proceedings: anthropological society 259 



A paper on TJie origins of the Italian people, especially prepared for the 

 Anthropological Society of Washington by Dr. V. Giuffrida-Ruggeri, 

 Professor of Anthropology, University of Naples, was presented by 

 Dr. Austin H. Clark, U. S. National Museum. 



The author leaves aside all that relates to the Paleolithic age, in the 

 remains of which Italy is less favored than other regions of Western 

 Europe. A more solid ground is encountered in the Neolithic epoch. 

 From the Lombard plains to the Ionic shore of Italy archeologists have 

 repeatedly found circular foundations of huts half buried in the earth, 

 the remains of dwellings of a Neolithic pastoral people. The huts 

 were hollowed in the ground on purpose, perhaps to afford shelter from 

 the wind, and they were entered either by means of steps, or an inclined 

 plane, or a shaft made close to the hut. In the hollows that remain 

 are found weapons of polished stone and various remains of domes- 

 tic handicraft, including pottery of advanced technique, form, and 

 decoration. 



After describing the burials in natural and artificial caves, the author 

 notes the coming of a new people into Italy from the east. These 

 people came in canoes, and, having crossed the Mediterranean, landed 

 on the southern shores of the Italian peninsula as well as in Sicily and 

 Sardinia. They are called Ligures (Liguri) by historians. The Siculi 

 belonged to the same race as the Ligures, and both were physically of 

 tlje Mediterranean type. 



In western Sicily are found similarities to the Iberian civilization, 

 attributable to "that great wave of influence which touched the coast 

 districts of western Europe, bringing with it the dolmen and the dolmen- 

 pottery." The evolution of the "domus de janas" in Sardinia reached 

 its highest development about 2000-1500 B.C. These burials belong to 

 the "Eneohthic " age in which copper was used a well as stone. Whilst 

 the civilization of the dolmen and megalithic monuments flourished in 

 Western Europe and in the Mediterranean region there was a different 

 civilization in Central Europe. There we find evidences of a people 

 who lived in the lake-regions on pile-structures (palafitte), a people 

 whose history is written only in the refuse of their daily Hves, covered 

 today by water and peat-bogs. This refuse shows us a primitive 

 pottery, the cultivation of flax and grain, and a pastoral life." .... 

 "Toward the end of the second millenium B.C. there took place a great 

 movement of peoples into Italy from the north, and the pine-dwellings 

 of eastern Lombary, as well as the hut-dwellings of the Ligures, were 

 deserted by their inhabitants." Later the Umbrians and the Etrus- 

 cans entered Italy. 



The question as to who were the "Italic." seems superfluous to the 

 author "for there were no special people of that name. Italy is a 

 historic formation and all the antecedent races who contributed to her 

 making are equally 'Italian' .... The population of the 

 'Eternal City' was composita. It probably embraced from early times 

 the representatives of all the three main races of Europe, — the H. 

 mediterraneus, H. alpinus, and H. nordicus." 



Frances Densmore, Secretary. 



