The Peoples of Aryan Speech—European Trade Routes—"Aryan" Migrations—Indo-European Cradle—Indo-European Type—Date of Indo-European Expansion—Origin of Nordic Peoples—TheCimbriandTeutoni—The Bastarnae—The Moeso-Goths—Scandinavia—Modification of the Nordic Type—The Celto-Slavs: Their Ethnical Position defined—AberrantTyroleseType—RhaetiansandEtruscans—Etruscan Origins—The Celts—Definitions—Celts in Britain—The Picts—Brachycephals in Britain—Round Barrow Type—Alpine Type—Ethnic Relations—Formation of the English Nation—Ethnic Relations in Ireland—Scotland—and in Wales—Present Constitution of the British Peoples—The English Language—The French Nation—Constituent Elements—Mental Traits—The Spaniards and Portuguese—Ethnic Relations in Italy—Ligurian,Illyrian, andAryan Elements—The PresentItalians—Art and Ethics—The Rumanians—Ethnic Relations in Greece—The Hellenes—Origins and Migrations—TheLithuanianFactor—Aeolians;Dorians;Ionians—The Hellenic Legend—The Greek Language—The Slavs—Origins and Migrations—SarmatiansandBudini—Wends,Chekhs, andPoles—The Southern Slavs—Migrations—Serbs,Croats,Bosnians—The Albanians—The Russians—Panslavism—Russian Origins—AlansandOssets—Aborigines of the Caucasus—The Iranians—Ethnic and Linguistic Relations—Persians,TajiksandGalcha—Afghans—Lowland and Hill Tajiks—The Galchic Linguistic Family—Galcha and Tajik Types—Homo EuropaeusandH. Alpinusin Central Asia—The Hindus—Ethnic Relations in India—Classification of Types—The Kóls—The Dravidians—Dravidian and Aryan Languages—The Hindu Castes—Oceania—Indonesians—Micronesians—Eastern Polynesians—Origins, Types, and Divisions—Migrations—Polynesian Culture.
The Peoples of Aryan Speech—European Trade Routes—"Aryan" Migrations—Indo-European Cradle—Indo-European Type—Date of Indo-European Expansion—Origin of Nordic Peoples—TheCimbriandTeutoni—The Bastarnae—The Moeso-Goths—Scandinavia—Modification of the Nordic Type—The Celto-Slavs: Their Ethnical Position defined—AberrantTyroleseType—RhaetiansandEtruscans—Etruscan Origins—The Celts—Definitions—Celts in Britain—The Picts—Brachycephals in Britain—Round Barrow Type—Alpine Type—Ethnic Relations—Formation of the English Nation—Ethnic Relations in Ireland—Scotland—and in Wales—Present Constitution of the British Peoples—The English Language—The French Nation—Constituent Elements—Mental Traits—The Spaniards and Portuguese—Ethnic Relations in Italy—Ligurian,Illyrian, andAryan Elements—The PresentItalians—Art and Ethics—The Rumanians—Ethnic Relations in Greece—The Hellenes—Origins and Migrations—TheLithuanianFactor—Aeolians;Dorians;Ionians—The Hellenic Legend—The Greek Language—The Slavs—Origins and Migrations—SarmatiansandBudini—Wends,Chekhs, andPoles—The Southern Slavs—Migrations—Serbs,Croats,Bosnians—The Albanians—The Russians—Panslavism—Russian Origins—AlansandOssets—Aborigines of the Caucasus—The Iranians—Ethnic and Linguistic Relations—Persians,TajiksandGalcha—Afghans—Lowland and Hill Tajiks—The Galchic Linguistic Family—Galcha and Tajik Types—Homo EuropaeusandH. Alpinusin Central Asia—The Hindus—Ethnic Relations in India—Classification of Types—The Kóls—The Dravidians—Dravidian and Aryan Languages—The Hindu Castes—Oceania—Indonesians—Micronesians—Eastern Polynesians—Origins, Types, and Divisions—Migrations—Polynesian Culture.
As the result of recent researches there is an end of the theory that bronze came in with the "Aryans," and it is from this standpoint that the revelation of an independent Aegean culture in touch with Babylonia and Egypt some four millenniums before the new era is of such momentous import in determining the ethnical relations of the historical,i.e.the present European populations.
