52 COLUMBIAN HISTORICAL EXPOSITION AT MADRID. 



DEPARTMENT OF URUGUAY. 



The exhibition from the Republic of Uruguay was presented chiefly 

 under the auspices and care of Senor Juan Zorrilla de San Martin 

 envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary from that Republic 

 to the Court of Spain and president of the commission, known also as 

 a distinguished author in both literary and scientific directions. 



All the specimens shown from this country may justly be attributed 

 to the race and tribes who inhabited its area at the time of the discov 

 ery. None of them were found at any great depth beneath the surface, 

 or in any such relation to older strata as to lead us to assign them to 

 that much older age which has been claimed for some of the relics 

 found on the watershed of the Rio de la Plata. These.tribes occupied a 

 geographical position intermediate between the stocks which inhabited 

 Brazil and those who occupied the vast area toward the west, known as 

 &quot; El Gran Chaco.&quot; They were in blood and language affiliated to both 

 of these, and they possessed traits of culture common to both. 



The majority of the relics were obtained from what is known tech 

 nically as u village sites,&quot; such as are called in South America &quot; para- 

 deros.&quot; These, as the name indicates, were localities which have for a 

 greater or less length of time been chosen by the natives as places 

 suitable for the construction of their more permanent residences. They 

 present, on investigation, many utensils, weapons, burnt stones and 

 clay, remains of hearths, bones of animals, fragments of shells, etc., 

 indicative of the life of the inhabitants, but, as a rule, few, if any, 

 human bones, showing that they were not used as places of burial, 

 nor did the natives who occupied them make a habit of consuming 

 human flesh. The bones of the animals found are those of the same 

 species which still exist, or are known to have existed recently, in the 

 same vicinity, not presenting any examples of extinct species. 



The cemeteries of these tribes are occasionally discovered. They 

 present the appearance of a number of small mounds, upon opening 

 which human bones are found, usually in a sitting position and accom 

 panied by stone and bone implements, rude specimens of pottery, and, 

 in some rather rare examples, by articles of European manufacture, 

 such as glass beads, showing that these interments continued to be 

 made after the natives had come into contact with the whites and entered 

 into commercial relations with them. 



Here, as elsewhere, in the ordinary soil of the country, various prod 

 ucts of the earlier inhabitants, such as arrowheads and stone and 

 bone implements, occur. The specimens presented in this collection 

 were obtained, and to some extent classified, with reference to their 

 discovery on the village sites, in the cemeteries, or in ordinary soil. 



Among the examples in stone, single flakes, &quot; teshoas, 77 used for cut 

 ting, are abundant. They are generally small, the edges sharp and 

 well suited for the purpose for which they were destined. Some of 



