ANTHROPOLOGICAL NOTES

At the joint meeting of the Section of Anthropology and Psychology of the New York Academy of Sciences and the New York Ethnological Society held on October 27, 1924, Professors Franz Boas and Marshall Saville reported upon the Congress of Americanists held at The Hague and at Göteborg during August, 1924.

H. L. Shapiro, Bishop Museum Fellow, is making a study of the inheritance of physical and mental characteristics, as represented by the descendants of the "Bounty" mutineers on Norfolk Island. He had expected to include Pitcairn Island in his field of study, but bad weather prevented a landing there. Because of their unusually full records of miscegenation, these islands offer favorable opportunity for this study. Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Bulletin.

Warren K. Moorehead sailed for Europe on September 13 to paleolithic and neolithic sites in France, Belgium, Italy and England. Collections of specimens illustrating the prehistoric life of man will be made.

On October 2nd Dr. Robert H. Lowie delivered a lecture before the Vienna Anthropologische Gesellschaft entitled "Individuum und Gesellschaft in der Religion der Naturvölker."

Under the authority of the Research Committee of the Archaeological Society, Dr. John C. Merriam, Chairman, and Dr. Carroll examined with Professor MacCurdy the prehistoric cave and rockshelter known as Castel Merle in the commune of Sergeac, thirty minutes from Les Eyzies, considered by Dr. Hrdlicka and other authorities as perhaps of equal promise with the now famous prehistoric sites of the region, and concluded a ten-year lease from the owner, M. Castenet, with sole privilege of excavation and control of the finds. This was made possible through the generosity of Col. William Eric Fowler, one of the trustees of the society.

The society entered upon an agreement with the American School of Prehistoric Research to conduct excavations which began at once in charge of Professor MacCurdy, who has already announced the discovery of numerous prehistoric flint implements in addition to faunal remains. Half the archaeological specimens found on the site are to be deposited with the U. S. National Museum as the property of the Archaeological Society of Washington.

Art and Archaeology.

Dr. Walter J. Fewkes, on November 13, gave a talk on Indian cliff houses which was broadcasted by the Smithsonian Institution.

Professor George Grant MacCurdy has recently returned from Europe where he has been conducting excavations near Bordeaux and at Solutre since this spring. He brought with him a collection. of relics of men and animals of prehistoric age.

The Norwegian Institute of Comparative Cultural Research, to which the State and Kristiania Municipality have granted 1,000,000 kroner each year, was opened September 3 in the presence of the King.

The white Indians of the Darien region of Panama have been given a preliminary inspection by a committee of scientists composed of Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, anthropologist of the Smithsonian Institution, as chairman; Dr. Charles B. Davenport, of the Station for Experimental Evolution, Cold Spring Harbor, L. I.; and Dr. C. W. Stiles of the U. S. Public Health Service. The committee in a communication to R. O. Marsh, the explorer who discovered the White Indians, recommends a thorough study of the newly found people in their own land by an expedition of scientists. The committee's letter follows:

"The committee of Drs. Hrdlicka, Davenport and Stiles, which you desired to take charge of the study of the 'White Indians' of Panama whom you brought to Washington for the purpose of investigations held a meeting after these Indians were examined last Friday at which the whole matter was discussed and the following conclusions were arrived at:

"The problem of the 'White Indians' is one of much scientific interest, but its satisfactory solution is only possible by a detailed and all-sided study of these people and their families in their own. country.

"The committee is of the opinion that these investigations should be conducted simultaneously by anthropology, genetics and pathology.

"In order that the results may be satisfactory, it is requisite that the research should be carried on by experienced and reliable men, whose findings will be accepted with confidence by their colleagues.

"The first condition for a successful carrying on of the work should be, in the opinion of the committee, the training during the remainder of the year of two or three of the persons now in your

party in the English language and such terms as it may be necessary to use with the Indians. Considerable questioning will have to be done, particularly by the anthropologists and the geneticists, which will be quite impossible without well-qualified interpreters. Two of the men of your party, the fathers of Margaret and Alfred, would seem particularly promising in this direction. It is felt that the two and one-third months remaining of this year would be sufficient to form these men into invaluable interpreters for the scientific party.

"The committee would appreciate a statement from you as to whether or not you desire to take charge of whatever further work is to be done on these Indians."

Mr. Marsh stated recently that he intended to cooperate in every possible way to facilitate carrying out the recommendations of the committee. Science.

Swedish Anthropological Excavations. Three skeletons of persons who died 4,500 years ago in Sweden are among the many valuable relics of the Stone Age which Swedish archaeologists have unearthed this summer in their assiduous efforts to reconstruct Sweden's prehistoric past. Other objects among the new finds now being studied are weapons, tools and pottery from the Stone Age, funeral urns, bronze axes, swords, etc., from the Bronze Age; remains of workshops in the Iron Age, hoards of gold and silver treasures amassed in the Viking Age, and various relics that shed light on medieval life in Sweden.