European Trade Routes.
Some idea of cultured relations in prehistoric times may be obtained from a review of the trade communications as indicated by archaeology during the Bronze Age which lasted through the whole of the third millennium down to the middle of the second. As we have seen, in the Nile valley, in Mesopotamia and in the Aegean area, remains characteristic of Bronze Age culture rest on a neolithic substratum, and a transitional stage, whengold and copper were the only metals known, often connects the two. From the time of this dawning of the Age of Metals, the inhabitants of the Nile Valley, of Crete, of Cyprus and of the mainland of Greece freely exchanged their products. Navigation was already flourishing, and the sea united rather than divided the insular and coastal populations. Gradually Egeo-Mykenaean civilisation extended from Crete and the Greek lands to the west, influencing Sicily directly, and leaving distinct traces in Southern Italy, Sardinia and the Iberian peninsula, while Iberia in its turn contributed to the development of Western Gaul and the British Isles. The knowledge of copper, and, soon after, that of bronze, spread by the Atlantic route to Ireland, while Central Europe was reached directly from the south. Thanks to the trade in amber, always in demand by the Mediterranean populations, there was a continuous trade route to Scandinavia, which thus had direct communication with Southern Europe. As civilisation developed, the lands of the north and west became exporters as well as importers, each developing a distinct industry not always inferior to the more precocious culture of the south[1194].
"Aryan" Migrations.
With trade communications thus stretching across Europe from south to north, and from east to extreme west, it would seem not improbable that movements of peoples were equally unrestricted, and this would account for the appearance on the threshold of history of various peoples formerly grouped together on account of their language, as "Aryan." J. L. Myres, however, is inclined to attribute "the coming of the North" to the same type of climatic impulse which induced the Semitic swarms described above (p. 489). After referring to the earliest occurrence of Indo-European names[1195], he continues "Before the time of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt there had been a very extensive raid of Indo-European-speaking folk by way of the Persian plateau, as far as the Syrian coastland and the interior of Asia Minor." These raids coincide with a new cultural feature of great significance. "It is of the first importance to find that it is in the dark period which immediately precedes theEighteenth Dynasty revival—when Egypt was prostrate under mysterious 'Shepherd Kings,' and Babylon under Kassite invaders equally mysterious—that the civilized world first became acquainted with one of the greatest blessings of civilisation, the domesticated horse. The period of Arabian drought, which drove forth the 'Canaanite' emigrants, may have had its counterpart on the northern steppe, to provoke the migration of these horsemen." He adds, however, "our knowledge both of the extent of these droughts and of the chronology of both these migrations, is too vague for this to be taken as more than a provisional basis for more exact enquiry[1196]."
Indo-European Cradle.
The attempt has often been made to locate the original home of the Indo-European people by an appeal to philology, and idyllic pictures have been drawn up of the "Aryan family" consisting of the father the protector, the mother the producer, and the children "whose name implied that they kept everything clean and neat[1197]." They were regarded as originally pastoral and later agricultural, ranging over a wide area with Bactria for its centre. With advancing knowledge of what is primitive in Indo-European this circumstantial picture crumbled to pieces, and Feist[1198]reduces all inferences deducible from linguistic palaeontology to the sole "argumentum ex silencio" (which he regards as distinctly untrustworthy in itself), that the "Urheimat" was a country in which in the middle of the third millenniumB.C.such southern animals as lion, elephant, and tiger, were unknown. It was commonly assumed that the "Aryan cradle" was in Asia, and the suggestion of R. G. Latham in 1851 that the original home was in Europe was scouted by one of the most eminent writers on the subject—Victor Hehn—as lunacy possible only to one who lived in a country of cranks[1197]. But since this date, there has been a shifting of the "Urheimat" further and further west. O. Schrader[1199]places it in South Russia, G. Kossinna[1200]and H. Hirt[1201]support the claims of Germany, while K. Penka andmany others go still further north, deriving both language and tall fair dolichocephalic speakers (proto-Teutons) from Scandinavia[1202].
