Contributions to Egyptian anthropology : tatuing / by Charles S. Myers.

  • Charles Samuel Myers
Date:
[1903?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Contributions to Egyptian anthropology : tatuing / by Charles S. Myers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    THE CHAR L E S MYERS LIBRARY CONTRIBUTIONS TO EGYPTIAN ANTHROPOLOGY: TATUTNG. By Charles S. Myers, M.A., M.D. [Presented November 25th, 1902. With Plates XVII, XVIII.] General Introduction. The material, upon which this study has been based, was collected by me during the autumn, winter and spring of the years 1901-2. For financial assistance, I ami indebted to the Government Grants Committee of the Royal Society and to the British Association for the Advancement of Science. My work was confined to the privates and non-commissioned officers of the Egyptian army; Sir E. R. Wingate, K.C.B., etc., Sirdar of the Army, having kindly placed at my disposal as many Egyptian and Sudanese troops as I could examine during my visit. For four months I remained at Abbasia, a suburb of Cairo, where I was able to make anthropological investigations upon one thousand and six Egyptian conscripts. Later I went to the Sudan, staying about six weeks at Khartum and Omdurman, where I examined one hundred and eighty-nine soldiers of the Sudanese regiments quartered there. My hearty thanks are due to the Sirdar, and to many of his staff for the assistance, attention and hospitality, which I received from them repeatedly in the course of my work. In various ways, I am also indebted to other officials of the Egyptian Government, more particularly to Sir William Garstin, K.C.B., Captain H. G. Lyons, R.E., and Mr. B. H. Wade. The object of my work was to determine by descriptive, metric, and photographic methods, what differences, if any, exist (1) between the modern Mahommedan and Coptic2 populations ; (2) between the inhabitants of various parts of Egypt; and (3) between the ancient and the modern Egyptians. In one respect, the material at my disposal was unsatisfactory for such an inquiry. The enlisted conscripts were ^ pipped body of men, measuring at least 170 centimetres in stature, and at least 87l centimetres in chest circumference. There is, however, no reason to believe that my investigations will be vitiated by the selection to which the Egyptians had thus been subjected. The average stature of the people has not materially changed since the earliest times of which we have any record, i.esince about 6000 B.c. We pn of 89.