The Lamar register., 1906-04-25
NEW WORLD MUMMIES
SOME IN MUSEUMS TAKEN FROM
CLIFF DWELLER RUINS.
Remains of Aztecs and Toltecs I'm
earthed in Canyons of Arizona
Traces of Ancient
Nobility.

Many persons who have an interest in
archaeology will be surprised to know
that not all the mummies to be seen in
museums have been taken from PARKWAY
tombs in Egypt or other eastern lands.
Well preserN ed mummies have occa-
sionally been taken from the ruins of
the cliff jewellers in the mountain
canyons in Arizona, and also in New
Mexico and southern California.
These mummies, states the PittsburS
Dispatch, though poor specimens of the
mummifying art, are considered great
treasures by scientists because they
give the anthropologist vague idea of
the strange people who had the earliest
civilization on the American continent.
The best of them are almost entirely ig-
norant of who the Aztecs and Toltecs
were, how they looked and lived. and
why they have been so entirely cblit-
Grated from the fact of the earth.
The reason for this ignorance is found
in the fact that no satisfactory remains
of the dead Aztecs have been found.
These people were cremationists, and
they probably burned household effects
with the dead, leaving little or nothing
for the scientist to build theory upon.
Frequently party of explorers in the
valley of Arizona will come upon sealed
jars of burned bone dust. But the num-
my which was found by two gold mine
prospectors in a lonely canyon along
the ella river, in the heart of the coun-
try once occupied by the Aztecs and
Toltecs, has excited much attention.
The hollow in the rocks was about
seven feet deep and four feet high. 1t
was evidently made for the purpose of
burial of the body found there, for no
other mummy has ever been found with
in 100 miles of this lonely sepulcher.
AT the rear of the cave the miners
found what appeared to be chamber in
the solid granite wall. The mouth of the
chamber was sealed. When the cement
like substance was broken away and a
fiat stone lifted it was found that hui
man mummy was within. There was a
smell of rosin and balsam when the min
ers raised the little body which had
lain there for 500. perhaps 700 years.
The body was evidently that of child,
the offspring of prehistoric royalty.
Wien the coverings had been removed it
was found that the body was that of n
girl about five years of age.
There was no doubt that she was of
noble family and that her costly and
elaborate burial, instead of cremation.
had been for some extraordinary rea-
son. Wrappings that filed five bushel
baskets were unwound from the re-
mains. AS the hands were removed
peanuts and mesquite beans rolled out
Both were in as good state of preserva-
ton as if they had been placed there Il
few months before. A child's plaything,
a curious bone affair, was found placed
between the arms The little shriveled
hands were clasped about bits of mes
black hair, much finer than that of an
Indian. covered the head The legs
were drawn up in the position of a child
creeping. The finger nails were perfect
and the teeth intact. The nose. ears and
eyes were gone and the skin was broken
on the right knee and on one of the
wrists, exposing bones, sinews and dried
flesh.
So fine mummy had probably never
been found before in the valleys of Ari-
IONA. 1t has been photographed more
than 100 times. Many scientists and
archaeologists have travelled long dis
tnces to see it, and say it is the most
interesting and instructive of all things
found in that part of the country in n
decade. 1t has been made gift to the
Smithsonian institution.