THE GRAVES. 



25 



southeast corner, marked 24, a small quantity of potsherds was found, together with a few 

 bones of a man and of a llama and some pieces of charcoal. Wedged into the same cleft lay 

 a beautifully finished example of the prehistoric stone-mason's art — a building block with 

 projecting cylindrical stud, designed for the gable end of a house and of the same form as 

 that figured by Professor Bingham in the National Geographic Magazine, April 1913, 

 page 453. Stones of this description were used at Machu Picchu principally for securing 

 the roof-frames of houses, but they may have served other architectural purposes as well. 

 As this gray granite stone had been sheltered from dust and vegetation and everything that 

 might discolor or weather its surface, it looked as fresh and new as if it had been shaped 

 only the day before our visit. On the other hand, the human bones at the bottom of the 

 cleft were so fragmentary and decayed that I could make little of them. They may be the 

 remains of the maker or owner of the building block, but there is no convincing evidence. 

 At the point marked 25, a few potsherds and some miscellaneous bones were seen at the 

 surface; there was, however, no indication of a formal burial. 



Figure 21. — Section of Grave 26 beneath the Rock-sheUered Terrace, showing female human skeleton in the 

 contracted position with pottery and skeleton of a small collie-like Inca dog. 



The material excavated from Grave 26, which was about four feet from the face of the 

 bowlder, was attractive enough to arouse the enthusiasm of the most indifferent collector. 

 The position of the human remains and the arrangement of the larger articles placed in 

 the grave are shown in text-figure 21. The skeleton of a delicately formed woman (Ost. 

 Coll. 3175) was found here in the contracted position. Close to her bones were her small 

 personal belongings, her pottery and the skeleton of her dog. This animal (Ost. Coll. 

 2658) was of a type similar to the Peruvian collie-like Inca dogs, described by Dr. Nehring 

 under the name of Canis Ingcs peciiarius. Dogs of this general type, though usually a little 

 smaller than those figured in Reiss and Stiibel's Necropolis of Ancon, were frequently 

 seen in the parts of the Cordillera that I visited, and these animals may be largely derived 

 from the ancient stock. At the same time, one should not overlook the fact that the 

 natural tendency of the unrestricted intermingling of some modern varieties would be 

 toward a mixed breed having many of the characteristics of the C. Ingcc pecuarius. The 

 modern Indian dogs of this ancient type are very wolf-like, and manifest a most inconvenient 

 fear of the camera. Even when the beast's Indian master, who frequently suffers from the 



