626 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1912. 



Of 42 neolithic skulls coming from different parts of Sweden, 39 

 are dolichocephalic, 16 mesaticephalic, and only 3 brachycephalic. 

 The periods of bronze and iron produced no important change in the 

 proportion of these different ethnic elements which still constitute 

 the basis of the present population. 



Of 51 skulls of the Iron Age, 47 are dolicocephalic, 15 mesatice- 

 phalic, and 4 brachycephalic. It is thus very probable, says G. 

 Retzius, that the dolichocephalic people of prehistoric times belonged 

 to a race of great stature, with blond hair, blue e3^es, and long head, 

 which still represents 85 per cent of the present population. Thus 

 Retzius calls Sweden the home of the blonds. 



The archeologist Bunsen told Prichard in regard to this, " that he 

 had in vain searched for the golden hair and azure eyes of the ancient 

 Germans, and that he could never find the originals of the portraits 

 which the ancients had depicted of his compatriots until he visited 

 Scandinavia; there he found himself in the midst of the Germans of 

 Tacitus." ' 



As regards the brachycephals, says Retzius, only surmises can be 

 expressed on their affinity with the Lapp or Finnish races, or -with the 

 brachycephals which are met w'ith in the same period in the rest of 

 Europe. ^ 



At present there are in Sweden about 87 per cent dolichocephals 

 and only 13 per cent brachycephals. 



On our part we shall call attention to the strongW jutting out of 

 the superciliary vaults of the glabella among the neolithic dolicho- 

 cephals of Sweden, which has already been noticed in other neolithic 

 skulls of ancient Germany. This anthropological characteristic rep- 

 resents an atavism suggesting, in our opinion, a relationship to the 

 dolichocephals of the period of chipped and polished stone implements. 



But as regards the neolithic brachycephalic skulls, designated by 

 De Quatrefages and Hamy as Laponoides, which have been found in 

 various regions of western Europe, they have, in our opmion, no 

 connection whatever with the Lapp race ; their origin should be looked 

 for where they are found. 



Norway. — Of 161 old Norwegian skulls which form part of the 

 anatomical collection of the University of Christiania, and which 

 have been examined by Justus Barth, there were 41.8 per cent 

 dolichocephalic, 52.3 per cent mesaticephalic, and onl}^ 5.9 per cent 

 brachycephalic. AU these skulls represent the ancient people of 

 southeast Norway, and their average age is about 500 years. To 

 these are joined a number of other skulls found in tumuli of the 

 Viking Age; that is, of the latter part of the Iron Age, and the time 



1 Prichard. Op. cit., vol. 1, p. 267. 



2 Retzius (G.). Crania succiacaantiqua. Stockholm, 1900. The so-called North European race of Man- 

 kind, by the same author. Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Gritain and Ireland, 1900. 



