More on Bach


Stages in Bach reconstruction. If Wilkinson was genuinely unsure about pigmentation, it might have been more "scientific" of her to leave the reconstruction as it appears above right.

I've located Wilhelm His's measurements of Bach's skull here (in German). These include (in mm unless otherwise specified):

Length: 188
Breadth: 143
Minimum frontal: 93
Face breadth after Virchow: 94
Bizygomatic: 134
Face height: 119
Upper face height: 70
Nose height: 53
Nose breadth: 23 (In His, nose height is reported as 23 mm and nose breadth 53 mm; this is obviously an error.)
Greatest breadth of orbital: 44
Greatest height of orbital: 34
Vertical height of orbital: 33
Profile angle: 82 degrees

Cranial (length-breadth) index 76.06
Length-height index 68.08
Facial index after Virchow 125.6
Upper facial index after Virchow 74.47
Zygomatic-Face index 88.8
Zygomatic-upper face 51.2
Orbital index 70.45
Nasal index 43.39

Compared to means of cranial series used by Coon in The Races of Europe, at a glance, Bach's skull is most similar to:

45. Merovingians (Wallis)
37. Scythians (Donic)
35. British Iron Age (Morant)
36. Irish Iron Age and Early Christian (composite)

These are essentially Iron Age Nordic types. In any event, with a cranial index of 76, Bach was certainly not "Alpine".

No comments: