Observations on the Inca and Yunga nations, their early remains : and on ancient Peruvian skulls / by Archibald Smith.

  • Smith, Archibald.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the Inca and Yunga nations, their early remains : and on ancient Peruvian skulls / by Archibald Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    male child—“ uu nino”—which its mother had brought in order to be baptised, whose head was elongated backwards, while there was a rounded protuberance on the well depressed frontal bone. Not comprehending how this protuberance could have grown up on a part compressed by a board, I asked the mother if the board sbe had used to compress this child’s head was a flat oue, and learned that the board had a large hole in it, which explained how the protuberance on the frontal bone corre- sponded with the opening in the board, and developed itself where that bone was free from compression.” Professor Eaimondi remarks, that by the artificial compression of the Conibos children’s heads, the forehead is forced to recede, while the skull is lengthened backwards, and thus they much resemble some skulls found in certain “Huacas” or ancient burying places in the Sierra. (See “ Revista de Lima” (1862), article “ Apuntes sobre La Provincia Litoral de Loreto,” by Antonio Raimondi. I may just observe, in reference to the ancient occupants of Peru, that I think very little is yet generally known of the antiquarian remains of their civilisation before the Spanish conquest. I have had free access in Lima, some years ago, to a magnificent private collection of about three hundred drawings from ancient monuments and ruins of cities—not less interesting in character, I believe, than those of Yucatan—which were beautifully executed by Mr J. Raymond Clarke, an American gentleman who had devoted many years to such researches among the least fre- quented forest lands of Peru, and other neighbouring republics. The following Donations were presented to the Museum by Dr Smith. Collection of Remains from the Ancient Tombs of the Inca and Yunga Nations in Peru, including:— Human Skull from the ruins of the Huaca De Salinas, near Lima, Peru. Three Human Skulls from the ruins of Cajamarquilla, near Lima. Two Human Skulls from the ancient Huaca, Chorrillos, Lima. One of these crania shows the existence of a wormian bone, it is of large size, and is situated at the junction of the sagittal and occipital sutures. Several smaller distinct ossiculas are also present in the occipital suture. Dr Smith states that wormian bones are by no means general or charac- teristic of the cranium of the ancient Peruvians. Various portions of the Dresses of Cotton and of Woollen Cloths, some plain, striped, checked, and others with patterns in different colours;