Thursday, August 14, 2014

Taurid variants from the Ethiopian highland plateau

The Highland Aethiopid variants (Robust & Gracile Aethiopid, Reduced Aethiopid & Central Aethiopid)are typical for the Semitic and Cushitic speaking inhabitants of the Ethiopian and Eritrean highland plateau. In the Eritrean highlands mostly represented by the Tigrinya and Tigray, in the Ethiopian highlands by the Gurage, Amhara, Oromo, Agew and Tigray.

The area of distribution; On the left a satellite picture of Ethiopia and on the right topographic map of the Horn of Africa:



An idyllic village in the Ethiopian highland plateau:



TAURID (Dinarizied or Armenoizied) AETHIOPID or SEMIENID(based on the Semien mountains in Ethiopia)

There is no concrete anthropological information about these variants of the Highland Aethiopid spectrum, however we just know that these exist and that they are more common or typical in the Ethiopian and Eritrean highland plateau. They often have very "idiosyncratic" features similarly to armenid-arabid hybrids('extreme Semitic smile') and Taurid craniometrical features but still retaining their ethnic specific look. Taurids are probably a result of a process of adaptation to a life as a nomadic shepherd or shepherd warriors in mountainous regions hence the regional distribution of these types in the Ethiopian highland plateau. But this is just a theory.