MAN : PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



east in the Bronze Age, although it is clear that large numbers 

 had already established themselves in Central and West Europe 

 during the New Stone Age. This point, although of extreme im- 

 portance, has been strangely overlooked by Sergi and others, who 

 have built up their theories without taking this factor into account. 

 How numerous were the inhabitants of France at that time may be 

 inferred from the long list of no less than 4000 Neolithic stations 

 given for that region by M. Ph. Salmon. Of the 688 skulls 

 from those stations measured by him, 577 per cent, are classed 

 as dolicho, 21 '2 as brachycephalic, and 21*1 as intermediate. 

 This distinguished palethnologist regards the intermediates as the 



result of crossings between the two others, and of 

 head groups these he thinks the first arrivals were the round- 

 2nd fl fr<mf' A^ia' heads, who ranged over a vast area between Brittany, 



the Channel, the Pyrenees, and the Mediterranean, 

 60 per cent, of the graves hitherto studied containing skulls of this 

 type 1 . Belgium also, where a mixture of long- and round-heads is 

 found amongst the men of Furfooz, must be included in this Neo- 

 lithic brachy domain. But Sergi minimises this brachy element, 

 which he identifies with the Aryan from Asia as represented by his 

 round-headed Slavs, Teutons, and Kelts, and takes account only of 

 Salmon's 21-2 per centage of brachycephalics, entirely overlooking 

 the 2 1 'i of intermediates, and thereby greatly reducing the real 

 proportion of Neolithic round-heads in West Europe. They are 

 in fact merely "peaceful infiltrations in France," forerunners of 

 the great invasions 2 . Such minimisings would not be necessary, 

 had he looked to Africa instead of to Asia for the first round- 

 headed as well as for the first long-headed populations of Europe. 

 No doubt these were later (during the Metal Ages) followed by 

 the "great invasions" from Asia, in which were represented both 

 tall, fair long-heads (Aryans from the steppe), and dark or brown 

 round-heads of average size (probably from the Iranian uplands). 

 But all of these had themselves first been specialised in North 

 Africa, the true centre of evolution and of dispersion for all the 

 main branches of the Caucasic family. 



1 Denombrement et Types des Crdnes Neolithiqnes de la Gmtle, in Rev. Mens. 

 de FEcole d'Anthrop. 1896. 



- "Infiltrazioni pacifiche. " (Arii e Italici, p. 124). 