F. Kauffmann[1203], noting the contrast between the cultures associated with pre-neolithic and with neolithic kitchen-middens, is prepared to attribute the former to aboriginal inhabitants, Ligurians, and, further north, Kvaens (Finns, Lapps), and the neolithic civilisation of Europe to Indo-Europeans. "Thus the neolithic Indo-Europeans would already have advanced as far as South Sweden in the Litorina period of the Baltic, during the oak-period."
On the other hand the discovery of Tocharish has inclined E. Meyer[1204]to reconsider an Asiatic origin, but the information as to this language is too fragmentary to be conclusive on this point. After reviewing the various theories Giles[1205]concludes "in the great plain which extends across Europe north of the Alps and Carpathians and across Asia north of the Hindu Kush there are few geographical obstacles to prevent the rapid spread of peoples from any part of its area to any other, and, as we have seen, the Celts and the Hungarians etc. have in the historical period demonstrated the rapidity with which such migrations could be made. Such migrations may possibly account for the appearance of a people using acentumlanguage so far east as Turkestan[1206]."
Indo-European Type.
More acrimonious than the discussion of the original home is the dispute as to the original physical type of the Indo-European-speaking people. It was almost a matter of faith with Germans that the language was introduced by tall fair dolichocephals of Nordic type. On the other hand the Gallic school sought to identify the Alpine race as the only and original Aryans. The futility of the whole discussion is ably demonstrated by W. Z. Ripley in his protest against the confusion of language and race[1207]. Feist[1208]summarises our information as follows. All that we can sayabout the physical type of the "Urvolk" is that since the Indo-Europeans came from a northerly region[1209](not yet identified) it is surmised that they belonged to the light-skinned people. The observation that mountain folk of Indo-Germanic speech in southern areas, such as the Ossets of the Caucasus, the Kurds of the uplands of Armenia and Irania, and the Tajiks of the western Pamirs not infrequently exhibit fair hair or blue eyes supports this view. Nevertheless, as he points out, brachycephals are not hereby excluded. His own conclusion, which naturally results from a review of the whole evidence, is that the "Urvolk" was not a pure race, but a mixture of different types. Already in neolithic times races in Europe were no longer pure, and in France "formed an almost inextricable medley" and Feist assumes with E. de Michelis[1210]that the Indo-Europeans were a conglomerate of peoples of different origins who in prehistoric times were welded together into an ethnic unity, as the present English have been formed from pre-Indo-European Caledonians (Picts and Scots), Celts, Roman traders and soldiers and later Teutonic settlers[1211].
Date of Indo-European expansion.
The evidence that Indo-Europeans were already in existence in Mesopotamia, Syria and Irania about the middle of the second millenniumB.C.has already been mentioned. About the same time the Vedic hymns bear witness to the appearance of the Aryans of Western India. The formation of an Aryan group with a common language, religion and culture is a process necessarily requiring considerable length of time, so that their swarming off from the Indo-European parent group must be pushed back to far into the third millennium. At this period there are indications of the settling of the Greeks in the southern promontories of the Balkan peninsula at latest about 2000B.C., while Thracian and Illyrian peoples may have filled the mainland, though the Dorians occupied Epirus, Macedonia, and perhaps Southern Illyria. Indo-European stocks were already in occupation of Central Italy. It would appear therefore that the period of the Indo-European community, before the migrations, must be placed at the end of the Stone Ages, at the time when copper was first introduced. Thus it seemslegitimate to infer that the expansion of the Indo-Europeans began about 2500B.C.and the furthest advanced branches entered into the regions of the older populations and cultures at latest after the beginning of the second millennium[1212]. About 1000B.C.we find three areas occupied by Indo-European-speaking peoples, all widely separated from each other and apparently independent. These are (1) the Aryan groups in Asia; (2) the Balkan peninsula together with Central and Lower Italy, and the Mysians and Phrygians of Asia Minor (possibly the Thracians had already advanced across the Danube); and (3) Teutons, Celts and Letto-Slavs over the greater part of Germany and Scandinavia, perhaps also already in Eastern France and in Poland. The following centuries saw the advance of Iranians to South Russia and further west, the pressing of the Phrygians into Armenia, and lastly the Celtic migrations in Western Europe.
Origin of the Nordic Peoples.
