THE GRAVES. 8 I 



(M. P. 695) ; a stone token, design not recognized, perhaps a sun (M. P. 696), and a stone 

 counter (M. P. 697). 



Two of these articles. Numbers 695 and 696, are shown on Plate III, figures 12 and 13. 

 I have already commented on the obvious fact that they fall in the class with the stone tokens 

 found in several other graves. 



Cave 104. 



This cave was on the northeast bank of the Urubamba River and near the temporary 

 bridge thrown across the stream by Mr. K. C. Heald. At this point, the northeast bank is 

 on the far side of the stream with reference to Machu Picchu. 



A few decayed bones of a medium-sized adult person of unknown sex were found, 

 including a small weak mandible but no other parts of the cranium. 



The following articles were collected: A small pelike-shaped jug (M. P. 840) ; a medium- 

 sized two-handled deep dish (M. P. 1020); a three-handled "hydria-shaped" olla (M. P. 

 1076) and fifteen small river pebbles averaging in size about 2.5x1.8x1.2 cm. (M. P. 

 1866-1880). 



In view of the style of the pottery, this grave may be considered as belonging to the 

 same period as the majority of the graves that were excavated on the Machu Picchu 

 Mountain. Small river pebbles were occasionally found in graves thousands of feet above 

 the river, and were regarded by my Indians, Richarte and Alvarez, as part of the garniture 

 of the burials, though linguistic limitations prevented a clear understanding of their ideas 

 about the significance of the pebbles. My impression is that the modern Indians looked upon 

 them as ancient fetishes to be placed in the same general class with quartz crystals occa- 

 sionally found. If river pebbles occurred in graves only at the river hank, their presence 

 might be less remarkable, but the fact that they were usually found high on the mountain 

 renders them the subject for ethnological rather than geological consideration. 



The following quotation from Joyce's South American Archaeology, page 154, may help 

 to explain the significance of these river pebbles, and of the crystals and animal tokens also: 

 "The huaca were innumerable, and, as said above, appear to have been closely connected 

 with ancestor-worship. Each ayllu claimed descent from a common ancestor, and this 

 ancestor might be a- rock, lake, river, tree or animal, or some supernatural personage later 

 transformed into a stone, beast or bird." 



It is difficult to assign a convincing reason for the location of a grave at the river's edge 

 on the side away from Machu Picchu. There is, however, no evidence of the river having 

 been bridged at this point in ancient times, and accordingly it is possible that, a death having 

 occurred at some place on the far side of the river from Machu Picchu, the desire to inter 

 the body in the historic burial ground of the mountainside was thwarted by the impossibility 

 of crossing the river without making a long detour; hence the remains were buried here, 

 as near as possible to Machu Picchu. Another theory which I should like to submit to the 

 criticism of persons more deeply versed in ancient Peruvian mortuary customs than myself 

 is based on the statement of Herrera, in his Histora General de los Hechos de los Castel- 

 lanos, Decada V, Libro VI, with reference to the Temple of the Sun at Pachacamac* : "no 

 se permitia enterrar al rededor de el, sino a Sacerdotes, Senores, i Perigrinos." Possibly 



* Four leagues from the city of Los Reyes, the early name of Lima. 



