In Mesopotamia, the earliest cultural remains have been found in Sumeria. Here there has been recognized a long predynastic period, subdivided into three phases—al 'Ubaid, Uruk, and Jemdet Nasr. These three probably occupied the fourth millennium B.C. The last two at least were Copper Age cultures, while the al 'Ubaid culture proper, as exemplified by the eighteenth to fourteenth levels at Warka, may possibly have its roots in a true Neolithic.7
One grave at Warka, in level 14, belongs to the latter part of the al 'Ubaid period, probably about 3700 B.C. The skull contained in it is said to be dolichocephalic. Two skeletons from perhaps equally early graves at al 'Ubaid itself powdered upon exposure, and could not be measured. Hence our knowledge of the people of the fourth millennium B.C. in Mesopotamia, based on indubitably contemporaneous remains, is practically zero.
A series of seventeen crania from al 'Ubaid8 (see Appendix I, col. 4), which may be predynastic or early dynastic, belong without exception to a type which has been called Eurafrican, and which has been the most numerous and most characteristic element in the population of Mesopotamia from the time of the marsh dwellers at al 'Ubaid to the present day. These skulls are large, heavy, and purely dolichocephalic. They belong to the larger- and longer-headed Mediterranean division, nearest in vault size and form to the earlier Galley Hill and Combe Capelle. They differ in one important respect, however, from most European skulls of the same general type, in that their nasal bones are extremely prominent and highly placed. These early Sumerians, like the inhabitants of the Iranian plateau, had already acquired the projecting, aquiline noses so characteristic of the modern Near East. Like the plateau dwellers, these early Sumerians were Afghanian in race.
Mesopotamia is not, like Egypt, an isolated valley, for it may be entered without great difficulty from the highlands to the east and north, while it forms a natural goal for the inhabitants of the Arabian uplands, made mobile by the fickle rainfall of the pastures. The history of Mesopotamia has consequently bcen a sequence of infiltrations and invasions from both the highland zone and the deserts, for the country feeds the city with men, and not the reverse.
In studying the racial history of Mesopotamia from thc third millennium B.C. onward, we must remember this almost constant influx, and observe how it affected the Sumerians and the Semitic-speaking kingdoms. The series of skeletal remains at our disposal, other than the series from al 'Ubaid, include: (a) a series from Kish, from graves which may be dated at some time close to 2900 B.C.; (b) another from the same site, from fourth dynasty graves, prior to 2500 B.C.; (c) skulls of the third dynasty of Ur, dated about 2300 B.C. (d) Neo-Babylonian crania, from between 800 and 400 B.C. (e) Skulls from Kirkuk dated at the fifth century AD.9
In all, well over a hundred skeletons have been studied. Most of the skulls belong to the “Eurafrican” type already described, but two other types are represented in most of the series. One of these is an ordinary Mediterranean with a smaller skull and a higher cephalic index, which ranges between 70—80 and averages about 75. This Mediterranean type is more fragile, less rugged, shorter faced, and smaller in body size. This is apparently not an original Sumerian type, for it is completely absent in the earliest series from al 'Ubaid and Kish. It first appears well after 3000 and probably after 2700 B.C. in the fourth dynasty graves at Kish (see Appendix I, col. 5), and from then on seems to persist in all of the samples, except for the late Kirkuk series in the north. Like the larger “Eurafrican” this smaller Mediterranean type may still be distinguished in the living population of Iraq.
The “Armenoid” racial type, which is the third one claimed in Mesopotamia, begins with the earliest Kish graves and continues through the Babylonian period. The identification of this type is not wholly certain, however, for very few actually brachycephalic skulls have been found, and, since facial portions of these are usually damaged, it is impossible to define the type clearly. Most of the so-called Armenoid skulls are mesocephalic or sub-brachycephalic, but, in a few instances, the cephalic index runs really high, in an extreme case, to 89. The occiputs of these skulls are said to be flat, the browridges heavy, and the capacities great. Although many of the skulls which have been called Armenoid may represent merely the rounder headed extreme of the total group, it is nevertheless probable that a planoccipital brachycephalic strain actually penetrated Mesopotamia during the third millennium B.C. Although it has since increased in numbers, it still forms but a minority.
Except for these few brachycephals, none of the invasions or cultural movements into Mesopotamia in historic times has changed the population in any perceptible way. This would indicate that the regions which
acted as feeders of immigrants to Mesopotamia were themselves similar racially. The plateau people of Iran, therefore, were probably in the main long-headed. The inhabitants of northern Arabia who had entered the valley from time to time, and who still come to the banks of the Euphrates to water their flocks, belong likewise to the general Mediterranean family, and examples of both Afghanian and Mediterranean types may be selected from the living tribes without difficulty. It is quite possible that the first appearance of the finer and smaller Mediterranean type in Mesopotamia came with the arrival or assimilation of the Semites.
The Sumerian sculptors have left behind them records in stone which may piece out the evidence of the skulls. These records consist of bas reliefs, which are of conventional type, and some really excellent portraits in the round. The reliefs show wiry, athletic men with large, often aquiline noses. They are obviously normal white men of some Near Eastern varietv. just as one would expect. The portrait busts, of which three examples are shown (Figs. 17, 18, and 19), seem really to depict individual men rather than conventional types or ideals. Figure 18 represents the oft-sculpted King Gudea, who has a roundish face and a nose less prominent than the bas-relief ideal. Figure 17, which looks less posed, bears the sly expression of a Baghdad shop-keeper of the present day. In both heads the browridges are absent, and the eyebrows concurrent. In these as in most examples of Sumerian sculpture, there is no evidence of hair distribution or hair form which is, however, conventionally shown in archaic statues of gods (Fig. 20), dating from early dynastic times. In these, the beards are full, the hair straight or wavy.
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