THE GRAVES. 



Second Series, 53 to 107. 



This is the series of burial places at Machu Picchu excavated after my departure. The 

 actual work of collecting was performed principally by the Indians Richarte and Alvarez, 

 who had been with me almost daily during the month that I spent carrying on the search 

 for osteological and archseological material. These men, having acquired considerable skill, 

 both in hunting for graves and in excavating, under the incentive of the small money prizes 

 offered, worked intermittently during the rest of the season, reporting at the close of the 

 field-day, and delivering the booty to the Archaeological Engineer of the Expedition. 

 Mr. Erdis carefully labeled and listed the bones and other articles brought in, and recorded 

 such information regarding the location and contents of the graves, as the Indian collectors 

 were able to convey to him. Although he was generally pre\^ented from personally super- 

 vising the excavation of these graves, the work progressed admirably under his direction. 

 The amount of valuable skeletal and mortuary material was approximately doubled, and 

 his record of the daily reports of the Indians has been helpful to me while studying the 

 collection. It is perhaps as well, however, not to place implicit confidence in the reports of 

 the Indians, for although their fidelity and activity made a very favorable impression, yet I 

 found them, like many better educated assistants, liable to be somewhat carried away with 

 enthusiasm over attractive "finds" and prone to commit the serious error of mingling 

 specimens from separate locations. Enviable indeed is the career of the collector who can 

 conscientiously cast the first stone in punishment for such offenses. All things considered, 

 the Expedition was fortunate in securing the services of two such reliable Indians as 

 Richarte and Alvarez, and the fact that they were able neither to take notes nor to prepare 

 diagrams of burial places calls for no apology. 



Cave 53. 



Cave 53 was "about 500 yards southerly from camp, and at a slightly higher level." 

 The following articles were listed: "three human skulls, an animal skull (llama), a pile 

 of sherds, and a finger-ring of silver or copper." 



The material also includes some insignificant parts of one, or possibly of two human 

 skeletons, and a few broken limb bones representing two llamas, one animal large, the 

 other small. The bones of chief interest are as follows : Skull and mandible (Ost. Coll. 

 3214), adult male(?). The determination of the sex of this skull, without reference to 

 other skeletal parts, is not wholly free from doubt, both male and female characters being 

 exhibited in a disconcerting way. The contour of the forehead, the delicacy of the orbital 

 margins and the almost total lack of development of supraorbital ridges and glabella are 

 female characters that are hardly more than offset by the size and weight of the skull 

 and by the slightly masculine form of the zygomata, by the protuberance and curved lines 

 of the occiput, and by the mastoid processes. There is, however, prima facie evidence that 

 a male interment was made in this cave; some of the long bones, e. g., the humeri, exhibit 



