ON AUCH-EOLOGICAL AND ETHNOGRAPHICAL KEaEAUCHES LN CKETE. 315 

 An interim report from Mr. Hawes is appended : — 



In 1905, at the request of the Cretan Committee of the British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, I went to Crete to follow 

 up Dr. Duckworth's investigations of the physical characters of the 

 ancient and modern Cretans.^ 



Four months spent in the island enabled me to travel from village to 

 village throughout the length and breadth, thus avoiding the plan often 

 imposed on the anthropologist from want of time, of culling his data from 

 police, prison or other institution. 



In the first place I excavated at Palaikastro, and later made occa- 

 sional trial ' digs ' en route. At Candia I examined some skulls dis- 

 covered since Dr. Duckworth's visit, and the rest of the time was spent 

 by me in journeying to and fro in the island. 



In excavating at Palaikastro I came upon several interments of about 

 the Third Late Minoan period in 'larnakes,' but the majority of the 

 crania in them were too much crushed by the fallen earth to be accurately 

 measured. Those that could be determined, together with other skulls 

 found since Dr. Duckworth's inspection, at Knossos, Aghia Triadha, 

 Konmasa, ai;d near Gournia, and measured by me in the Museum at 

 Candia, amount to eleven only. 



Of these eleven, four belong to the same Early and Middle Minoan 

 periods as those measured by Dr. Duckworth ; one is dolichocephalic, 

 one is brachycephalic, and two are mesocephalic. Of the other seven 

 belonging to the Third Late Minoan, three are mesocephalic and four 

 are brachycephalic. 



These skulls are, of course, too few to base any theory upon, yet it is 

 significant that the large proportion of brachycephalism at the close of 

 the Bronze Age tallies with archaeological evidence as to an invasion of 

 peoples from the north ; and while Dr. Duckworth's figures go far to 

 prove the affinity of the Early and Middle Minoans with the Mediter- 

 ranean race, he would be the first to admit the importance of the 

 brachycephalic element which we have seen to be present even in these 

 early times. 



Any attempt to determine the origin of these broad heads must be as 

 yet in the nature of a guess. From Africa at this early period we expect 

 only long heads ; from Italy, the Greek mainland, and the coast regions 

 of Asia Minor a similar race. There remain the Transbalkan area and 

 the uplands of Asi^ Minor. 



The Anatolian highlands were inhabited at this period by the so-called 

 Hittites, who from- ancient skulls and traces in the modern population 

 have been classed by von Luschan as brachycephalic. On the other 

 hand, it may be that the Alpine race on its westward journey from Irania 

 to Centra] Europe sent a few stragglers southwards, either direct from 

 Asia Minor to Crete, or via the Bosphorus and Thessaly. Organised 

 such offshoots of the Alpine race may have been, but judging from the 

 condition of their kinsmen who built the early Lake Dwellings of Switzer- 

 land, they must have been a primitive folk, yet in the Neolithic stage, 

 unable to make much impress on the higher civilisation then existing in 

 Crete, especially since they were few in numbers. For, whether Hittites 

 or members of the Alpine race, we are concerned with slight infiltrations 



' Pnw. Brit, .issoc, 1903, Southport, p, 104, 



