736 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to the customs of cremation which were in vogue ; such as have 

 been studied are of all types.* It appears, from the few that have 

 been measured, that a long-headed (Greek ?) element was rather 

 predominant; and, as we have already observed, Lombroso and 

 others are inclined to regard the peculiarly dolichocephalic people 



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1 



Mixed Type. Island of Ischia. Cephalic Index, 83-6. 



about Lucca as the last remnant of the pure Etruscan. If all 

 Etruria were once like this, it must have changed wonderfully in 

 the historic period, contrary to most of the experience we have 

 related, for to-day this long-headed element is relatively quite 

 scarce. For our own part, we regard the testimony of fifty thou- 

 sand living peasants, more or less, as more credible than the evi- 

 dence from a score or two of crania of uncertain origin, even 

 though they be found in Etruscan tombs. 



On the whole, we are inclined to the belief that our Etruscan 

 ethnic origins must be sought in the north rather than in the 

 south ; in other words, that the Etruscans were an offshoot of our 

 Alpine race of central Europe. Since the earliest times, as Zampa 

 has proved, and it agrees with evidence from all around the Alps, 

 there has been a steady outflow of population from this inhosi)i- 

 table habitat, unable as it is to afford sustenance to an increasing 

 population. This downpour of broad- headed Alpine race types 

 has entirely overcome the valley of the Po. In prehistoric times 

 the people of Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia were quite similar 

 to the modern peasants in the extreme south. All Italy, in other 

 words, was once Mediterranean in type. This has been proved. 



* Tlie best references on this subject (see author's bibliography) are Zampa, 1891, pp. 

 48-56; Xicolucci, 1869, and especially 1888, pp. 12-52. 



