NO. l8 ANTHROPOLOGICAL WORK IN FERU — HRDLICKA 41 



Throughout these regions there are found with the burials not 

 only excellent potteries of the Nasca type, but also, though to a less 

 extent, nicely decorated fabrics, even feather work, and now and 

 then articles of gold. It was the indiscriminate digging for and 

 the sale of such articles, that sustained for two years the poorer 

 part of the Nasca population. Since the law was enacted prohib- 

 iting such exploitation it has been greatly reduced, but irreparable 

 damage to scientific investigation has already been done. The 

 objects taken from the graves have been distributed broadcast, in 

 the main to private curio collectors. And there are at the present 

 time individuals who keep on excavating the remaining graves and 

 hunting for whatever may be salable, some of them periodically 

 and a few daily. Good pieces of pottery bring on the spot as much 

 as a pound ($4.90) ; the gold objects are sold usually by weight, 

 and the fabrics for whatever they will fetch. A great deal is broken 

 or torn and left, so that the total loss is enormous. Some of the 

 more recently excavated burial places were found, as at Lomas, 

 almost covered with remnants of fabrics, slings, ropes, and even 

 scalps with peculiar braids, of all of which it was still possible to se- 

 cure a good-sized collection ; but it would be very costly at this day to 

 make anything like a first-class representative gathering showing 

 the Nasca culture. 



The burials of the Nasca region are of several varieties, which 

 however are in the main closely connected and do not indicate 

 separate periods or cultures, or different types of people. The 

 tombs seen over the 40 odd miles of territory between the haciendas 

 Majoro and Coyungo and in the valley of the Las Trancas River, 

 included some low mounds, with chambers built of moderate-sized 

 adobes ; ordinary, stone, or sand-block lined pits ; subterranean 

 chambers constructed of poles of the hard wood, or of wood and 

 adobes ; besides which there were simple graves in the sand or gravel, 

 and finally, in several localities, burials in large, stout, undecorated, 

 earthenware urns, especially made for that purpose. The huarango 

 poles in the graves or burial chambers, as well as in the remnants 

 of the habitations, had generally been reduced to the proper length 

 by burning, but instances also occur in which they had been cut. 



The bodies have as a rule been buried in the contracted position, 

 and bound in bundles ; and those of important personages were made 

 up, with the aid of abundant raw cotton, into huge mummy-packs. 



Physically the population of the entire Nasca region was remark- 

 ably homogeneous, which is a fact of considerable interest ; and, 