From the linguistic and botanical evidence brought forward by the Polish botanist Rostafínski[1213]the ancestors of the Celts, Germans and Balto-Slavs must have occupied a region north of the Carpathians, and west of a line between Königsberg and Odessa (the beech and yew zone). The Balto-Slavs subsequently lost the word for beech and transferred the word for yew to the sallow and black alder (both with red wood) but their possession of a word for hornbeam locates their original home in Polesie—the marshland traversed by the Pripet but not south or east of Kiev.
Although, owing to the absence of Teutonic inscriptions before the third or fourth centuryA.D.it is difficult to trace the Nordic peoples with any certainty during the Bronze or Early Iron Ages, yet the fairly well-defined group of Bronze Age antiquities, covering the basin of the Elbe, Mecklenburg, Holstein, Jutland, Southern Sweden and the islands of the Belt have been conjectured with much probability to represent early Teutonic civilisation. "Whether we are justified in speaking of a Teutonic race in the anthropological sense is at least doubtful, for the most striking characteristics of these peoples [as deduced from prehistoric skeletons, descriptions of ancient writers and present day statistics] occur also to a considerable extent among their eastern and western neighbours,where they can hardly be ascribed altogether to Teutonic admixture. The only result of anthropological investigation which so far can be regarded as definitely established is that the old Teutonic lands in Northern Germany, Denmark and Southern Sweden have been inhabited by people of the same type since the neolithic age if not earlier[1214]." This type is characterised by tall stature, long narrow skull, light complexion with light hair and eyes[1215].
The Cimbri and Teutoni.
The Bastarnae.
During the age of national migrations, from the fourth to the sixth century, the territories of the Nordic peoples were vastly extended, partly by conquest, and partly by arrangement with the Romans. But these movements had begun before the new era, for we hear of theCimbriinvading Illyricum, Gaul and Italy in the second centuryB.C.probably from Jutland[1216], where they were apparently associated with theTeutoni. Still earlier, in the third centuryB.C., theBastarnae, said by many ancient writers to have been Teutonic in origin, invaded and settled between the Carpathians and the Black Sea. Already mentioned doubtfully by Strabo as separating the Germani from the Scythians (Tyragetes) about the Dniester and Dnieper, their movements may now be followed by authentic documents from the Baltic to the Euxine. Furtwängler[1217]shows that the earliest known German figures are those of the Adamklissi monument, in the Dobruja, commemorating the victory of Crassus over the Bastarnae, Getae, and Thracians in 28B.C.The Bastarnae migrated before the Cimbri and Teutons through the Vistula valley to the Lower Danube about 200B.C.They had relations with the Macedonians, and the successes of Mithridates over the Romans were due to their aid. The account of their overthrow by Crassus in Dio Cassius is in striking accord with the scenes on the Adamklissi monument. Here they appear dressed onlyin a kind of trowsers, with long pointed beards, and defiant but noble features. The same type recurs both on the column of Trajan, who engaged them as auxiliaries in his Dacian wars, and on the Arch of Marcus Aurelius, here however wearing a tunic, a sign perhaps of later Roman influences. And thus after 2000 years are answered Strabo's doubts by modern archaeology.
The Moeso-Goths.
Much later there followed along the same beaten track between the Baltic and Black Sea a section of the Goths, whom we find first settled in the Baltic lands in proximity to the Finns. The exodus from this region can scarcely have taken place before the second century of the new era, for they are still unknown to Strabo, while Tacitus locates them on the Baltic between the Elbe and the Vistula. Later Cassiodorus and others bring them from Scandinavia to the Vistula, and up that river to the Euxine and Lower Danube. Although often regarded as legendary[1218], this migration is supported by archaeological evidence. In 1837 a gold torque with a Gothic inscription was found at Petroassa in Wallachia, and in 1858 an iron spear-head with a Gothic name in the same script, which dates from the first Iron Age, turned up near Kovel in Volhynia. The spear-head is identical with one found in 1865 at Münchenberg in Brandenburg, on which Wimmer remarks that "of 15 Runic inscriptions in Germany the two earliest occur on iron pikes. There is no doubt that the runes of the Kovel spear-head and of the ring came from Gothic tribes[1219]." These Southern Goths, later called Moeso-Goths, because they settled in Moesia (Bulgaria and Servia), had certain physical and even moral characters of the Old Teutons, as seen in the Emperor Maximinus, born in Thrace of a Goth by an Alan woman—very tall, strong, handsome, with light hair and milk-white skin[1220], temperate in all things and of great mental energy.
