the graves. 13 



Cave 7. 



This burial place was near the last described. A low wall or sill of rough stones gave 

 practically no protection to the cave, which was formed by two irregular bowlders, as shown 

 in text-figures 9 and 10. 



On the floor of the cave lay the skull and lower jaw of a young person about fifteen years 

 of age and of unknown sex. Although too young to have reached its full development and 

 too imperfect for accurate measurement, this skull appears to represent the brachycephalic 

 coastal type. 



In the ground beneath the skull was apparently the rest of a complete skeleton in the con- 

 tracted position. Unfortunately these bones were so badly decayed that few of them could 

 be saved, and I am unable to determine the sex. The body may have been partially inhumed, 



..A 



Figure lo. — Floor plan of Cave 7, showing the skull and mandible. The rest of the skeleton was inhumed. 



the head alone remaining above ground, or else the earth of the loosely filled grave may 

 have settled enough to expose the skull. No pottery or other articles, besides the human 

 bones, were found in this cave. 



Cave 8. 

 This was a small artificial cave beneath a bowlder on the north slope of the Machu Picchu 

 Mountain about one-quarter of the way down to the river. The entrance was partially closed 

 by piled-up earth and small stones. The cave contained only a few human bones, but these 

 lay on the dry floor and were in a state of excellent preservation. Because the skeleton was 

 incomplete, the grave was supposed to have been previously robbed by treasure-hunters. 

 After careful consideration, and in the light of later experience, I am convinced that the 

 grave had not necessarily been previously desecrated, but that, on the contrary, the few human 

 bones that it contained may have become separated from the rest of the skeleton, when the 

 mummy was taken out during some ceremony or was removed from one place of burial to 

 another. 



