Scientific Serials

Abstract

L'Anthropologie, paraissant tous les deux mois, tome i. No. 1, 1890 (Paris).—The first number of the new French review of anthropology, formed by the amalgamation of the older Revue d'Anthropologie and the Revue d'Ethnographie, begins with an article by Dr. Topinard, one of its joint editors, on the skull of Charlotte Corday, which ranked among the most interesting of the curious contents of the anthropological section of the Paris Exhibition, to which it was presented by Prince Roland Bonaparte. The author explains that, in making choice of this special skull, his object is not to compare its craniological characteristics with the moral disposition historically attributed to the individual to whom it had belonged, but simply to make it the text for an exposition, which might serve our own and future students as a lesson for the examination and description of an isolated skull after the precise methods taught by Broca, and having regard to the present condition of our science. In accordance with this object, Dr. Topinard, confining himself almost entirely to craniometrical determinations, of which he gives a most comprehensive series, together with several well-drawn illustrations, only occasionally enters into the comparative relations presented by this cranium to other isolated crania. From this exhaustive lesson in craniometry it would appear that the skull of Charlotte Corday closely accords with the typical form of the female skull, established by Broca as characteristic of Parisian women, deviating only from the normally perfect feminine cranial type in presenting a certain flatness of the frontal region, and some traces of jugular apophysis.—The Bronze Age in Egypt, by M. Montélius. The author, in opposition to the opinions of Lepsius and Maspéro, believes that the use of iron was not known in the valley of the Nile as early as bronze which was probably fabricated 6000 B. C., and that the use of the former metal was not sufficiently common to justify us in speaking of an Iron Age in Egypt before 2000 B. C. He, moreover, believes that we must consider the era of Egyptian civilization as belonging mainly to the Bronze Age.—A short notice of the works of Alexander Brunias, by Dr. E. T. Hamy.—On the rock-sepulchre of Vaphio, in the Morea, by M. S. Reinach. The exploration of this tumulus was undertaken last year at the cost of the Archæological Society of Athens under the direction of M. Tsountas, and although the contents have not yet been fully examined, there can be no doubt of their extreme importance to archæology, as it has been proved beyond question that this rock-sepulchre had remained intact till the present time. It appears from the report of M. Tsountas that the poniards and other implements, together with many of the numerous funereal objects brought to light by the explorations at Vaphio, are similar to the remains obtained at Mycenæ. Among these finds special interest attaches to two golden goblets carved in strong relief, representing both clothed, and almost nude, figures, engaged in the hunting and taming of wild bulls. M. Reinach proposes in a future number of this journal to discuss the Vaphio tumulus more fully, but in the meanwhile he appeals to English archæologists to test the accuracy of a statement published in 1813 by the German traveller Baron von Stackelberg, that the so-called Treasury of Atreus at Mycenæ had a few years earlier been ransacked by Veli Pasha, who was said to have disposed of part of its treasures to Lord North. Dr. Schliemann questions the truth of this report, but M. Reinach is of opinion that it, bears evidence of authenticity, deserving the notice of Englishmen, and he hopes, in the interests of archæological science, that some of these precious objects may yet be found in one or other of the great English collections.—We may remark, in conclusion, that the present review surpasses its predecessors in the excellence of its printing and its illustrations, while it has the great advantage of being edited by MM. Cartailhac, Hamy, and Topinard. In the space allotted to the consideration of the scientific literature of various countries, to which more than half the entire volume is devoted, there are various notices of Russian, Hungarian, and other works, not generally accessible to the ordinary reader; but we trust that in future numbers the reports of English works and memoirs will not, as in the present number, be drawn exclusively from the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London.