193

On the whole, the Kelts were a mixed group in race as in culture; their ancestry includes both long heads of some central European Nordic type, which was in turn a combination of several Mediterranean sub-types, and brachycephals from the region in southwestern Germany in which the Dinarics of Early Bronze Age introduction had blended with earlier round heads of Mesolithic origin. Out of this combination, the Kelts developed an easily identified national type, of considerable constancy, which was to be of some importance in the world, especially in Britain and the na­tions derived from her*

4. The romans

Before proceeding to study the rest of the Iron Age Indo*European speakers in their homes north of the Alps, let us examine the racial posi­tion of those near linguistic relatives of the Kelts, the Italici, who lived south of that barrier, and who played a r61e of the utmost importance in the history of Indo-European speech. The racial problem in Italy is nearly as complicated as in Greece, but the recent work of Whatmough, paralleling that of Myres, makes its solution equally possible.⁴⁵

We have already witnessed the accretion of various racial elements in Italy up to and through the Bronze Age. To a Neolithic Mediterranean sub-stratum were added tall, long-headed Megalithic invaders who came by sea, and Dinaric brachycephals from the eastern end of the Mediter­ranean. In the Late Bronze Age, Urnfields people crossed the Alps from the north, and settled in northern Italy. Some of them built the terremare settlements in the Po Valley, while their descendants or others like them were responsible for the Villanova settlements in the Bologna region, and similar sites as far south as Latium. These collective Urnfields peoples came from central Europe, rather than from the nearer Swiss center. The Italic languages, like Keltic, were without reasonable doubt introduced by the Urnfields people. Like Keltic, they split into P and Q, forms, with Oscan and Umbrian as P, and Latin and Ealiscan as Q. Latin itself, in its historic form, was a mixture of Villanovan Italic plus Etruscan plus some altered Greek, plus early Mediterranean words, including plant names.⁴⁶ The non-Italic accretions bear witness to the influences which met the early Romans, while its major Italic character throughout attests the per­sistence of the Romans in retaining the nucleus of their own speech through centuries of Etruscan overlordship.

We know comparatively little about the racial composition of the early Italic people in pre-Roman times. Two crania from Remedello ⁴⁷ are

46 Whatmouffh. J., The Foundations of Roman Italy.

*Ibid.₉ pp. 276-277.

" Zampa, R., APA, vol. 20, 1890, pp. 345-365.

THE RACES OF EUROPE

both those of dolichocephals of moderate size; one of them, which is cer­tainly a male, has a stature of 168 cm. Two early Romans ⁴⁸ were like­wise dolichocephals of the same size and proportions as many of the Nordic groups north of the Alps; while a third, from the pre-Republican cemetery of Corneto Tarquinia, which can be more accurately defined, resembles a small male series of eight Christian Roman skulls, dating from the first to fourth centuries a.d.⁴⁹ These nine male crania are identical metrically with the means for the La T&ne Kelts in Bohemia, and the Gauls and Gallo-Romans of the Marne. The same mesocephalic, leptorrhine form is found in each case.

Historically, the Romans should have been a mixture of Villanovan Italic northerners with Etruscans and Neolithic and Bronze Age predeces­sors.⁶⁰ The little crania material at hand points entirely in the northern direction, and confirms the relationship between Kelts and Italici, insofar as it may be used. On the other hand, the addition of Etruscan meso­cephals with Dinaric and Mediterranean elements would not greatly alter the early Kelt-like Italic metrical form.

The early Romans, judging from the busts of their descendants in the days of Augustus, and of descriptions, were not very tall, as a rule, but were often of heavy bodily build. Their skulls were flattish on top, and rounded on the sides, like those of Kelts. The facial features included the well- known “Roman” nose, which may have been partly derived from an Etruscan source. On the whole, the well-known sculptures of Caesar, Augustus, and others, although not reliable from the standpoint of ac­curate measurement, indicate that a mesocephalic to brachycephalic head form was admired. Their facial type is not native to the Mediter­ranean basin, but is more at home in the north. Nevertheless, the Romans considered the Kelts who invaded Italy tall and blond; hence the blondism of the Romans, including rufosity, must have been in the minority.⁶¹

More detailed information may be obtained by studying the remains of Romans who died away from home in the colonial service of the empire. For example, an officer of the sixth legion, named Theodorianus, stationed at York, came from the small city of Nomentum, in Latium. Three others, also buried at York, were also native Romans.⁶² These four were all of one type, and' very much alike: dolicho- to mesocephalic, with low vaults, low, broad foreheads, very aquiline noses, and short, broad, square faces. The

48. Sergi, G., ARAL, Anno 280, 1883, 10 pp. _t

49. Moschen, L., Crani Romani della Primer a Epoca Cristiana₎ 1894.

Prdbstl, L., AFA, vol. 45, 1919, pp. 80-81.

60. Whatmough, op. cit., p. 267.

« Rochet, C., MS4P, vol. 3, 1868, pp. 127-145.

⁶² Davis, J. B., and Thurman, J., Crania Rritannica, 1865, Part II.