74 the collection of osteological material from machu picchu. 



Cave 88. 



This cave "half-way up the Alachu Picchu mountain, above the cit}'," yielded a child's 

 skull in pieces (Ost. Coll. 3241), a jaw with the teeth not yet erupted, various small bones, 

 and an earthenware spindle whorl (Plate IV, figure i). Now a baby six or eight months 

 old, which is the approximate age indicated by these infantile remains, could have very 

 little practical use for a large spindle whorl, except possibly to assist in the process of teething. 

 The difficulty in accounting for the occurrence of such an article in this grave is removed 

 by the presence, also, of some decayed and fragmentar}' remains of an eight year old child, 

 since at this age most of the modern Ouechua girls are adept spinners. Judging from the 

 state of decay, the older child's burial considerably antedated that of the baby. 



A few pieces of bone indicate that a little flesh from a guinea pig and some from a llama 

 were placed in the grave. 



Cave 89. 



From this cave, "one-third the way up the mountain, above the city," not a single human 

 bone nor potsherd was obtained. But the Indian collectors won my lasting gratitude by 

 excavating the nearly complete skeleton of a small rodent, referable to the same new species 

 of Abrocoma as the skull found in a small olla in Cave 59. The material is described 

 on page 87. 



Cave 90. 



From this cave, "one-third of the way up the mountain, above the city," the Indian 

 collectors brought in parts of three human skeletons, a pointed weaver's tool (M. P. 656) 

 apparently made from the tibia of a llama, and some sherds. The human material repre- 

 sents three individuals, as follows : A seven-months or eight-months foetus, a full-term 

 child, and a child of about two years of age. The only piece of pottery that has been 

 restored from the sherds collected here is an aryballus (M. P. 1018). As the minimum 

 diameter of the neck is only 9 cm. this vessel could hardly have served as a funeral urn, 

 even for the youngest inmate of the cave. 



Remains of a llama and of a guinea pig, several vertebrae, a scapula and some fragmentary 

 long bones of a very small deer (Ost. Coll. 3391) were also found, the last animal being 

 about the size of the small deer whose bones were discovered in Caves 9 and 55. I have 

 examined this cervine material with the utmost care, to make sure that it could not by 

 any chance be referable to the genus Ovis, which would of course indicate that the inter- 

 ments were of post-Columbian age. While it is sometimes extremely difficult to distinguish 

 the fragmentary skeletal parts of sheep and deer, corroborative evidence is to be had, in this 

 case, from the fact that the articular ends of these nearly adult cer\-ine bones are of 

 approximately the same size as those of a new-born lamb. 



Cave 91. 



This cave was very near the city, its location being "100 yards northeast from the foot 

 of the main stairway." 



An imperfect skeleton (Ost. Coll. 3234) of a small woman about forty years of age 

 was found. The skull is a good example of the undeformed coast type, having a cranial 

 index of 87.8. 



