Some years ago Professor Fleure was engaged in a detailed survey of
the physical characters of the present inhabitants of Wales, and the
results of this inquiry were published in 1916.[153] Among the many
types noted was one which is of special interest in this connection. He
describes it as: “powerfully built, often intensely dark, broad-headed,
broad-faced, strong and square jawed men characteristic of the Ardudwy
coast, the south Glamorgan coast, the Newquay district (Cardiganshire),
Pencaer in north Pembrokeshire, and other places.”[154] He states
in another place; “We found our dark, stalwart, broad-headed men on
certain coastal patches, often curiously associated with megaliths in
Wales.”[155] Later on he states that a similar type has been noted
in Ireland, about Wicklow, in South Devon, and perhaps Cornwall,
in the gulf of Saint Brieuc, around Narbonne, in the Asturias and
around Oviedo, on the Andalusian coast from Motril to Moguer, in the
gulf of Salerno and thence past the gulf of Taranto to Bari, on the
Adriatic.[156]
It will thus be seen that this type appears to occur in just those
regions in which megaliths and traces of early mining have been found.
The inference Fleure has drawn is that in some way these people were
connected with the ancient trade we have been discussing.[157] Though
I cannot find that he has published the fact, Fleure has told me that
he has noted the type in many of our commercial centres, especially in
sea-port towns. It is not uncommon in Liverpool, especially in shipping
circles.
Some years previous to the publication of Fleure’s paper I had noted
in Athens, in the restaurant at which I usually lunched, a type which
I was unable to place among those described by Ripley. I noted, too,
that they looked prosperous and were evidently well-off. Early in
1914 I noted the same type in Alexandria, especially common among 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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