Crania Ægyptiaca: Or, Observations on Egyptian Ethnography Derived from Anatomy, History and the Monuments — John Shaqi
Crania Ægyptiaca: Or, Observations on Egyptian Ethnography Derived from Anatomy, History and the MonumentsMorton, Samuel George
History
Crania Ægyptiaca: Or, Observations on Egyptian Ethnography Derived from Anatomy, History and the Monuments
Morton, Samuel George
Craniology -- Egypt; Ethnology -- Egypt
┌──────┬────┬────────┬─────┬─────┬─────┬─────┬───────────┬────────────
│ │No. │ │ │ │ │ │ │Occipito-Frontal│ │
│ │ in │Page or │Longitud.│Parietal│Frontal│Vertical│Inter-mastoid│Arch.│Horizontal│
│ │Cat.│Plate │Diam.│Diam.│Diam.│Diam.│Arch. Line│ │Periphery.│
├──────┴┬───┴┬───────┴┬────┴┬────┴┬────┴┬────┴┬─────┬─────┬┴────┬┴────
│Thebes,│864 │Page 17,│7. │5.1 │4.2 │5.4 │14.4 │3.3 │14.6 │19.6 │
│Thebes,│885 │" " │7. │5.5 │4.5 │5.1 │14.4 │3.5 │14.8 │19.7 │
│Thebes,│858 │" " │7.4 │5.3 │4.5 │5. │14.6 │4.4 │14.6 │20.5 │
│Thebes,│852 │" " │7.2 │5.1 │4.4 │5.2 │14. │4.3 │14.3 │19.5 │
│Thebes,│869 │" " │7.4 │5.4 │4.1 │5.5 │13.9 │4.3 │15.5 │20. │
│Maabdeh,│834 │IV., 2 │6.4 │5.5 │4.2 │5.1 │13.8 │4. │13.8 │18.7 │
├────────┴────┴──────┬─┴───┬─┴───┬─┴───┬─┴───┬─┴───┬─┴───┬─┴───┬─┴───┐
│Mean, │7.05 │5.3 │4.3 │6.2 │14.2 │4. │14.6 │19.6 │
└────────────────────┴─────┴─────┴─────┴─────┴─────┴─────┴─────┴─────┘
These measurements, it must be confessed, possess merely an isolated
interest until they can be compared with those derived from the other
races of men.[25] Meanwhile I give them as I find them, and in the
hope of being able to institute the desired comparisons on some future
occasion.
_Stature._—Mr. Pettigrew’s measurements seem to prove, what the size
of the head also indicates, that the Egyptians were of the middle
stature. He met with no instance which, even enveloped in its
bandages, would measure more than five feet six inches. Perhaps,
however, sufficient allowance has not been made for the contraction of
the joints, and especially of the intervertebral substance, which in a
state of complete desiccation, would diminish the length of the body
at least two inches. In the year 1833, I purchased of the heirs of the
late Senior Lébolo, a dilapidated mummy from Thebes, of which I
prepared the skeleton, now preserved in the Anatomical Museum of the
University of Pennsylvania. It measures about five feet ten inches,
and is in every respect beautifully developed excepting the cranium,
which is small in proportion and of indifferent conformation.[26]
_Age._—It is a familiar fact that the mummies of children are rarely
found in the Egyptian catacombs, at least in comparison with those of
adults; a circumstance which has not been satisfactorily explained.
Champollion Figeac observes that the Egyptians were a long-lived
people, as proved by their funereal inscriptions which frequently
speak of the dead as having passed the age of fourscore years; a
remark which derives some confirmation from the following table,
wherein the crania in my possession are proximately classed according
to their respective ages:—
From one year old to 3
five,
From five to ten, 5
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