Year: 1953
Author: Henry Field (1902-1986)
Genre: Monographic research
Publisher: Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A. Published by the Museum
English language
Format: DjVu
Number of Pages: 234

(Preface of the author, 1953): From April 1 to July 31, 1934, the Anthropological Expedition of the Field Museum in the Middle East, which I headed, continued the anthropometric survey of Iraq. This expedition was financed by Mr. Marshall Field. During August and early September, we worked in Iran. On September 13, Mr. Richard A. Martin and I entered the territory of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in Baku.
Even before leaving Chicago, I informed Mr. Wallace Murray, the head of the Department of the Middle East of the State Department in Washington, that members of this expedition plan to work in Iraq, Iran and the Caucasus. As a result, Ambassador William C. Bullitt and Chairman of the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations (VOKS) in Moscow have achieved the permission necessary for free transportation of equipment of our expedition to the USSR.
Our route looked like this: Baku - Tbilisi (former Tiflis) - Ordzhonikidze (formerly Vladikavkaz, now Dzaudzhikau) - Rostov - Kharkov - DneproGES - Dnepropetrovsk - Kiev - Moscow - Leningrad.
The collection of anthropometric data was limited to a group of 50 Yezidis and 4 Armenians in Tbilisi and 106 men and 50 women from North Ossetia in Ordzhonikidze. During the entire expedition, photography was conducted not only by racial types, but also by common types of landscape, produced by Richard Martin. In the hotel room "National" (Moscow), he showed 750 negatives in 36 hours to submit them for examination to Soviet censors who viewed the entire series.
I must express our gratitude not only to those persons who contributed to our anthropometric works in Tbilisi and Ordzhonikidze, but also to the Academy of Sciences in Baku; Academy of Sciences of Georgia, Director and staff of the Museum of Georgia; Institute of Geography of the Georgian University and personally A. Surkhatyan from the Transcaucasian Society for Cultural Relations (ZOKS) in Tbilisi; T. Demurov, Chairman of the Oblono of North Ossetia, Director of the Pedagogical Institute, Director of the Ingush Institute, Director of the North Ossetian Institute in Ordzhonikidze; The Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (UAS) in Kiev; directors of the Anthropological Museum and VOKS in Moscow; the late Academician Karpinsky and the staff of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the directors and employees of the State Academy of the History of Material Culture (GAIMK), the Institute of Anthropology and Ethnography (IAE), Academician Orbeli - the Director of the Hermitage Museum - and the late Academician N.I. Vavilov from the Institute of Plant Industry in Leningrad.
During the six weeks that we spent in the Soviet Union, surrounded by special concerns on the part of VOKS, we used the most amiable services everywhere, and the USSR Academy of Sciences created all conditions for our scientific research.
The tables for this report are prepared for processing by the computing devices of the International Business Relations Department of the Anthropometric Laboratory at the Peabody Museum (Harvard). Statistical calculations were carried out by Dr. Karl Seltzer. This publication was prepared thanks to the unselfish cooperation of Dr. E.A. Huton.
Valuable advice we received from Sir Ellis Minnes, Mr. W.E.D. Allen, Dr. Alexander Bashmakov and Miss R.U. Fleming. I would also like to express my gratitude to the librarians of the following institutions who provided us with valuable help in the background work: Field Museum of Natural History (now the Chicago Museum of Natural History); Eastern Institute of the University of Chicago; the library of Crearara; Newberry Library, Peabody Museum, Widener Library and the Institute for Geographical Research (Harvard); New York Public Library; Library of Congress; US Military Medical Library; The Bodleian Library (Oxford); University Library (Cambridge); London Library; The Royal Geographical Society; The Royal Asian Society; Royal Central Asian Society; The Trocadéro Museum (Paris); Azgosmuseum (Baku); Georgian State University and the Museum of Georgia (Tbilisi); Ossetian Museum (Ordzhonikidze), Lenin Library (Moscow) and the Library of the Academy of Sciences (Leningrad).
Since there are frequent references to Russian editions in the text, many excerpts were specially translated for us by Mr. Eugene V. Prostov, a former employee of the Iowa State Library (Ames, Iowa), Dr. Alexander de Soushko of the University of Chicago and Mr. Rimsky-Korsakov from Boston.
Transliteration of Russian names, as far as possible, follows the system of the Library of Congress. Diacritic icons are omitted.
Renaming, as, for example, Tiflis in Tbilisi, was repeatedly mentioned for the attention of the beginning researcher, for whom such changes may be new. Similarly, for greater clarity, passages in square brackets are introduced in the text.
