Description:
The Hallstatt Nordic is the 'classic' Nordid type, and metrically identical to the original central European Nordid type preserved in Iron Age skeletal material.
The typical Hallstatt Nordid is a leptosome - tall and lean, with relatively long legs and a short body, moderately broad shoulders and relatively short arms. The impression is of a long and slender type, and corpulence is particularly rare. Sexual dimorphism is not significant.
The face is oval to slightly rhomboid in shape, with a narrow, somewhat sloping forehead - but much less so than is the case with the Keltic type - and browridges which are present but rather weakly developed. The nasion depression is moderate, while the nose, which is typically parallel in slope with the forehead, is mostly straight or slightly convex, with a high incidence of wavy forms. The nasal index is leptorrhine, and there is usually a noticeable transition from the nasal skeleton to the soft parts of the nose.
The lower jaw is long and deep with a well-developed chin, and the distance from the lower teeth to the chin is often remarkable. The gonial angles are compressed and usually not visible. The malars are small and typically flattened in front, and the zygomatic arches bend outward to some extent. The mouth is small, and the lips rather thin.
The cephalic index mean of the modern Hallstatt Nordid is low mesocephalic (C.I. ca. 77), although dolichocephaly is not uncommon among individuals. The head, when seen from above, looks like a long oval, somewhat flattened on both sides. When seen from behind, the impression is of a rhomboid or rectangle. The occiput is curved or projecting, and flattening is rare or nonexistent.
The skin, which is a pinkish white, is typically fine-textured and thin. This thinness has the effect of pronouncing the bony parts of the face and making the muscles of the body stand out in relief. The bones of the Hallstatt Nordid, and of the Nordid group as a whole, are small in comparison to the Cro-Magnid varieties.
The hair color of the Hallstatt Nordid is characteristically and almost exclusively blond, with ash-blond shades in one-third to one-half of the cases, the remainder having golden blond to medium brown shades. Rufosity is virtually absent. There is a small brunet minority that is anthropologically Nordid, but aberrant pigmentation does not necessarily indicate non-Nordid admixture.
The Nordid eye is typically light-mixed blue, with a large pure light-eyed minority. Here also there is a small dark-pigmented minority.
Geographical distribution:
The Hallstatt Nordid type is found in its greatest concentration on the southern Swedish plain and in the adjacent long valleys and lowlands of southeastern Norway. Outside of this kernel, which Carleton Coon described as "a refuge of the classic Nordic race", non-Nordid (mostly Cro-Magnoid) admixture increases rapidly, and no true predominantly Hallstatt Nordid population may be found. The type has blended with broader-featured, more robust Cro-Magnids in Denmark, northern Germany and the Be-Ne-Lux countries (Dalo-Falid, Borreby), and is present at lower levels in the British Isles, where the related Keltic type is more common. The type is inseparably tied to the ancient Germanic migrations, and Hallstatt Nordid individuals may be found anywhere where there are traditions of Völkerwanderung settlement.
Examples
Trönder
Description:
The Trønder is a variable strain, ranging in type from large, Irish-looking Cro-Magnid individuals (cf. Brünn) and tall, slender Battle-Axe survivors (Corded type), to almost completely Nordid populations (to the point at which it is more sensible to talk about Trønder-influenced Nordids).
The eastern central Swedish provinces, and the central Norwegian provinces of Nord- and Sør-Trøndelag, form the northeastern geographical extreme of the Trønder type, which is characterized by great vault height (reflecting Corded prevalence). This type is concentrated in the valley of Orkdal in Sør-Trøndelag, predominating as a population element in all territories north of the Dovre mountains, from Nordmøre in the west, through Jämtland and all the way to the Baltic coast. The western and southwestern Norwegian inland population continues the type in in most anthropological respects, but the Cro-Magnid element gains in importance the further one gets from the Orkdal area. One exeption to this rule is the population of Hardanger, members of which seem much more fully Corded and much less Cro-Magnid than adjacent Trønders. Cro-Magnid prevalence establishes a Trønder end-type in the southeastern region of Setesdal (Valle type).
The Trønder is the tallest Scandinavian type (with the exception of the Tydal type, which is at any rate a marginal phenomenon), which accordingly makes it one of Europe's tallest. It is a slender type, although not as slender as the local Hallstatt Nordid, and its bones are larger and heavier than what is considered typically Nordid. Sexual dimorphism is strong, and Trønder females are seldom correspondingly big-boned, but pedomorphism is less common than in Nordids proper, and robust females are not uncommon. The head form is high mesocephalic (c.i. typically 78-80; with the exeption of the "Hardanger type", which is dolicho-mesocephalic), and the face is of considerable length. The forehead is very high, and at the same time both broader and much less sloping than that of the Hallstatt Nordic. Frontal bosses, a non-Nordic trait, are frequently found, and the temporal region is much fuller. In addition, the transitions from frontal to temporal and frontal to parietal regions are smooth and difficult to find, whereas on the Nordid head they are clearly marked.
