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ARMENIA AND THE NEAR EAST
86
Their language may also be related to Mitannic and
Protohittitic.
The finds in graves indicate that the country was inhabited
in prehistoric times by a long-skulled people entirely different
from the modern Georgians, who are for the most part con
spicuously short-skulled. In the numerous stone cist graves
of the Bronze Age, found near the convent of Samtavro at
Mtskhetha, F. Bayern has discovered nothing but long-skulls.
Whether one, or rather several short-skulled peoples entered
the country at a later date is uncertain, and we are similarly
unable to say who introduced the Georgian language. In
addition to the predominating short-skulls of the Armenoid
type there was evidently some admixture of the short-skulled
alpine race with its lower, broader cranium and broader face.
And further, an element of fair long-skulls entered into the
composition of these peoples, probably at a rather later time.
Moreover, there seems to have been an older element of dark
long-skulls, possibly the earlier inhabitants of the country.
In historical times there has been a large immigration of
Armenians, with a certain number of Jews.
The typical Georgian may be described as slim and tall of
stature. He has a short-skulled head, the face being generally
of medium width, with a high nasal ridge fairly narrow, with
a somewhat fleshy, rather turned-down tip of the Armenoid
type ; his hair is brownish-black, and he has a vigorous,
luxuriant growth of hair and beard ; his eyes are dark. Both
the men and the women are frequently handsome.
Mentally the race is well endowed : honourable, gay,
frank, careless, rather inclined to be frivolous and happy-go
lucky, but dignified and chivalrous, brave, and extremely
hospitable. Somewhat wearied, perhaps, by long, arduous
ages of incessant warfare, and with a certain lack of enterprise
—preferring to live on the memories of its glorious past rather
than take an interest in modern progress and development.
It is characteristic, in a way, of the manner in which this race
still lives in the Middle Ages, that several of the Georgian
mountain tribes, for instance the Khevsurs, still preserve
ancient chain-mail, shields, and swords from the time of the
Crusades, and use them on great occasions.
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