12. Notes on the Stone Age in Northern Chile, with Special Reference to Taltal.

Oswald H. Evans

Man, Vol. 6. (1906), pp. 19-24.

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 [Nos. ll-12,
afforded by the finds from Khami and Dl110 Dl~lo. .I have also examined some examples
of modern native Sonth African engraved pottery, which present some striking
s the pottery of the ruins, and, although I could not be sure that any of
r e s e m b l a ~ ~ c eto
it hail been cut after being baked, a t the same time some pieces looked as though they
had possibly been slightly touched up in this manner, and I should ~ i o the altogether
surprised if it were discovered that this process is still employed locally a t the present
day. Curiously enongh, the use of t,he stone flakes for engraving the pottery was,
judging by the sl~erdsfrom tlieee ruins, adopted subsequently to the method of engraving
the clay ~vhilestill soft? for in most if not all of the stone-cut pottery one can see that
the pots were first engraved in the plastic state, and that the lines thus produced were,
after the firing process, more deeply scored with the stone flakes. T h e latter process,
in fact, was employed, when employed a t all, for accentuating the patteru-lines produced
by t l ~ eformer method, which incidentally served as guiding-lines for the stone cutting-
edges.
I t is possible that from other regions, in Africa or elsewhere, a s~irvivalor reintro-
duction of the use of rude flakes and tools of stone into a metal age, may in some
instances be accourlted for by an explanation similar to that wl~icliI offer in the case
of the Rhodesi;tn ruins, and I should be very glad to hear of any such occurrences.
EXPLAN-LTION OF PLATE B.
Examples of engraved potsherds from t,he ruins a t Khami, Rhodesia.
Figs. 1-6.-Pottery which was engraved before being baked, while the clay was
still soft.
Figs. 7-15.-Pottery which was first engraved in a similar manner, and was
subsequently further engraved with stone flakes after having been baked hard.
H E K R Y BALFOUR.

Chjle : Stone Age. Evans.