Before their absorption in the surrounding Bulgar and Slav populations the Moeso-Goths were evangelised in the fourth century by their bishop Ulfilas ("Wolf"), whose fragmentary translation of Scripture, preserved in theCodex Argenteusof Upsala, is the most precious monument of early Teutonic speech extant.
Scandinavia.
To find the pure Nordic type at the present day we must seek for it in Scandinavia, which possesses one of the most highly individualised populations in Europe. The Osterdal, and the neighbourhood of Vaage in Upper Gudbrandsdal in Norway, and the Dalarna district in Sweden contain perhaps the purest Teutonic type in all Europe, the cephalic index falling well below 78. But along the Norwegian coasts there is a strong tendency to brachycephaly (the index rising to 82-3), combined with a darkening of the hair and eye colour (the type occurs also in Denmark), indicating an outlying lodgement of the Alpine race from Central Europe. The anthropological history of Scandinavia, according to Ripley, is as follows: "Norway has ... probably been peopled from two directions, one element coming from Sweden and another from the south by way of Denmark. The latter type, now found on the sea coast and especially along the least attractive portion of it, has been closely hemmed in by the Teutonic immigration from Sweden[1221]." Brachycephalic people already occupied parts of Denmark in the Stone Age[1222], and, according to the scanty information available, the present population is extremely mixed. One-third of the children have light hair and light eyes, and tall stature coincides in the main with fair colouring, but in Bornholm where the cephalic index is 80 there is a taller dark type and a shorter light type, the latter perhaps akin to the Eastern variety of the Alpine race[1223].
Modification of the Nordic Type.
The original Nordic type is by no means universally represented among the present Germanic peoples. From the examination made some years ago of 6,758,000 school children[1224], it would appear that about 31 per cent. of living Germans may be classed as blonds, 14 as brunettes, and 55 as mixed; and further that of the blonds about 43 per cent. are centred in North, 33 in Central and 24 in South Germany. The brunettes increase, generallyspeaking, southwards, South Bavaria showing only about 14 per cent. of blonds, and the same law holds good of the long-heads and the round-heads respectively. To what cause is to be attributed this profound modification of this branch of the Nordic type in the direction of the south?
That the Teutons ranged in considerable numbers far beyond their northern seats is proved by the spread of the German language to the central highlands, and beyond them down the southern slopes, where a rude High German dialect lingered on in the so-called "Seven Communes" of the Veronese district far into the nineteenth century. But after passing the Main, which appears to have long formed the ethnical divide for Central Europe, they entered the zone of the brown Alpine round-heads[1225], to whom they communicated their speech, but by whom they were largely modified in physical appearance. The process has for long ages been much the same everywhere—perennial streams of Teutonism setting steadily from the north, all successively submerged in the great ocean of dark round-headed humanity, which under many names has occupied the central uplands and eastern plains since the Neolithic Age, overflowing also in later times into the Balkan Peninsula.
This absorption of what is assumed to be the superior in the inferior type, may be due to the conditions of the general movement—warlike bands, accompanied by few women, appearing as conquerors in the midst of the Alpines and merging with them in the great mass of brachycephalic peoples. Or is the transformation to be explained by de Lapouge's doctrine, that cranial forms are not so much a question of race as of social conditions, and that, owing to the increasingly unfavourable nature of these conditions, there is a general tendency for the superior long-heads to be absorbed in the inferior round-heads[1226].
The fact that dolichocephaly is more prevalent in cities and brachycephaly in rural areas has been interpreted in various ways. De Lapouge[1227]contended that in France the restless andmore enterprising long-heads migrated from the rural districts in disproportionate numbers to the towns, where they died out. For the department of Aveyron he gives a table showing a steady rise of the cephalic index from 71.4 in prehistoric times to 86.5 in 1899, and attributes this to the dolichos gravitating chiefly to the large towns, as O. Ammon has also shown for Baden. L. Laloy summed up the results thus: France is being depopulated, and, what is worse, it is precisely the best section of the inhabitants that disappears, the section most productive in eminent men in all departments of learning, while the ignorant and rudepecusalone increase.
