque, and the civilization of the Guanches may therefore be
taken to represent that of the Iberic peoples of Spain, among whom
caves were used in like manner for habitation and burial.
_Iberic Dolicho-cephali of the same Race as those of Britain._
If this group of Iberic skulls be compared with those from the caves
and tumuli of Great Britain (see Table, p. 197 and that below) it will
be seen, that what Professor Busk observes of the ancient population of
Spain is equally true of that of our country in the neolithic age. And
the identity of form is especially remarkable in the crania from the
sepulchral caves at Perthi-Chwareu, the difference between them being
so small as to be of little account:--
+-------------------------+-------+--------+-------+--------+------+
| | | | |Circum- |Ceph. |
| |Length.| Brdth. |Height.|ference.|index.|
+-------------------------+-------+--------+-------+--------+------+
| | | | | | |
|Mean of 10 skulls from | | | | | |
| Perthi-Chwareu | 7·07 | 5·5 | 5·6 | 20·0 | ·765 |
|Mean of 2 skulls from | | | | | |
| Genista Cave, No. 3 | | | | | |
| (Busk) | 7·35 | 5·55 | 5·9 | 20·7 | ·755 |
|Mean of 40 male Basque | | | | | |
| skulls from Guipuscoa | | | | | |
| (Thurnam) | 7·2 | 5·5 | 5·4 | -- | ·760 |
|Mean of 20 female, ditto | 6·9 | 5·3 | 5·0 | -- | ·760 |
|Mean of 19 skulls, | | | | | |
| chiefly male | 7·4 | 5·6 | 5·4 | -- | ·760 |
|Mean of 57 female ditto, | | | | | |
| St. Jean de Luz | 7·02 | 5·6 | -- | -- | ·799 |
+-------------------------+-------+--------+-------+--------+------+
_The Dolicho-cephali cognate with the Basque._
Nor can the truth of Professor Busk’s conclusion, that the group of
skulls in question belong to a people akin in blood to the modern
Basques, be disputed. We are indebted to M. Broca[133] for the
elaborate description of seventy-eight Basque crania from a village
cemetery in Guipuscoa, and of fifty-eight from an ossuary at St. Jean
de Luz, in which they had been collected in the reign of Francis I.,
1532. In both these groups the long and oval types predominated, the
broad type being represented by 6·4 (Thurnam) per cent. in the one, and
37·36 per cent. (Broca) in the other; a difference that is doubtless
caused by the greater mixture of blood in the south-west of France
than in the north-west of Spain, shut off from the broad-headed Gallic
tribes by the Pyrenees.[134] Six skulls, obtained by Professor Virchow
from Bilbao, agree in all particulars with those from Guipuscoa. M.
Broca has further shown, that this group of Spanish skulls offers
all the characters of the black-haired, swarthy, oval-faced, Basque
population of the surrounding region, and it therefore follows, that
they may be taken as standards of comparison, as typical of the ancient
Basque crania, modified, it may be, to some extent, by the infusion of
other blood. Their agreement, therefore, with the skulls from Gibraltar
implies that the latter are also Basque. And since they agree also with
those from the cave of Perthi-Chwareu, as may be seen in the preceding
Table, the men who buried their dead in the caves of North Wales in the
neolithic age, are proved to belong to the same stock.
The same long-headed, small race also inhabited France, side by side
with the broad-headed Gallic tribes; and since to it belong the
skeletons in the Cave de l’Homme Mort, which M. Broca refers to the
neolithic aborigines, it may reasonably be concluded that in Gaul, as
in Britain, it was the older of the two races. The two have also been
met with in the caves of Belgium. If we allow that an aboriginal Basque
population spread over the whole of Britain, France, and Belgium, and
that it was subsequently dispossessed by broad-headed invaders, the two
extremes of skull-form and of stature, and of the gradations between
them, may be satisfactorily explained. And this view coincides with the
well-ascertained facts of history.
