NO. l8 ANTHROPOLOGICAL WORK IN PERU — HRDLKKA 15 



least, a very good development in strength. There was at no time any 

 intrusion of foreign people. The cemetery is evidently that of the 

 fishermen of the Ancon Bay and has in all probability been used 

 from the time of their coming to the locality Up to historic times. 



A number of peculiarities worthy of special mention were- met 

 with in this burial ground. The very first skull picked up showed 

 a small impressed lesion and an unfinished trephining by the rare 

 method of boring. Curiously, no other case of trephining was dis- 

 covered at Ancon. In a superficial grave near the middle of the ceme- 

 tery and wrapped in native articles of clothing, lay the still partly 

 connected skeleton of a young woman, who was killed from behind 1>\ 

 being struck on the back of the head with a club or a large stone, 

 and with her lay uninjured the body of her infant, possibly put to 

 death in some manner because of the decease of the mother. 1 Finally, 

 there were found here relatively numerous cases of exostoses in the 

 meatus auditorius, of symmetric osteoporosis of the skull, 2 and of 

 " mushroom head " femora (arthritis deformans). 3 



Huaral. — A little over a year ago an extension of the railroad 

 line was constructed from Ancon to Huacho and Sayan. The line, 

 after passing over the arid and sterile pampa of Ancon and the 

 sandy hills farther on, descends to the fertile low flats of Chancay 

 and Huaral. This region contains numerous remains of aboriginal 

 population, including some cemeteries. The villages were of adobe, 

 worked in the form of large, heavy blocks ; but there are also remains 

 of habitations made of reeds or totora (cat-tails). 



One of the more important ruins was examined. It is situated 

 about eight kilometers southwest of Huaral, at the base of a rocky 

 hill. The structures w-ere all built of big adobe blocks, resembling in 

 this respect very closely those of some of the ruins in the Lima \ "al- 

 ley, especially in the neighborhood of Chorillos. The ruin is in a poor 

 state of preservation and has been much excavated by the peons of 

 the neighboring haciendas. Notwithstanding the usual reports of 

 " montones " of bones, only a small number of skeletal remains were 

 discovered. The skulls showed antero-posterior compression, as 

 usual along the coast, and evidently represent the same people as those 

 of Ancon. Two similar skulls were seen in other localities of the 

 valley. 



1 Among the Nortli American Indians, as well known, a child at breast was 

 not infrequently buried with the dead mother. 



2 See Appendix. 

 8 See Appendix. 



