Aboriginal trephining in Bolivia / [Adolph Francis Alphonse Bandelier].
- Adolph Francis Alphonse Bandelier
- Date:
- [1904]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Aboriginal trephining in Bolivia / [Adolph Francis Alphonse Bandelier]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
5/20 page 440
![| Reprinted from the AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Vol. 6, No. 4, July-Sept., 1904 ] ABORIGINAL TREPHINING IN BOLIVIA! By ADOLPH F. BANDELIER While engaged in the investigation of Indian ruins in Bolivia, for the American Museum of Natural History in New York, we spent the greater part of the year 1895 on the island of Titicaca and on the shores of the lake of that name. Up to this time, while in Peru, we had not found any skulls showing marks of trephining, and indeed had only heard of their existence in that country, but the belief was expressed that they were also to be found in Bolivia. During our excavations at a site called Kea Kollu Chico, on Titicaca, we found, close together, in loose soil and without regu- larity of interment, at least ten trephined crania, which are now in the American Museum of Natural History. Subsequently we found in other parts of Bolivia, but still within the range of the Aymara Indians, sufficient specimens to increase the entire collec- tion to sixty-five. As the total number of skulls collected by us is nearly twelve hundred, it gives for those on which trephining had been performed the proportion of about five percent. These trephined crania were obtained by means of excavations at various points within the department of La Paz. Most of them came from the tableland, near Sicasica, south of the city of La Paz, but others were obtained from the southeastern end of Lake Titi- caca, from the peninsula of Huata, from the northern and southern flanks of Illimani, and from the eastern slope of the cordillera, near Pelechuco and Charassani. At the latter places but few were found, for the reason that human remains are usually decayed beyond recov- ery on account of moisture. The trephined skulls sent to the Museum were investigated and arranged by Dr Ales Hrdlicka, so that a description of them would be superfluous. I desire, however, to allude to the present custom of trephining among the Aymara Indians. The valuable memoir 1 Published by authority of the American Museum of Natural History, New York.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33436861_0005.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
