Abstract
UNDER the above heading, Prof. G. Thilenius, of the University of Breslau, has recently (Globus, Bd. lxxxi. No. 17) made an important contribution to European ethnology. His deductions result from an examination of a quantity of osseous remains preserved in the Museum of Silesian Antiquities at Breslau, consisting of four groups obtained at different sites in the region between Breslau and the Zobten. They are, unfortunately, very fragmentary; but it has been ascertained that they are the remains of a number of persons of both sexes, all adult and all of very short stature. The mean height of one group is about 4 feet 8 inches (1.429 m.), of two others about 4 feet 11 inches (1.496 m.; 1.506 m.), and of the fourth about 5 feet (1.523 m.). With these Prof. Thilenius compares the remains of the Swiss pygmies described by Prof. Kollmann, of Basel, who estimates their height as ranging between 4 feet 5½ inches (1.355 m.) and 4 feet 11 inches (1.499 m.), and comparison is also made with the similar remains found at Egisheim (in Lower Alsace, near Colmar), which belonged, according to Herr Gutmann, to people whose stature ranged from about 3 feet 11 inches (1.200 m.) to something under 5 feet (1.520 m.). Further, the museum at Worms furnishes the remains of an individual of the estimated height of 4 feet 9 inches (1.445 m.). In all these cases, the bones show no trace of any pathological degeneration, and the consequent inference is that they represent a special race of low-statured men, or dwarfs. Profs. Kollmann and Thilenius seem to prefer the term “pygmy” as most appropriate in denoting a special race, “dwaif” (Zwerg) being regarded as applicable to abnormal specimens of a race of ordinary size. Most writers, however, make no such distinction; and, indeed, “pygmy” is far from being strictly accurate when applied to people of 4 or 5 feet in height. Prof. Windle states that a people may be described as “pygmy” in which the average male stature does not exceed 1.450 m. (4 feet 9 inches).
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MACRITCHIE, D. Prehistoric Pygmies in Silesia. Nature 66, 151 (1902). https://doi.org/10.1038/066151b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/066151b0
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