Man, Past and Present

by A. H. Keane

Rhaetians and Etruscans.

It is remarkable that in the Alpine region, especially Tyrol, where the brachy element comes to a focus, there is a peculiar form of round-head which has greatly puzzled de Lapouge, but may perhaps be accounted for on the hypothesis of two brachy types here fused in one. To explain the exceedingly round Tyrolese head, which shows affinities on the one hand with the Swiss, on the other with the Illyrian and Albanian, that is, with the normal Alpine, a Mongol strain has been suggested, but is rightly rejected by Franz Tappeiner as inadmissible on many grounds[1233]. De Ujfalvy[1234], a follower of de Lapouge, looks on the hyperbrachy Tyrolese as descendants of the ancient Rhaetians or Rasenes, whom so many regard as the parent stock of the Etruscans.

Etruscan Origins.

But Montelius (with most other modern ethnologists) rejects the land route from the north, and brings the Etruscans by the sea route direct from the Aegean and Lydia (Asia Minor). They are the Thessalian Pelasgians whom Hellanikos of Lesbos brings to Campania, or the Tyrrhenian Pelasgians transported by Antiklides from Asia Minor to Etruria, and he is "quite sure that the archaeological facts in Central and North Italy ... prove the truth of this tradition[1235]." Of course, until the affinities of the Etruscan language are determined, from which we are still as far off as ever[1236], Etruscan origins must remain chiefly an archaeological question. Even the help afforded by the crania from the Etruscan tombs is but slight, both long and round heads being here found in the closest association. Sergi, who also brings the Etruscans from the east, explains this by supposing that, being Pelasgians, they were of the same dolicho Mediterranean stock as the Italians (Ligurians) themselves, and differed only from the brachy Umbrians of Aryan speech. Hence the skulls from the tombs are of two types, the intruding Aryan, and the Mediterranean, the latter, whether representing native Ligurians or intruding Etruscans, being indistinguishable. "I can show," he says, "Etruscan crania, which differ in no respect from the Italian [Ligurian], from the oldest graves, as I can also show heads from the Etruscan graves which do not differ from those still found in Aryan lands, whether Slav, Keltic, or Germanic[1237]." Perhaps the difficulty is best explained by Feist's suggestion that the Etruscans were merely a highly civilised warlike aristocracy, spreading thinly over the conquered population by which they were ultimately absorbed[1238].

The Celts.

The migrations of the Celts preceded those of the Teutonic peoples to whom they were probably closely related in race as in language[1239]. At the beginning of the historical period Celts are found in the west of Germany in the region of the Rhine and the Weser. Possibly about 600 B.C. they occupied Gaul and parts of the Iberian peninsula, subsequently crossing over into the British Isles. In Italy they came into conflict with the rising power of Rome, and, after the battle of the Allia (390 B.C.) occupied Rome itself. Descents were also made into the Danube valley and the Balkans, and later (280 B.C.) into Thessaly. At the height of their power they extended from the north of Scotland to the southern shores of Spain and Portugal, and from the northern coasts of Germany to a little south of Senegaglia. To the west their boundary was the Atlantic, to the east, the Black Sea[1240].

Definition of "Celt."

Unfortunately the indiscriminate use of the term Celt has led to much confusion. For historians and geographers the Celts are the people in the centre and west of Europe referred to by writers of antiquity under the names of Keltoi, Celtae, Galli and Galatae. But many anthropologists, especially on the continent, regard Celts and Gauls as representing two well-determined physical types, the former brachycephalic, with short sturdy build and chestnut coloured hair (Alpine type), and the latter dolichocephalic with tall stature, fair complexion and light hair (Nordic type). Linguists, ignoring physical characters, class as Celts those people who speak an Indo-European language characterised in particular by the loss of p and by the modifications undergone by mutation of initial consonants, while for many archaeologists the Celts were the people responsible for the spread of the civilisation of the Hallstatt and La Tène periods, that is of the earlier and later Iron Age[1241].

It is not surprising therefore that it has been proposed to drop the word Celt out of anthropological nomenclature, as having no ethnical significance. But this, says Rice Holmes[1242], "is because writers on ethnology have not kept their heads clear." And in particular one point has been overlooked. "Just as the French are called after one conquering people, the Franks; just as the English are called after one conquering people, the Angles; so the heterogeneous Celtae of Transalpine Gaul were called after one conquering people; and that people were the Celts, or rather a branch of the Celts in the true sense of the word. The Celts, in short, were the people who introduced the Celtic language into Gaul, into Asia Minor, and into Britain; the people who included the victors of the Allia, the conquerors of Gallia Celtica, and the conquerors of Gallia Belģica; the people whom Polybius called indifferently Gauls and Celts; the people who, as Pausanius said, were originally called Celts and afterwards called Gauls. If certain ancient writers confounded the tall fair Celts who spoke Celtic with the tall fair Germans who spoke German the ancient writers who were better informed avoided such a mistake.... Let us therefore restore to the word 'Celt' the ethnical significance which of right belongs to it."

Celts in Britain.