96 THE COLLECTION OF OSTEOLOGICAL RrATERTAT, FROM MACHIT PICCHU. 



be S3'philitic would liave been regarded by tlie majority of Patbologists as undoubtedly 

 post-Columbian. Through the scholarly researches of Doctor Iwan Bloch it now appears 

 that SA'philis is a disease of great antiquity in the New World, and that it was brought to 

 Europe from Haiti by Columbus' crew on their return from the First Voyage. Therefore 

 the fact that bones from either North or South America show syphilitic alterations cannot be 

 accepted as satisfactory evidence that they belong to the post-Columbian period. 



In regard to the antiquity of human remains, when there is no geological evidence to be 

 cited and little or no assistance can be had from history and tradition, the conscientious 

 investigator must generally be content (and must ask his readers to be content also) with 

 such indications of age as are afforded by the character of the artifacts and natural objects 

 associated with the human remains. 



The difficulty of this method of attacking the problem — and it weighs down with heavy 

 ballast small craft about to venture upon these seas of doubt — is that while on the one 

 hand objects of recent origin, rightfully associated with human remains, must be accepted 

 in proof of recent age, on the other hand the total absence of objects of modern origin, 

 although essential to any claim to antiquity, does not in itself constitute proof of antiquity. 



In two of the graves, articles of post-Columbian or European origin were found. These 

 graves, Numbers 56 and 100, must accordingly be regarded as recent, although, to be exact, 

 in only one instance, namely. Cave 56, where the fragment of beef-bone was obtained, is 

 the evidence entirely convincing. The possibility that some interments in the ancient burial 

 region may also have been made during comparatively recent times has been commented upon 

 elsewhere in this report. Without fear of misapprehension, I can therefore repeat, that the 

 majority of the interments were accompanied by no articles of exclusively post-Columbian 

 or European origin, and that the general aspect of most of the graves is distinctly favorable 

 to the supposition that the people whose remains were, placed there lived and died under 

 those conditions of autochthony that define the pre-Columbian culture. 



