that the presence of so many mummy bundles indicates 
that they had been brought from elsewhere. However, 
others (Carrion, 1949) think that the cemeteries, refuse 
heaps and remains of habitations are evidence for a once 
flourishing local community that relied upon irrigation 
to transform this desert into arable land. They believe 
that the remains of such ditches as were necessary for 
this type of agriculture lie beneath the shifting sands of 
the peninsula. But again, this hypothesis may have to be 
revised as further detailed studies of the area are made. 
The mummy bundle at the Peabody Museum illus- 
trates the type of burial practised by the people who in- 
terred their dead at the Necropolis of Paracas (Natural 
History, 41: 119-125; Yacovleff and Muelle, 1934; 
Tello, 1929; Carrion, 1949). It was customary to place 
the body in a flexed position with the arms folded on the 
chest and the knees drawn up nearly to the chin. The 
body was then wrapped in textiles of varying degrees of 
elaboration and plain cotton cloth, with the final outer 
cotton wrapping securely fastened. Included in the bun- 
dle, besides textiles of various kinds and uses, were offer- 
ings of food, gourd containers which probably held either 
food or beverages, and other objects of value to the de- 
ceased during his lifetime. Many of the objects included 
in the bundle are of plant origin. In the present paper 
all vegetal materials found in the Peabody Museum 
mummy bundle will be considered except textiles. With 
this exception, the plant remains consist of food, gourd 
containers, wooden objects, matting and basketry, raw 
cotton, and several specimens that were either too small 
or too poorly preserved to be botanically identified. The 
plant specimens were found in various parts of the bun- 
dle, and some of them were undoubtedly in different 
positions from those that they originally held, due to the 
natural slumping of the body. The majority of the in- 
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