Field Museum OF > Natural History o. rvrr^ CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF IRAN BY HENRY FIELD CURATOR OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY ANTHROPOLOGICAL SERIES FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY VOLUME 29, NUMBER 2 DECEMBER 15, 1939 PUBLICATION 459 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PLATES 1. Basic Mediterranean types. 2. Atlanto- Mediterranean types. 3. 4. Convex-nosed dolichocephals. 5. Brachycephals. 6. Mixed-eyed Mediterranean types. 7. Mixed-eyed types. 8. Alpinoid types. 9. Hamitic and Armenoid types. 10. North European and Jewish types. 11. Mongoloid types. 12. Negroid types. 13. Polo field, Maidan, Isfahan. 14. Isfahan. Fig. 1. Alliance Israelite. Fig. 2. Mirza Muhammad Ali Khan. 15-39. Jews of Isfahan. 40. Isfahan to Shiraz. Fig. 1. Main road to Shiraz. Fig. 2. Shiljaston. 41. Isfahan to Shiraz. Fig. 1. Building decorated with ibex horns at Mahyar. Fig. 2. Mosque at Shahreza. 42. Yezd-i-Khast village. Fig. 1. Old town with modern caravanserai. Fig. 2. Northern battlements. 43. Yezd-i-Khast village. Fig. 1. Eastern end forming a "prow." Fig. 2. Modern village from southern escarpment. 44. Imamzadeh of Sayyid Ali, Yezd-i-Khast. 45. Yezd-i-Khast. Fig. 1. Entrance to Imamzadeh of Sayyid Ali. Fig. 2. Main gate and drawbridge of old town. 46. Safavid caravanserai at Yezd-i-Khast. Fig. 1. Inscription on left wall. Fig. 2. Inscription on right wall. 47. Inscribed portal of Safavid caravanserai, Yezd-i-Khast. 48. Safavid caravanserai, Yezd-i-Khast. Fig. 1. General view. Fig. 2. South- west corner of interior. 49-65. Yezd-i-Khast villagers. 66. Kinareh village near Persepolis. 67. Kinareh village. Fig. 1. Courtyard. Fig. 2. Main street. 68-94. Kinareh villagers. 95. On the road from Shiraz to Maharlu. Fig. 1. Northwest corner of Lake Maharlu. Fig. 2. Bridge north of Bameru. 96. Lake Maharlu. Fig. 1. Salt-encrusted surface. Fig. 2. Pul-i-Fasa rock- shelters near western shore. 97. Naksh-i-Rustam. Fig. 1. "Tomb of Zoroaster." Fig. 2. Sasanian relief of Shapur and Valerian. 98. Entrance to "Tomb of Zoroaster," Naksh-i-Rustam. 99. Stone monuments. Fig. 1. Two fire altars, Naksh-i-Rustam. Fig. 2. Tomb of Cyrus, Pasargadae. 100. Pasargadae. Fig. 1. Western panorama from tomb of Cyrus. Fig. 2. Graffiti on column beside Cyrus' tomb. 101. Pasargadae. Fig. 1. Graffiti of stylized human and animal figures. Fig. 2. Graffito of life-sized human figure. 102. Pasargadae. Fig. 1. Ornamented and inscribed tombstones. Fig. 2. In- scription on pedestal of Cyrus' tomb. 103. Lurs of Pusht-i-Kuh, Custom House Wharf, Baghdad. 104. Lurs of Pusht-i-Kuh employed as porters, Baghdad. 105-131. Lurs of Pusht-i-Kuh. 132. Pigeon tower with stucco stalactite decoration, Shahreza. 513 514 List of Illustrations 133. Pigeon tower, Isfahan. Fig. 1. Brick nesting boxes. Fig. 2. Tier of nesting boxes leading to vaulted roof. 134. Rayy workmen from Husainabad. 135. Rayy workmen from Damghan. 136. Rayy workmen from Damghan and Daulatabad. 137. Rayy workmen from Damghan and Qum. 138. Rayy workmen from Husainabad and Damghan. 139. Rayy workmen from Shiraz and Husainabad. 140. Rayy workmen from Damghan and Ab-i-Ganjan District, Isfahan Province. 141. Salt desert south of Tehran. Fig. 1. Stream thirty-five miles from Hasanabad. Fig. 2. Mountain beyond cultivated area. 142. Snake charmer in Rayy gardens. 143. Rayy. Fig. 1. Snake charmer. Fig. 2. Irani with Pahlavi hat, holding ancient battle ax. 144. Irani dervish, Rayy. TEXT FIGURES page 21. Suggested dispersion of Homo sapiens (from G. Elliot Smith) 522 22. Salt desert south of Tehran 541 23. Route from Shiraz to Lake Maharlu 555 24. Inscription on Yazd-i Khwast caravanserai 571 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY OF IRAN APPENDIX A: DEFINITIONS OF MEDITERRANEAN RACE AND OTHER RACIAL STOCKS IN RELATION TO IRANIS In dealing with the racial stocks of Southwestern Asia the term Mediterranean has been used in a plethora of different ways. I have, therefore, compiled the definitions of this word and its applica- tion to modern peoples, together with some other terms, which seem to have overlapping connotations. Ripley, Sergi, Deniker, Elliot Smith, Haddon, and Hooton are, perhaps, the authors most quoted on these distinctions. Carleton Coon's forthcoming 1 book on the races of Europe should clarify many existing difficulties both in ter- minology and in definition. The theories of the various authors are presented below in chronological sequence so that the reader can follow the progres- sive changes in nomenclature and definition. 1899a.