The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-25
PUBLICATIONS
NEW WORLD MUMMIES.
Some in Museums We're Taken From HEuin1
OF the Cliff Dwellers.
From Me PiNsburo Despdtch.

FROM inc PtIS0hr0 DeSpdtch.
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 faraway tombs In
Egypt or other Eastern lands. Wen pre-
served mummi have occasionally hesn
taken from the ruins of the cllf dweIers In
the mountain cahons in Arizona, and also In
New Mexico and southern California.
These mummies, though poor specimens
OF the mummifying art. are considered great
treasures by scientists because they give the
anthropologist a vague idea OF the strange
people who had the earliest civilization on the
American continent. The best Of them are
almost entirely ignorant of who the A2tecs
and Toltecs were. how they looked and Lived.
and why they have beenso entirely obliterated
from the face of the earth. 70
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 a theory
upon. @
Frequently a party Of explorers In the
valley of Arizona will come upon sealed Jars
Of burned bone dust. But the mummy which
was found by two gold mine prospectors In o
lonely canon along the ella River, in the heart
Of the country once occupied by the Aztecn
and Toltecs, has excited much attention. The
hollow In the rocks was about seven feet deep
and four feet high. ID was evidently made
for the purpose of burial of the body found
there. for no other mummy has ever been
found within 100 miles of this lonely sepul-
chre. ?
At the rear OF the cave the miners found
what appeared to be a chamber in the solid
granite wall, The mouth of the chamber
was scaled. When the cementllke substance
was broken away and a fiat stone lifted 10
was found that a human mummy was within.
There was a smell NJ rosin and balsam when
the miners raised the little body which had
lain there for 500. perhaps 700, years. Tho
body was evidently that of q child, the on
spring Of prehistoric royalty. When the
coverings had been removed 1t was found
that the body was that of n girl about s 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 extra
ordinary reason. Wrappings that filed 1--WE
bushel baskets were unwound from the re-
mains. Asthe hands were removed peanuts and
mesquite beans rolled out, Both were In as
good state of preservation as If they had been
placed there a few months before. A chldis
plaything, a curious bone affair, was found
placed between the arms. The little shrlvelled
hands were clasped about bits OF mesquite
wood. and n thick mass of raven black hair,
much finer than that of an Indian. covered the
head. The legs we're drawn up In the posi-
ton of a child creeping. The finger nails
were perfect and the teeth intact. The
nose. cars 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 1ne a mummy had probably never been
found before in the valleys Of Arizona. IT
has been photograp hed more than a hundred
times, Many. scientists and archeologists
have travelled long distances TO see. IL, and
say il is the most interesting and ~instruc-
tive of all things found in that part OF, the
country in a decade. 1t has been made o
gift to the Smithsonian Institution