The bronze age and the Celtic world - Universal History Library

24
THE BRONZE AGE AND THE CELTIC WORLD
The Cromagnon type is tall. The men were often 5 ft. 10 in. or 5 ft. 11 in. high,
though the women were frequently much shorter, Their heads were large, larger
than the average in Europe to-day, but not very high ;
their breadth, having a cranial index of about 74
they were long as compared with
; their nose^ were narrow, but their
faces were short and relatively broad. This combination of a long head and a short
face is unusual, and is called disharmonic, and this disharmony is one of the most
striking characteristics of Cromagnon man.^*
It is often thought that this disharmonic trait, the long head and the short face,
is evidence of the mixed ancestry of the race which exhibits it,^' and if this were the case
we might expect Cromagnon man to be the result of a crossing of two other races. There
is no other evidence to indicate that this was the case, and if such crossing had
occurred, it seems likely that it took place before the Cromagnon type reached Europe.
It seems probable that it is to the men of the Cromagnon type that we must
"attribute the beginnings of that art, which reached its finest development in a later age,
and has provided the most conspicuous as well as the most pleasing feature of the upper
palseohthic culture. ^^
Lastly we have the type represented by Briinn I.,Briix,Lautsch, Combe Capelle,
Barma Grande (one of the skulls from B.G. now in the Musee de Menton, but not the
skulls generally known as B.G. i and 2), the woman from the upper layer in the Grotte
des Enfants, the Calotte du gravier de fond at Grenelle, the Denise fragments, as well as
by one or two skulls of the transition period from palaeohthic to neolithic foimd at Ofnet
(No. 21, i.) and a few of those belonging to the same period found at Mugem. The t5^e
is us^ially high-headed as well as narrow-headed, and tends to have the orbits horizontally
lengthened, the glabella and supraciliaries strong, the fore-head retreating, the nose
broad and the upper jaw projecting (alveolar prognathism). The cephalic index is
usually between 68 and 72 ; the stature is moderate or low.^'
Thus we find during the period of Aurignac three groups of long-headed men, the
Grimaldi, Cromagnon and Combe Capelle, and, especially on the Riviera, in the Barma
Grande cave and the Grotte des Enfants, skulls which show various apparent combinations
of these types, while at Solutre and Laugerie Basse we find the last type showing
34 Ripley (1900) 39, 173. 36 Parkyn {1915) ; Burkitt (1921) 1. 192-272.
35 Ripley {1900) 39, 40. 37 Fleure (1920) 19-21.