178 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 10 



able that the Scythians belong to one of the branches of the Medi- 

 terranean race. However, these data, unfamiliar to us because of the 

 scarcity of the anthropological literature on Turkestan, do not change 

 the basic tenets. It remains only to state that the dolichocephaly of 

 the Turkomans is the dolichocephaly of that branch of the Mediter- 

 ranean race which was once represented by the Scytho-Sarmatians.^^ 



In the former study Oshanin stated that artificial cranial deforma- 

 tion is not practiced by the Turkomans. However, new data show 

 that the Turkomans themselves explain their dolichocephaly, which 

 is different from the usual head form of their neighbors, by the custom 

 of binding tightly the heads of their newborn children. Data were 

 also forthcoming that this custom is still actually practiced. The 

 Turkomans also state the wearing of tight skullcaps by young children 

 contributes to their eventual dolichocephaly. 



In the spring of 1926 the ethnographical expedition of Madame 

 N. V. Briulova-Shaskolskaia, studying the Ersari tribe of the Turko- 

 mans on the Amu-Darya between Khodzhambas and Kelif, was joined 

 by Maslov and Fokina who had previously collected anthropological 

 data under Oshanin's guidance in Tashkent. 



According to the data collected by Maslov and Fokina during this 

 expedition, the Ersari Turkomans were less long-headed than the 

 Teke Turkomans measured by lAvorskii, yet the Turkomans are 

 still by far the most long-headed people of Central Asia as may be 

 seen from the following table. 



People No. C. I. Author Date 



Teke Turkomans 59 75-6 I. L. lAvorskii 1891 



Ersari Turkomans 124 77.0 Shaskolskaia Expedition 1926 



Khwarazm Uzbeks 100 82.21 Oshanin 1923 



Tashkent "Sarts" 119 82.73 A. P. Shishlov 190S 



Karategin Tajiks 1 433 82.77 Central Asian University 1926 



Bukharan Central Asian SREDAZKOMSTARIS 



Jews, Kermine 195 84.45 Expedition 1926 



Issyk-Kul Kirghiz 100 84.84 Oshanin 1924 



^ Karategins working in Tashkent. 



At the same time it was found out that the Ersari Turkomans 

 always bind tightly the heads of their young children with a folded 

 handkerchief in order, as they themselves state, to make the head as 

 long as possible. 



A diagonally folded handkerchief is tied below the occiput in such 



58 Oshanin, L. V., Nekotorye dopolnitelnye k gipoteze skifo-sarmatskogo 

 proiskhozhdeniia Turkmen [Some supplementary data to the hypothesis of the 

 Scytho-Sarmatian origin of the Turkomans]. Izvestia, No. 3, pp. 85-97, 1928. 



