80 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 603. 



the Pacific coast brought to light a quantity 

 of diminutive mortuary vessels. 



At Chircot, a suburb of Cartago, the ancient 

 capital of Costa Rica, was found ' a really ex- 

 tensive ancient burial ground, which had been 

 left almost undisturbed.' The superficial part 

 only of the enclosing stone-circle had been re- 

 moved by cultivators of the soil. Here were 

 ' crowded together in a small oblong space ' 20 

 meters long by 15 in breadth, 205 graves. 

 They were arranged in three layers. The cists 

 of the lower, or oldest, layer were in three 

 groups; those of the middle layer, in four 

 groups; while the cists of the top layer were 

 fairly evenly distributed over the whole burial 

 ground. 



The Chircot cists were in shape like those 

 at Santiago and many were diminutive in size. 

 In most of the cists that were of sufiicient 

 length, the ' skeletons lay stretched out on 

 their backs at full length.' In the small cists, 

 the bones, when present, were in heaps or 

 bundles and often did not reprasent the entire 

 skeleton. The skulls were dolichocephalic. 



The mortuary vessels were not always in the 

 cists. Many were found just outside, usually 

 at the head end and, in a few cases, on the 

 roof. Of the relics deposited inside the cists, 

 the majority were in the vicinity of the head 

 and trunk; a few were near the feet. 



Objects in stone were rare. Of large, crude 

 vessels intended for household purposes, none 

 were found ; nor any object of European origin. 

 While the burial place must have been in use 

 a considerable length of time, there were no 

 cultural differences between the graves and 

 contents of the lowest layer of burials and 

 those of the highest. A majority of the cists 

 contained no relics at all. In each of the 

 others from one to five were found. 



About 50 meters east of the first burying- 

 ground a second, somewhat smaller, was found. 

 It had been, in part, demolished. The cists 

 that remained were similar to those of the 

 first field and arranged in two or three layers. 

 In the small cists were ' fragments of skeletons 

 deposited in bundles, usually one in each cist; 

 but in some, two or three.' 



At Los Limones, 6 kilometers from Cartago, 

 two elliptical mounds were found. They were 



not more than a meter high at the center, and 

 the stone margins, if they ever existed, had 

 disappeared. 



There were 26 cists in the first mound and 

 39 in the second. The graves were of the 

 same construction as those at Chircot, and 

 were, for the most part, without artifacts. 

 Stone objects were especially rare. 



Orosi, the next site investigated, is in the 

 mountains some 10 kilometers southeast of 

 Cartago. It is an ancient dwelling-place 

 selected because of a desirable water supply and 

 adjacent stone quarries. The general ground- 

 plan shows a number of circles and semicircles, 

 bordered by stones and varying in size from 

 8 or 10 to 20 meters in diameter. In the 

 midst of these is a rectangular space 27 m. 

 long by lY broad, surrounded by low embank- 

 ments — probably an open courtyard. 



Five of the stone enclosures containing 

 graves were excavated by Mr. Hartman. It 

 was here he foimd an obsidian flake — ' the only 

 object of obsidian met with during all the 

 excavations in the highlands.' Obsidian is 

 also rare on the Pacific side, the author finding 

 ' not even a single chip of obsidian ' during 

 his excavations there. One of the stone circles 

 at Orosi was the richest in relics of any of the 

 highland mounds. 



About 1,000 stone objects were collected 

 from a neighboring coffee plantation, where a 

 number of partially demolished stone circles 

 were still visible. In one of the cists opened, 

 a golden bell was found; in another, two small 

 tubes of rolled copper. Here stood, also, an 

 upright stone slab with petroglyphs. 



The volume represents the results of a year's 

 scientific investigations carried on first along 

 the Atlantic lowlands and later among the 

 highlands of the interior. The culture is 

 everywhere " that of a Stone Age people of 

 high standing, possessed of ornaments of gold 

 and copper, but with no tools or weapons of 

 metal at all." No date can be fixed for the 

 beginnings of this culture, but that it con- 

 tinued to exist after the arrival of the Span- 

 iards is attested by the presence of glass beads 

 in some of the graves. 



Of native artifacts, only two implements 

 of bone were found. The remainder were of 