Dr. Thurnam was the first to recognize that the long skulls, out of
the long barrows of Britain and Ireland, were of the Basque or Iberian
type, and Professor Huxley holds that the river-bed skulls belong to
the same race.[135] (Compare Table p. 197 with the preceding.) We have
therefore proof, that an Iberian or Basque population spread over the
whole of Britain and Ireland in the neolithic age, inhabiting caves,
and burying their dead in caves and chambered tombs, just as in the
Iberian Peninsula also in the neolithic age.
_Dolicho-cephali and Brachy-cephali in Neolithic Caves of
Belgium.--Chauvaux._
Both these forms of skull have been met with in Belgium, the one in the
famous cave of Chauvaux, the other in that of Sclaigneaux.
The first of these is a rock-shelter passing into a small cave, at the
base of the limestone cliff on the Meuse, opposite the little village
of Rivière, between Dinant and Namur. It was known to contain human
remains in 1837-8, and was partially explored in 1842 by Dr. Spring,
who published his account of the discoveries in 1853, and subsequently
in 1864 and 1866. Below a thin layer of loam was a floor of stalagmite,
concealing a vast number of broken human bones mixed pêle-mêle with
those of wild and domestic animals, and associated with charcoal and
coarse pottery. Two polished stone celts indicated the neolithic age
of the accumulation; one of them resting close to a skull which had
been fractured by a blow from a blunt instrument, such as it may have
inflicted. The human bones belonged to infants and young adults.
From the fractured and burnt bones of the animals it is clear that
they had been accumulated in the cave daring the time that it was
inhabited by man. Dr. Spring[136] inferred that the broken human bones
proved that human beings, as well as the animals, formed the food of
the cave-dwellers, and further, since all the human remains belong to
young individuals, that the cannibalism was not accidental, or caused
by famine, but the result of a deliberate selection.
The facts which induced Dr. Spring to come to this conclusion are
interpreted by M. Dupont[137] in a different manner. He holds, that the
proportion of young individuals is not greater in Chauvaux than that
which he has observed in other sepulchral caves in Belgium, and that
there is nothing which forbids the supposition that this also was used
as a place of interment. The human bones may have been broken by the
foxes and badgers, which are so abundant in the district, and have been
mixed, by their continual burrowing, with the remains of the animals in
the old refuse-heap accumulated on the floor during the habitation of
man. Such a mixture of remains we have already observed in the caves
of North Wales and Gibraltar. The recent researches of M. Soreil[138]
leave no room for doubting the truth of M. Dupont’s interpretation.
Two perfect human skeletons were discovered along with flint flakes,
pottery, a barbed arrow-head, and many scattered human bones not
broken by design, while the long bones of the associated animals bore
unmistakeable traces of having been split for the sake of the marrow.
On one long bone, for example, of the ox, there were cuts made by a
flint implement, as well as the mark of the blow by which it had been
split longitudinally; and another ox-bone, and the canine of a boar,
bore marks of burning. The bones of the animals were very abundant,
and belonged to the following species: beaver, hamster, and other
small rodents, hare, badger, fox, boar, stag, roe, ox, and goat. In
this case, as in the caves of Perthi-Chwareu, and of l’Homme Mort, the
inhabitants had used the hare for food, as well as the other animals,
and did not share the prejudice against the use of its flesh for food,
which Cæsar remarks of the inhabitants of Britain (Comm. 1, xii.).
The cave must, therefore, be viewed as a place of sepulture for a
neolithic people, whose implements abound in the neighbourhood, and not
as having been inhabited by a race of cannibals.
The bodies had been interred in the crouching posture, with their
thighs bent, their heads resting on their arms, and their faces turned
towards the valley. They rested side by side in two small holes, which
had been dug in the deposit containing the bones of the animals, and
the skeletons were cemented to the rock by stalagmite, and surrounded
by large stones. They belonged to individuals far past the prime of
life.
Both skulls were dolicho-cephalic, and the most perfect of them is
described by Professor Virchow as presenting a parietal flattening,
which is probably analogous to the “tête annulaire,” so commonly
present in the long skulls of the neolithic age. It possesses a
cephalic index of ·72 (·718 Virchow). The sutures in both the skulls
were very nearly obliterated. The measurements are given in the Table
in page 199.
