GREEK ANTHROPOLOGY. 
BY 
A. ROSE, M.D. 
BEPRINTED FROM THE 
Neto York iHeOtcal journal 
for September 25, 1897. Reprinted from the New York Medical Journal 
for September 25, 1897. 
GREEK ANTHROPOLOGY. 
To the Editor of the New York Medical Journal: 
Sir: One of the noblest buildings of modern times 
is the Academy of Athens. As is well known, it was 
built at an expense of five million drachmas, the gift of 
a rich Greek, Simon G. Sinas. Its features in geneial, 
its statues, the gilding, and the colors give an idea of 
the splendor of classical architecture. All this has been 
well described and depicted. 
However much we may admire this structure and its 
beauties, we shall find in one of its vast halls a treasure 
which is of much greater value still, of a value for science, 
the praise of which can not possibly be exaggerated. 
It is a collection of skulls and skeletons found in 
Greece from all periods-the prehistoric, that is, the 
period of Mykene, the archaic, the classical, the Roman, 
and the Christian-and in order to make comparisons 
with these ancient skulls there are also skulls of our 
times from different sections of the country. 
The founder and conservator of this collection, 
which is more important than any collection in any 
other museum in the world, is Dr. Klon Stephanos, the 
author of a scientific work entitled La Grece au point de 
vue naturel, ethnologique, anthropologique, democjraphique 
et medical (Paris, 1884). 
Athens, August 16, 1897. 
Copybight, 1897, by D. Appleton and Company. 2 
GREEK ANTHROPOLOGY. 
Each and every one of these skulls and other parts 
of the skeleton have come to light through the official 
excavations of the Greek Government and the Archaeo- 
logical Society, under the strictest control of men of 
science who hold themselves responsible to the govern- 
ment and to the world of science. Many of the skulls 
were taken by Dr. Klon Stephanos himself at the mo- 
ment of their excavation. The skulls and skeletons are 
identified as to their origin, that is, the locality where 
they were found, the surroundings, the grave, the arms, 
the pottery, the tools, the ornaments-in fact, all that 
would aid in giving information, nay, conclusive evi- 
dence, as to the period to which the skulls or the skele- 
tons belonged. 
Here are-an important part of the collection-forty 
skulls of the prehistoric, of the Mykene period-that is, 
about the fifteenth century before Christ. Let us see 
what this number of skulls of this early period signifies. 
Nine years ago-that is, before this collection was begun 
-there was not a single Greek skull of this period 
known to science. Thus the question in regard to the 
two principal peoples of the most ancient Greece-the 
Pelasges and the Greeks proper-the question of their 
being brachycephalous or dolichocephalous, and in what 
proportion the one or the other form predominated, 
could by no means be decided. Now, by means of this 
rich material which presents itself here, it positively 
and surely may be said: Some of the prehistoric Greeks 
were mesaticephalous; others were dolichocephalous. 
Until the year 1884 there were, in the different col- 
lections of Europe, about ninety ancient skulls known, 
of which twenty-nine belonged to Attica (Nicolucci, 
Virchow, Broesike, et al.), thirty-eight to Asia Minor 
(twenty-two to Troy [Virchow] and sixteen to Ionia 
[Zaborowsky]), four to the Greek islands (Quatrefages), 
and nineteen to southern Italy and Sicily (Nicolucci 
et al.). This shows that there were only thirty-three 
skulls from Greece, and that from most parts of Greece 
not a single ancient skull was known to science. There GREEK ANTHROPOLOGY. 
3 
was the impossibility of obtaining reliable results in re- 
gard to the most important part of Hellenic ethnog- 
raphy, the impossibility of a comparison of the ancient 
type with all the latei' types of Greece. 
There are in the collection some skeletons from the 
oldest Iron age of Greece, the twelfth to the thirteenth 
century before Christ, found at Eleusis. The objects 
of art found with these skeletons show the geometric 
instead of the naturalistic style, the latter being the 
style of Mykene. Of the Iron age, the museum possesses 
a number of skeletons of very small children which had 
been preserved in vases in the necropolis of Ereusis. At 
this period the mesaticephalous and the brachycephalous 
types begin to make their appearance; the mesaticepha- 
lous type is the predominating one, but the brachycepha- 
lous type is frequent. 
