Mr Myers, The Ethnology of Modern Egypt. 
179 
The Ethnology of Modern Egypt. By Charles S. Myers, 
Gonville and Cams College. 
\Read 11 February 1907.] 
The material which serves for the present study* was collected 
by me in the years 1901 and 1902. During my stay at Abbasia, 
near Cairo, I measured, described and photographed 1006 Egyptian 
conscripts; I thus obtained over 17,000 measurements. I am 
indebted to the Government Grants Committee of the Royal 
Society and to the British Association for the Advancement of 
Science, for financial assistance. My hearty thanks are also due 
to Sir F. R. Wingate, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., Sirdar of the Egyptian 
Army, who kindly placed at my disposal as many Egyptian and 
Sudanese troops as I had time to examine. 
The object of my work was to determine what differences, if 
any, exist between (A) the Ancient and Modem Egyptians, 
(B) the present inhabitants of different parts of Egypt, and 
(C) the present Moslems and the present Copts f. 
A. Comparisons between the Ancient and Modem Egyptians. 
I have compared my data with those published by Miss 
Fawcett and her collaborators];, and derived from a series of 
“ prehistoric ” skulls which Prof. Flinders Petrie excavated at 
Nakada. I have carefully selected for comparison only those of 
my measurements which refer to persons living under the same 
conditions and in the same part of Egypt as did their “pre- 
historic” ancestors some seven thousand years ago. 
The following table shows the cephalic index and the head- 
measurements, taken in the “ prehistoric ” series on the skull, and 
in the modern series on the living head : — 
Series 
Head length 
Head breadth 
Cephalic Index 
No. 
Mean 
No. 
Mean 
No. 
Mean 
Nakada (“ prehistoric”) 
139 
185-13 
139 
134-87 
130 
72-99 
Kena (“modem”) 
53 
194-79 
53 
143-91 
53 
73-94 
Girga (“modern”) 
83 
194-53 
83 
144-33 
83 
74-25 
Kena and Girga) 
(“modern”) j " 
136 
194-63 
136 
144-16 
136 
74-13 
* For a more detailed account the reader may be referred to my “ Contributions 
to Egyptian Anthropology,” which are appearing in the Journal of the Anthropo- 
logical Institute. 
t Egypt was officially proclaimed a Christian country in the reign of Theodosius I, 
308 a.d., and remained so until the Moslem invasion of 640 a.d. The Copts are the 
small section of Egyptians who, refusing to embrace Mahommedanism, have con- 
tinued to this day steadfast in the former religion, 
f Biometrika, 1902, i. pp. 408 — 467. 
