STARR NOTCHED BONES FROM MEXICO. 



NOTCHED BONES FROM MEXICO. 



BY FREDERICK STARR. 



An interesting paper, forming article V of volume X of the Bulle- 

 tin of the American Museum of Natural History, has just appeared 

 under the title of Marked Human Bones from a Prehistoric Tarasco 

 Indian Burial Place in the State of Michoacan, Mexico. It is the pro- 

 duction of Carl Lumholtz and Ales Hrdlicka. In it are described, 

 with much careful detail, twenty-six human bones marked with trans- 

 verse notches, found at Zacapu, in Michoacan. They were found 

 associated with skeletons. Mr. Lumholtz thinks these specimens are 

 to be understood from the idea that possession of any part of a human 

 being gives power for sorcery over him and from the notion that power 

 is latent in the bones of the dead. He summarizes his theory in this 

 statement: " I believe that the marked bones of this Tarasco burial- 

 place were the bones of enemies, kept as amulets or fetishes and buried 

 with the dead warrior who procured them. Their possession meant to 

 the conqueror the strength of the subdued man, as a sign of which he 

 placed the transverse marks on them, symbolic, perhaps, of the count 

 of the dead man's days. The extraction of the marrow would further 

 help to make the fallen enemy a prisoner of the victor, by eviscerating 

 the bones and robbing the ghost of his last independent mortal power. 



It is Dr. Hrdlicka who makes the detailed examination of the 

 specimens. After presenting the results of his minute study, he says: 

 •'The bones were trophies from fallen enemies and the grooves signi- 

 fied the number slain by the owner of the bones. . . Or, the grooves 

 may have served the r<'>le of simple records of age, of great feasts, or 

 of other events. . . Or, finally, the bones may have served some as 

 yet undetermined religious or ceremonial purpose." The above quo- 

 tations amply show the conclusions reached by the authors mentioned. 



I have in my possession probably thirty-five or forty specimens of 

 such notched bones. I intended to publish nothing concerning them 

 until my Manual of Mexican Archczology should appear. It seems, 

 however, proper at this time to present a preliminary paper upon the 

 subject. My specimens are all from one site, not far from the city of 



[Proc. D. A. N. S., Vol. VII.] 13 [ July 11, 1898.] 



