Description:
Saharan type combining ancient elements including Berberid with sub-Saharan elements that often entered the region during the Middle Ages. Common in Fezzanesi of South Libya, the Iravellan caste of Tuaregs, and even Haratins. Today also found in some Arma and Songhai of Mali, a result of Berber invasions. Across the Maghreb the result of Tuareg migrations and historic slave trade.Physical Traits:
Light to dark brown skin, curly to kinky hair. Medium height, brachyskelic, ectomorph. Dolichocephalic, orthocranic. Mildly platyrrhine, relatively high nose. Faces tend to be flat and wide, prognathy very weak or absent. Occasional epicanthic folds may give a pseudo-Mongoloid impression. Mouth large with medium-thick lips.Literature:
Biasutti (1935, 1967) defined and named the type. Fleischhacker (1976) notes Fezzanese as a unique contact group. Similar types were reported in the Tuareg by Alcobé y Noguer (1952) and by Eickstedt (1934) in the Arma and the Maghreb (Lundman, 1967).