The crania, in all these characters, are to be classified with the
long skulls from the caves and chambered tombs of France, Britain,
and Spain. They belong to people in the same stage of culture, and
practising the same mode of burial in a crouching posture. Chauvaux
is the furthest cave to the east on the continent of Europe, in which
traces of this long-headed race have been observed.
_The Cave of Sclaigneaux._
The cave of Sclaigneaux,[139] explored by M. Arnould, near the hamlet
of that name, fourteen miles from Namur, has been proved to contain
human bones, lying mixed with those of the animals in the refuse-heap
on the floor, as in the cave of Chauvaux. The animals belonged to
existing species:--
Hedgehog.
Badger.
Beech-marten.
Weazel.
Fox.
Dog.
Wild Cat.
Hare.
Rabbit.
Ox.
Goat.
Stag.
Boar.
Horse.
Rodents.
Bones of birds, frogs, and fishes were also met with. Intermingled
with these were human skeletons, disposed in a rude sort of order,
and belonging to bodies which had been interred at different times.
From the lower jaws M. Arnould calculates that the number of bodies
interred was not less than sixty-two, of which twelve belonged to aged
individuals, twenty-one to those in the prime of life, sixteen to young
adults, and thirteen to children.
[Illustration: FIGS. 65, 66.--Skull from Cave of Sclaigneaux.
(Arnould.)]
The crania (Figs. 65, 66) are brachy-cephalic (see Table, p. 199), and
are possessed, according to M. Arnould, of the following characters.
The apex of the cranial vault is flattened, probably artificially, and
the parietal bosses are largely developed, to which is due the great
width of the skull. The surciliary ridges are strongly marked, and the
malar bones are prominent. In all these particulars they agree with the
broad skulls, as defined by Dr. Thurnam, discovered in the round tumuli
of Britain and the sepulchral caves of France.
[Illustration: FIG. 67.--Platycnemic tibia, from Sclaigneaux.]
Some of the leg-bones presented the antero-posterior flattening, or
platycnemism, observed in the skeletons from the caves of Gibraltar,
and in France and Great Britain (Fig. 67). It is due, as in those from
North Wales, to the anterior expansion of the bone, and not to the
posterior, as is the case with those from the cave of Cro-Magnon.
A beautifully chipped arrow-head, with barbs and central tongue for
insertion into the shaft, of the same type as one from Chauvaux,
implies that these remains belong to the neolithic age. Implements of
bone, and a shell perforated for suspension, were also found.
_The Evidence of History as to the Peoples of Gaul and Spain._
The extension of this non-Aryan race through France, Spain, and
Britain, in ancient times, based solely on the evidence of the human
remains, is confirmed by an appeal to the ethnology of Europe within
the historic period. In the Iberian peninsula the Basque populations
of the west are defined from the Celtic of the east by the Celtiberi
inhabiting the modern Castille (see Map, Fig. 68). In Gaul the province
of Aquitania extended as far north, in Cæsar’s time,[140] as the river
Garonne, constituting the modern Gascony, to which was added, in the
days of Augustus, the district between that river and the Loire;
a change of frontier that was probably due to the predominance of
Basque blood in a mixed race in that area similar to the Celtiberi
of Castille. The Aquitani were surrounded on every side, except the
south, by the Celtæ, extending as far north as the Seine, as far to
the east as Switzerland and the plains of Lombardy, and southwards,
through the valley of the Rhone and the region of the Volcæ, over the
Eastern Pyrenees into Spain. The district round the Phocæan colony
of Marseilles was inhabited by Ligurian tribes, who held the region
between the river Po and the Gulf of Genoa, as far as the western
boundary of Etruria, and who probably extended to the west along
the coast of Southern Gaul as far as the Pyrenees.[141] They were
distinguished from the Celtæ, not merely by their manners and customs,
but by their small stature and dark hair and eyes, and are stated by
Pliny and Strabo to have inhabited Spain. They have also left marks of
their presence in Central Gaul in the name of the Loire (Ligur), and
possibly in Britain in the obscure name of the Lloegrians. They invaded
Sicily[142] as the Sikelians, and _if_ the latter be identified with
the Sikanians considered by Thucydides[143] and other writers to be
of Iberian stock, it will follow that they are a cognate race. Their
stature and swarthy complexion, as well as the ancient geographical
position conterminous with the Iberic population of Gaul and Spain,
confirm this conclusion. The non-Aryan and probably Basque population
of Gaul was therefore cut into two portions by a broad band of Celts,
which crosses the Eastern Pyrenees, and marks the route by which the
Iberian peninsula was invaded.
