(Photographic Supplement, Plate 40)


Dinarics in Western Asia: I




In Asia Minor, Syria, Armenia, the Caucasus, and Turkestan the reëmergence of a basic Alpine population has Dinaricized the local brunet Mediterranean types shown on Plates 17 and 18. These Asiatic-Dinarics are usually called Armenoids, although the distinction is arbitrary, and in the strict sense only the Armenians themselves and others who live in the east deserve that name.

FIG. 1 (3 views). A Turk from Istanbul. Small-headed, hyperbrachycephalic, this individual is an extreme type of Dinaricized Anatolian Turk. The Turks are (a) Mediterraneans of local Cappadocian origin, and (b) intrusive Irano-Afghans, the invading Turkish element proper, Dinaricized by a local Alpine reëmergence. The westernmost Turks are fair to brunet-white in skin color, the eastern Turks grow progressively darker as one approaches Kurdish and Armenian territory.

FIG. 2 (3 views). An equally brachycephalic Turk from Khozat, Anatolia, with a strong trace of eye blondism.

FIG. 3 (3 views). A dark-skinned Turk from Kharput, eastern Anatolia. Kharput is also the home of many Armenians.

FIG. 4 (3 views). An Assyrian from the mountains south of Armenia; the Assyrians are Christians who moved into the mountains from Iraq some 600 years ago, and who are now as brachycephalic as Armenians. Their exact ethnic origin is difficult to determine.