The nose is typically straight or convex, with a wide display of wavy forms (the "Hardanger type" is, for instance, frequently convex-nosed), and the transition between bone and cartilage is difficult to locate without palpation (feeling with the fingers), another feature which serves to distinguish the general Trønder type from the local Nordid.
The zygomatic arches of the Trønder type are less prominent than those of the Hallstatt Nordid, and the gonial angles are compressed and not visible. The skull is more rounded and the occiput less prominently curved than that of the Nordid type.
The Trønder is typically blue-eyed, and light-mixed blue is the predominant color. The hair is wavy and ranges in color from darkish brown to golden blond. Rufosity is common, whereas ash-blond shades, a typical Hallstatt Nordic trait, are rarer. The skin is coarser in texture and tougher than regular Nordid skin, and the hair is more abundant on beard and body.
On the whole, Trønder types give the impression of more robust, powerful and masculine Nordids.
Geographical distribution:
The Trønder type proper is essentially restricted to the Scandinavian peninsula. The zone of maximal concentration stretches from eastern central Sweden, through the provinces of Trøndelag, and southwestward from there on until it approaches the southern Norwegian coastal areas. Coastal settlements are characterized by a prevalence of Trønder types in the innermost reaches of the fjords (e.g. the "Hardanger type"), contrasted with the significantly more brachycephalic (Borreby and Strandid) populations that inhabit the islands and promontories. Trønders are by far the most common element in the Norwegian population, whereas the Swedes are predominantly Nordid.
Most of the Norwegian Vikings who settled in Iceland, Scotland, and northeastern England, were from the western part of the country, where Trønder types predominate. Accordingly, Trønder-like types are frequently seen in areas of erstwhile Norse settlement.
(*) In the Baltics, bordering on the Scandinavian peninsula, Trønder-like types are not uncommon. A combination of Corded and local Cro-Magnid elements, nowadays represented by the largely unreduced West-Baltids (an eastern Dalo-Falid or Brünn cognate), has resulted in a Baltic Trønder approximation. This could be the type referred to as "Aistin" or "Aisto-Nordid" by Lundman, and "Fenno-Nordid" by others.
Examples
Borreby
Description:
The Borreby type is large-bodied and large-headed, and lateral in most features. It is tall to very tall (but generally less so than Dalo-Falids), muscular, and usually quite heavy, with a tendency towards chubbiness. Paedomorphous features are particularly common in females, who are often buxom.
The head form is brachycephalic (c.i. typically 82-84), and the occiput is nearly vertical and often slightly flattened. The temporal bones are weakly curved, but parietal tuberosities are usually strong. The forehead is broad, only slightly curved, quite high, and usually of but little slope.
The Borreby face is typically square in appearance, due mostly to the great mandibular width and the prominence of the frontal and parietal tuberosities, but rounded, more Alpinoid-shaped faces are also common, especially among females. The face is usually short, broad, and somewhat flattish, with a strongly ortognathous profile. The jaw is rather deep, and the browridges of moderate size.
The nose profile is straight in about 5/6 of cases, and concave in the remainder; convexity is not common. The nose form is meso- to leptorrhine.
The hair is typically golden blond to light or medium brown. The total Borreby hair shade range runs from ash blond to dark brown, and the latter category accounts for some 30% of cases. Blue eyes are in the majority, but mixed and grayish blue are also common.
Geographical distribution:
The greatest center of Borreby concentration lies in the southern part of the Danish peninsula (Jutland), extending into northern Germany. In the midst of this zone lies the island of Fehmarn, which houses a population of exaggerated Borreby phenotype and extreme head dimensions (Fehmarner type). The Borreby is found as a major population element across the entire northern German plain, and a secondary center, which has now more or less disappeared, is located in the southwest, in the vicinity of Stuttgart. The Scandinavian extension of the Borreby population is concentrated in the coastal areas, with a notable survival in Jæren (southwestern Norway; Jæren type). Borreby types are not uncommon the southwestern parts of Sweden, in the general vicinity of Göteborg.
The Borreby zone is transitional to the Alpinid zone in the southwest, and to the Baltid in the east. The former transition has given rise to an intermediate Alpine-Borreby type, the Walloons type. In the northwest, along parts of the Norwegian coast line, Borrebys are frequently mixed with Strandids, Upper Paleolithic survivors of a more fully alpinized and considerably darker Cro-Magnoid strain.