[Illustration: FIG. 68.--Distribution of Basque, Celtic, and Belgic
Peoples, at dawn of History.]
The ancient population of Sardinia is stated by Pausanias to be of
Libyan extraction, and to bear a strong resemblance to the Iberians in
physique and in habits of life, while that of Corsica is described by
Seneca as Ligurian and Iberian. The ancient Libyans are represented
at the present day by the Berber and Kabyle tribes which are, if
not identical with, at all events cognate with the Basques. We may
therefore infer that these two islands were formerly occupied by this
non-Aryan race, as well as the adjacent continents of Northern Africa
and Southern Europe.
_The Basque Population the Oldest._
The relative antiquity of these two races in Europe may be arrived at
by this distribution. The Basques, Sikani or Ligurian, are the oldest
inhabitants, in their respective districts, known to the historian;
while the Celts appear as invaders, pressing southwards and westwards
on the populations already in possession, flooding over the Alps and
under Brennus sacking Rome, and by their union with the vanquished
in Spain constituting the Celtiberi. We may therefore be tolerably
certain that the Basques held France and Spain before the invasion of
the Celts, and that the non-Aryan peoples were cut asunder, and certain
parts of them left--Ligurians, Sikani, and in part Sardinians and
Corsicans--as ethnological islands, marking, so to speak, an ancient
Basque non-Aryan continent which had been submerged by the Celtic
populations advancing steadily westwards.
At the time of the Roman conquest of Gaul, the Belgæ were pressing on
the Celts, just as the latter pressed the Basques, the Seine and the
Marne forming their southern boundary, and in their turn being pushed
to the west by the advance of the Germans in the Rhine provinces. Thus
we have the oldest population, or Basque, invaded by the Celts, the
Celts by the Belgæ, and these again by the Germans; their relative
positions stamping their relative antiquity in Europe.
_The Population of Britain._
The Celtic and Belgic invasion of Gaul repeated itself, as might
be expected, in Britain. Just as the Celts pushed back the Iberian
population of Gaul as far south as Aquitania, and swept round it into
Spain, so they crossed over the Channel and overran the greater portion
of Britain, until the Silures, identified by Tacitus[144] with the
Iberians, were left only in those fastnesses that formed subsequently
a bulwark for the Brit-Welsh against the English invaders. And just
as the Belgæ pressed on the rear of the Celts as far as the Seine,
so they followed them into Britain, and took possession of the “Pars
Maritima,”[145] or southern counties. The unsettled condition of the
country at the time of Cæsar’s invasion was, probably, due to the
struggle then going on between Celts and Belgæ.
The evidence offered by history as to the distribution of these races
confirms that which has been arrived at by the examination of the caves
and tumuli. In the one case the Basque peoples are merely known in a
fragmentary condition in Britain, Gaul, and Sicily, while in the other
those fragments are joined together in such a way as to show that, in
the neolithic age, they extended uninterrupedly through Western Europe,
from the Pillars of Hercules in the south to Scotland in the north,
before they were dispossessed by their broad-headed enemies. It is
impossible to define with precision their ethnological relation to the
non-Aryan inhabitants of Italy and the coasts of the Mediterranean,
such as the Etruscans and Tyrrhenians. I am, however, inclined to hold
that they are all branches of the same race of “Melanochroi,” differing
far less from each other than the Celtic from the Scandinavian branch
of the Aryan family.[146]
_Basque Element in present British and French Populations._
This non-Aryan blood is still to be traced in the dark-haired,
black-eyed, small, oval-featured peoples in our own country in the
region of the Silures, where the hills have afforded shelter to the
Basque populations from the invaders.[147] The small swarthy Welshman
of Denbighshire is in every respect, except dress and language,
identical with the Basque inhabitant of the Western Pyrenees, at
Bagnères de Bigorre.
