Professor Myres has argued for a very wide distribution of these people, in fact from the Elbe to Tobolsk, and southwards to Bosnia and Thrace.[200] Some of these extensions seem, as we shall see, to date from a later period, and during the time which we are discussing, roughly the period of Hissarlik II., the bulk of them seem to have been restricted to the steppe regions east of the Dnieper, though they roamed the belt of parkland lying to the north, and perhaps even penetrated the dense woodland beyond. How far they had extended eastward is uncertain, but, as we shall see in the next chapter, their more distant excursions in this direction may well have been later. We know something of their physical type. Bogdanov tells us that they were a robust race, with a large and long head, an elongated face, and, according to some examples, with hair more or less fair.[201] The colour of the hair has been disputed, as there is a tendency for hair in graves to become pale. The cranial index is not quite certain. Sergi states that it varies from 65 to 81,[202] but it seems likely that among his collection of kurgan skulls are some of other types. Bogdanov tells us that in the kurgans to the west of the area several broad skulls occur, but with less robust skeletons, and the average index is higher. This may be due to admixture with Alpine or Beaker types. In the north, too, as one approaches the middle valley of the Volga, the broad type appears also; in this case I have suggested that it is due to admixture with a Mongoloid type which was already occupying this region.[203] From the kurgans at Souja,[204] in the government of Kursk, where the steppe lands reach further north than elsewhere, came twenty-three skulls which showed singular uniformity; nineteen of these were markedly long headed, and the remainder, belonging to three women and a child, only a trifle less so. It is possible that a considerable variation of head-form existed among these people, especially on the outskirts of their region, where they seem to have come into contact with more broad-headed neighbours. But Bogdanov is probably right in concluding that the pure type was a long-headed one, though the skulls seem not to have been so narrow as was frequently the case among the Mediterranean peoples of the west. Normally the length-breadth index seems to have varied from 73 to 76 though both higher and lower indices have sometimes been found.