NO. l8 ANTHROPOLOGICAL WORK IN PERU — HRDLICKA 55 



disjointed from the leg and the limb fitted with a cylindrical wooden 

 pedestal with a cup-shaped cavity for the stump. But no assurance 

 can be had that these specimens are pre-Columbian. As to the treat- 

 ment of fractures, too few of these were met with to justify any 

 conclusion; in some cases the very good results suggested the use of 

 splints, in others, if any aid was given, it was unsuccessful. 



Only a very few crania were found along the coast showing the 

 "Aymara" deformation, hence the people who practiced this must 

 have had a very limited contact with those of the coast, and the pos- 

 sibility is not excluded that such contact was post-Columbian. 



As to the mountain people, conditions differ between the two 

 territories visited, namely, that of the district of Huarochiri, and 

 that southeast of Nasca. The Huarochiri district, and doubtless 

 the neighboring parts of the sierra, were peopled predominantly by 

 the oblong-headed type of the Indian, such as found mingled in 

 various proportions with the coast population. Besides this, there 

 was also a proportion of broader-headed people, possibly derived 

 from the coast. The material culture was relatively poor, except as 

 regards agriculture and to some extent weaving ; and with the ex- 

 ception of a few examples of the fronto-occipital flattening, there 

 was no head deformation. In the region southeast of Nasca, on the 

 other hand, while some burial places showed apparently the coast 

 people, others gave exclusively those with the " Aymara " deforma- 

 tion, though probably not of " Aymara " descent. 



In both regions the mountain people were characterized by a good 

 average development of the body as well as of the skull, and by a 

 great freedom from disease. Facts of especial interest are that 

 there was a complete absence of the symmetric osteoporosis, of the 

 " mushroom-head " femur, and also of the auditory exostoses, in 

 both territories. In the Huarochiri district, where injuries to the 

 cranium were not fatal they were followed in many cases by the 

 operation of trepanation. This, though often large and quite crudely 

 done, was evidently in many cases successful. The practice in all 

 probability persisted to and even after the coming of the Spaniards. 

 In the mountains southeast of Nasca, wounds of the head were scarce 

 and no clearly recognizable instances of trepanation were discovered ; 

 one such instance was, however, reported from a place a day's jour- 

 ney to the southeast of the farthest point reached by the writer. Of 

 other surgical procedures there were no traces either in the hills 

 to the north or those to the south. 



