CRANIA AMER ICANA .
T H E A N C IE N T P E R U V IA N S .
P e r u is a narrow strip of land between the Andes and the sea, hounded on
the south by a desert. Its fine climate, its productive soil, and its proximity to
the ocean, render it one of the most interesting divisions of the southern continent;
and its advantages appear to have been fully appreciated by the aborigines themselves,
for there is evidence that several populous nations held successive dominion
in the country.
History, even before the advent of the Spaniards, throws much light on one
of these nations; that, for instance, which was governed by the Incas: yet, with
respect to the others, we know little else than what can be gleaned from their
monuments and cemeteries; and however meagre these facts may appear, they
possess considerable interest, and the more so because so few others are available
to us.
The arid region of Atacama* was the favorite sepulchre of the Peruvian
nations for successive ages; for, while the climate tends rather to the desiccation
than to the decay of the dead, the mixed sand and salt of the desert have contributed
to the same end; and the lifeless bodies of whole generations of the
former inhabitants of Peru may now be examined, like those from the Theban
catacombs, after the lapse of hundreds, perhaps of thousands of years. The great
number df the dead thus remaining in Peru, has been a subject of surprise to all
travellers, and serves to convey an idea of the vast population that has at different
* The desert of Atacama divides the kingdom of Peru from that of Chil6, and is nearly an hundred
leagues in length. «.In the midst of it is the River of Salt, the water whereof is so brackish m at it
presently grows thick in the” hand, or any vessel, and the banks are covered with salt.”—Herrera,
Dec. IV. Lib. IV. Cap. I.
periods derived its subsistence from that country. For example, we are told by
an intelligent voyager, that having landed at Vermejo, in Peru, in the year 1687,
he found the vicinity of that town so strewed with desiccated bodies, that, in his
own language, a man might have walked a mile and a half, and trod on them at
every step.* These circumstances long since made me desirous to obtain a series
of crania from the Peruvian sepulchres, in order to ascertain, if possible, whether
they present indications of more than one great family; or, in other words, to
inquire whether among them I could trace such departures from the well known
type of the American race, as would lead to the supposition that this continent
was formerly inhabited by a plurality of races. In pursuing this inquiry I have
been so fortunate as to have the examination, in my own and other collections, of
nearly one hundred Peruvian crania: and the result is, that Peru appears to have
been at different times peopled by two nations of differently formed crania, one
of which is perhaps extinct, or at least exists only as blended by adventitious
circumstances, in various remote and scattered tribes of the present Indian race.
Of these two families, that which was antecedent to the appearance of the Incas
is designated as the Ancient Peruvian, of which the remains have hitherto been
found only in Peru, and especially in that division of it now called Bolivia.
Their tombs, according to Mr. Pentland, abound on the shores and islands of the
great Lake Titicaca, in the inter-alpine valley of the Desaguadera, and in the
elevated valleys of the Peruvian Andes, between the latitudes of 14° and 19° 30'
south. The country around this inland sea was called Collao, and the site of
what appears tQ have been their chief city, bears the name of Tiaguanaco.
Let us now glean from the few sources that are open to us, what can be
discovered of the physical and intellectual character of these people, their history
and tradition.
Our knowledge of their physical appearance is derived solely from their tombs.
In stature they appear not to have been in any respect remarkable, nor to have
differed from the cognate nations except in the conformation of the head, which is
small, greatly elongated, narrow its whole length, with a very retreating forehead,
and possessing more symmetry than is usual in skulls of the American race. The
face projects, the upper jaw is thrust forward, and the teeth are inclined outward.
The orbits of the eyes are large and rounded, the nasal bones salient, the zygomatic
arches expanded; and there is a remarkable simplicity in the sutures that connect
the bones of the cranium.
* Wafer, Voy. p. 165.