Whatever was the cause of his northward trend, however, Mediterranean man does not appear to have been left long in undisturbed possession of his acquired territory. In Scotland, in the Clyde valley, which is typical of many other parts of Europe, round barrows or cairns are found side by side with the long ones. These are of later origin, as is shown by the nature of the pottery, by the occurrence of ornaments, and especially by the presence of bronze weapons—a great advance upon stone. The skeletons in these cairns mostly show marks of fire, suggesting that cremation was practised, and the skulls are those of a round-headed race. “Round barrows mean round skulls” is a second anthropological maxim for Britain.
These barrows are the first traces of the second great European race, called Alpine, Celtic, Eurasiatic, or Celto-Slavic by different anthropologists. The members of this race are of medium height, but are more stoutly built than Mediterranean man. Though generally resembling him in the coloration of hair and eyes, they are lighter in tint, the hair tending to be chestnut-coloured, and the eyes hazel grey, instead of both being very dark as in the former race. The nose, though variable, is in living types usually rather broad, and the special feature is of course the round head and broad face. As one of the names given indicates, this race is supposed by most anthropologists to have been of Asiatic origin.
Where the two sets of barrows occur there are indications that the incoming race greatly influenced the culture of the old. The use of bronze must have given its members an enormous advantage in the struggle for existence, and they seem to have imposed their customs, burial and other, and apparently also their language, on the older race.
This conflict of races which has left its traces in the Clyde valley apparently occurred in other parts of Europe. Everywhere the new race imposed its language and its customs upon the old, and everywhere its appearance is associated with a change and a rise in culture. It is presumed by the majority that this Alpine race brought with it the use of bronze, and was therefore at a higher level than Mediterranean man, but Prof. Sergi believes that the appearance of bronze and of the new race simultaneously was a mere coincidence, and that the Mediterranean race itself originated the use of metals. Meantime there is no means of deciding this question, which in any case is not of supreme importance, but what seems clear is that everywhere, except in the Mediterranean basin, the new race pressed the old one hard, whether by its skill in the arts of peace or in those of war remains uncertain. Even in the Mediterranean the old languages went down before that of Alpine man.
In the Mediterranean area the new-comers seized the upland regions, that is, as we have suggested, the regions of pasture, and ousted the longheads permanently from them. In Spain and Portugal, perhaps because of the vicinity of the reservoir of the race in North Africa, Mediterranean man kept his hold, and the brachycephalic forms did not succeed in obtaining much foothold. But they are strongly represented in parts of southern France. In southern Italy, in Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia Mediterranean man largely kept out the intruders, though they appear again on the Alpine slopes of the north of Italy. But in the eastern Mediterranean the dark longheads are hard pressed and have kept little save the seaboard from the broadheads.
Outside the Mediterranean area, the success of Alpine man was more checkered, but we are met with the difficulty that here a third race supervened later, so that existing conditions are not necessarily comparable to earlier conditions.
At the present time Alpine man occupies almost all the upland and therefore relatively infertile regions of France, especially Savoy and the Dauphiny, the central uplands, and parts (not the whole) of Brittany. Outliers of this race also occur in other regions, e. g. in parts of the Saône valley, which is not infertile. In Great Britain, despite their first success, the broadlands have left little trace on the existing population. We thus see the absurdity of talking about British Celts, for Celts in the true sense are almost extinct in Britain though their language remains and is spoken by types of Mediterranean man as well as by others. In Scandinavia Alpine man was more successful, for he has left traces in various parts, especially on the coast of Norway. Throughout Belgium and in Southern Germany the broad-headed element in the population is very strong, while in Austria, the Balkan States and Russia this race predominates and is no longer confined to elevated or infertile regions. This increase in numbers and in dominance towards the east is one of the facts which lead anthropologists to believe that Alpine man is of Asiatic origin.
We shall return to him in a moment, but meantime it is necessary to speak of the third element in Europe, the race variously called Nordic, Teutonic, or even Germanic, in spite of the fact that many Germans belong to the Alpine race. The members of this race are remarkable for their tall stature, for their long skulls and face, for their blue eyes and fair hair, their light complexions, and their narrow aquiline noses. The resemblance in skull form leads many anthropologists to regard them as derived from a common stock with the Mediterranean race, but the race seems to have originated in Europe. The place and date of its origin are still quite uncertain. It is possible that it was produced from an early form of the Mediterranean race in adaptation to the moist climate of western Europe. Ripley gives Scandinavia as the probable place of origin, but meantime there can be no certainty.
What we do know is that this race shows as perfect an adaptation to the climate of forest-clad temperate Europe as Mediterranean man does to the dry climate of that region. Just as the border of the Mediterranean is the province of Mediterranean man, and has been his for countless ages, so north-western Europe is the almost unchallenged possession of Nordic man. Between the two, along the great wedge of uplands, is the land of Alpine man, which widens to the east, his original home. Just as Mediterranean man in the days of his prime pushed north wherever conditions permitted, so Nordic man has pushed south, across the Alpine barrier, both in the literal and anthropological sense, and has left traces of his coming even within the territory of Mediterranean man. Just as the dark-haired Welsh and the dark-haired strain of Scottish Highlanders bear witness to the old exploits of Mediterranean man, so do the fair-haired, tall-statured Lombards bear witness to the former activity of Nordic man. Nevertheless, the main territory of the two races is widely separated.