THE GRAVES. 

 First Series, i to 52. 



Cave i. 



The first burial place visited was an artificial cave beneath a large bowlder, about one-third 

 the way down the mountainside and northeast from the ruins. Text-figures i, 2 and 3 show 

 the cave and the thick jungle growth that masked it. 



In this cave and in a good many others similar to it, human remains were well protected by 

 the bowlders from rain and surface water, sufficient ventilation being had through the 

 interstices of the loosely constructed wall to insure the preservation of the bones, long after 

 the mummy wrappings and softer human tissues had disintegrated. The protecting wall was 

 stout enough to keep out all the larger mammals that might otherwise enter and scatter the 

 contents of the grave, and as may easily be seen in the view shown in text-figure 3, the 

 burial place was so well screened that chance visitors to the region might pass within a few 

 feet of the cave without seeing it. 



When the cave was opened, the bones of its sole occupant were found as indicated in text- 

 figure 4. In this diagram and in many others that follow, no attempt has been made to fig'ure 

 all the skeletal parts, as that would have been needlessly confusing. 



The bones were those of a woman about thirty-five years of age. The skull (Ost. Coll. 

 3156)* which had fallen on its side is of the broad and short type (brachycephalic) that is 

 generally regarded as characteristic of the Peruvians of the middle coast region. The burial 

 had evidently been made in the contracted position, that is to say, with the legs flexed and 

 the knees drawn up close under the chin. In fact the larger bones of the legs still protruded 

 from the ground in that position. On removing them, it was noted that the proximal ends 

 of the femora and the distal ends of the tibite were entirely decayed. References to similar 

 conditions of decay will be found in the descriptions of many other graves. A long narrow 

 splinter of stone that had probably been dislodged from the front wall rested across the lower 

 jaw. Other bones lay on the ground just where they had fallen when the skeleton dropped 

 apart. No metal articles were found with the remains, and no pottery was obtained inside 

 the cave, but the sherds of the following earthenware vessels were found at the surface of a 

 pile of earth and small stones that partially concealed the protecting wall : Two beaker-shaped 

 ollasf or cooking pots, fire-blackened on their bases and sides from long use, one large 

 two-handled dish and a medium-sized dish of the same form. 



* The number of the specimen in the Catalogue of the Osteological Collection of the Peabody Museum of 

 Yale University to which the skeletal remains of Man and of lower animals, collected by the Peruvian 

 Expedition of 1912, were presented. 



t For the explanation of terms used in this report with reference to pottery from the graves, of. "Types 

 of Machu Picchu Pottery," by Hiram Bingham, American Anthropologist (N. S.), Vol. 17, No. 2. 