Among the staff of the Field Museum of Natural History, I must first of all thank for the assistance of Mr. Richard A. Martin, the curator for Middle Eastern archeology, and Miss Moreles Morrow, who was temporarily acting as my research assistant. In the printed set of the final edition of the manuscript, I used the kind assistance of Miss Betsey King Ross (Cuernavaca, Mexico).
In the choice of the spelling of Osetes, and not of Ossetes, and the corresponding derivatives, I followed the following recommendation from Sir Ellis Minnes in a letter dated September 10, 1938: "I think it would be nice to make a principled decision to get rid of the ss-lettering that the Germans have typed into many words, to designate a deaf "c", instead of a sonorous "h", as they say s. I do not think that ss in Osete can find any excuse. The oldest form of this name is ac or wasps, -et- - this is the Georgian ending, but without it the word looks naked; The Russian form is endowed, in addition to the Georgian, with an additional Slavic ending. In English, it gave the form of Osetinian, in defense of which hardly anyone has something to say. I think that Osete is quite a reasonable compromise.
I also express my most sincere gratitude for the use of illustrations: Fig. 1 - 20 - to the Chicago Museum of Natural History (former Field Museum of Natural History); Fig. 21 - 24 - to Mr. Julien Bryan. Fig. 21 - 24 can not be reproduced without the written permission of Mr. Bryan. A large ethnographic map of the Caucasus is based on published and unpublished sources, received mostly in Tbilisi. This leaflet is part of the ethnographic map of Southwest Asia that we are developing, a fragment of which was published in 1940 as an annex to the "Anthropology of Iraq", part 1, No. 1 - "Upper Euphrates."
To chart the field for the proposed study of Ossetians, I gathered in Chapter I data on the anthropogeography of the Caucasus as a whole, Transcaucasia and Ciscaucasia, Georgia and, finally, Ossetia. Thus, the reader will get an overall picture of the area and the population, including the vast and diverse mountain areas and the tiny territory that Ossetia occupies.
The next stage of this research required the most intensive efforts, due to the need to collect materials in libraries inside the country and abroad, selecting the excerpts that interest us, translating them, selecting translators and publishing the results of their work. This was an unusually heavy burden. I often had to apply for support to my friend and employee, Mr. Evgeny V. Prostov, who translated many fragments from Russian sources. It seemed necessary to collect all accessible and relevant historical reports about the Ossetians and their ancestors - the Alans. In this Chapter I followed the same method as that used in Chapter III of my "Reports on the Anthropology of Iran," which provides a compilation of historical information about the peoples of Iran (pp.).
About a third of the material accumulated for inclusion in chapter II of this study was screened as unsuitable. Since we began to compile this report in reverse chronological order in order to give extra weight to the most recent and authoritative observations, we, only after having already done a great and tedious work, found that many authors, without the slightest hint of gratitude, only quoted and paraphrased the writings of Vsevolod Miller. Therefore, as soon as the translation of Miller's work was in front of me, I immediately saw the source of numerous later depressions, all of which were immediately destroyed.
Introducing my anthropometric data on northern Ossetians and Yezidis in Chapter III, I used the same illustrative system as in the reports on Iran and Iraq, so the material should be convenient for direct comparison. I proceeded from the idea that the reader will have access to my previous publications (see references).
Chapters IV and V are based on my measurements and observations on 39 skulls measured in the Caucasus.
The index (ss.) Will help the reader in finding the messages scattered throughout the text, since a large number of cross-references were deemed inexpedient.
Appendix A is devoted to South Ossetia, which I almost completely ignored in the rest of the work, because I was not there and did not receive any available anthropometric data for any group of South Ossetians.
Appendix B contains a number of citations and observations regarding the artificial deformation of the skull - an important factor in the discussion of the head indicators in the population of the Caucasus.
Appendix C gives a brief summary of the historical and ethnographic essay on mountain digorgs, published by S.A. Tukayev in 1946
Appendix D contains tables with unprocessed anthropometric and sociological data on northern Ossetians and Yezidis and a list of rare publications that are placed on the Microfilms No. of the American Institute of Documentation (AID), Library of Congress, where you can purchase a copy.
During my visit to Moscow and Leningrad in June-July 1945 as a guest of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Professor V.V. Bunak showed me the anthropometric data on the Caucasus presented in tabular form. I could not find any new publications on Ossetia or Ossetians, and therefore I attach an excellent review to G.K. Nioradze (ss.).
My "Reports on the Anthropology of the Soviet Union", which appeared in the Collection of the Smithsonian Institution ... should be regarded as an additional

From April 1 to July 31, 1934, the Field Museum Anthropological Expedition to the Near East, of which I was leader, continued the anthropometric survey of Iraq. This Expedition was financed by Mr. Marshall Field. During August and the early part of September we worked in Iran. On September 13, Mr. Richard A. Martin and I entered the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics at Baku.
