84 



THE COLLECTION OF OSTEOLOGICAL MATERIAL FROM MACTIU PICCHU. 



clearl}' proved to me later in the season, when a closed and apparently finished stone chulpa 

 or tomb at Choqquequirau was carefully opened only to reveal its bottle-shaped interior bare 

 as an empty purse — and as disappointing. 



Human remains, however, were found in two places near the Sacred Plaza, and in one 

 place beneath the floor of an outlying building, and a report on the skeletal material collected 

 at Machu Picchu would be incomplete, did it fail to mention these localities. 



A fragment of a small human femur was picked up on the surface of the ground outside 

 and below the windows of the Three-Window Temple. Speculation as to how it got there 

 among miscellaneous refuse would be useless. 



While clearing away undergrowth and excavating all sorts of debris from an irregular 

 plot of ground a few rods northwest from the top of the Main Stairway, Mr. Erdis dis- 

 covered a bowlder on which the forms of snakes had been carved. Beneath the bowlder 

 was a small cave (Erdis' Station 9 A) which yielded portions of the upper and lower jaws 

 and of the cranial wall of a small and apparently female, adult human skull. These bones 

 were so badly decayed as to render it quite possible that the rest of the skeleton had entirely 

 disintegrated. From the following partial list of the many articles found in this grave, it 

 appears that a person of some importance was here interred: 



Bronze mirror with pierced square handle. 

 Bronze mirror with pierced square handle. 

 Bronze knife. 

 Bronze knife. 

 Bronze pin, length 9 cm. 

 Bronze knife (broken). 

 Chicha cup. 

 Green stone disk. 

 Green stone disk. 

 Broken chalcedony knife. 

 50, 51, 52, 56, 57. Green stone counters. 

 Piece of red paint. 

 Dish handle, crouched human figure. 

 Small hammer-stones ( ?). 

 Polishing stones (?). 

 Small river pebbles. 

 Sherds. 

 Llama bones. 



The occurrence of two bronze mirrors and of two bronze knives, not to mention part 

 of a third, suggests the possibility of more than one interment having been made in the cave, 

 but no proof of this can be had from the extremely meager human remains recovered. 



While excavating in a building at the south end of the fifth terrace below the semicircular 

 tower, Mr. Erdis came upon a few badly decayed fragments of a human skull and long 

 bones, evidently belonging to a small old individual of unknown sex. The only article 

 recorded as having been found with these bones was a square piece of thin green chloritic 

 schist about 10x7.5 cm. in size. This interment may have been already disturbed by 

 treasure-hunters. 



