42 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 6 1 



what is important, it was possible to determine conclusively that it 

 represents merely a portion of the brachycephalic, moderately devel- 

 oped; coast type of people (pis. 19, 21). 



Deformation of the head, fortunately, was much more rare than 

 closer to the coast. What was present was exclusively of the same 

 fronto-occipital variety. Not a single instance of the " Aymara " 

 type came to notice, but it was learned that two or three skulls of 

 that nature were found in one grave at some distance down the 

 main valley. In one case, just above the dwellings of the hacienda 

 of Coyungo, a moderate-sized cemetery was met with in which all the 

 crania were marked by the pronounced fronto-occipital deformation 

 such as was met with in the burial ground to the east of the house 

 at Chaviha. 



The oblong type of the skull (pis. 20, 22), which was found 

 frequently in the valley of Acari, was seen only rarely in the region 

 of Nasca. There was less admixture of this type among the people 

 of the Nasca than among those of most of the localities along the 

 coast. However, at Coyungo (over 40 miles west of Nasca), two 

 moderate-sized burial grounds were examined in which this oblong 

 type was again in greater evidence. 



As regards pathology, the Nasca region compares closely with 

 that of Lomas and the Acari Valley. Fractures were equally rare ; 

 symmetric osteoporosis of the skull occurred seldom and not in 

 extreme form ; and there were but few " mushroom-head " femora. 

 A number of cases of more ordinary arthritis and a small number 

 of inflammations exhaust the finds in this direction. 



In the deeper burials of the Nasca Valley, the skeletal material, 

 either from age or moisture, is generally in a poor state of preserva- 

 tion, and is almost invariably reduced by those who excavate into 

 fragments, many of which are then reburied. So far as it was pos- 

 sible to examine this class of remains they were seen to be of the 

 same type as those from the more superficial graves, but the fronto- 

 occipital deformation of the skull was more common. 



The uneven size of the various cemeteries in this region will be 

 appreciated from the following records: 



Of the four well-excavated cemeteries at Poroma, six leagues 

 south-southwest of Nasca, the first showed exposed 156 crania and 

 a corresponding quantity of bones ; the second 63 crania ; the third 

 101, and the fourth 200 crania. Five smaller burial places at 

 Coyungo gave, the first 72 skulls, the second 34, the third 78, the 

 fourth 9 (with perhaps as many in fragments or reburied), and 



