Brinton.] ^^^ [Oct. I 



Goths in Africa, they had entirely disappeared as early as when 

 Procopius wrote his history. * 



All this goes to show that the physical type of the ancient 

 Etruscans was the same as that of the ancient Libyans and en- 

 tirely distinct from any then existing on the Italian or Hellenic 

 peninsulas. This identity can be traced in other features of im- 

 portance to the anatomist. The orbital index of the modern 

 Kabyles is 88.1, of the Etruscans 87.4, a remarkable approxima- 

 tion ; the nasal indices of both range between 44 and 49 ; in both 

 there is a lack of accentuation of the cranial prominences, "j" 



§ 3. The Culture Elements of the Etruscans. 



Wherever the first settlers of Tarquimi came from they do not 

 seem to have brought with them the higher arts of life. Most of 

 these were later acquisitions, learned from their neighbors, the 

 Greeks of Sicily and Magna Grecia, and in longer voyages for 

 trading and piracy, which extended to Greece itself, to the coasts 

 of Asia Minor, to Egypt, and to the Semitic cities of Palestine 

 and their colonies at Carthage and elsewhere. Etruscan art 

 yields positive testimony to all these influences, especially that 

 of the Greeks. The Etruscan alphabet appears to me to have 

 been derived directl}' from the Greek, and not from the Phenician, 

 as RawlinsonJ and others have thought. We must carefully ex- 

 clude all these external borrowings if we would make a correct 

 comparison of real Etruscan culture-traits with those of other 

 nations. When this is done, it will be found that, in some char- 

 acteristics, they stood in bold relief from all the nations I have 

 mentioned. 



No one of these is more conspicuous than the position assigned 

 to woman in Etruscan civilization. It was in astonishing con- 

 trast to her place among the polished Greeks, and still more so 

 to her station in oriental life. With the Etruscans, evidently a 

 strictly monogamous people, she was the equal and the companion 

 of her husband. She sat by his side at the feasting board, she was 



♦Quoted by Berthclot, iihi suprd, p. 141, note. Topin;\rd identifies the Libyans with 

 the Lebou and Tamahou, enemies of the ancient Egyptians, and figured on monuments 

 of the Nineteenth Dynasty as of lofcy stature, blondes, witli blue eyes and long, waving, 

 yellow hair. Elements d' Anthropologic, p. 209. 



+ The details of tliese measurements may be found in the works of Topinard and of 

 Hovelaeque and Herv<5, already quoted. 



X In his worlc. The Origin of Nations (New York, 1881). , 