Another interesting find, made earlier in the summer while excavating in the market-place of the ancient town of Visby, were the remains of a workshop in which bone objects had been made. Antlers of moose and deer in various states of manufacture, and various horn objects such as combs, chisels and punches, were found. These objects, it is said, belong to the latter part of the Iron Age. Relics of medieval times, when Visby was in her prime, are frequently found, the latest being a domestic aquarium, in which, according to custom, fish were preserved alive until the time when they were to be served up in a favorite dish for some merchant prince of the city. Four or five aquariums of this type have previously been found in Visby.

A curious and unique object previously found in the province of Halland, is a flint saw from the Stone Age. And another object of

special interest in the Study of Stone Age civilization in Sweden is a grindstone for the sharpening of stone tools and weapons, which has been found this summer near Piteaa, on the Gulf of Bothnia. Piteaa is only about sixty miles south of the Arctic Circle. The curious appearance of this grindstone has led the experts to the theory that it was once used by the Lapps as an idol-a strange elevation in the service of a common object that had lost its practical utility at least 3,000 years earlier.

At Laholm were also found interesting relics of the Bronze Age, dating back to 1,500-1,000 B.C. The finds include a beautiful bronze sword nearly two feet long, and two exquisitely shaped burial urns, of which one was about one foot in diameter. Bronze Age antiquities of great value will probably be unearthed at Schoeg, between Trelleborg and Falsterbo, on the most southerly tip of Sweden. Bronze axes were found on this site half a century ago, and excavations now begun have already yielded hundreds of objects. The finds date back to 1,500 B.C. The prehistoric burial grounds at Schoeg are believed to be haunted, and it figures in a great number of ghost stories and weird legends that are part of the folk-lore of this region. Contrasting with the severe and gloomy character of the preceding ages in the civilization of Sweden is the picturesque and romantic Viking Age. The Viking relics found this summer include coins and ornaments of silver and gold that testify to the far-flung adventures and commerce of the daring seafarers of the ninth and tenth centuries A.D. Thus at Igeloesa, in Skaane, a farmer recently came across a buried treasure of silver money, 2,037 coins in all. He has just delivered the treasure to the government, and, according to law, has received the value of the silver in weight, or about $86.00, plus one-eighth for the "antiquity value." Most of these coins are English, dated during the reign of Aethelred II, 916 to 978 A.D., and are doubtless part of the tribute money which the Viking raiders exacted at this time from England. The other coins are Irish, German and Arabic. A lot of Arabic coins of this period have also just been found in Ytterenhoerna, in the province of Soedermanland. Between twenty and thirty thousand Arabic coins in all have been found in Sweden and testify to the close commercial relations of the Vikings with the Near East as well as with Western Europe. Science.

Dr. N. H. Darton, of the United States Geological Survey, has returned to Washington after an extended examination of the ruins

of the archaic temple of Cuiculco, twelve miles south of the city of Mexico, for the purpose of determining their age and relation to the surrounding lava flow. The investigation was made for the National Geographic Society, which is cooperating with the Mexican government in unearthing the ruins.

At the first meeting of the Anthropological Society of Philadelphia inaugurating the year 1924-25, the following Officers were elected: President, Prof. A. J. Uppvall; Vice-Presidents, Dr. A. Irving Hallowell and Prof. E. M. Fogel; Secretary, Mr. E. P. Wilkins. Last year there were 48 active and 5 corresponding members on the rolls. The following speakers gave addresses during the year: Prof. A. J. Uppvall, Explorations in Iceland. Dr. J. A. Mason, Explorations in Santa Marta, Columbia. Prof. Franklin Edgerton, The Bhagavad Gita. Dr. Spencer Trotter, Peoples of the Western Pacific. Ndapis danda Kai Wanga, Secret Societies of West Africa. Prof. W. W. Hyde, Greek Voyages to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Prof. E. W. Burlingame, Mediaeval Sources of the "Jackdaw of Rheims."

Mr. Alfred I. Hallowell received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania in June.

Neill M. Judd, Curator of American Archaeology, United States National Museum, returned to Washington September 30th after having been engaged for four months in continuation of the National Geographic Society's explorations at Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon National Monument, New Mexico. The recent investigations constituted the fourth season's field work of the five year project previously noted in the Anthropologist. Besides a creditable collection much new data bearing on prehistoric Pueblo peoples of the Southwest was gathered; it is felt that the 1924 explorations have proven the most profitable of the series.

South African Notes. In the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Mrs. R. F. A. Hoernle, who will be remembered at Harvard, is lecturing on social anthropology and ethnology. She is preparing for publication a monograph on her field-work among the Nama Hottentots.

Dr. G. H. S. Rossouw of Stellenbosch and Chicago Universities, is giving a short course in socal anthropology at the Transvaal University College, Pretoria.