These views have met with favour even across the Atlantic, but are by no means universally accepted. The ground seems cut from the whole theory by A. Macalister, who read a paper at the Toronto Meeting of the British Association, 1897, on "The Causes of Brachycephaly," showing that the infantile and primitive skull is relatively long, and that there is a gradual change, phylogenetic (racial) as well as ontogenetic (individual) toward brachycephaly, which is certainly correlated with, and is apparently produced by, cerebral activity and growth; in the process of development in the individual and the race the frontal lobes of the brain grow the more rapidly and tend to fill out and broaden the skull[1228]. The tendency would thus have nothing to do with rustic and urban life, nor would the round be necessarily, if at all, inferior to the long head. Some of de Lapouge's generalisations are also traversed by Livi[1229], Deniker[1230], Sergi[1231]and others, and the whole question is admirably summarised by W. Z. Ripley[1232].
The Celto-Slavs.
But whatever be the cause, the fact must be accepted thatHomo Europaeus(the Nordics) becomes merged southwards inHomo Alpinuswhose names, as stated, are many. Broca and many continental writers use the nameKeltorSlavo-Kelt, which has led to much confusion. But it merely means for them the great mass of brachycephalic peoples in Central Europe, where, at various times, Celtic and Slavonic languages have prevailed.
Aberrant Tyrolese Type.
Rhaetians and Etruscans.
It is remarkable that in the Alpine region, especially Tyrol, where the brachy element comes to a focus, there is a peculiar form of round-head which has greatly puzzled de Lapouge, but may perhaps be accounted for on the hypothesis of two brachy types here fused in one. To explain the exceedingly round Tyrolese head, which shows affinities on the one hand with the Swiss, on the other with the Illyrian and Albanian, that is, with the normal Alpine, a Mongol strain has been suggested, but is rightly rejected by Franz Tappeiner as inadmissible on many grounds[1233]. De Ujfalvy[1234], a follower of de Lapouge, looks on the hyperbrachy Tyrolese as descendants of the ancient Rhaetians or Rasenes, whom so many regard as the parent stock of the Etruscans.
Etruscan Origins.
But Montelius (with most other modern ethnologists) rejects the land route from the north, and brings the Etruscans by the sea route direct from the Aegean and Lydia (Asia Minor). They are the Thessalian Pelasgians whom Hellanikos of Lesbos brings to Campania, or the Tyrrhenian Pelasgians transported by Antiklides from Asia Minor to Etruria, and he is "quite sure that the archaeological facts in Central and North Italy ... prove the truth of this tradition[1235]." Of course, until the affinities of the Etruscan language are determined, from whichwe are still as far off as ever[1236], Etruscan origins must remain chiefly an archaeological question. Even the help afforded by the crania from the Etruscan tombs is but slight, both long and round heads being here found in the closest association. Sergi, who also brings the Etruscans from the east, explains this by supposing that, being Pelasgians, they were of the same dolicho Mediterranean stock as the Italians (Ligurians) themselves, and differed only from the brachy Umbrians of Aryan speech. Hence the skulls from the tombs are of two types, the intruding Aryan, and the Mediterranean, the latter, whether representing native Ligurians or intruding Etruscans, being indistinguishable. "I can show," he says, "Etruscan crania, which differ in no respect from the Italian [Ligurian], from the oldest graves, as I can also show heads from the Etruscan graves which do not differ from those still found in Aryan lands, whether Slav, Keltic, or Germanic[1237]." Perhaps the difficulty is best explained by Feist's suggestion that the Etruscans were merely a highly civilised warlike aristocracy, spreading thinly over the conquered population by which they were ultimately absorbed[1238].
The Celts.
The migrations of the Celts preceded those of the Teutonic peoples to whom they were probably closely related in race as in language[1239]. At the beginning of the historical period Celts are found in the west of Germany in the region of the Rhine and the Weser. Possibly about 600B.C.they occupied Gaul and parts of the Iberian peninsula, subsequently crossing over into the British Isles. In Italy they came into conflict with the rising power of Rome, and, after the battle of the Allia (390B.C.) occupied Rome itself. Descents were also made into the Danube valley and the Balkans, and later (280B.C.) into Thessaly. At the height of their power they extended from the north of Scotland to the southern shores of Spain and Portugal, and from the northern coasts of Germany to a little south of Senegaglia. To thewest their boundary was the Atlantic, to the east, the Black Sea[1240].
