258 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 52 



is, however, little to support the suggestion except the somewhat 

 doubtful pebbly appearance of the loess above the horse's jawbone. 

 Tlie evidence is not adequate to determine whether the jawbone is 

 to be regarded as an indigenous fossil or as an accidental burial 

 occurring after the deposition of the loess. 



The human remains were found in the superficial loess at a depth of 

 approximately 2 meters below the surface. The position and attitude 

 are shown in plate 22, and are described by Doctor Hrdlicka. Accord- 

 ing to the writer's observation the loess above them was identical with 

 that on each side of and below them. If they were buried here the 

 process of rearrangement of the disturbed loess has obliterated the 

 evidence of disturbance by producing a structure identical with that of 

 the undisturbed earth. The movement of rain water* sinking in and 

 rising again by capillary attraction, is adequate to accomplish such a 

 rearrangement in a moderate interval of time, and this may be the 

 case. But considering the depth at which the skeleton lay, the 

 homogeneity of the material above and around it, and the conditions 

 favoring loess accumulation, the writer inclines to the view that the 

 skeleton should be regarded as a fossil in the modern superficial loess 

 formation. It ma}^ thus have an antiquity exceeding one or two 

 centuries. 



The Tertiary Man ^ 



THE BARADERO SKELETON 

 History and Reports 



In 1889, in his letter to Kollmann,^ Santiago Roth announced the 

 discovery by himself of still another geologically ancient skeleton, 

 and the bones are represented as proceeding not from the Superior 

 but from the Intermediary Pampean. 



The find, made in 1887, is thus reported: ''The place where I 

 found this human skeleton is distant about 2 kilometers from the 

 Baradero Railroad station and a short distance from the Banado, 

 which exists between Baradero and San Pedro. 



"At this locality there was made, in constructing the railroad, a 

 cut through the loess, and one of the feet of the skeleton was partially 

 uncovered. The remaining parts of the skeleton were still in the 

 loess bank, and the bones lay in normal relations, except that the 

 head was bent forward so that not the face, but the vault of the 

 skull, pointed upward. The lower jaw was wide open. The cir- 

 cumstance which impressed me most was that the bones of the 



1 The finds under this head are dealt with, as before stated, in the order of the antiquity attributed to 

 them, proceeding from that regarded as the most recent to the most ancient. 



' Ueber den Schiidel von Pontimelo (richtiger Fontezuelas). (Brieflichc Mittheilimg von Santiago 

 Roth an Herrn J. Kollmann); in Mitthdlungcn aus dcm anatomischcn Inslitut im Vcsalianum zu Basely 

 1889, p. 10-11; also in Lehmann-Nitsche's Nouvelles rccherches, etc., p. 485. 



