

_|/> SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. Ol 



scientifically. In particular, a number of pathological problems 

 remained to be settled and made further investigations very desir- 

 able. 



Fortunately for the work, the writer gained the friendship of the 

 most influential as well as enlightened man of the Chicama Valley, 

 Senator Victor Larco, and the aid of this gentleman, with that of 

 those who have charge of his estates, made it possible to accom- 

 plish what otherwise would have required much more time, and 

 might even have been impracticable. On this occasion at the 

 writer's wish and before his arrival, Sr. Larco detailed a number of 

 his employees to collect everything in the line of skeletal remains 

 that was exposed from one of the large prehistoric cemeteries, not 

 before examined, near the hacienda of Chiquitoi, and from several 

 other localities. As a result when the writer arrived, he found the 

 floor of a spacious hall in the local hospital piled with skulls and 

 bones, a material on the whole in a rather poor state of preserva- 

 tion, but making possible some statistical determinations, particu- 

 larly in regard to pathological conditions, for which there was 

 formerly no occasion. The results of these are given in the 

 appendix to this paper. 



The work at Roma concluded, the writer made an interesting 

 visit to a large huaca and a cemetery on the Casa Grande hacienda, 

 and then proceeded toward the seashore, where a number of burial 

 sites were investigated. He came unexpectedly across an exceptional 

 burial ground near Huanchaco ; examined once more the cemeteries 

 about the Cerro de la Virgen ; found another remarkable cemetery 

 on the edge of the slightly elevated Chan-Chan plateau about two 

 miles south of Huanchaco ; examined two large and one small 

 cemeteries at Chan-Chan ; passed over the burial grounds in the edge 

 of the desert from Moche to the huacas of the Moon and the Sun ; 

 and finally nearly completed the circle about Trujillo by making a 

 journey to the eastward and northeastward of the town, following 

 the ancient acequias and walls. A more detailed visit than was 

 formerly possible was also made to the great Chan-Chan ruins. 



The results of these explorations in the La Libertad district may 

 be briefly summarized as follows : 



Since the writer's visit to many of these places three years ago, 

 a very perceptible change for the worse was observed to have taken 

 place in the state of preservation of the old remains. Also, where for- 

 merly were seemingly inexhaustible quantities of skeletal material, 



