50 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 6l 



occurrence of a similar grouping of the oblong-headed type was 

 met with in these regions, nor anywhere else along the coast. 



The Cerro de la Virgen cemeteries and neighborhood were again 

 examined and it was definitely determined that this small rocky 

 eminence has never been fortified ; that the cemeteries about it are 

 just ordinary burial grounds of rather poor people of the coast type ; 

 and that the neighborhood was in olden times irrigated and culti- 

 vated, the remains of a large, deep ditch leading for miles to the 

 eastward and terminating in a reservoir, now dry, east of Trujillo. 



The cemeteries of Chan-Chan, to the north and northwest, are 

 still to a large extent unexplored ; however, digging by the peon goes 

 on. Those immediately to the west of the ruins have by this time 

 been quite dug over. There are stores at Trujillo, including the 

 principal pharmacy, which openly buy and in some instances sell 

 the " wares." 



It is strange that this great ruin, the center or rather culmina- 

 tion of the Chimu culture and as such one of the most important 

 archeological remains of ancient Peru, also one of the sites most dug 



remains exposed 35 years ago have in all probability completely disappeared, 

 but the peons generally keep on excavating in such localities turning up new 

 specimens. Squier's note reads : " We took a long sweep past La Legua to 

 an eminence near the sea, on which stands an extensive work with a huaca 

 and other monuments inclosed, called, from its position and assumed purpose, 

 El Castillo. The sandy soil in front of its principal entrance, over an area of 

 several acres, is stuffed with skeletons, buried irregularly, as if after a great 

 battle; a supposition supported by the fact that the bones which had been 

 exposed by excavation or laid bare by the winds were all of adult men, and 

 that a large part of the skulls bore marks of violence. Some were cloven as 

 if by the stroke of a battle-axe or sabre ; others battered in as if by blows from 

 clubs or the primitive hammer to which the French have given the appropriate 

 name of cassetcte; and still others were pierced as if by lances or arrows. I 

 picked up a piece of a skull showing a small square hole, precisely such as 

 would be occasioned by the bronze arrow-heads found here and there among 

 the ruins. 



" I could not resist thinking, in spite of tradition, that perhaps on this very 

 spot had been fought the last decisive battle between the Inca Yupanqui and 

 the Prince of Chimu, and that here were mingled the bones of the slain of both 

 armies : a notion supported by finding mixed together the square, posteriorly 

 compressed skulls of the peoples of the coast, the elongated skulls of the 

 Aymaras, and the regular, normal heads of the Quechuas of the sierra. 



" Inside the Castillo we found a terraced cemetery, containing, however, only 

 the skeletons of young women, carefully enveloped in a fine cotton cloth. 

 These skeletons were apparently of persons that had died at between 15 and 

 18 years of age." 



