Abstract
SOME time ago, Signor S. Marghieri, the Mexican archæologist, while exploring the eastern side of the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico, at an elevation of nearly seven thousand feet, discovered and explored a hermetically sealed cave. The floor was nearly smooth, the sides rough and rugged, and the vault covered with stalactites. At the far end of the cave, which was of considerable dimensions, four mummified human bodies were found. The bodies—a full-grown male and female, and a boy and girl—were in a sitting posture, hands crossed on the breast, and knees approaching the chin, with the head inclined forward. They were all carefully enshrouded in burial garments, and accurately placed facing the rising sun. We may suppose that the elder male and female were husband and wife. They sat side by side; the elder child, a boy, was placed to the right of the father; the younger, a little girl, to the left of the mother. There was no trace of any implements, utensils, or personal effects; nor were there on the walls hieroglyphics or pictographs. The cave had been sealed by means of sun-dried, adobe bricks, and adobe paste or plaster, together with natural rocks from the mountain. So well was the work done that none but an acute observer would have noticed the artificial closure.
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Desiccated Human Remains . Nature 39, 36–37 (1888). https://doi.org/10.1038/039036a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/039036a0