Notes on t h e Stone Age i n Northern Chile, w i t h special
reference t o Taltal. By Os~vnldH. Euans, F.G.S. 12
T h e remains of the arc and industry of the pre-Spanish inhabitants of Northern
Chile are chiefly of i ~ t e r e s from
t the fact of their preseuting materials for the study
of a somewhat elaborate development and recent survival of t h e Stone Age of culture.
'rhauks to the general rlryuess of the climate, and bonsequently favourable conditions
for the preservation of fragile relics, the records of a vanislied people are frequently
found in so fresh a state as to acld greatly to tlie interest of their ,collection.
I t has seemed to the writer that a careful examination of the remains to be
recovered in the district in wliich he chances to be placed may be of some interest,
although Taltal is not the ideal locality for making a \vide investigatiolil Northwards,
the approximation to the civili~ationof the Chimus and Inchs alters the character and
augments the cotnplexity of tlie enquiry, whilst in the more fertile regions to the sout,h
the Peruvian influer~ceagain travelled to the coast along the great highway built from
Cuzco to the valley of Copiap6.
T h e pre-historic Cliilians of the desert coast would seem to have lived in a
backwater of culture, retaining to a late d i ~ ytheir primitive customs, little affected
by the brief period of Peruvian conquest, so sooil replaced by the dorninion of Spain.
Climatically, Taltal belongs to the great desert of Atacama. Between t'he ragged
coast line and the snowy heights of the main Cortlillera of the Ancles stretches an arid
waste of hills broken by steep-walled " quebradas " and mouotorious salt pla,ins, desolate
to view, but rich in nitrate as the forbidding iliountaius are in minerals.
I n the immediate neighbourhood of Taltal the massive geological features are built
up, in the main, of igneous agglomerate, diorite and porpl~yrites; further inland are
outcrops of slates and quartzites. T h e interior of the country is reached by innumerable
II 19 1
No. 12,] MAN. Cl906.
ravines or " q ~ e b r a d a s " and dry river valleys, in a few of which may be fouud an
occasional stagnant pool or, after the infrequent rains, a thin trickle of saline water.
A s is well known, the whole coast of weatern South America has undergone
repeated nlovemeilts of elevation relative to the sea level during the Recent period.
T ~ ~ l t alike
l , so many other places along the coast, presents well-detined terraces due to
upheaval, the highest shell-beds I have found as yet being a t a height above the Eea of
some 250 feet. I t is upon these raised coastal fringes of marine gravels, sands, and
shell layers that the earlier peoples have left their graves and relics in the greatest
profnsioo.
To-day, owing to the lack of water aud extreme scarcity of edible vegetation during
the greater part of the year, when little survives the broiling sun save cacti and other
typically desert plants, it would appear impossible to support L: population such as the
number of graves seems to indicate, even when one bears in mind tho few natural
resources that suffice for the natives of Tierra del Fuego. Everything to-day has to be
imported, tlie district producing notlling whateyer. This disappearance of the means
of subsistence is one of a strong body of arguments thitt may be broaght forward iu
evidence of the increased aridity of the country, but with which it would be out of place
to deal here.
Nothing struck me more forcibly on my arrival than the number of opened graves ;
for miles along the coast bleached a,nd crumbling fragments of human bones " kilavecl
out of their graves " bear witness to the ignorant curiosit,y or avarice wliich 11as ri~nsacked
these poor resting places of t l ~ edespised "iufidels." T h e rage for treasure hunting that
has played liavoc with the " Huacas " of Peru seems to have reached this place, although
I am convinced that no treasure has been found, nor, indeed, can I learn that auy metal
object has been discoverecl in the vicinity of Taltal. A t present it is rare to meet with
an untouched grave, and so carelessly has tlie work of destruction been dooe, or so little
interest has been taken in the relics devoid of intrinsic value, that by working with a
sieve among the rubbisli of the excavations I have in many cases gleaned a harvest of
things curious and interesting.
T h e Stone Age culture is remarkably uniform iu character wherever met with. A t
Taltal, as eleewl~ere,the inlplements differ i l l their material, rather than in form, from
tllose of Earope, and include hammer-stones, " xnvils," " scrapers," arrow- and lauce-
heads of c h a l c e d o ~ ~aucl
y l~arpoons of polished schist and bone. Shell Ileaps, veritable
a kitchen-middeus," fringe the coasts of sheltered bays, whilst far .inlaud piles of shells
indicate the main article of food. These shells, which are scattered everywhere among
the lndiau rubbish, are all such as are a t present common on the beach, and include
Balanas, Chiton, Patella, Capulus, Fissurell:~, Calyptrsa, Venus, Pecten, Pectunculus,
Mytilus, C t ~ a m a Buccinnm,
, Tunitella, Trochus, and many other genera, with fragments
of Crustaceans and Ecliiuoderms. Mammal aud fish bones are present in the shell
heaps ; amgng the former the guanaco is most common, together with the seal. I n one
instance I found the earbone OF a whale, and took from a grave on P u n t a Taltal the
lower jaws of a puma. The remains of fish, as might he expected, are very raried, hut
vertebra of the bonito aud albicore always occdr in great numbers. Among birds the
pelican is best represented. T h e varied contents of these heaps sliow them to be the
food refuse of a race of llunters and fishers, and associated with tllese " middens" are
the implements by means of which the food was obtained. T h e molluscs aboucding
in every rocky pool left by the warm Pacific waters probably formed the ordinary diet.
Having detached them from the rocks the savage cracked the shells with a "hammer.
stone," usually an oval-shaped, r o u ~ ~ d epebble
d of diorite from the nearest boulder beach,
sometin~eswith an indentation chipped on opposite sides to give a better grasp, but
occasionally with a groove cut roilntl the midtile to take the lashings OF hide that bound
it to a handle.
[ 20 ]
 MAN. [No.12.
T h e number of these " hammer-stones," all st~omingmarks of use in their abraded
striking surfaces, is astonishing. Almost as common are the flat slabs that served as
anvils, although in many instances the protruding boulders of the raised beaches have
served as convenient tab!es ; the mass of broken and crnmbliug shells in which they are
sometimes half buried testifies, together with their battered edges, to the purpose they
have served.
Sea urcliius and crabs were obtained, as a,t the present day, by " spearing " them.
T h e lower-class Chilians spencl much time in this pursuit ; the echinus, esteemed for its
supposed wonderful medicinal virtues, is eaten raw, and is collected by meaus of a length
of purloiued telegraph wire cleverly barbed.
T h e harpoons used for similar purposes by the older peoples were of gnanaco bone
and a form of I:ar,l, brittle schist that occurs iu pebbles in the raised beaches, but which
was probably obtained from its outcrop high u p in the dry valley of the Rio Chaco.
These "fish spears" are elongated, pointed, and slightly barbed by having grooves
ground in on opposite sides>near the end. Here and there on the beach are large slabs
of close-grained igneous rock, grooved and furrowed all over by the sharpening of some
such implements.
I n certain parts of the raised beaches, particularly where traversed by a stream bed,
now utterly dry save for a few days in an unusually rainy year, it would be difficult to
find a squarz yard 0.f surface without chips and flakes of t h e beautiful material of the
arrow- and lance-heads. This substance is always, chemically, silica, but physically its
characteristics vary considerably. I n general it may be clescribecl as alialcedony, and
from a glass-like translucency it passes through veitietl and banded forms, sometimes
opaline, to opaque, gleaming white, or through shades of yellow, red, and brown to
shiuing black. Like flint, it yields, when struck, a conchoidal fracture and cone of
percussion, gives large curved flakes, and, in short, possesses~tl~e properties of flint with
far more beauty.
Many specimens of the chalcedony show a transition into crystalline quartz, the
well-developsd crystals of which l ~ a v eevidently linecl a " drusy " cavity. T h e mineral
is unquestionably derived f18om a highly ampgdaloidal rock ; fine examples of such
structure occur near a t hand, although around Taltal, calcite, epidote, and crystalline
silica preclominate over chalcedony as the infiltrated iioing of the hollon-s. Some of the
arrow-heads are Fashioned from local material. T h e variety b e ~ tadapted for implement
rnaking may have been procured from a distance, very possibly in exchange for the
'' hammer-stones" of the beaches. A friend informs me that some distallee in the
interior he accidentally found a " concha " or assemblage of piles of' chalcedony nodulec,
seemingly collected together for transport ; whilst far from the sea he has met with the
rounded hammer-stones, scattered among Indian r~lbbisli iu great numbers, some worn
and broken, others unused, collected in one spot,, and in one instance wrapped in the
