Note 374 — Chapter LXXII

Great numbers of bodies have been dug up at the foot of the temple of Pachacamac, the extreme dryness of the climate having preserved the long hair on the skulls, and even the skin. There are as many as one hundred and four Pachacamac skulls in European museums, which have been carefully examined. “They exhibit a vertically flattened occiput, a narrow and receding forehead, the glabella being slightly prominent. The acrocephalic or sugar-loaf form predominates. The range of skulls from Pachacamac varies from the globular or oval type, with a slightly depressed coronal suture, which Tschudi terms the ‘Chincha’ skulls, to the pyramidal brachycephalic cranium, with a high and vertical occiput, ordinarily termed the ‘Inca cranium.’ ” C. C. Blake, Esq., On the Cranial Characters of the Peruvian Races. Transactions of the Ethnological Society. Vol. ii. New Series, p. 227. Cieza de Leon states, in the text, that only chiefs and pilgrims were allowed to be buried near the temple of Pachacamac; and, if this was really the case, it would be natural to expect that the fact would be corroborated, to some extent, by an examination of the skulls. Accordingly I am informed by Mr. Carter Blake, that Mr. Clift and others have spoken of Pachacamac as being the depository of more than one type of skull, which may be the remains of pilgrims from various localities. Mr. Clift mentions bodies at Pachacamac with heads depressed like those of the people near lake Titicaca, and others with heads properly formed.