Examples
Dalo-Faelid
Description:
The Dalo-Falid is quite tall, and rather wide in most features, especially when compared to the more gracile Nordid. The neck is thick, the shoulders broad, and the general impression is of great strength and robusticity. There is a certain extent of sexual dimorphism, and whereas the men are typically very "masculine", the women develop corresponding features only to moderacy; they are often large-featured, however in a distincively female way.
The Dalo-Falid head is meso- to dolichocephalic, and is characterized by a wedge-like shape. The face is broad and somewhat short, often giving the impression of a compressed Nordid, which undoubtedly reflects the partial contribution of Dalo-Falid or a similar Cro-Magnid strain to the historical formation of the Nordid types. The maxillary bones are strongly developed.
The forehead is short and rather steep, and a characteristic supraorbital bulge is often seen, especially in men. In combination with deep-set eyes, which are also common in Dalo-Falids, this feature tends to give the type a “primitive” aspect.
The nose is relatively short, yet thin (meso- to leptorrhine), and often protrusive. The profile is mostly straight, with a slight tendency towards concavity (rather than convexity). In women, Alpinid-like noses are not uncommon.
The lower jaw is massive and broad, and the gonial angles are clearly visible, even flaring. The Dalo-Falid deviates from the Brünn in this latter respect, and while it is usually broad-faced, it seldom approaches the facial flatness common among Irish Brünns. However, the Dalo-Falid type is strongly orthognathous, with a nearly vertical mouth region, an impression which is reinforced by the thinness of the lips.
Furrows and folds appear at a relatively early age (in men, firstly), particularly on the forehead and along the sides of the nose and mouth. The skin is a bright rosy color, approaching red, which is less common in Nordids. The pigmentation of the Dalo-Falid type is nearly as light as that of Nordids. The hair is typically blond or brown, with a tendency towards rufosity, and the eyes are gray or blue.
Examples
Bruenn
Description:
Like the Dalo-Falid type, Brünns are typically tall, broad-shouldered, and large-headed, with big bones and heavy musculature. In its unmixed form the type is usually quite easily distinguished from other local varieties, such as the shorter-statured, more gracile and more leptomorphic Keltic Nordid, with which it is cohabitant.
The modern Brünn inhabitants of western Ireland are mesocephalic to sub-brachycephalic, whereas their more easterly Cro-Magnid counterparts are typically long-headed. This is possibly due to the presence of a shorter-headed strain (such as Borreby) in the former, or to a local process of brachycephalization. The ancestral Cro-Magnid skull form was clearly dolichocranial.
The Brünn forehead is high and broad, and the face broad and mostly orthognathous. The malars are wide, the lower jaw deep and broad (yet usually not as broad as in the Dalo-Falid type), and the chin is prominent and typically clefted (the latter is foremost a male trait).
As with the other Cro-Magnid types, male Brünn facial features can be very ruggedly masculine, often with exaggeratedly pronounced browridges and deep jaws; the degree of sexual dimorphism is high, and a corresponding ruggedness is not usually observed among the females. As with Borreby women, these are typically rounder-featured and larger-breasted than the European mean.
The nose is moderately large, mesorrhine to leptorrhine, and straight in profile, with a considerable concave minority. The tip is somewhat thick, and frequently upturned. The mouth is large and the lines around the oral cavity are deeply drawn, while the lips are moderately thick and little everted. The upper lip tends characteristically towards length and convexity.
The skin, typically freckled, is very fair, and does not easily tan. The hair is brown and wavy, and often rufous (the Irish Brünn is known for its frequent red-headedness). Curly hair seems to be an Irish specialty. The eyes are light-mixed blue in the great majority of cases.
Geographical distribution:
Western Ireland - Cork and Kerry in particular - houses the only living Brünn population in the world today, and this element accounts for nearly half of the Irish racial composition on the whole.
The Irish Brünn type has added an important increment to the Icelandic population, which already contains a predominant Cro-Magnid strain through the presence of the western Norwegian Trønder type of Viking descent. An aboriginal Brünn-like population has also merged with the Germanic settlement in the Frisian and northwestern German country, where its descendants take the form of an altered Hallstatt Nordid, a type referred to as Anglo-Saxon. This mixed strain has played an important role in determining England's present racial situation.
Examples
Keltic Nordic
Description:
The modern Keltic Nordid type is tall, slender, and moderately broad-shouldered. The head form is typically mesocephalic, with a mean cephalic index of 79, which is slightly higher than the present Hallstatt mean.
Nordids of this type are particularly low-vaulted, with foreheads of much greater slope than those of the Hallstatt type, recalling a more typically Dinarid feature. The vault, when in posterior view, gives a characteristically cylindrical impression, as opposed to the more nearly rhomboid or rectangular vault shape of the Hallstatt variety. The Keltic face is relatively long and narrow, and the chin is moderately to strongly developed. The temples, malars, and gonial angles are typically compressed, and not visible.