crumbling remains of a hide. I have one or two arrow-heads chipped out of massire
crystalline quartz, but these are extremely rare, nor does the mineral seem a t all well
adapted for the purpose. I would meution here one arrow-head remarkable for the
unusual nature of the material from which it is made. I u appearance much like others,
under a low power of the niicroscope it is seen to be crowded with the solidified shells of
minute gasteropods. Although I have examined hundreds of chips in the same way,
this specimeu remains unique, nor am I a t present able to determine the locality from
which the material was dekived.
I n shape, the arrow-heads fall clearly into certain distinct types, although transi-
Lional ancl "fancy" kinds are sometimes fo~lnd. T h e y may be grouped as follows :-
Oval, lauceolate, triangular, triangular with basal notch, stemmed, and stemmed with
barbs. T h e edges may be curved or rectilinear, occasionally smooth, but usually
crenulated. T h e workmansliip varies greatly ; whilst the commoner forms are rather
r 21 I
No,12.1 MAN.
poor, tlie finer specimeils are wonderful examples of delicate chipping. Most of tlienl,
as is generally the case with "flakes," liave one side flatter than the other, and are
sometimes slightly curved.
T h e size varie3 considerably. I mas shown, recently, a "dagger" about 8 inches
long, ill drab-colon~edchalcedony, the blade beautifully serrated and the handle rounded.
T h e larger " arrow-heads " graduate into " lances," whilst a t the other extreme some
" arrows " are less than half-an-inch in length, althougll bea~itifullyfinished, so small
that their use is not erident unless we accept the current tradition that they were
poisoned.
Pottery.-Fragments of pottery are almost as numerous ns the chalcedony chips.
Unfortunately they are but fragments, By every rifled grave are scattered pieces,
coarse and thick, marked wit11 the potter's tool, a ~ i dshowing by their wide arcs that
when complete they were large and shapely vessels. T h e rims are invariably "flared "
outwards, and often have holes bored for suspeusiou ; well moulded handles were attached
and in general they are tlio~.oughly well fired. I n some, t h e u n g l a ~ e d pottery has been
rendered capnble of retaining water by 2n impervious internal coat of unbaked clay.
I t has struck me as remarkable that in no single instance, so far, has any fragment
shown the least attempt a t incised ornamentation, so common in the early pottery of the
European peoples.
. -
Ornamentation, however, is by no means lacking. Side by side with these coarse
fragments occur, far more rarely, t l ~ ebroken and ecattered sherds of a finer class of
pottery, elaborately painted. T h e labour of collection requires enthusiasm to render it
tolerable, but one feels repaid when two or more pieces, perhaps found far apart from
each other, fall into position and present a surface of continuous desigu, although when
contrasted with the beautiful examples of Peruvian pottery the results of much trouble
are poor indeed.
T h e patterns betray some poverty of invention on the part of the artist. There is
one spirited sketch of guanaco, but a monotonous labyrinth of spirals, dots, crescents,
undulating lines, and chequered squares characterises the majority of examples. T h e
designs were painted on t l ~ cfine red or yellow surface of the vessel in black oxides of
mnngauese, sometimes aided by oxide of iron, and a white wash of kaolin, all of these
materials beiug found among the neigl~bouringhills. A n implement frequently found is
a rounded black stone, highly polished, having one or more facets covered with minute
scratches ; this mas probably the rnuller useti to reduce tlre pigments to the requisite
degree of fiuene~s. T h e surfaces of the finer pottery are often beautifully smooth, but
in no instances are they glaxed. Clear evidence as to the use of the potter's wheel is
lacking, where tool marks are visible they are quite irregular in direction.
1; a 'Lrock shelter," some 200 feet above tlic beach, I fouud certain rounded atones,
polished and daubed all over with red paint, preoerved through tlie accident of their
sheltered hiding place. T h e object of these is obscure, u~ilesst,hey were painted, a s we
nlay say with Herodotus, "for a Divine reaaon."
A t several places in the interior of the district rock-paintings are met with,
executed very roughly in ochre. A common design is a fish ofren repeated, perhaps a n
ideograph for water. On one high rock is a painting of men adorned with feathered
head-dresses and holding lances, a woman clothed in a long garment, a child and an
object intended for some animal. I t is widely held throlrghout Chile that t h e ~ e ' ~ I n f i d e 1
pictures" mark the location of rich mineral veius, but a t present I liave iusufficient
evideuce to come to a conclusion upon this remarkable supposition.
I t may be of interest to give t h e details of a previously undistnrbed grave which I
was so fortunate as to open recently, not for anything specially remarkable in its contents
but because the excavation was made with all care, with results that seem fairly typical
of the Taltal district.
[. 22 I
 MAN.
T h e grave to be described is one of a group of some fifty, most of which have been
already opened and t l ~ e i rcontents dispersed or wantonly destroyed. T h e ground plan
of the group is an irregular oval, determined by a patch of softer alluviu~llmore readily
excavated than the neighbouring boulder gravels.
Situated some 500 yards from the sea, from which it is separated by :t steep terraced
cliff, here about 30 feet in height, the graves stand a t an elevation of some 40 to 50 feet
above its le,vel, in a wide gently undulating plain i,hat slopes up to another raised beach
inland a t a height of 200 feet, where it merges with the talus slopes and foothills of the
coaslal mountains.
T h e graves are grouped irregularly, but are separated from each other by a clistance
of from 1 0 to 20 feet ; each is marked by a depressed tum~ilusalmost obliterated in many
cases by at,mospheric agencies.
I n some few instanczs the outer circumfereuce of the mound is traced out by a circle
of the local diorite boulders, whilst the great number of similar boulders scattered a t
random among t h e heaps indicates that others may have been outlined in the same way.
T h e mound was circular, 10 feet in diameter and about 4 feet high, having a
flattened appearance due to denudation, Round about it mere scattered a few flakes of
clialceclony and broken shells, a hammer-stone of ordinary form and a flat boulder much
chipped about its centre and evidently used as an a n v i l ; l~umerouscrumbling human
bones and sherds of the coarser unpainted pottery, probzbly derived from the previously
opened graves, lay'near a t hand.
I n order to ascertain the nature of the mound I cut a trench through it, rather to
one side of the centre, examining the material in a sieve. It soon appeared that the
tumulus was simply built up of the excavated material with local surface ddbvis added.
Whan near the middle I fouill a few pieces of coarse pottery nearly 1 inch thick.
With care practically all t h e sherds were recovered, aud later An, when cemented together
they formed an extremely crude vessel, oval in shape, scooped out of a mass of clay ; it
is 9 inches lor~g,7 inches deep, and 5 inches wide. I n some parts of it the sides are
more than 1 inch thick, the base is rounded, and it is totally devoid of ornamentation.
From the position in which the broken pieces were found, I consider it to have been
placed near the top of the mound, whilst its rounded base only enables it to stand upright
when thrust into sand. T h a t it held offerings of food seems very possible.
Having now cleared away a portion of the mound down to the level of the
surrounding surface, me began to dig below its former centre. T h e earth here was soft,
and free from large pebbles. I may ~nentiouhere that it is not uncommon to ri~eetwith
circles of stones, which on examiuation are found to have nothing beneath them but
hard rock. T h e circles seem too small to mark the site of former huts. I n some there
is an ashy substance such as is left on burning dried cactus, the local fuel, hut I hesitate
to call them " hearths." For what purpose they were made I canuot imagine, unless i t
was t,o distract attention from the real places of interment.
A t this stage my Chilinu companion claimed to be able to tell, from the colonr of
t h e soil, which was slightly green, that we should find bones underneath. H e confirmed
his statement by holding a fragment in the flame of a match, when he said that he could
smell " el aciete humauo "-" the human oil "--burning off. Mingled with the small
pebbles and sand, shells, echinus tests and fish remains, broker1 and entire, becarne
plentiful. T h e curiously-shaped interspinous bones, or "fin-raisers " of soiile large fish
appeared here, as in other interments, in such numbers t,k~atit would seem as though the
Indiaus collected them for some purpose.
T h e first human bones ( v e r t e b r ~ )were met with a t a depth of 24 feet below the
surface. These were all ill-preserved ; broken, huddled togethi:r and mingled with
shells, fish.bonee, and gravel. T h e small space occupied by the human bones sl~owed
that the body was buried in a contracted or crouching posture. T h i s would seem to be
r 23 I
Nos. 12-14.] MAN.

