Human Skulls from Ancient Cemeteries in the Tarim Basin.

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Abstract
Descriptions and measurements of 1 o and 4 o skulls from ancient cemeteries of the north-eastern region of the Taklamakan desert, Chinese Turkestan, are given. All 5 skulls represent a single people. They were found in cemeteries abandoned about the 4th century, A. D. These skulls are compared with some from western Taklamakan and Turkestan. "Loulan" is the term applied to the type of skull found in the ancient cemeteries of Loulan. This type is now extinct, but the modern inhabitants of the southern border of the Taklamakan come nearest to it. The Loulan is an intermediate type showing both mongoloid and caucasoid characters, and is not caused by hybridity but by natural evolution. Attention is called to the great racial divide separating the mongoloid people from the other stocks of southern Asia and of Europe. The Taklamakan forms part of the great racial divide. Loulan people bridge the gap between Mongoloids of the Kirghiz type and the Iranian type of the Pamirs and Persia. The author has applied certain new methods for measuring and registering the racial features of the face. He emphasizes the measurement representing the extent to which the dorsum of the nose rises above the lower margins of the orbits.

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