e "University of Idolatry," at
"Vilcabamba Viejo," "the largest city" in the province. Machu Picchu
admirably answers its requirements. Here it would have been very
easy for the Inca Titu Cusi to have kept the monks in the vicinity
of the Sacred City for three weeks without their catching a single
glimpse of its unique temples and remarkable palaces. It would have
been possible for Titu Cusi to bring Friar Marcos and Friar Diego
to the village of Intihuatana near San Miguel, at the foot of the
Machu Picchu cliffs. The sugar planters of the lower Urubamba Valley
crossed the bridge of San Miguel annually for twenty years in blissful
ignorance of what lay on top of the ridge above them. So the friars
might easily have been lodged in huts at the foot of the mountain
without their being aware of the extent and importance of the Inca
"university." Apparently they returned to Puquiura with so little
knowledge of the architectural character of "Vilcabamba Viejo" that
no description of it could be given their friends, eventually to
be reported by Calancha. Furthermore, the difficult journey across
country from Puquiura might easily have taken "three days."

Finally, it appears from Dr. Eaton's studies that the last residents
of Machu Picchu itself were mostly women. In the burial caves which
we have found in the region roundabout Machu Picchu the proportion
of skulls belonging to men is very large. There are many so-called
"trepanned" skulls. Some of them seem to belong to soldiers injured
in war by having their skulls crushed in, either with clubs or
the favorite sling-stones of the Incas. In no case have we found
more than twenty-five skulls without encountering some "trepanned"
specimens among them. In striking contrast is the result of the
excavations at Machu Picchu, where one hundred sixty-four skulls
were found in the burial caves, yet not one had been "trepanned." Of
the one hundred thirty-five skeletons whose sex could be accurately
determined by Dr. Eaton, one hundred nine were females. Furthermore,
it was in the graves of the females that the finest artifacts were
found, showing that they were persons of no little importance. Not
a single representative of the robust male of the warrior type was
found in the burial caves of Machu Picchu.

Another striking fact brought out by Dr. Eaton is that some of the
female skeletons represent individuals from the seacoast. This fits in
with Calancha's statement that Titu Cusi t