the case generally, from such evidence as I have. T h e skull was crushecl beyond
hope of reconstruction, but half the lower jaw, t,he right-hand portion, was fairly
preserved. I t contained three healthy teeth, remarkable for their perfectly flat upper
surface.
O n sorting out all t h e contents of t h e grave, I managed to separate o a t the remains
of no less than fifteen bone harpoons, all broken small, made of the bones of some
animal, probably the guanaco. T h e marks of t h e tool with which they had been scraped
to a point were clearly visible. None of these were ba~,bed,whilst the natural curve in
those fashioned from rib bones must have rendered them bnt inefficient implements,
whether of war or the chase. Only one arrow-head was present, not remarkable in any
way ; i t was of a common lanceolate form and poor material.
T h e most interesting object found in this grave was a necklace, the scattered beads
of which had to be recovereti by treating the wllole contents of the grave in a sieve.
By this means considerably more than a thousand tiuy discs of shell were obtained, all
perforated in their centres and forming, when threadetl, a string 6 feet long. Mally
were lost through their decayed state. E a c h of these must ha,ve been drilled alone,
since the perforation is funnel-shaped from each side. T h e drills used may possibly
have been the tough, hard 'spines of the cactus.
Finally, whilst searching for the beads, 1 found a few fragments of bone, of
irregular shape, stained a bright turquoise blue colonr by means of copper, as I deter-
mined subsequently. This colouratiou was distinctly confined to these few fragments,
and did not affect the other bones in t h e least. I could find no copper.bearing stone in
the rubbish that could have caused a stain by contact, so am inclined to consider that
the colouring was done purposely. OSV\TALDH. EVANS.
- -

