The Collection of Osteological Material from Machu Picchu 



By George F. Eaton. 



In the following pages will be found a report upon the collection of osteological material 

 gathered from Indian graves at Machu Picchu, by the Peruvian Expedition of 1912, under 

 the auspices of Yale University and the National Geographic Society. As there was no 

 trained Ethnologist on the staff of the Expedition it has seemed best that this report should 

 include an account of my field work as well as of my subsequent studies on the material. 

 The descriptions of the graves and the purely osteological discussion of the dry bones have 

 been further supplemented by observations on the mortuary customs of the people whose 

 burial places were excavated and by references to other topics of interest relating to the 

 material that has passed through my hands. It has also been found advisable to illustrate 

 practically all the artifacts that were taken from a few of the most interesting graves, in 

 order that the reader may gain an essentially complete idea of the garniture of the graves 

 and thus be better able to form an independent opinion regarding the age of the interments 

 and the period to which the greater part of the skeletal material belongs. 



The general appearance of the ancient city of Machu Picchu and its situation on the 

 mountain-spur of the same name, that rises precipitously from the Urubamba River, are 

 well known through the preliminary account of the work of the Expedition, published by 

 the Director, Professor Hiram Bingham, in the National Geographic Magazine for April 

 1913. It is here only necessai'y to refer to the contour map of Machu Picchu and vicinity, 

 to be found at the end of the present report, in order to show where the inhabitants of the 

 city buried their dead. I have therefore indicated on this map by the serial numbers i to 

 52 inclusive, the locations of nearly all the caves or graves from which, with two exceptions, I 

 personally obtained human remains or other articles mentioned in this work. Unforeseen 

 delays in completing the topography of other regions visited by the Expedition resulted in my 

 daily search for graves being made without the aid of a map, and the location of the graves on 

 the accompanying map, which was drawn after my departure, is in many cases only approxi- 

 mately correct. Whenever possible, bearings of familiar landmarks were of course taken, but 

 usually my only resource was a dead reckoning, kept as best I could, while my Indian 

 assistants hacked the way with their machetes through a dense blind jungle-growth. Graves 

 or caves numbered 53 to 107, which were excavated after my departure, I have thought best, 

 for reasons that will appear more clearly further on, not to attempt to locate definitely on 

 this map, but merely to quote the statement of their location made by the native Indian 

 assistants and recorded in the field notes of Mr. Ellwood C. Erdis, the Archaeological Engi- 

 neer of the Expedition, who took charge of this branch of our work during the latter part 

 of the season. 



A few hours' search in and about the city, even before much of the brushwood had been 

 cleared from the ruins, made it appear very unlikely that human remains of scientific value 

 awaited excavation there. This conclusion, which ultimately proved correct, rendered it 

 necessary to extend our quest beyond the city walls and to search the almost impassable 



