62 THE COLLECTION OF OSTEOLOGICAL MATERL\L FROM MACHU PICCHU. 



modern Indians of this region the work of spinning and weaving is carried on, in part at 

 least, by the men. As to the significance of the bronze pin (M. P. 558) relative to the sex 

 of its rightful owner, small room exists for doubt. The pin is 23.4 cm. long and the width 

 of its semicircular or half-moon shaped head is 5.95 cm. It stands as a good example of 

 a type of pin used at the present time by Indian women only, and is regarded by various 

 writers on Peruvian archaeology as an article of exclusively female adornment. 



The association of such a pin with the bones of a male individual may well be the cause 

 of surprise. It occurred at Alachu Picchu in this instance only, and I am inclined to regard 

 it as due to some error or oversight, either on the part of the collectors or else on the 

 part of the Indians who made the interment. Since I did not excavate the grave and have 

 for my guidance merely the statement of the Indian collectors, it would seem futile to 

 discuss at great length the various ways in which an article of female adornment might 

 have become associated with a male skeleton. When considering the Machu Picchu graves 

 and their contents, however, it is well to bear in mind that some confusion would be likely 

 to occur among the small articles belonging to different individuals, when, skeletons or 

 mummies were removed from their original places of burial to other graves, and when 

 interments were made in very old burial caves whose original occupants had either crumbled 

 to dust or been removed to make room for the new-comers. 



The human skeleton (Ost. Coll. 3221) found in this grave is that of a man of the 

 mountain type, about forty years of age. His height, calculated from the leg-bones, was 

 1. 61 meters, which may be regarded as a moderate stature, the mean height of Quechua and 

 Aymara males given in Chervin's Anthropologic Bolivienne being 1.602 meters. A few of 

 the bones still have shreds of dried softer tissue attached to them, and in this respect resemble 

 closely some of the bones found in Grave 40. The mere fact that vestiges of desiccated 

 muscles and ligaments are to be seen, is not, I think, sufficient ground for supposing that 

 interment was made at a very recent period. 



Measurements of the skull (Plate XXIV) and the pelvis (Plate XXX) from this grave 

 appear elsewhere in this report. It may be noted that while these important parts furnish 

 satisfactory evidence of their male sex, they are veiy far from displaying those evidences 

 of robust development that are commonly regarded as characteristic of hardy primitive 

 warriors. As regards strength of bone and muscle, this individual was remarkably inferior 

 to some male Indians whose fragmentary remains I had previously collected in a burial 

 cave in the hills overlooking San Sebastian, in the Cuzco valley, the comparison being by 

 no means flattering to the physique of the men whose remains were interred at Machu Picchu. 



A few bones of small mammals were collected from this grave. They represent Abro- 

 coiiia sp. and one of the very small members of the Didclphydcc. Of the latter, the maxill?e 

 and one mandibular ramus are the only parts preserved, and although the characters of 

 the genus Mannosa are indicated, the material is hardly sufficient for identification. From 

 their color, these bones evidently were found buried beneath the earth floor of the grave, 

 and must therefore be regarded as provisions for the dead. As for this purpose, the Indians 

 of Machu Picchu would be likely to provide only such articles of food as would be acceptable 

 to the living, it is presumed that the stewed or roasted flesh of the diminutive opossums of 

 the Andes, animals hardly larger than rats, was accorded its place among the food delicacies 

 of the region. 



