NO. l8 ANTHROPOLOGICAL WORK IX PERU— HRDLICKA 53 



generalizations, however imperfect, in regard to their cultural life, 

 based on the extensive knowledge obtained of their remains. 



They built dwellings of reeds, as well as larger structures of small 

 uncut stones, of moderate-sized sun-dried brick, or of great blocks of 

 adobe, and they constructed of adobe, stones, and earth characteristic 

 larger edifices, and mounds of various sizes, known as huacas. The 

 latter probably served partly for ceremonial purposes and partly 

 for burials. 



These people were remarkably well acquainted with the arts of 

 weaving, pottery making, and decoration. They wove from the 

 native cotton and from llama wool. The color and decoration of 

 the fabrics, and the shapes, artistic value and variety as well as 

 the symbolism of the decoration of the pottery, differed from place 

 to place, in accordance with time and other influences. 



The pre-Columbian Peruvians of the coast knew copper, silver 

 and gold, with some of their combinations, and worked these metals 

 to a limited degree. They dressed principally with a poncho shirt, 

 a loin cloth, and sandals, with little head-gear; what there was of 

 the latter was often decorative or symbolic. They made considerable 

 use of gourds. They made few or no stone implements. They 

 utilized wood in their houses and for ceremonial purposes, in the 

 latter case developing more or less carving. Their weapons were a 

 metal or stone mace, a wooden club, a copper axe, a variety of 

 copper knife, the sling, and in some regions also the bow and arrow. 

 Their implements were the whorl, weaving sticks, looms, cactus-spine 

 or bone needles, bone needle holders, sharpened sticks, copper knives, 

 copper axes, hoes ; and in the case of the fishermen, nets, sinkers, 

 reed-bundle boats or balsas, and peculiar rafts, with paddles. In 

 pottery they made frequent use of molds and stamps, and were 

 masters at imitating natural objects and animals as well as man. They 

 knew no precious stones, except possibly, in rare instances, the em- 

 erald and the turquoise ; and they had no pearls. They used beads, 

 claws, seeds, feathers, multicolored yarn, and metal objects for per- 

 sonal decoration. Nose and ear ornaments, though probably in use, 

 have not been found by the writer in the many cemeteries examined. 

 Their musical instruments were the drum, the pan-pipe, the flute, and 

 the rattle. 



Throughout the extent of the territory which they occupied, the 

 coast people deformed the heads of their infants by applying a pres- 

 sure, probably by means of a bandage and pads, to the forehead, 

 and this practice flattened at the same time by counter pressure the 



