THE GRAVES. 



23 



light and apparently female skull were saved. There was considerable charcoal on the floor 

 of the cave, but no bones of food animals and no potsherds. As shown in the illustration, 

 the cave was easily entered, and the pottery, if indeed any vessels had originally been placed 

 there, may have been removed long ago. 



Cave 22. 



Potsherds were found at the entrance of this cave, but no bones were brought to light, 

 and there was no evidence that an interment had been made beneath the floor. A mummy 

 may have been placed here temporarily and later removed to some other sepulcher. 



FiGURZ 19. — Scene during the excavation of the Rock-sheltered Terrace. The Indian assistants Richarte, 

 Fuentes and Alvarez stand in order from left to right in the view. Photograph by the author. 



Tpie Rock-sheltered Terrace. 



By far the most magnificent place of burial discovered, during our search for graves on 

 the slopes of the Machu Picchu Mountain, was a rock-sheltered terrace southeast of the city 

 and at an elevation about 1000 feet above the highest part of the ruins. This location in 

 what I have termed the upper grave region will be found marked on the map by the serial 

 number 26. 



The steep slope of the mountain, protected to some extent from landslides and minor 

 erosion by ancient andenes that had been constructed here, rendered it impossible to take 

 a satisfactory photograph; but the drawing reproduced in text-figure 18, based upon a 

 clay model and rough sketches, will be found to give an essentially correct idea of this 

 remarkable place. The terrace, approached from the next lower andene by two short flights 

 of steps, was about 40 feet long and 15 feet wide. It was almost completely overhung 

 and protected from rain by an immense irregular bowlder, so large as to seem, when first 

 viewed from below, like a peaked crag of the gray granite mountain. The flat-faced 