The small dark-haired people of Ireland,[148] and especially those
to the west of the Shannon, according to Dr. Thurnam and Professor
Huxley, are also of Iberian derivation, and singularly enough there is
a legendary connection between that island and Spain. The human remains
from the chambered tombs as well as the riverbeds prove that the
non-Aryan population spread over the whole of Ireland as well as the
whole of Britain. The main mass of the Irish population is undoubtedly
Celtic, crossed with Danish, Norse, and English blood.
The Basque element in the population of France is at the present time
centered in the old province of Aquitaine, in which the jet-black hair
and eyes, and swarthy complexion, strike the eye of the traveller, now
as in the days of Strabo,[149] and form a vivid contrast with the brown
hair and grey eyes of the inhabitants of Celtica and Belgica (see Map,
Fig. 68). If Fig. 68 be compared with the map published by Dr. Broca
(“Mémoires d’Anthropologie,” t. i. p. 330), which shows at a glance
the average complexion prevailing in each department, and the relative
number of exemptions per 1,000 conscripts, on account of their not
coming up to the standard of height (1·56 metre = 5 feet 1½ inches),
it will be seen that the only swarthy people outside the boundary of
Aquitaine constitute five ethnological islands. Of these Brittany is by
far the largest, probably because its fastnesses afforded a shelter to
the Basques, who were being driven to the south-west. The department
of the Meuse, in the north, and those of Tarn and Arriège, in the
south, are also sundered from the main body, while those of the Upper
and Lower Alps present us with the descendants of the ancient Ligurian
tribes.
The people with dark-brown hair, considered by Dr. Broca to be the
result of the intermingling of a dark with a fair race, are scattered
about through Aquitaine, and occur only in two departments in northern
Celtica. The fair people, on the other hand, are massed in northern
Celtica and Belgica. The relation of complexion to stature may be
gathered from the following table of exemptions per 1,000 for each
department:--
Départements noirs 98·5 to 189
” gris-foncés 64· ” 97
” gris-clairs 48·8 ” 63·8
” blancs-clairs 23· ” 48·5
From this table it is evident that the swarthy people are the smallest
and the fair the tallest, the intermediate shades being the result of
fusion between the two extremes.
The distribution therefore of the small swarthy Basque, and tall fair
Celtic and Belgic races in France at the present time, corresponds
essentially with that which we might have expected from the evidence
both of history and of the neolithic caves and tombs.[150]
When we consider the many invasions of France, and the oscillations
to and fro of peoples, the persistence of the Basque population is
very remarkable. It is not a little strange that the type should be so
slightly altered by intermarriage with the conquering races.
_Whence came the Basques?_
From what region did the Basques invade Europe? M. Broca, from their
identity with the Kabyles and Berbers, holds that they entered Europe
from northern Africa, spreading over Spain, and passing over the
Pyrenees into southern France. It seems, however, to me, from their
range as far north as Scotland, and at least as far to the east as
Belgium, that they travelled by the same route that the Celtic, Belgic,
and Germanic tribes travelled long ages afterwards, coming from the
east and pushing their way to the west: and that while one section
chose this route, another mastered northern Africa, following the same
westward direction as the Saracens. On this hypothesis this great
pre-Aryan migration would start from the central plateau of Asia, from
which all the successive invaders of Europe have swarmed off.