The Keltic nose is long, large and high-bridged, characteristically prominent, and narrow to medium in breadth. The profile is usually straight, but wavy or concavo-convex (dinariform) profiles are not uncommon. A particularly convex-nosed and Dinaroid tendency is associated with certain British urban areas.
The lips are thin to medium, and little everted.
The hair, which ranges in color from a blackish brown to a platinum-like ash-blond, is most commonly medium brown in pigment. It is generally of a much darker tone than what is common among Hallstatt Nordids, a fact well illustrated by some the more recent photographic material presented below. The eyes are predominantly light-mixed.
Geographical distribution:
Modern Keltic Nordid populations are for the most part descended from Celtic and Frankish tribes on the northwestern European mainland and on the Isles across the British Channel. The type is concentrated in the British Isles and in the Be-Ne-Lux nations, and an old Keltic enclave in the Swiss Alps forms a secondary center.
Elsewhere, the Keltic Nordid type has found breeding ground overseas in North America, down under in Australia, and in South Africa, and it still figures as the predominant Europid racial type in most extra-European British and Dutch former colonies.
Examples
Anglosaxon
Description:
The general impression of this tall, broad-shouldered and characteristically blond type is that of an overgrown Hallstatt Nordid, with a larger head and face, as well as hands and feet of somewhat greater dimensions. The face is long, with a marked skeletal relief which gives it a somewhat rugged and angular appearance. The nose is large, very leptorrhine, and usually straight, with a convex minority. The lips, like those of the Hallstatt Nordid, are rather thin.
The Anglo-Saxon type is over-all mesocephalic, with a minor tendency towards brachycephaly, possibly reflecting a measure of round-headedness in the Cro-Magnid strain(s). The forehead is high and the browridges heavy, and the jaw is prominent. Whereas typically Cro-Magnid features are visible, the general impression is of a larger, more robust Nordid (Hallstatt, rather than the more numerous Insular Keltic variety).
The Anglo-Saxon hair color range runs from golden blond to medium brown, with the latter in the majority. Ash-blond shades are less frequent. There is a minor tendency towards rufosity, but much less so than is the case with the Trønder type, with which the Anglo-Saxon may be compared in many respects. The eyes are pure blue or light-mixed.
Geographical distribution:
The Anglo-Saxon type is found in its greatest number today in the British Isles, and particularly in southeastern England (East Anglia), where it is represented by the descendants of the western Germanic peoples whose 5th Century Völkerwanderung conquest led to the introduction to the Isles of Germanic language, culture, and identity, all of which still prevail and have had a massive influence on the shaping of the modern world.
A similar and closely related type (Friterpian) is found across the Channel, in the Netherlands and throughout Frisia, where Germanic Nordids settled among and interbred with the local Upper Palaeolithic population. Frisia and the adjoining territories are still associated with the Frisian tribesmen and their relatives the Angles and the Saxons, most of whom it seems belonged to this altered Nordid type.
Examples
Baltid
Description:
Baltids vary in stature, but are generally relatively tall, and moderately pyknomorphic in build. The head is moderately brachycephalic and rounded, with few visible cranial transitions. The forehead is high and broad, and only moderately curved, and the browridges tend towards heaviness in a typically Cro-Magnoid fashion. The face is moderately high, and the facial index is mesoprosopic, verging on eury- rather than leptoprosopy. The bizygomatic diameter is only moderately large, but large enough to render the impression, in concurrence with the great width and angularity of the jaw, of a characteristic facial squareness or rectangularity, a feature reminiscent of the Borreby type (there is a notable phenotypical overlap between these types). Oval or elliptical faces are, however, the most commonplace.
The nose is moderately leptorrhine, and the root is moderately high to high, and of medium width. The nasal profile is usually straight, with a strong tendency towards concavity. The tip of the nose is typically well-rounded and slightly bulbous, and usually horizontally inclined. The alae are usually thin and highly placed, and of medium lateral extension. The lips are medium to thin, with little or no eversion. The teeth are large, the bite is frequently edge to edge, and orthognathy is almost universal. The eye-slits are medium to wide, and external eye-folds are rather common.
Baltids are on the whole rather light-pigmented. The hair, which is straight in form, ranges in color from ash-blond to dark brown. Light eyes are quite common, but dark-mixed varieties prevail.
Geographical distribution:
The Baltid population is most heavily concentrated in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, but extends both southwestward into former Prussia and northeastern Germany (partially in transition with the Borreby type), westward into Scandinavia (to a lesser extent), northward into Finland, and eastward into western Russia and the nearest adjacent political units. The transition with East-Baltid is principally to the north and northeast, but East-Baltids are as a rule quite common in all traditionally Baltid areas.
Examples
