172 SMITPISONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. IIO 



From this point of view, the nearest blood relations of the Turko- 

 mans are the Osetes. These are the two vestigial lakes remaining 

 from the Scytho-Sarmatian ocean, which once occupied the large terri- 

 tory between the Tien Shan and Pamir-Alai mountain systems in the 

 east and the Dnieper steppes in the west. 



The connection of the Osetes with the Scytho-Sarmatians is estab- 

 lished on the basis of philological evidence. The connection of the 

 Turkomans with the Scytho-Sarmatian group is established only on 

 the basis of craniological evidence derived from the study of various 

 ethnic groups inhabiting Turkestan and neighboring steppes. 



It may also be remarked that the southern Turkomans, who were 

 the least mestized with the Turko-Mongols who had come from the 

 north and northeast, have also preserved in greatest purity the traits 

 of the ancient Scytho-Sarmatian Indo-European physical type. Thus, 

 the average height of the "Teke" Turkomans is 1,700 mm., the tallest 

 in Turkestan ; only 20.0 percent were in the short category. Their 

 nearest neighbors are another Indo-European people, the Tajiks, 

 with a mean stature of 1,600 mm., including 33.0 percent short indi- 

 viduals according to Maslovskii. 



Mixed Eurasian types occupy an intermediate position as shown by 

 the following table : 



Group Stature Short Observer 



Percent 



Sarts 168.0 51.0 Maslovskii, 



Blagoveshchenskii, 

 Poiarkov 



Uzbeks 168.0 32.0 Maslovskii, Ujfalvy 



Uzbeks (Khiva) 166.71 ? Oshanin 



Sarts (Tashkent) 167.6 ? Shishlov 



Purely Asiatic peoples are the shortest, for example, the Kazakhs 

 with a mean stature of 164.0 according to Ivanovskii, Ivanov, and 

 Maslovskii. 



The Turkomans, who include many individuals with regularly 

 formed noses, possess a nasal index of 66.6, midway between the 

 Tashkent Sarts (63.06iO.69 with 81.9 percent leptorrhine) and the 

 Khiva Uzbeks (68.o±o.57 with 60.0 percent leptorrhine). 



While true light-haired individuals are not known, lAvorskii 

 records 14 of 59 individuals (23.8 percent) having gray eyes, which 

 is a high percentage for Turkestan, excluding the Mountain Tajiks. 

 Oshanin wonders if this is not the last remnant of the trait noticed by 

 Ammianus Marcellinus (XXI, 21 (48)) among the Alans; "Crinibus 

 mediocriter flavis." 



