Anthropological study in a Visigothic graveyard in Portugal
[Thanks to Kukul-Kan for providing the study and thanks to Silveira for the English translation]
The anthropological study of human remains from the Visigothic necropolis in Silveirona, on the outskirts of Estremoz, allowed us to obtain the median stature of around fifty adult individuals, both male and female, as being of 1.65m and 1.53m, respectively. Identical work, using the same methodology, presented 1.68m and 1.57m for adult males and females found in necropolae dating from the same period located in Alcoit�o and Abuxarda, in the concelho (municipality) of Cascais (Cunha, 1958-59, p.42). The observed statures are, on average, inferior to those of the modern Portuguese population.

The cranial characteristics of the Silveirona skeletons are very similar to those of the modern Portuguese, displaying however a greater degree of dolicocephalism. This aspect, the observed statures, as well as the parallells with necropolae excavated in Spain allowed A. Xavier da Cunha (1958-59, p.42, 47) to conclude, following earlier observations made by J. de Barros e Cunha (1940, 692), that there exists racial continuity from the period in question, despite nordic or center-european influences, the populations in question not being visigothic in the strict sense but rather "visigothized".

The anthropoligical study of the material at the Seg�briga necropolis indicated, similarly, the preponderance of the mediterranean gracile type. (Almagro, 1975, p.132).
From the original (in pdf)
O estudo antropol�gico dos restos humanos procedentes da necr�pole visig�tica da Silveirona, nos arredores de Estremoz, permitiu obter a estatura m�dia para cerca de meia centena de indiv�duos adultos, do sexo masculino e do feminino, sendo, respectivamente, de 1,65 m e 1,53 m. Trabalho id�ntico, seguindo a mesma metodologia, indicou 1,68 m e 1,57 m para os indiv�duos adultos, do sexo masculino e feminino, inumados nas necr�poles, de igual per�odo, de Alcoit�o e Abuxarda, no concelho de Cascais (Cunha, 1958-59, p. 42). As estaturas observadas s�o, em m�dia, algo inferiores �s da popula��o portuguesa actual.

As caracter�sticas cranianas dos esqueletos da Silveirona s�o muito semelhantes �s dos portugueses actuais, embora se tenha reconhecido maior grau de dolicocefalia. Este aspecto e as estaturas, assim como os paralelos com os resultados obtidos para necr�poles escavadas em Espanha, permitiu concluir, a A. Xavier da Cunha (1958-59, p. 42, 47), na sequ�ncia das observa��es j� antes efectuadas por J. de Barros e Cunha (1940, p. 692), ter existido, para o per�odo em quest�o, continuidade racial, embora sob influ�ncia n�rdica ou centro-europeia, tratando-se, pois, de popula��es n�o estrictamente visig�ticas mas, sobretudo, "visigotizadas".

O estudo antropol�gico do material da necr�pole de Seg�briga indicou, igualmente, preponder�ncia do tipo mediterr�neo gr�cil (Almagro, 1975, p. 132).
Comments
This study showed quite clearly that by the VII century AD, the Visigothic invaders were already highly mixed with the Roman-Iberian bulk of the population. From these facts, backed by the archaeological and anthropological findings from studies such as this one, we can believe that it would be completely ridiculous to assume that there was some sort of "pure" Nordic elite of Gothic stock responsible for the Golden Century of both Iberian countries.

These evidences, added to the whole rest, refute once again Arthur Kemp's imaginative (delusional) theories of any sort of Nordic purity of blood in the XVI century Iberian Peninsula. The evidences are not surprising, if one remembers king Recesvinthus' Forum Judicum allowing marriages between Goths and Iberians in the late VII century. We can even assume that those laws only made legal what was already a common practice between Goths and Iberians.
Refuting Kemp
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