ANTHROPOLOGY OF EASTERN EUROPEAN JEWS 289 



tukhof shows that these races are of Semitic origin.^ Consider- 

 ing that the Jews are not recent arrivals, but have been there 

 from time immemorial, the headform of the ancient Hebrews' 

 skull may have been brachycephaHc. In support of such a 

 theory can be cited measurements of twelve skulls from a Jewish 

 cemetery, in Basle, Switzerland, dating back to the thirteenth and 

 fourteenth centuries.^ The average cranial index of these skulls 

 is 84.66, /. e., a cepJialic index on the living of 86.66, which is 

 about the same as that of the Jews in Caucasia. While twelve 

 skulls are'^by far not sufficient to lead to definite conclusions, 

 still, the fact that not one of these skulls is dolichocephalic, is 

 of great significance. It tends to show that the headform of the 

 Jews in Europe has during the last few centuries elongated, and 

 not become rounder. 



But no matter whether the original type of skull of the Jews 

 was brachycephaHc or dolichocephalic, the majority of the mod- 

 ern Jews in Europe are mesocephalic as has been shown above. 

 That interinarriage of races with different cranial types will pro- 

 duce a middle type, has recently been disproved. The prevail- 

 ing opinion at the present is that intermarriage of long- with 

 round-headed races, does not produce middle types, but the 

 continued coexistence of both types. Professor Boas's studies 

 on the North American Indians shows this to be true. This 

 was also found to be true of the Eastern European Jews.'^ The 

 fact that the hyperbrachycephalic and dolichocephalic types of 

 head are so infrequently found among the Jews in Eastern 

 Europe may thus be explained that intermarriage with the 

 native races has by a process of natural selection eliminated 

 these two types, giving place to the headform of the latter ; 

 and that the headform of the Jews does exactly correspond to 

 that of their non-Jewish neighbors, is a good proof pointing in 

 this direction. 



1 I. I. Pantukhof, "Observations anthropologiques au Caucase," and also " Les 

 races du Caucase," Tiflis, 1900. 



=^J. Kollmann, " Schadel und Skeletreste aus einem Judenfriedhof des 13. and 

 14. Jahrhundert zu Basel." Verhandl. der naturforschcndeii Gescllschaft, Basel, 

 1885, VII, pp. 648-656. 



3 Franz Boas, "Heredity in Head Form," American Anthropologist, N. S., V, 

 1903, PP- 530-538. 