Definition of "Celt."
Unfortunately the indiscriminate use of the term Celt has led to much confusion. For historians and geographers the Celts are the people in the centre and west of Europe referred to by writers of antiquity under the names ofKeltoi,Celtae,GalliandGalatae. But many anthropologists, especially on the continent, regard Celts and Gauls as representing two well-determined physical types, the former brachycephalic, with short sturdy build and chestnut coloured hair (Alpine type), and the latter dolichocephalic with tall stature, fair complexion and light hair (Nordic type). Linguists, ignoring physical characters, class as Celts those people who speak an Indo-European language characterised in particular by the loss of p and by the modifications undergone by mutation of initial consonants, while for many archaeologists the Celts were the people responsible for the spread of the civilisation of the Hallstatt and La Tène periods, that is of the earlier and later Iron Age[1241].
It is not surprising therefore that it has been proposed to drop the word Celt out of anthropological nomenclature, as having no ethnical significance. But this, says Rice Holmes[1242], "is because writers on ethnology have not kept their heads clear." And in particular one point has been overlooked. "Just as the French are called after one conquering people, the Franks; just as the English are called after one conquering people, the Angles; so the heterogeneous Celtae of Transalpine Gaul were called after one conquering people; and that people were the Celts, or rather a branch of the Celts in the true sense of the word. The Celts, in short, were the people who introduced the Celtic language into Gaul, into Asia Minor, and into Britain; the people who included the victors of the Allia, the conquerors of Gallia Celtica, and the conquerors ofGallia Belģica; the people whom Polybius called indifferently Gauls and Celts; the people who, as Pausanius said, were originally called Celts and afterwards called Gauls. If certain ancient writers confounded the tall fair Celts who spoke Celtic with the tall fair Germans who spoke German the ancient writers who were better informed avoided such a mistake.... Let us therefore restore to the word 'Celt' the ethnical significance which of right belongs to it."
Celts in Britain.
It is not certain at what date the Celtic tribes effected settlements in Great Britain, but it is held by many that the earliest invasions were not prior to the sixth or possibly even the fifth century. At the time of the Roman conquest the Celts were divided into two linguistic groups,Goidelic, represented at the present day by Irish, Manx and Scotch Gaelic, andBrythonic, including Welsh, Cornish and Breton. These groups must have been virtually identical save in two particulars. In Brythonic the labial velar q became p (a change which apparently took place before the time of Pytheas), whilst in Goidelic the sound remained unaltered. q is retained in the earlier ogham inscriptions, but by the end of the seventh century it had lost the labial element, appearing in Old Irish as c. Thus O. Irishcenn, head, as in Kenmare, Kintyre, Kinsale, equates with Brythonicpen, as in Penryn (Cornwall), Penrhyn (Wales), Penkridge (Staffordshire), Penruddock, Penrith and many others. The two groups are therefore distinguished as the Q Celts and the P Celts[1243]. From the fact that Goidelic retained the q it has been commonly assumed that the Goidels were separated from the main Celtic stock at a time before the labialisation had taken place, but many scholars maintain that the parent Goidelic was evolved in Ireland, and was carried from that island to Man and Scotland in the early centuries of our era[1244].
The Picts.
From an anthropological point of view, the Picts are if possible more difficult to identify than the Celts. But the question is not between tall fair long-heads and short dark round-heads, but between short dark long-heads (neolithic aborigines) and Celts. The Pictishquestion is summed up by Rice Holmes[1245]and the various theories have been more recently reviewed by Windisch[1246]giving a valuable summary of earlier writings. On the one hand it is maintained as "the most tenable hypothesis that the Picts were non-Aryans, whom the first Celtic migrations found already settled here ... descendants of the Aborigines[1247]." Windisch[1248]at the other extreme, regards them as late comers into North Britain, when Scotland was already occupied by Brythonic tribes. But the geographical distribution of the Picts in historical times suggests rather a people driven into mountainous regions by successive conquerors, than the settlements of successful invaders. Also it is not improbable that the language of the Bronze Age lingered in these wilder districts, and this would account for the fact that St Columba had to employ an interpreter in his relations with the Picts; though this is explained by others on the assumption that Pictish was Brythonic. The linguistic evidence is however extremely slight, only a few words presumably Pictish having survived and these through Celtic writers. "The one absolutely certain conclusion to which the student of ethnology can come is that the name of the Picts has not been proved to be of pre-Aryan origin[1249]." "For me," continues Rice Holmes (p. 417), "the Picts were a mixed people comprising descendants of the neolithic aborigines, of the Round Barrow Race, and of the Celtic invaders—a mixed people who [or at least whose aristocracy] spoke a Celtic dialect."
