The ethnology of modern Egypt / by Charles S. Myers.

  • Myers, Charles S. (Charles Samuel), 1873-1946.
Date:
[1907?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The ethnology of modern Egypt / by Charles S. Myers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [Extracted from the Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, Vol. xiv. Pt. n.] The Ethnology of Modern Egypt. By Charles S. Myers, Gonville and Caius College. \Read 11 February 1907.] The material which serves for the present study* was collected by me in the years 1901 and 1902. During my stay at Abbasia, near Cairo, I measured, described and photographed 1006 Egyptian conscripts; I thus obtained over 17,000 measurements. I am indebted to the Government Grants Committee of the Royal Society and to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, for financial assistance. My hearty thanks are also due to Sir F. R. Wingate, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., Sirdar of the Egyptian Army, who kindly placed at my disposal as many Egyptian and Sudanese troops as I had time to examine. The object of my work was to determine what differences, if any, exist between (A) the Ancient and Modern Egyptians, (B) the present inhabitants of different parts of Egypt, and (C) the present Moslems and the present Coptsf. A. Comparisons between the Ancient and Modern Egyptians. I have compared my data with those published by Miss Fawcett and her collaborators]:, and derived from a series of “ prehistoric ” skulls which Prof. Flinders Petrie excavated at Nakada. I have carefully selected for comparison only those of my measurements which refer to persons liying under the same conditions and in the same part of Egypt as did their “ pre¬ historic ” ancestors some seven thousand years ago. The following table shows the cephalic index and the head- measurements, taken in the “ prehistoric ” series on the skull, and in the modern series on the living head :— Series Head length Head breadth Cephalic Index No. Mean No. Mean No. Mean Nakada (“prehistoric”) 139 185M3 139 134-87 130 72-99 Kena (“modern”) . 53 194-79 53 143-91 53 73-94 Girga (“modern”). 83 194-53 83 144-33 83 74-25 Kena and Girga) (“ modern ”) j 136 194-63 136 14416 136 74-13 * For a more detailed account the reader may be referred to my “ Contributions to Egyptian Anthropology,” which are appearing in the Journal of the Anthropo¬ logical Institute. f Egypt was officially proclaimed a Christian country in the reign of Theodosius I, 308 a.d., and remained so until the Moslem invasion of 640 a.d. The Copts are the small section of Egyptians who, refusing to embrace Mahommedanism, have con¬ tinued to this day steadfast in the former religion. £ Biometrika, 1902, i. pp. 408—467.