Dolichocephalic or Brachycephalic?

[Þoreiðar]

Juthunge said I am the living one who has most dolichocephalic what he saw. Well, in the Gymnasium I saw in pictures, that my head is odd, deformed longer the others. Side by side my skull is high like as the Götatypes.

What are your measurements?

[Juthunge]

Thanks, I feel like a freak now...

Hehe, sorry.

I have been told I have a bit of a "small face" before, though.

Seems to be the case, yeah. Weird, I always thought I have a small face at about 122 mm total height and 135 mm breadth.

What individuals are described in those tables?

Not individuals but averages of ancient Germanic skulls (and those of some other peoples):


37. Scythians
38. Armenian Iron Age
39. Danish Iron Age
40. Swedish Iron Age
41. Norwegian Iron Age
42. Hannover Germans
43. Anglo-Saxons
44. Bajuvars, Reihengraber
45. Merovingians
46. Old Slavic, Poland
47. Old Slavic, Wends
48. Old Slavic, Bohemia

Again, some millimeters will actually have to be added to account for flesh and skin to make the skulls comparable to a living head. For head length and breadth about 10 mm, I'd guess somewhat less for the face.

[ThorvinB]

You may find this article interesting ... it reanalyzes a landmark anthropological study:

https://web.archive.org/web/20140730...gravlee03a.pdf

An oppositional paper argues that cradling practices might lead to different head shapes ...

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/...002/ajhb.21070

[Þoreiðar]

Not individuals but averages of ancient Germanic skulls (and those of some other peoples):


37. Scythians
38. Armenian Iron Age
39. Danish Iron Age
40. Swedish Iron Age
41. Norwegian Iron Age
42. Hannover Germans
43. Anglo-Saxons
44. Bajuvars, Reihengraber
45. Merovingians
46. Old Slavic, Poland
47. Old Slavic, Wends
48. Old Slavic, Bohemia

Interesting. Seems like Iron Age Norwegians are the one's with the greatest bizygomatic width, and the only ones where it's greater than cranial width. I fall pretty close to the Swedish Iron Age averages though.

Also, aren't male Germanics from this era supposed to have been of similar average stature as modern Germanics (around 180 cm)? It doesn't say what sex these averages are taken from, though, but if they're only males, it shouldn't be so odd that my measurements aren't greater that what they are.

Again, some millimeters will actually have to be added to account for flesh and skin to make the skulls comparable to a living head. For head length and breadth about 10 mm, I'd guess somewhat less for the face.

I would have guessed a maximum 5-6 mm of added layer on a live skull's diameter.

[Víðálfr]

How would you qualify between these?

dolichocephalic =
having a relatively long skull (typically with the breadth less than 80 (or 75) per cent of the length).

brachycephalic =
having a relatively broad, short skull (typically with the breadth at least 80 per cent of the length).

mesocephalic=
having a head of medium proportions, not markedly brachycephalic or dolichocephalic.

I think I'd qualify as dolichocephalic, but how do you make precise measurements about these?

If you are of a certain type, would you prefer your children to inherit this type?

Well, without knowing anything else about this, just as a matter of taste and aesthetics, I tend to prefer people from the same category. So if I'd choose a partner who's also dolichocephalic (or maybe mesocephalic?), probably our children would be the same.

[Þoreiðar]

I think I'd qualify as dolichocephalic, but how do you make precise measurements about these?

Use a meter like this (with foldable joints) as a caliper:


And follow the guidelines as explained by Juthunge earlier in the thread.

[NeuSchwabe]

I think myself to be mesocephalic but I find it indescribably difficult to measure myself as I have tried such over the years numerous times and came back with different results, mainly though either mesocephalic or on the shorter end of dolichocephalic.
I would have to drive a knife right through my skull in order to be able to place the meter where it would have to be to take accurate measurements, or have an actual compass that can encircle it.
If this should be my last post it means that I probably chose the knife method and died knowing my head index.

[Þoreiðar]

I would have to drive a knife right through my skull in order to be able to place the meter where it would have to be to take accurate measurements, or have an actual compass that can encircle it.
If this should be my last post it means that I probably chose the knife method and died knowing my head index.

No need for such extreme measures. If you don't have a foldable meter as shown above, I suppose you also could use a clothes hanger made of steel wire, cut it in half with some pliers, and bend it to fit your head's width and length.

[NeuSchwabe]

No need for such extreme measures. If you don't have a foldable meter as shown above, I suppose you also could use a clothes hanger made of steel wire, cut it in half with some pliers, and bend it to fit your head's width and length.

Thank you for the suggestion, but I cannot bring myself to see how a foldable meter could be of any use in such a regard as it bends around the whole head with the scale being on the meter itself not as it should be in a circle at a straight line next to the head rather than around it:


Even if you bend a cloth hanger in that shape you still are missing the essential component of the straight ruler attached to it.
The face index is much easier to measure with a simple meter/ruler, but the head index always has proven to be exceptionally difficult without another person's assistance.

Also: to answer an earlier question of yours:

Are there any implications of cephalic indices, from the viewpoint of anthropological science? Like any association with specific ancestry, biological/mental properties, etc...

Usually Nordids, Dinarids and Mediterraneans but also non-Europid Caucasoids like Ethiopiods and Armenoids are associated with long skulls while short skulls are typical for Alpins, Baltids as well as of course Mongoloids and Negroes among others.

[Þoreiðar]

Thank you for the suggestion, but I cannot bring myself to see how a foldable meter could be of any use in such a regard as it bends around the whole head [...]

It's not supposed to bend around the head. You put it above your head and adjust the joints to pinpoint the relevant points on your skull, like this:



After you've adjusted the meter to the relevant points, you carefully remove it (so the joints of the meter don't change) and put it on a table, then use another meter to measure the distance between the end points of the meter which marked your skull measurements. If you're being very careful and precise, and do several different tries until you keep getting a consistent measurement, I think you should get a fairly accurate result.

Also, I think it's better to use those plastic meters as I pictured previously, rather than the wooden ones, as those in plastic tend to have a bit more rigid joints and don't move around as easily.