Albania

Physical anthropology as a discipline began relatively late in Albania, after the Second World War. As with all other disciplines which arose and developed during this period, physical anthropology was based on Marxist theory, summarized by Engels as a science which made it possible to understand the transition from the morphology and physiology of the human being and its races to history. Central to anthropological studies became the issue of the ethnogenesis of the Albanian people. Anthropological research on the Albanian living population, however, began in the last

quarter of the 19th century, especially by foreign travellers such as François Pouqueville and scholars such as Carleton Coon and Renato Biasutti (Pouqueville 1805: 153-54; Coon 1950; Biasutti 1967: 332-34). Nevertheless their studies remained isolated and did not become part of a homogeneous scientific corpus. It was only in 1973 that the first anthropology department in the Institute of History was created, which in 1976 became part of the Centre of Archaeological Research of the Academy of Sciences (Qëndra e Kërkimeve Arkeologjike të Akademisë së Shkencave). The bases of Albanian anthropology at the time were the study of the physical characteristics of the modern population and a comparison of these to the skeletal material from past periods, in order to establish the origin, gradual formation, continuity and chronological development of the anthropological types in the country. The first tasks of this research were to identify anthropological traits in particular areas of the

country, and to begin a collection of skeletal remains pertaining to a wide chronological span, dating from the early Neolithic (sixth millennium BC) to the 19th century AD. The final goal was to demonstrate that modern Albanians were the direct descendants of the Illyrians, who played an important role in history, and that Albania was the centre of the Dinaric race, a subcategory of the Europid race (Dhima 1985: 5-6, 11-12, 15). The methodology of the earlier studies consisted in measurements of the living population,

mostly individuals from the north of the country where there was a higher degree of isolation. Due to lack of standardization, the results often varied from scholar to scholar because of the way the measurements were taken. Carleton Coon was the first scientist to include observations on the natural and social context which he considered as influencing human beings, especially in

the early years of life (Coon 1950). Rudolf Virchow and Raphaël Zampa were the first scholars to focus on skull measurements, and Ernest-Théodore Hamy was the first one to take measurements of archaeological skulls found during the excavations in the cemetery of Koman, dated to between the sixth and eighth centuries AD (Virchow 1877: 769-819; Zampa 1886; Hamy 1900). In the 1970s and 1980s Albanian scholars such as A. Ylli and B. Çipi wrote on the assessment of

the age and sex of an adult individual on the basis of the ectocranial sutures (Ylli and Çipi 1973, 1975); however, the scholar who had collected data in a more systematic way was Aleksander Dhima. He had a medical background, and had specialized in anthropology through a Humboldt fellowship in Germany in the early 1980s. In his study, he collected data on living populations and on skeletal material from Antiquity to theMiddle Ages. The objective of his work was to provide a general picture of the formation and transformation through time of the anthropological typologies of Albanians in order to contribute to the issue of the ethnogenesis of the Albanian population. To achieve this, he presented the anthropological data available for Albania, and he himself observed 1079 male and 668 female living individuals representative of the eight major regions of the country while also studying 201 mediaeval skeletons for comparison (Dhima 1985: 6-7). Among the living people of Albania, he observed individuals of three social categories: farmers, workers in state firms, and other professionals such as doctors and teachers, etc. The individuals in each of the three categories ranged between 19 and 60 years of age for men and between 18 and 55 years of age for women. Individuals with certain pathological conditions were excluded from his comparative study. The anthropometric measurements taken had as a reference internationally recognized standards such as those by Rudolf Martin and Henri-Victor Vallois. Skin colour was assessed using the scale developed by Felix von Luschan. The data were then statistically elaborated in the Centre of Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences in Tirana. Apart from the measurements and other observations, photographs of most individuals were also taken (Dhima 1985: 67-71). After his research, Dhima concluded that in all the Albanian regions there was a prevalence of the Adriatic anthropological physique (Dhima 1985: 146). In the mediaeval skeletal sample, Dhima noticed more variation. The general picture was again

that of a population with mostly Adriatic characteristics, but in some cases, Mediterranean, Alpine and Cromagnoid types were also observed. All the data were subsequently statistically analysed in order to assess the degree of homogeneity within the same series, and between the different series of the same and of different chronological periods and geographical regions. The statistical parameters used were those of Ronald Aylmer Fisher and Harold Hotelling (Dhima 1985: 203-9). Dhima concluded that he supported the argument that the Albanian population had a con-

sistent evolution from the Early Middle Ages (10th to 12th centuries AD) to modern times, with the Adriatic element as its anthropological substratum (Dhima 1985: 266). He reinforced this thesis with sporadic observations conducted during other archaeological excavations. He noticed, in fact, that the Adriatic element was present in the individual of the central grave of the Tumulus of Barç, dated to the late Bronze Age (13th century BC). Even the less prevalent types, such as the Mediterranean type, were present in the skeletons from Podgorie and Cakran, dated to the Neolithic period (late fifth millennium BC), and from the necropolis of Dyrrah dated between the fourth and second centuries BC. The Cromagnoid type was identified as being present in the individual of the central grave of the Tumulus of Piskovë, dated to the early Bronze Age (second half of the third millennium BC) (Dhima 1985: 231-32, 235).