the graves. 79 



Cave ioo. 



This cave was about "half-way down the mountainside," east of the Indian Richarte's 

 hut, or in other words, southeast from the city. The human bones coUected here represent 

 two individuals, a medium-sized adult of unknown sex and a half-grown child. The material 

 is too meager to show anything further, the chief interest lying in the other contents of the 

 grave. These are listed as follows: A stone token, animal design (M. P. 680); a stone 

 pendant (M. P. 681) ; a stone token, animal design (M. P. 682) ; a stone counter, 1.5 x 1.5 

 cm. (-M. P. 683); a stone counter, 2x2 cm. (M. P. 684); a circular stone counter, 

 diameter 2.35 cm. (M. P. 685) ; a stone counter, 2.3 x 2.2 cm. (M. P. 686) ; a stone counter 

 (M. P. 687) ; a broken stone token (M. P. 688) and a piece of rusty iron (M. P. 689). 



The piece of rusty iron may be first considered. Thoroughly oxidized by exposure, it 

 is now little more than a thin rust flake about 3 cm. long and i cm. wide. It looks as if it 

 might be a shard of a knife blade, but this is only conjectural. It does, however, show 

 that the cave was visited for some purpose since the dawn of the Iron Age in Peru. Once 

 learned by a race of men, the knowledge of the manufacture of iron is seldom or never 

 forgotten, and it is generally believed that, prior to the Conquest, the Peruvians were totally 

 ignorant of the process of smelting iron ore. One important point must not be overlooked. 

 The interment is not proved to be of post-Columbian age merely because a bit of rusty 

 iron was found in the burial cave. Treasure-hunters, in scratching about on the floor of a 

 cave, searching for precious metal and "for valuable pottery, might very easily leave just 

 such a souvenir of their visit. The present instance, accordingly, cannot be regarded as 

 having equal chronological significance with the occurrence of the fragment of beef-bone 

 in Cave 56, which for obvious reasons cannot be attributed to treasure-hunters. 



Granting that a reasonable doubt exists in regard to the age of the interments in this 

 cave (No. 100), the remaining articles found at the grave acquire from this element of 

 uncertainty a greater problematic interest than they would otherwise possess. Most of these 

 articles, some of which are shown on Plate III, figures 5-8, are made from the same green 

 chloritic schist as are the counters and tokens found in Caves 93 and 97, and, I may add, 

 those also found in Caves 10 1 and 103. Not only are many of these pieces of the- same 

 genre, but some of the excellent silhouettes of animals found in different graves may even 

 be the work of the same primitive artist. 



It is important to note that all the interments with which these small articles were asso- 

 ciated must be regarded as belonging to the same period, whatever they may ultimately 

 prove to be; also that, with one exception, these articles were probably found in the graves 

 of women only, the exception being the child of unknown sex in Cave 100. Several of 

 these pieces have already been figured and briefly described in the National Geographic 

 Magazine for Februaiy 191 5, and further authoritative information regarding their age 

 and the purpose they served is awaited with more than ordinary interest. It is especially 

 important that, if possible, the genera of the animals represented by these figures be identi- 

 fied, since carvings or silhouettes of European animals will afford as reliable evidence of 

 post-Columbian age as would the actual skeletal remains of animals introduced from the 

 Old World. In regard to this matter of generic determination, I think that most zoologists 

 would identify as a porcupine or some other rodent indigenous to South America, the animal 

 form shown in Plate III, figure 7, of the present report. 



