The bronze age and the Celtic world - Universal History Library

56
THE BRONZE AGE AND THE CELTIC WORLD
the successful Greek cotton merchants. Both these occurrences puzzled me until in
1916 Fleure's paper seemed to offer an explanation. I then remembered having noted
the same type in Venice and Florence, and among the portraits in both those cities
of successful merchants of the renaissance ; it also occurred to me that the type could
often be seen in London, especially in the city.
When it became clear that here was a type, not recognised or described by any
previous anthropologist, and one, moreover, with a rather unusual distribution, it was
felt that it should receive a name, which should identify it neither with any people past
or present, nor with any language, for such equations would inevitably lead to
confusion, nor with any place or country, for its place of origin was uncertain. Since
the distribution of the type seemed to be in maritime trading centres, or else in those
areas which were connected with ancient mining or trade, it was felt that this type must
have been associated with these enterprises. Taking therefore a name, commonly used
in America and in our colonies for those who go out to search for gold or other precious
metals, we decided to term them " Prospectors," and by this name they will now be called.
Constant observations since made on people of this type have shown us that
they are remarkably clever, especially at money making, and that they engage more
in trade than in manufacture, and that their trade is commonly in oversea
commodities, when it is not in money itself. The type seems intermediate between
that of the Mediterranean and of the Alpine, and suggests a cross, but the great
stature which is sometimes, though not invariably, found among them suggested that
the cross was probably between the Mediterranean and the eastern Alpine or Anatolian
type, rather than with the short and stumpy western Alpine. It was felt that they
had reached the west and north from somewhere in the eastern Mediterranean region,"
as had in all probabihty the cult of megahthic monuments, and certainly the knowledge
of metals. Further than this it was not possible to trace them.
Now, as has already been noted, the Prospector type has been noticed not
uncommonly in Florence, both among the present population and in the fifteenth
century portraits. A glance at some of the pictures on the Etruscan tombs,^* and the
33 Fleure and James {1916) 139 ; Fleure (1918) 1. 16 ; Fleure (1918) 2. 222, 223.
34 Dennis (1883) i. 261 ; ii. 332 ; Taylor (1874) 94 ; Lovett-Cameron (1909) 188.