enveloped in a coarse but close fabric, with stripes of red, which has withstood
wonderfully the destroying effects of ages, for these interments were made before
the conquest, though at what period is not known.”*
PLATE Y.
ANCIENT PERUVIAN.
I have not ascertained from what particular part of Peru this skull was
obtained, but it is strikingly analogous to the three preceding specimens. The
intervention of art in flattening the skull is very manifest, yet it has been effected
on a forehead extremely low by nature; for the lateral swell is not remarkable,
and the parietal protuberances, in particular, are not much more inflated than was
natural to these people. The depth of the cranium behind the coronal suture is
remarkable; and the very narrow face in this instance proves that the head could
not have been originally spheroidal, like that of the later inhabitants of Peru.
This specimen was politely lent me by Dr. J. Kearney Rodgers, of New York,
of whose collection it forms a part.
MEASUREMENTS.
Longitudinal diameter,. . . .
Parietal diameter, . ..
Frontal diameter, . . ,
Vertical diameter, . . . . .
Inter-mastoid, arch, . . . . . .
Inter-mastoid line, . . . . .
Occipito-frontal arch, .
6.7 inches.
4.5 inches*
4.1 inches.
4.1 inches.
11.5 inches.
3.6 inches.
14.2 inches.
Three Years in the Pacific, p. 341.