CAVE OF DEAD

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 182, 20 July 1935, Page 5

CAVE OF DEAD

HUNDRED MUMMIES NEW GUINEA DISCOVERY Seated with Heads on Hands MAY BE 2000 YEARS OLD (By Telegraph—Press Assn.-Copyright.) (Received 20, 12.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, July 20. The mummified remains of more than a hundred human beings were discovered in New Guinea recently. The features had been preserved almost perfectly. The discovery was made by Dr. J. ♦ R. Atcherley, former administrative officer of New Guinea. Dr. Atcherley was on a mining expedition when the discovery was made at Mapos, thirty miles north-west of Salamaua.

An aperture with a diameter of about five feet was seen in the face of a cliff about forty feet from the ground. It was found that a large cavern lay beyond. A shelved mausoleum was discovered inside, on which the mummies were seated, with their heads resting on their hands. According to Dr. Atcherley, the mummies have been preserved by petrification caused by the dripping of water from the roofs of the limestone caves. It would be impossible to give the exact ages of the remains. The general opinion was that the ages varied from between a thousand and two thousand years. The hair, toe nails and linger Kails could easily be recognised. A Landon message says that anthropologists ere keen to learn the details of Dr. Atcherley’s discovery. Dr. Firth, of New Zealand, secretary of the Anthropological Society, said: “New Zealand discoveries some years ago were assumed to indicate the spreaa or mummification from Egypt, but the evidence depreciated when it was discovered that the bodies were desaicatcd by natural processes in limestone caves. Therefore it will be most interesting to learn the method of preservation in the case of Dr. Atcherley’s discovery, which I think is the first in New Guinea and is important because other Torres Straits mummies are remarkably similar to Egyptian. “We await details revealing the funeral practices of those responsible for Dr. Atcherley’s mummies, because they will shed light on the purposes of this preservation and on philosophy and ideas on life after death. “It would be most desirable for an experienced anthropologist like Dr. Fortune, at present at Ramu Plateau, New Guiea, to investigate Dr. Atcherley ’• find with a view to deriving (the maximum value from the evidence,’’ said Dr. Firth. “The Government should be most careful in ascertaining the attitude of the natives, because careless interference elsewhere has led to reprisals hindering further study.’’