The number of skulls in the Museum of the Uni- 
versity of Athens, from this epoch to the classical 
period, is very large, also the number of those from the 
Roman and from the Christian periods. Among the 
ancient skulls there are series from Eratria, Corinth, 
and Bceotia (Thespia, Chorsia, and Tanagra). Of the 
more recent periods, there are series of skulls from Thes- 
saly, Naxos, Amorgos, Attica, zEgina, and Megala. 
Dr. Stephanos takes the measurements according to 
the adopted international method, but besides he re- 
cords according to his own method, which gives the best 
results. As much as possible, descriptive terms are 
avoided; the mea'surements alone, as a rule, are pre- 
sented to demonstrate the characteristics. These meas- 
urements, as they are written down according to both 
methods for each skull, show quite an extensive amount 
of work. 
While speaking of measurements, I will state here 
that Dr. Stephanos has measured more than ten thou- 
sand heads of Greek recruits. The results of these meas- 
urements are demonstrated on a cephalometric map. 
On this map the administrative divisions are ignored, 
since they often are completely neutralized by the result 4 
GREEK ANTHROPOLOGY 
of anthropological researches. Thus, for instance, vil- 
lages are found far apart which, according to anthropo- 
logical resemblances, belong together. By lines of dif- 
ferent colors the frequency of the different types-hy- 
perbrachycephalic, brachycephalic, mesaticephalic, and 
dolichocephalic-is demonstrated in a clear manner, and 
each conglomeration of specimens of the one or the 
other of these types can be seen at a glance. 
The distribution of the frequency of the different 
colors of eyes and hair is marked on a special map by 
lines of different color. This latter map is the first of 
its kind to demonstrate the frequency of these charac- 
teristics for each special type. 
Br. Stephanos has improved craniometric methods 
by demonstrating certain characteristics by means of 
measurements, and has in this manner given the value 
of these characteristics in exact mathematical form; he 
has also complemented the " seriation " method by 
means of which we are enabled to determine and to 
distinguish, in all cases in which different types come 
under consideration, that part which belongs to the one 
or tbe other of the different types, and which are the 
oscillations and the maxima of frequency of each 
cephalometric character in each series. 
But not only has he improved the different cranio- 
metric methods, but on a very large scale he has de- 
voted himself to the study to give all sorts of elements 
which can be brought in to aid more or less closely 
the study of anthropology. In order to carry out this 
plan, thousands of archives, documents, deeds, ecclesias- 
tical, fiscal, and family papers, especially papers of the 
Middle Ages, papers never before published, had to be 
studied, and personal inquiries had to be made in all 
parts, or among the inhabitants of all parts, of Greece. 
The results of these researches, comprising every local- 
ity of Greece, myriads of names of places, of mountains, 
of rivers, of families, of words in all the different dia- 
lects for things pertaining to agricultural, pastoral, and 
domestic life, of words from natural history, names for GREEK ANTHROPOLOGY. 
5 
animals and plants, the geographical domain of each 
phonetic phenomenon of the Greek dialects, are col- 
lected in voluminous manuscripts which I have had the 
pleasure, the delight, to examine. 
There is, first, one volume treating of the relation 
of all facts pertaining to invasions, captures, the cap- 
tives taken, the transportation of these captives, massa- 
cres, and depopulation. 
The collection of family names presented in another 
manuscript has proved to be of great importance, as one 
example will demonstrate: In parts where there was a 
great immigration, as in the island of Zante at the end 
of the fifteenth century, we find hundreds of family 
names taken from the files of death certificates. We 
find these names from the time mentioned down to 
the present time, and can determine the place whence 
the individuals came and where they settled with a most 
surprising exactness and certainty. 
There is a map adorning the wall of the Anthropo- 
logical Museum the like of which has never been exe- 
cuted before in any country. It is a map of Greece of the 
Middle Ages, with the names of all the villages, places, 
mountains, rivers, etc., as they were found by the ex- 
tensive researches in history, in chronicles, in archives, 
in documents, and in papers that I have mentioned. 
