When completed this page will contain links to a variety of resources which may be of interest to Palaeoanthropologists. This will include raw data files, photographs of hominid localities and fossils from Asia and Australia, and journal articles in Adobe Acrobat pdf format. The data files will be in a tab delimited text format with a zip file version for Windows and a binhexed stuffit archive for Macintosh. To decompress these files you will need the appropriate software. The raw data files will be accompanied by a Microsoft word text format file which will list the variables in a form which could be used as an SPSS syntax file. These data have all been recorded by Peter Brown using the procedures outlined in his publications. You are welcome to use the information (data and images) on this page as long as it is not for commercial gain and the source is acknowledged. Future data files will include skeletal and dental metrics for Neolithic East Asians (added 17/6/99). The dimensions of individual Asian Pleistocene hominids, as well as some terminal Pleistocene Australians, can be found in the regional sections of the Palaeoanthropology pages. Most recent additions 1/1/99.

Thanks go to the following institutions for allowing access to their collections: South Australian Museum, Adelaide, South Australia; Department of Anatomy, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria; Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Academia Sinica, Beijing, China; Natural History Museum, London, England; Department of Anatomy, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Peoples Republic of China; Department of Anatomy, Sydney University, Sydney, NSW and the Museum of Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria.

While I am willing to provide the information on this page as a service to the palaeoanthropological community I am not willing to enter into correspondence about the data files and how particular dimensions were recorded. I do not have the time to do this. For most of the data files the published literature should be adequate to provide what is required. If there are other researchers who have data bases which they would like to make available, without restriction, I am willing to add them to those available at this site. I can be contacted at Peter.Brown@metz.une.edu.au

1. Modern, cranial, postcranial and dental metrics

groups: male and female adult Australian Aborigines from the Murray River Valley and Swanport, modern male and female Southern Chinese from Hong Kong and Guangdong Province, modern male Northern Chinese from Shanxi and Hebei Provinces, male and female Romano-Britains from Poundbury, 18th and 19th century Europeans from Christs Church, Spitalfields, London.

total sample size: 648

number of variables: 210

variable labels: see cranvlist.zip or cranvlist.hqx

missing data: indicated by -9

comments: Lots of missing data. The Spitalfields, Southern Chinese and Northern Chinese samples are of known age and sex. A large number of the Southern Chinese only have tooth breadth data as teeth were the primary interest of the Prince Phillip Dental Hospital were this collection was housed and storage space was restricted.

2. Australian Aboriginal postcranial metric data

groups: male and female adult Australian Aborigines from the Murray River Valley, Swanport and South Australia. The skeltons were part of the "George Murray Black" collection in the Department of Anatomy, University of Melbourne which was reburried in 1984 and the South Australian Museum. None of skeletons were collected in the course of controled archaeological excavation. All are undated.

total sample size: 341

number of variables: 231

variable labels: see abpcvar.zip or abpcvar.hqx

missing data: indicated by -9

comments: Lots of missing data. These skeletons were measured between 1980 and 1995 for a variety of different projects. Most of the skeletons come from the Murray River region of south-eastern Australia, with the remainder from the eastern half of South Australia.

3. Australan anthropometric data

Between 1951 and 1963 Andrew Abbie collected anthropometric data from Australian Aborigines at Yalata, Yuendumu, Haast's Bluff, Beswick, Maningrida and Kalumburu. These data were used in a variety of his publications, in particular those supporting his views about Australian morphometric variation and its origins. More recently, Abbie's data were re-analysed by Gabriele Macho and Leonard Freedman (1987). While the original data file contains a wide range of anthropometric observations, from limb lengths to eye colour, only body proportion data are provided here.

References: Macho, G. and Freedman, L. 1987. A re-analysis of the Andrew A Abbie morphometric data on Australian Aborigines. Occasional papers in human biology 4: 1-80. (Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra); Birdsell, J.B. 1993. Microevolutionary patterns in Aboriginal Australia. Oxford University Press.

groups: male and female Aborigines from South Australia (Yalata), central Australia (Yuendumu and Haast's Bluf) and northern Australia (Kalumburu, Beswick, Maningrida).

total sample size: 1232

number of variables: 21

variable labels: see abbievar.zip or abbievar.hqx

missing data: indicated by a decimal point or period (.)

comments: Abbie's original data were stored on punch cards. Unfortunately, after Abbie's death and before the data could be stored on tape, the card order was disturbed. This is a problem for a relatively small number of cases in the data file. The easiest way to pick this up is with a series of scatter plots, for instance between stature and some other variable, which will identify outliers. Then remove the outliers. While I have a data file which I think is correct I prefer not to prejudice the work of others with my own judgements.

A more substantial problem concerns the methods and standards used by Abbie in recording his data. They are not adequately described in his publications and comparison of some of his results with those recorded by others provides reason for concern. For instance, the siting height to stature ratio that can be calculated from information in Birdsell (1993) is substantially different to what you would obtain from Abbie's data.

4. Australian Terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene cranial, mandibular and dental metrics

groups: male and female adult Australian Aborigines from Coobool Creek and Kow Swamp, individual fossils from Lake Mungo, Nacurrie, Keilor, Mossgeil, Talgai, Lake Nitchie, Cohuna and Willandra Lakes.

References: Brown, P. 1989. Coobool Creek. Terra Australis 13, Department of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University: Canberra; Brown. P. 1987. Pleistocene homogeneity and Holocene size reduction: the Australian human skeletal evidence. Archaeology in Oceania 22: 41-67.

total sample size: 57

number of variables: 134

variable labels: see plvlist.zip or plvlist.hqx

missing data: indicated by -9

comments: Lots of missing data. Sex of Lake Mungo 3 uncertain. Age at death of Lake Mungo 1 uncertain. Dimensions of Lake Mungo 1 reduced by cremation process. Postmortem distortion a problem with some of the Kow Swamp crania. Some of the crania from Coobool Creek, Kow Swamp and Nacurrie are artificially deformed. See Australian Index for additional information.

5. Chinese Neolithic and more recent cranial and dental metrics (Yang-Shao, Lung Shan, Shang, etc)

groups: male and female adults from Baoji, Huaxian, Hejiawan, Xixiahou, Changzhi, Dawenkou, Hemudu, Jiangzhai, Miaodigou, Wangying, Xiaxihe, Xiawanggang, Yingxu, Haiyuan, Hedang, Yanbulaka, Xunhua, Yangshan, and "Europeans" from Yanbulaka .

total sample size: 237

number of variables: 134

variable labels: see china.zip or china.hqx

missing data: indicated by -9

comments: Some missing data. Data previously used in Brown (1999). Skeletal material housed in the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, collections in Beijing, Xian and Anyang, and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology collection in Beijing.

references:

Brown, P. 1999. The first modern East Asians?: another look at Upper Cave 101, Liujiang and Minatogawa 1. In K. Omoto (ed) Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Origins of the Japanese. pp. 105-124. International Research Center for Japanese Studies: Kyoto.

Institute of Archaeology. 1991. Radiocarbon dates in Chinese Archaeology 1965-1991. Cultural Relics Publishing House: Beijing.