Re: Cranial Indexing

--- In cybalist@..., george knysh <gknysh@...> wrote:

>
> --- x99lynx@... wrote:
> > Speaking of taste, food is one of the things that
> > can turn a population
> > dolichocephalic in a single generation - food was
> > Boas' explanation I think.
> > (Franz Boas... "found significant differences in
> > cranial index between
> > immigrant parents and their American-born children.
> > The immutable obtuseness
> > of the brachycephalic southern European might veer
> > toward the dolichocephalic
> > Nordic norm in a single generation of altered
> > environment (Boas, 1911).)
>
> *****GK: For what it's worth, such "craniological"
> measurements were extensively done by Ukrainian
> archaeometrists with respect to the Scythian and
> Sarmatian populations of the region (gravesites dated
> from early 6th c. BC through 4th c AD). One of the
> interesting results was that the Scythian contingents,
> no matter what the time period, were predominantly
> (over 90% if I remember correctly) though not
> exclusively dolichocephalic, while the Sarmatian ones
> (irrespective of the sub group, viz., Iazygi,
> Roxolani, Aorsi, Alani) showed an equal unbalance of
> preponderantly brachycephalic types. Except of course
> where cranial deformation was practiced. Where
> Scythians and Sarmatians "mixed", like in the area of
> the Lower Dnipro urban settlements of the 1rst-3rd c.
> AD "mesocephalic" types also appeared.== Has any
> archeometry been done on Alanic skulls in the West?
> *****
>
>

The question is, if some Sarmatian subgroup actually followed the
scenario described by Snorri, ie. invasion from south and east of
Thuringia, and later of Fyn and then the rest of Scandiavia, how long
did they stay in Thuringia (close to "Old Germania"), and how much
did they mix there? Snorri says the same man led the invasion of
Thuringia and Scandinavia, other Norse sources say grandfather and
granson of the same name. Interestingly the -leben settlement names
in Thuringia and the -lev, -löv ones in South Scandinavia, which have
a personal name as the first member of the compound (eg. Oschers-
leben, Haders-lev), do not share the same names, so perhaps
generations passed between the naming of those "land given for
inheritance" places in Thuringia (here: the area between Leipzig and
Magdeburg) and Scandinavia.

One thing that struck me as odd is that in Denmark in the Early Roman
Iron Age, with mixed grave types, weapons are found only in cremation
graves. Now what does _that_ mean? Did the invasion leader decide to
base his power on the natives instead? I give up. (Doesn't happen
often!)

Torsten