This view of the eastern derivation of the Basque peoples is confirmed
by the examination of the breeds of domestic animals which they
possessed. The _Bos longifrons_, the sheep, and the goat are derived
from wild stocks that are now to be found only in central Asia; and the
dog and breed of swine with small canines were also probably imported
after they had become the servants of man in the east.[151]
_The Celtic and Belgic Brachy-cephali._
The occurrence of broad-skulls in the tumuli in this country, and
in caves and tumuli in France, proves that the Basque peoples were
invaded during the neolithic age. And since Dr. Thurnam has shown
that they are identical in form with Celtic and Belgic skulls,[152]
it follows that one or the other of these, probably the Celtic or the
older, was in possession of portions of Britain, Ireland, and Gaul at
that remote time. It is of course conceivable that non-Celtic races,
physically allied to the Celts or Belgæ, are represented by the human
remains in question; but in that case they have left no mark behind
by which they can be identified. And the supposition is rendered
improbable to the last degree by the fact, that the older or conquered
race--the Basque--still survives, in the area under consideration,
the invasions and vicissitudes which it has undergone. _A fortiori_,
would their conquerors have had a still greater chance of survival, in
the fastnesses which are offered by these countries. It is therefore
reasonable to presume that the broad-headed peoples in the neolithic
caves and tombs are represented by the Celts, and possibly, though not
probably, in part by the Belgæ, rather than by the equally broad-headed
Wends, Sclavonians, and Fins, which are not known by the historian to
have settled in Gaul or in Britain. The successive invasions of Europe
have been invariably from the east to the west, so far as we have any
certain knowledge; and it is most improbable that Wends, Fins, or
Sclaves should have occupied these countries and subsequently have
retreated eastwards against the current of the Celtic, Belgic, and
Germanic invasions.
The Celtæ may, therefore, be inferred to have occupied Gaul and Britain
in the ages of polished stone, bronze, and of iron, their encroachment
on the non-Aryan peoples being regulated by their strength, and the
amount of pressure on their rear. The Belgæ probably were not known
in Gaul until the later portion of the iron age, and were of small
importance as compared with the Celts, whose arms were felt alike in
Greece, Italy, Spain, and Asia Minor.
The Celts were a tall, fair-haired, blue-eyed race (Xanthochroi),
contrasting strongly with the Basque “Melanochroi”, and in those
particulars agreeing with the Germans.[153]
_The Ancient German Race._
The Germans, in the days of Cæsar, were advancing on the Belgæ in the
Rhine provinces, and on the Helvetii in Switzerland, and are recognized
by Tacitus,[154] in Britain as the red-haired, tall inhabitants of
Caledonia. Subsequently they spread over the west and south of Europe,
as Goths, Franks, Scandinavians, English and Normans; in this country
sweeping the Brit-Welsh into the hilly fastnesses of Wales, making
settlements on many points of the coasts of Ireland, and leaving
behind them, to this day, a considerable infusion of German blood
in the Celtic and Basque populations. They were, unlike the present
inhabitants of North Prussia and southern and middle Germany, a
dolicho-cephalic people, their length of head being due, according to
Gratiolet, to a frontal instead of an occipital development, which
causes the long-headedness of the Basques. The Anglo-Saxon skull is
defined by Dr. Thurnam as prognathous, with large facial bones, and
with a cephalic index averaging ·75. And these characters are equally
to be found in the Gothic, Frankish, and Scandinavian crania.
_General Conclusions._
In this outline of the ethnology of Gaul and Britain, it will be seen
that two out of the three ethnical elements (if the Belgic be classed
with the Celtic), of which the present population is composed, can be
recognized in the neolithic users of caves and builders of chambered
tombs. A non-Aryan race either identical or cognate with the Basque
is the earliest traceable in these areas in the neolithic age, and
it probably arrived in Europe by the same route as the Celtic and
Germanic, passing westwards from the plains of central Asia.
There is no evidence of Spain having been peopled from northern Africa,
the identity of the Berber and Kabyle with the Basque being due to
their being descended from the same non-Aryan stock in possession of
southern and western Europe, and northern Africa. They are to be looked
upon as cousins rather than as connected by descent in a right line.
The Basque race was probably in possession of Europe for a long series
of ages, before hordes either identical or cognate with the Celts
gradually crept westward over Germany into Gaul, Spain, and Britain,
driving away, or absorbing, the inhabitants of the regions which they
conquered.