386 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF PARIS. 



The publications of the anthropologicfil section of Moscow have made ns 

 acquainted with excavations effected in the old tombs of Greater Russia, In 

 fine, recent and numerous explorations made in Italy, in Spain, in Portugal, have 

 shown, beyond dispute, that the two occidental peninsulas have also ha<l their age 

 of stone. The results of the first researches of Caeiano de Prado were stated to 

 the Society by M. Pruner-bey in an interesting report on Antliropologif in Spain. 

 The discoveries of that savant, too soon lost to science, have been confirmed by 

 j\I. Edouard Lartet, the worthy son of oiir eminent colleague. M. Pereira da 

 Costa, moreover, has communicated the facts which relate to the antiquity of man 

 in Portugal, chiefly in the basin of the Tagus. This is doubtless but a first 

 harvest. The ideas which we possess respecting the primitive populations of 

 Iberia are as yet too vague to furnish grounds for a synthesis; but facts more 

 numerous and more precise, collected in the other peninsula, have shed quite a 

 new light on the primitive conditions of the country. A Nicolucci, an Italia- 

 Nicastro, a De Rossi, a Gastaldi, a Cocchi, a Canestrini, emulous in zeal and 

 perseverance, have shown what science may hereafter expect from regenerated 

 Italy. The Phoenician sepulchers of Sicily and Sardinia, explored by M. Italia- 

 Nicastro, have furnished a large number of highly interesting archaeological facts. 

 M. Nicolucci has sent us the description and figure of several of the skulls which 

 have been obtained; and when these skulls are compared with those which are 

 procured from the ancient tombs of Etruria Ave feel authorized to predict 

 a day when the Semitic origin of the Etruscans will be definitively demonstrated. 

 It is to M. Nicolucci, moreover, that we owe the first craniological ideas on the 

 ancient lapyges, a population of southern Italy, of whom the historians of 

 antiquity have made but vague mention, and whom it was the custom, not very 

 long ago, to regard as autochthonous. M. Mommsen had already surmised, from 

 inscriptions on their tombs, that certain characters distinguisliable in the remains 

 of their language tended to all}^ them with the Indo-European group of nations. 

 This view has been now fully confirmed b}^ our learned colleague, M. Nicolucci, 

 who, having had an opportunity of studying three skulls found in lapygian 

 tombs, has authenticated their resemblance to the Greek type. Collating this 

 idea with the historical vestiges which he has been able to collect, he is led to 

 think that the lapyges were a horde of Pelasgic origin, chased from Greece into 

 Italy by the invasion of the Hellenes. This is still but an hypothesis ; but what 

 appears almost certain is, that the lapyges were of foreign origin and that they 

 were not the first occupants of the peninsula. If the lapyges and the Etruscans 

 are to be considered as exotic branches, where shall we find the primitive races 

 of Ital}^? The question, in as far as southern Italy and Sicily are concerned, is 

 still very doubtful. The facts which M. Rossi has recently detailed to us with 

 so much clearness establish the existence of a dolichocephalous population which 

 occupied central Italy during that age of stone, which the poets, with perverse 

 inspiration, have called the age of gold. But in northern Italy, in the ancient 

 Liguria, there was a brachycephalous race, Avhich appears to have preceded all 

 the oth.ers. This Ligurian race, which has bechi made known to us by the labors 

 of M. Nicolucci, extended on the Mediterranean coast as far as southern France. 

 Our illustrious colleague, the Duke de Luynes, has made many explorations in 

 the sqU of these regions ; he has exhumed a great number of skulls, which M. 

 Prune r-be\^ has exhibited to us, and in the greater part of Avhich he has pointed 

 out th>e characters of the Ligurian race. 



It is, here that I might introduce the facts relating to the anthropology of 

 France;, but these are to be the subject of a special report, which you liave con- 

 fided to the learned pen of M. Lagneau. I cannot dispense, liowever, Avith a 

 gratefi il recognition of our obligations to the activity and generosity of our archse- 

 ologicf-il colleagues Avho, not content with enriching our bulletins Avith their inter- 

 esting communications, have endowed our museum with a great number of articles 

 the nio-re valuable for having their authenticity and date guaranteed by com- 