New Zea.land. Edge-Partington.

Note on t h e M a o r i Canoe Baler, described by H. St. George
Gray i n Man," 1906, 5. By J . Edge- Partington.
T h e canoe baler figured and described by Mr. St,. George Gray in his note in
13
MAN,1906, 5, is certainly of interest;, but rather on al:count of t h e unusual style of
carving thau from the history which accompa.nies it. T h e treatment of the lluman face
carved on the end is quite peculiar and without parallel aruong the specimens of Maori
art which are known to collectors ; it is far too realistic for old Maori work and the
details, nose, ears, grooved tongue, taken by themselves would h&dlp suggest New
Zealand work a t all. Finally, the positiol: of the face is a contradiction to the
conventional phallic idea generally expressed in the handles of these balers.
I t seems difficult, therefore, to agree with Mr. Gray when he writes, " There is
" nothing unusual asbout the treatment of the tlecoratecl portion of t.he baler.'.'
I do not wish to be understood to imply any doubt as to the genuine uature of the
baler itself, there car], in fact, be none ; but it is difficult 11ot to believe that the
ornamentation is quite modern and possibly even the handiwork of a European.
J. E D G E - P A I Z T I N G T O N .

Craniology. Myers.
Note on t h e Relative Variability o f Modern a n d Ancient, a n d
o f Rural a n d Urban Peoples. fly Charles S. Myers.
I n a paper published in the Journal o f the Anthropological I~zstitute(Volume
14
X X X V . , page 80) 1 have pointed out that the chief head measurements show
approximately the same variability in the "prehistoric" people of Upper E g y p t as in
the modern population of the same region. One is led to conclude that a g e alone does
not produce in a people increased heterogeneity.
r 24 1