Prior to leaving Chicago, I had notified Mr. Wallace Murray, Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs in the Department of State in Washington that the members of this Expedition were planning to work in Iraq, Iran, and the Caucasus. As a result Ambassador William C. Bullitt and the President of Vsesoiuznoe Obshchestvo Kulturnykh Snoshenii (VOKS) in Moscow obtained the permits necessary for the free entry of our Expedition equipment into the USSR.
Our itinerary was as follows: Baku, Tbilisi (formerly Tiflis), Ordzhonikidze (formerly Vladikavkaz, now Dzaudzhikau), Rostov, Kharkov, Dnieproges, Dnepropetrovsk, Kiev, Moscow, and Leningrad.
The recording of anthropometric data was confined to 50 Yezidis and 4 Armenians in Tbilisi and 106 men and 50 women from North Osetia in Ordzhonikidze. Throughout the Expedition, Richard Martin took all the photographs, not only of the racial types, but also of the general views of the country. In a room in the Hotel National, Moscow, he developed 750 negatives in thirty-six hours so that they could be examined by the Soviet censors, who passed the entire series.
I must record our gratitude not only to the individuals who assisted our anthropometric work in Tbilisi and Ordzhonikidze, but also to the Academy of Sciences in Baku; the Academy of Sciences of Georgia; the Director and Staff of the Museum of Georgia; the Geographical Institute of the University of Georgia, and to A. Surkhatian of Zakavkazskoe Obshchestvo Kulturnykh Snoshenii (ZOKS) in Tbilisi; T. Demurow, Chairman of Education for North Osetia, the Director of the Pedagogical Institute, the Director of the Ingu-shetian Institute, the Director of the North Osetia Institute in Ordzhonikidze; the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (UAN) in Kiev; and the Director of the Anthropological Museum and VOKS in Moscow; the late Academician Karpinski and the Staff of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the Director and Staff of Gosudarstvennia Akademiia Istorii Materialnoi Kultury (GAIMK), the Institut Antropologii i Etnografii (IAE), Academician Orbeli, Director of the Hermitage Museum, and the late Academician N. I. Vavilov of the Institute of Plant Industry in Leningrad.
During our six weeks in the Soviet Union, working under the special aegis of VOKS, we received the utmost courtesy everywhere and our scientific investigations were facilitated by the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
The tabulations for this Report were prepared for the International Business machines in the Anthropometric Laboratory at the Peabody Museum, Harvard. The statistical calculations were made by Dr. Carl Seltzer. This publication has been prepared with the generous collaboration of Dr. E. A. Hooton.
Valuable advice was given by Sir Ellis Minns, Mr. W. E. D. Allen, Dr. Alexander Baschmakoff, and Miss R. W. Fleming.
I wish, also, to record my gratitude to the librarians of the following institutions, who facilitated the reference work: Field Museum of Natural History (now Chicago Natural History Museum); Oriental Institute, University of Chicago; Crerar Library; Newberry Library; Peabody Museum, Widener Library, and Institute of Geographical Exploration, Harvard; New York Public Library; Library of Congress; U. S. Army Medical Library; Bodleian Library, Oxford; University Library, Cambridge; London Library; Royal Geographical Society; Royal Asiatic Society; Royal Central Asian Society; Musee de Trocadero, Paris; Museum Azgos, Baku; University of Georgia and Museum of Georgia, Tbilisi;
Osetian Museum, Ordzhonikidze; Lenin Library, Moscow; and Library of the Academy of Sciences, Leningrad.
Since many of the references are in Russian, translations of many passages were made by Mr. Eugene V. Prostov, formerly of Iowa State Library, Ames, Iowa; Dr. Alexander de Sushko at the University of Chicago; and by Mr. Rimsky-Khorsakoff in Boston.
The transliteration of Russian names follows, wherever possible, the Library of Congress system. Diacritical marks have been omitted.
The name changes, such as Tbilisi for Tiflis, have often been repeated for the sake of the student to whom such changes might be unfamiliar. Similarly, words in brackets have been inserted to elucidate the text.
At Field Museum of Natural History I must record my thanks for assistance from Mr. Richard A. Martin, Curator of Near Eastern Archaeology and Miss Morelza Morrow, my temporary research assistant. In typing part of the final revision of the manuscript I had the benefit of the assistance of Miss Betsy King Ross in Cuernavaca, Mexico.
