The cave excavated by Dr. Palmer is situated on a granitic hill to the west of the bay, at an elevation of 30 ft. above sea level. Just below the mouth of the narrow fissure is a spring which supplies water to the little mining community. The cave itself measures 9 ft. in depth; it is 6 ft. wide and 5 ft. high at the mouth. Before Dr. Palmer's excavations, miners of the Gulf Gold Mining Company had removed some stones--referred to in the Report as a "wall"--from the front of the fissure, thus exposing a few bones, which lay sun-bleached on the talus slope (Annual Report, 1888, p. 127).
The small cave at Bahía de Los Angeles contained at least seven burials: six adults and "fragments of one or more infants" (Annual Report, 1888, p. 128). These burials were extended with an east-west orientation corresponding to the axis of the fissure; the foot bones were to the west, at the mouth of the cave, and the crania were in the tapered interior. The published report does not indicate whether placement was prone or supine.
According to the Report the burials had been placed on a layer of sewn rush matting (139533[1]; see "Matting"), of which three bundles were collected.
[1] Numbers throughout this paper refer to catalogue numbers of the United States National Museum unless otherwise specified.
The artifacts described here were found in direct association with the skeletons. There are few details as to actual associations. However, three hairnets (139534) were found on three of the crania.
To date, the use of small caves for the specific purpose of burial appears to be characteristic only of the extreme south of Baja California, in the Cape Region. Interments there were customarily secondary, although primary burials, usually flexed, do occur (Massey, MS 1). In the extensive area that lies between Bahía de Los Angeles and the Cape Region, excavations have failed to produce cave cemeteries. To judge from published reports, such a custom was rare elsewhere in western North America.
A variety of artifacts accompanied the burials, but while the range of types is large, the number of any one type is small. Preservation of all specimens is generally good. We are fortunate in having perishable pieces--netting, matting, cloth, and wood. Certain general categories of items, such as household utensils and remains of foodstuffs, are absent and unreported.