Brachycephals in Britain.
Before attempting a survey of the ethnology of Britain it is necessary to ascertain what ethnic elements the area contained before the arrival of the Celts. The neolithic inhabitants, the short, dark dolichocephals of Mediterranean type have already been described (Ch. XIII.). Their remains are associated with the characteristic forms of sepulchral monuments the dolmens and the long barrows. But towards the end of the Stone Age a brachycephalic race was already penetrating into the islands. This appears to have been a peaceful infiltration, at any rate in certain districts, where remains of the two types are foundside by side and there is evidence of racial intermixture. The brachycephals introduced a new form of sepulture, making their burial mounds circular instead of elongated, whence Thurnam's convenient formula, "long barrow, long skull; round barrow, round skull." But the earlier view that there was a definite transition from long heads, neolithic culture and long barrows, to round heads, bronze culture and round barrows can no longer be maintained. "It is often taken for granted that no round barrows were erected in Britain before the close of the Neolithic Age, and that the earliest of the brachycephalic invaders whose remains have been found in them landed with bronze weapons in their hands[1250]." But there is abundant evidence that the brachycephalic element preceded the knowledge of metals, and a number of round barrows in Yorkshire and further north show no trace of bronze.
Round Barrow Type.
Nevertheless the majority of the round barrows belong to the Bronze Age, and the physical type of their builders is sufficiently well marked. The stature is remarkably tall, attaining a height of 1.763 m. or over 5 ft. 9 ins. The skull is brachycephalic with an average index of about 80. It is also characterised by great strength and ruggedness of outline, with (often) a sloping forehead, prominent supraciliary ridges, and a certain degree of prognathism.
According to Rolleston's description "The eyebrows must have given a beetling and probably even formidable appearance to the upper part of the face, whilst the boldly outstanding and heavy cheekbones must have produced an impression of raw and rough strength. Overhung at its root, the nose must have projected boldly forward." And Thurnam adds "the prominence of the large incisor and canine teeth is so great as to give an almost bestial expression to the skull[1251]."
Alpine Type.
Although this type is conveniently called the Round Barrow type, or even the Round Barrow Race, the round barrows also contain remains of a different racial character. The skull form shows a more extreme brachycephaly, with an index of 84 or 85, and exhibits none of the rugged features associated with the true Round Barrow type. On the contrary, of the two typical groups, one fromround barrows in Glamorganshire, and the other from short cists in Aberdeenshire not one of the skulls is prognathous, the supraciliary ridges are but slightly developed, the cheek bones are not prominent, the face is both broad and short and the lower jaw is small. But the greatest contrast is in the height, which averages in the two groups, 1.664 m. and 1.6 m. respectively,i.e.5 ft. 5¾ ins. and 5 ft. 3 ins. All these characters connect this type closely with the Alpine type on the continent.
These round-headed peoples have been the subject of much discussion ably summarised and criticised by Rice Holmes, whose conclusion perhaps best represents the view now taken of their affinities and origins.
"The great mistake that has been made in discussing the question is the not uncommon assumption that the brachycephalic immigrants who buried their dead in round barrows arrived in Britain at one time, and came from one place. Some of them certainly appeared before the end of the Neolithic Age: others may have introduced bronze implements or ornaments; others doubtless came, in successive hordes, during the course of the Bronze Age. Some of those who belonged to the Grenelle race [Alpine type], who certainly came from Eastern Europe and possibly from Asia, and whose centre of dispersion was the Alpine region, may have started from Gaul; others could have traced their origin to some Rhenish tribe; and I am inclined to believe that those who belonged to the characteristic rugged Round Barrow type crossed over, for the most part, from Denmark or the out-lying islands[1252]."