—Ripley (pp. 128-129) defined his types in the following words: "We now come to the last of our three races, which is generally known as the Mediterranean or Iberian type. It prevails every- where south of the Pyrenees, along the southern coast of France and in southern Italy, including Sicily and Sardinia. Once more we return to a type of head form almost identical with the Teutonic. Our portraits (facing page 121) exemplify this clearly, in the oval face and the prominent occiput of this third type. The cephalic index drops from 87 and above in the Alps to about 75 all along the line. This is the primary fact to be noted. Coincidently, the colour of the hair and eyes becomes very dark, almost black. The figure is less amply proportioned: the people become light, slender, and rather agile. As to the bodily height of this third race two varieties are to-day recognised: the group north of the Mediterranean is exceedingly short, while the African Berbers are of goodly size. Deniker calls them Ibero-Insular and Atlanto-Mediterranean, respectively." 1901.—Sergi in "The Mediterranean Race," English ed., 1915, (pp. v-vii) sought to maintain the following conclusions: "(1) The primitive populations of Europe, after Homo Neander- thalensis, originated in Africa; these constituted the entire population of Neolithic times. 1 Scheduled to appear in April, 1939. 515 516 Anthropology of Iran "(2) The basin of the Mediterranean was the chief centre of movement whence the African migrations reached the centre and the north of Europe. "(3) From the great African stock were formed three varieties, in accordance with differing telluric and geographic conditions: one peculiarly African, remaining in the continent where it originated; another, the Mediterranean, which occupied the basin of that sea; and a third, the Nordic, which reached the north of Europe. These three varieties are the three great branches of one species, which I call Eurafrican, because it occupied, and still occupies, a large portion of the two continents of Africa and Europe." Sergi (pp. 30-32) develops his theory as follows : "The basin of the Mediterranean is not merely European; Asia and Africa also form part of it, and it may be said that its waters formed a point of con- tact for three-quarters of the ancient world. The Mediterranean has presented the most favourable conditions for the development of a civilisation more cosmopolitan than those born in the valleys of great rivers like the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Nile, or the five great rivers of India. ... I hope to show, however, that there was really a centre of dispersion of the Mediterranean stock, which in far remote times, probably Quaternary, anterior to all tradition, occupied the regions which surrounded this great basin, and that the various peoples derived from this stock have possessed the most ancient native civilisation in the countries, islands, and peninsulas they occupied. I believe, further, that we must not make an absolute separation, such as is commonly made, between the various regions of this basin; the invaders or immigrants in the Mediterranean spread both to east and west, to south and to north, of the sea; that is to say, they inhabited Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Libya and the rest of Northern Africa, Greece, Italy, and the Iberian peninsula. "Thus this geographical region is an anthropological unit; it is not Asia nor Africa nor Europe which has become the centre of civilisation and of dispersion, it is the whole basin of the Mediter- ranean. This stock, with its various ethnic names, constitutes a family of peoples which I have long denominated 'Mediterranean' on account of their geographical position and anthropological stability. The family is not confined to this basin, but has become diffused towards the west, the north, and the east, invading the Canary Islands, Western and Central Europe, Great Britain, France, Switzerland, and Southern Russia." Definitions of Mediterranean Race 517 Later (pp. 39-41) Sergi postulates the center of diffusion of the Mediterranean family as being in northeast Africa, home of the Hamites. He visualizes (p. 82) "an intimate connection with the populations of the eastern branch of the Hamitic stock, which by its great extension from the Nile valley meets the north-western branch, both melting into the Mediterranean race, and forming as fair-skinned a population as if they were derived from a white race." As a result of a visit to Moscow, Sergi (pp. 229-232) "recognised forms I already knew as belonging to the Mediterranean, the fine pentagonal forms, ellipsoids and ovoids, with the same characters they possess in the Mediterranean. There can be no doubt that southern Russia especially, like the whole of western Europe, received its first inhabitants from Africa: the cranial types remain to attest the common origin." In his chapter on the physical characters of the Mediterranean allied stocks, Sergi (pp. 250-252) describes the Mediterranean stock as "a brown human variety, neither white nor negroid, but pure in its elements, that is to say, not a product of the mixture of Whites with Negroes or negroid peoples. The external characters are the brown colour of the skin, eyes (chestnut or black iris), hair, beard, and the hair on other parts of the body.