In spelling Osetes, not Ossetes, and their derivatives, I have accepted the following recommendation from Sir Ellis Minns in a letter dated September 10, 1938: «I think it is a good principle to get rid of the ss that Germans have introduced into many words in order to show that it is a surd s not a sonant z as they pronounce s. I do not think there is any justification for two ss in Osete. The oldest form of the name is As or 0,s the et is the Georgian termination but it does look naked without it: ОСЕТИН, the Russian form has the Georgian et plus a double Slavonic termination. It has given Osetinian in English which no one would defend. I think Osete is a reasonable compromise».
Grateful acknowledgments for the use of illustrations are herewith made: figures 1-20 to Chicago Natural History Museum (formerly Field Museum of Natural History); and figures 21-24 to Mr. Julien Bryan. Figure 21-24 may not be reproduced without written permission from Mr. Bryan. The large tribal map of the Caucasus is based on published and unpublished sources obtained for the most part in Tbilisi. This sheet is part of our planned tribal map of Southwestern Asia, a portion of which was published in 1940 as a supplement to «The Anthropology of Iraq, Part I, No. 1, The Upper Euphrates».
In order to set the stage for this study of the Osetes, I have compiled in Chapter I data on the anthropogeography of the Caucasus in general, of Transcaucasia and Ciscaucasia, of Georgia and finally, of Osetia. In this way the reader will have a general picture of the land and the people including the extensive and diverse mountainous area and the tiny area which is Osetia.
The next phase in this study required the most intensive effort, because of the necessityx for combing libraries at home and abroad, selecting excerpts for translation, hiring the translators and editing their results. This formed an unusually heavy burden. I have had to rely heavily on my friend and collaborator, Mr. Eugene V. Prostov, who translated many passages from Russian sources. It seemed necessary to compile all available pertinent historical references to the Osetes anrl^ their ancestors, the Alans. In this chapter I have followed the same method employed in Chapter III of my «Contributions to the Anthropology of Iran», wherein are given a selected series of historical references to the peoples of Iran (pp. 36-158 and 601-51).
About one-third of the material assembled for Chapter II in this study was rejected as undesirable. Since we began this compilation in reverse chronological order to give added weight to the more recent authorities, we did not discover until much tedious work had been done that many writers quoted and paraphrased Vsevelod Miller's writings without the slightest sign of acknowledgment. Hence as soon as I had the translation of Miller's work before me, I saw at once the source of numerous later excerpts — all of which were destroyed with fitting expletives.
In presenting in Chapter III my anthropometric data on the North Osetes and Yezidis, the same system of presentation has been employed as in my Iran and Iraq Reports, so that the material should prove directly comparable. I have presumed that the reader will have access to my previous publications {see References).
Chapters IV and V are based on my measurements and observations on 39 crania measured in the Caucasus.
The index (pp. 143-54) should assist the reader in locating the scattered references since a large number of cross-references in the text seemed inadvisable.
Appendix A deals with South Osetia, which I have almost otherwise neglected because I did not visit it nor did I obtain any available anthropometric data on a group of South Osetes.
Appendix B contains some quotations and observations on artificial cranial deformation, an important factor in discussing head form in the Caucasus.
In Appendix C is summarized an historical-ethnographical sketch on the Mountain Digors published by S. A. Tukaev in 1946.
In Appendix D are listed the anthropometric and sociological raw data tables on the North Osetes and Yezidis and the rare publications which have been placed on Microfilm Nos. 2422 and 3702 in the American Documentation Institute (ADI), % Photoduplication Service, Library of Congress, where a copy may be purchased.
During my visit to Moscow and Leningrad in June-July, 1945, as a guest of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Professor V. V. Bunak showed me anthropometric tabulated data on the Caucasus. I was unable to locate any recent publications on Osetia or the Osetes, hence the inclusion of the excellent account by G. K. Nioradze (pp. 20-34).
My «Contributions to the Anthropology of the Soviet Union», which appeared in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. 110, no. 13, pp. 1-244, December 22, 1948, should be considered as a companion volume to this publication.
From 1935-52 summaries of archaeological finds throughout the Soviet Union have been published, with the collaboration of Eugene V. Prostov, and of latter years with that of Kathleen Price. As soon as political influence appeared within the Academy of Sciences, we decided to cancel this work. As a direct result, I decided to close our series of articles with material up to December 31, 1948. For the convenience of the reader, a list of these articles has been included as Appendix E (pp. 117-19).
I am particularly grateful to Mr. Marshall Field for his continuous interest in my research program and for his timely support which has made possible the publication of this report in the Papers of the Peabody Museum.
During the final editing I have had the assistance of Miss Elizabeth Beverly, who also revised and retyped part of the text.
My wife generously assisted in the proofreading and compilation of the Index.
Mrs. Theodore L. Stoddard, Jr., and Mrs. Melville Smith, Editors of Peabody Museum Publications, saw the manuscript through the press.
Henry Field
Coconut Grove, Florida 1953

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