Unexplained changes in skull type of the British men

[Agrippa]

Found here:
Unexplained changes in skull type of the British men - Human Biodiversity Forum


Village skull finds deepen mystery of roundheads | Science | The Guardian

Village skull finds deepen mystery of roundheads
Martin Wainwright
The Guardian Saturday August 25 2007
A long-standing mystery over the way men's skulls changed from long to round in medieval Europe has been deepened by discoveries at a Yorkshire village.
Huge volumes of data collected at Wharram Percy cast doubt on all current theories about the unexplained blip between the 11th and 13th centuries which has been recorded by archaeologists across the continent.
Immigration and climate change have been the two main hypotheses but neither makes sense of the 700 Yorkshire skeletons. They are expected to cause widespread revision of the period's history, as the first large-scale find from a single, accurately-dated indigenous community.
The leading theory, that Scandinavian incomers brought new racial characteristics to the rest of Europe, does not make sense at Wharram, a lonely valley in the Wolds near Malton. Its natural isolation was reinforced during the 200 years of the skull change by plague and sheep blight which soon after led to its abandonment.
The skulls also show that only men were affected, which would not have applied if its cause was new genetic stock. Simon Mays, the human skeletal biologist in charge of the English Heritage study, said: "If immigration was responsible we would expect both sexes to be affected. There's also the puzzle of why male skull shapes eventually reverted back, becoming similar to those we have today."
This has been put down to climate change, with male bones more sensitive to environmental change during their development than those of women. Round skulls, rather than the proverbial Yorkshire big head, are found in colder parts of the world because they have less surface area and retain heat better. "But the climate at Wharram during the critical period rose by 0.5C and was actually warmer than it is today," said Mr Mays. "Further, as the weather got much colder in the later medieval period skulls started to become longer and narrower again."
Attention is now turning to possible effects of the plague, which repeatedly devastated Wharram along with many other parts of western Europe. Villagers finally called it a day around 1500, leaving only mounds and the ruined St Martin's church today.
The study, the latest of 14 volumes on 40 years of excavation at Wharram, also shows that left-handedness was much more common in medieval times, at 15% compared with 8% today. Infant mortality was also unexpectedly low, possibly because illness and poor diet set in only after weaning off breast milk.

Such studies are of great interest since they might help to explain the selective pressures and evolutionary changes in modern humans. The idea of brachycephaly being directly or indirectly related to a higher resistance for certain diseases (speculations especially about the plague, smallpox and tuberculosis) was also pointed out in various other studies and older writings.

[Savorgnan]

We have observed exactly the same brachycephalisation in Central France,during the same period,and surely for the same reasons.The cephalic index changed radically.As a result,Central France is (with Albania and Epirus) the most brachycephalised areas of Europe.