One volume belonging to Dr. Stephanos's great 
work of studying the anthropology of his country in a 
more satisfactory manner and more thoroughly than 
ever was done anywhere before gives the provincial- 
isms, the dialects, and phonological characters of all the 
words for things, as already mentioned, relating to 
agricultural, pastoral, and domestic life, the terms of 
natural history in the people's language, for instance, 
of the fauna and flora of Greece in all the different 
parts of the country, and also the description of cere- 
monies, especially of weddings, in their variety and 
peculiarity to locality. 
The following copy, which I was allowed to make, 
will serve to illustrate this part of the work; it will also 6 
GREEK ANTHROPOLOGY. 
illustrate some of the wonderful poetical beauties of the 
Greek dialects and the richness of the language: 
Ίρις, rainboio. 
8οξάρι., arch, Syra, Kymi (Euboea), Cephalonia, Cbi- 
marra (Epirus), Eurytania, etc. 
δό^α, glory (only an abbreviation of a word, not exactly 
meaning glory), Mykonos, Andros, Kythnos, Karystos, 
Levadia, Anachona (Boeotia), Doride, Redestos (Thrace). 
Θεο8όξαρο, arch of God, Nauplia, Lamia. 
τ^ς γρ^ας τε^δοξάρε, the arch of the old woman, Leu- 
cade (Santa Maura). 
δοκάρι τη? καλόγρηας, arch of the nun, Ithaca 
Κεραιών?;, η, belt of our lady, Naxia. 
κεραζον, Paros, Kythnos. 
κερατζον, Siphnos. 
κεραζονλα, Sikinos. 
νεραντζούλα, Thera, Milos, Amorgos 
(άνεραζονλα ?). 
The mean- 
ing of these 
words can not 
be traced. 
'Αγία Έλενη, Chios, Mitvlini (perhaps first 'Αγιας 
'Ελένές ζώνη, belt of St. Helen). 
Κερασελενη, Kos. 
κερασολενη, Lemnos. 
κερασολε, Ikaria. 
κονραλησά, Libision (Asia Minor). 
Constructions 
of which no trans- 
lation can be 
given. 
Παναγίας τό ζωνάρι belt of the Blessed Virgin, Leukadia. 
καλόγριας το ζωνάρι belt of the nun, Sparta, Messina, 
Argol ide. 
καλόγριας, Elide. 
καλογρες, Gortynia. 
'Αγια ξώη?, the holy belt, Syra. 
Καρ,άρα, Megata, Keos, Andros, Kypros. 
Λάδι και κρασί, oil and wine (because the prophecy is: 
If the rainbow has much of the green color there will be 
a rich harvest of olives, and if there is much red there 
will be a jmod wine year), Monemnasia. 
Άνερ,οδόχυς, Mykonos, Tinos. 
Μαρούλι (καρ,ρ,αροΰλι ?), Magne. 
καττϋράνί, Sphakia (Crete). 
Dr. Stephanos is preparing a bibliography for his 
•own use and also to aid every student of the subject, GREEK ANTHROPOLOGY. 
7 
giving the titles of all books, pamphlets, articles in peri- 
odicals, and manuscripts which treat of the anthropolo- 
gy of Greece or may serve for its study. 
The books, pamphlets, prints of all kinds, and manu- 
scripts which form the library of the Museum of An- 
thropology of the University of Athens, it goes without 
saying, make the most complete collection of its kind. 
The nucleus of this library was the gift of the celebrated 
man of science, Alexander Paspatis, and his widow has 
given a considerable sum for the completion of this 
library. 
If we take a glance over the whole, the great col- 
lection and the great work connected with it which pre- 
sent themselves to the scholar, we may well envy the' 
University of Athens, and Greece in general, which are 
so fortunate as to possess them. Here is a rich material 
for the study of anthropology, and a master is here to 
make use of it as nobodv ever before has been able to 
do. It is especially noteworthy that one single man is 
working on a scale of such immense proportions. 
A. Rose, M. D. The New York Medical Journal. 
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