Plate. 5. The deep grave of the false-headed Mummies.
II. The Several Graves.
THE DEEP GRAVE OF THE FALSE-HEADED MUMMIES.
PLATE 5.
The narrow vertical shaft, broadening upwards like a funnel, leads downwards to a burial chamber with recesses in its sides, where were found three partly well equipped mummies. At contact two of these fell to pieces, so that one only (figured on Plate 15 with the accompanying gifts and tablets) could be preserved and brought to the surface.
Here we see the mummy pack on the bottom of the exposed grave roofed in by a sheltering layer of gravel. An Indian is occupied in pulling up some sand rolled up in a cloth, while a second workman is figured in the foreground in the act of descending into the grave. The hard gravel and sand strata are distinctly visible in the sides of the shaft, while the loose sand, with which the grave had been filled in, is seen just as it has been thrown up like a low wall round the mouth, when the grave was opened.
This grave, which lies in the east section of Necropolis, belongs to the group No. 3 of the plan figured on Plate 1.
Source: The necropolis of Ancon in Peru: a contribution to our knowledge of the culture and industries of the empire of the Incas being the results of excavations made on the spot by Wilhelm Reiss (1838-1908); Alphons Stübel (1835-1904), joint author; Wilhelm Greve, lithographer; Augustus Henry Keane (1833-1912), translator; Ludwig Wittmack (1839-1929); Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902); Alfred Nehring (1845-1904). Berlin: A. Asher & Co.; New York : Sole agent for America, Dodd, Mead & Company, 755 Broadway, 1880.
