THE RACES OF EUROPE

conclusions. A series of Goths from the Chersonese north of the Black Sea, dated between 100 b.c. and 100 a.d., includes three male and eight female skeletons.⁷⁶ All of these are long headed, and they belong to a large, powerful Nordic type which reflects their Swedish origin, for they are no different from the Swedish Iron Age crania which we have already studied.

A later group of Gepidae dated from the fifth or sixth centuries in Hun­gary shows the persistence of this same type; despite historical blending with the Huns, of eight skulls at our disposal, all but three fail to show def­inite traces of mongoloid mixture, and in these three the non-Nordic traits are not manifested metrically. One is forced to the conclusion from this series, as from that of the Goths in the Chersonese, that the East Ger­manic peoples who took part in these wanderings preserved their original racial characteristics so long as they retained their political and linguistic identity.

The same conclusion results when one exapaines the Visigothic skulls from northern Spain which date from the sixth century a.d.⁷⁷ Here a series combined from several cemeteries shows us exactly the same Nordic type, with tall stature and with a high-vaulted skull, a long face, and a broad jaw; in this respect resembling, in a sense, the earlier Hallstatt crania, but more particularly those of the western Germanic group, es­pecially the Hannover Germans and the Anglo-Saxons.

The western branch of Germanic-speaking peoples, while historically less spectacular, was destined to be far more important in the eventual peopling of Europe. This included the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons, of the Frisians, and of the Germans proper. Among the latter may be listed the Franks, the Alemanni, the Bavarians, the Thuringians, and the Chatti, whose descendants are the Hessians. Under the Franks may be listed the ancestors of the Flemish- and Dutch-speaking peoples whose closely related languages are a mixture of low Franconian and Saxon elements. All of these peoples worked their way southward, and in some cases westward, gradually and without ostentation; the Alemanni to Switzerland and Austria, the Bavarians to the principality which bears their name, the Thuringians to Bohemia as well as to Thuringia, and the Franks to the upper Rhine country, Belgium, and France. The Bur­gundians* members of the eastern branch of Germans, sophisticated like the Goths from contact with the Roman Empire, crossed the Rhine ahead of the Franks, and occupied Rhenish Gaul at the same time that the Vandals were admitted under Roman sanction. ^;

78 Schliz, a., pz, vol. 5, 1913, pp. 148-157.

77. Barras de Aragon, f. De las, msae, vol. 6, 1927, pp. 141-186.

PSrez de Barradas, J., MSAE, vol. 14, 1935, pp. 141-172.