274 PHYSICAL ETHNOLOGY. 



But to the ethnologist it is not so. There, amid the ruthist traces of primeval 

 ai'ts, he seeks, and probably not in vain, for the remains of primitive European 

 allophyliai. There it is not improbable that both Phoenicians and early Greek 

 navigators have left behind them (evidences of their presence, such as he alone 

 cjin discriminate.* The PhoiniciaJis stand, for northern Europe, as the oldest 

 of all the ancient civilized nations of the world, to whom its seas, ports, and 

 mineral treasures were known. Not unnaturally, therefore, there is a disposition 

 to turn to them as a means of explaining all mysteries. Professor N.lsson, in 

 the new edition of his tilcandincuHska Nordens Urinvdnare, ascribes to a sup- 

 posed I'hocnician occu])ation of tlu; North the whole of the characteristic works 

 of art of its Bronze period; and the temptation is still stronger for the British 

 archaeologist and craniologist to resort to a similar theory. The intercourse be- 

 tween Pliffiiiicia and the ancient Cassiterid(^s, by indirect, if not by direct, 

 ti'affic, is undisputed. But the evidence of any Phoenician settlements in Britain 

 rests on infert'uces from very vague allusions; and Sir George Cornwall Lewis 

 has done his best to invalidate them. Summing up the results of his inquiry aa 

 to the nature of the classical evidence in favor of the Phoenicians having 

 directly traded with Britain for its mineral wealth, and especially its tin, Ikj 

 remarks : " On the whole, the accounts preserved by the Greek and Latin 

 writers lead to the inference that the tin supplied in early times to the nations 

 in the east of the IMediterranean came by the overland route across Gaul, and 

 tliat the Phoenician ships brought it from the mouth of the llhonc, without 

 sailing as far as Britain." t British antiquaries will not willingly adopt such an 

 ojtinion; but it serves at any rate to indicate how slight is the evidence on 

 which to base any theory of a I'hocniciau origin for the ancient long-headed 

 kumbccephali of tlu; British Isles. Moreover, such a theory, in so far as it has 

 any craniological basis, rests only on the recognition of the general analogy of 

 form between certain British crania and tbe supposed Punic one brought from 

 Malta; Avhile it derives no confirmation from the discovery of works of art in 

 i\\Q. chambered barrows, or other sepulchres of the long-headed British race, 

 such as can be ascribed to a Phoenician origin, or indicate any trace of Punic 

 influence. 



But tluu-e is another and more important aspect of the question. Before wo 

 can abandon ourselves to the temptations which the Punic theory offers, it has 

 to be borne in remembrance that it is still disputed with reference to this class 

 of British dolichocephalic crania. Ai'c they examples of an essen'itally distinct 

 type, preserving evidence of the characteristics of a different race, or arc they 

 mere exceptional aberrant deviations from the supposed brachycephalic Celtic 

 or British type? Much stress is laid on the fact that the two forms of skull 

 have occasionally been recovered from the same barrow; from which it may bo 

 inferred that the two races to which I conceive them to have belonged were, for 

 a more or less limited period, contemporaneous. ]\Iore than this I cannot regard 

 as a legitimate induction from such premises, in relation to crania of such 

 extremely diverse types. But this amounts to little, for the same is undoubtedly 

 true of th(,' ancient 13ritish and the modern Anglo-Saxon race; and the discovery 

 of Celtic and Saxon skulls in a common barrow or tumulus of the 6th century is 

 no proof that the latter race was not preceded by many centuries in the occupa- 

 tion of tlu! country by the Britons, among whom they then mingled as conquerors 

 and supplauters. 



But the elongated skulls of the Uley barrow type are no rare and exceptional 

 forms. They have been most frequently found in tombs of a peculiar charac- 

 ter, designated chambered barrows, from the galleries and catacombs of large 

 unhewn stones which they contain. To these tombs archaeologists are unani- 



* Canadian Journal, vol. ii, p. 445. 



f Historical Survey of tfio A-stronomy of tho Ancients, p. 455. 



