^^ LIBRARY OF THE University of California GIFT OF The a ANGPvOFT Li B ap^ y - Class .^///*'l^ V ' ^ f^\ 7 d^-^ ARCH/EOLOGICAL HISTORY OF OHIO THE MOUND BUILDERS AND LATER INDIANS "By Gerard Fowke PUBLISHED BY THE OHIO STATE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLUMBUS, OHIO PRESS OF FRED. J. HEER 1902 Entered according- to the Act of Congress in the year 1902 BY E. O. RANDAI^Iv In the ofl&ce of the I,ibrarian of Congress at Washington KFFIQY F»IF»K. BACK VIEW. SIDE VIEW. PREFATORY NOTE THE Arch^.ological History of Ohio, which is herewith given to the pubHc, is the consummation of a desire long entertained by the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society. The Society is enabled to put forth this publication by means of the appreciative and generous assistance of the General Assembly, which made sufficient appropriations for the purpose in the years 1900 and 1902. Probably no work of equal character and completeness has been produced by any state in the Union. Certainly no other state affords such rich material for similar work. While the Archaeological History of Ohio is published by the Society under the auspices of the state, it is to be regarded in no sense as a public document for gratuitous distribution. For the preparation of this work the Society was fortunate in obtaining the services of Mr. Gerard Fowke, who has had extensive and A^aried experience as an Archaeologist. He has conducted explorations for the National American Bureau of Ethnology; in 1884, at Flint Ridge in Licking county (Ohio) ; in 1885, in northern Mississippi, southern Ohio and northern Kentucky; in 1886, in western Pennsylvania, southern Illinois and western Kentucky; in 1887, in conjunction with James D. Middleton made surveys of alDoriginal works in Licking, Ross and Pike counties; collected data for archaeological map from Detroit to Duluth, principally along the lake shores, and to some extent in the interior of Michigan (northern and southern peninsulas), Wisconsin and Minnesota; then arnong the effigy mounds of Wisconsin and Iowa; thence down the Mississippi to Cairo and across western and central Kentucky. In 1891-2-3, examined the valleys of the James, Potomac, Shenandoah and South Branch, in Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland, opening large numbers of mounds; made a partial map of the mounds and shell heaps along the Atlantic coast of Georgia and Florida. In 1892 visited Columbia, South America, and studied aboriginal remains. In 1893, studied the archaeological localities in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio. In 1894 and 1896, studied the remains of the Norsemen on Charles river near Boston. In 1898, opened various cairns on Van- couver's Island (British Columbia), and explored the lower Amoor river in Siberia, for the American Museum of Natural History of New York. Mr. Fowke has written extensively for publications, particularly the reports of the Smithsonian Institution and of the Bureau of Ethnology; in the American Anthropologist; Science; the American Naturalist; Folk Lore Journal; Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly; Ohio Geo- logical Survey Reports; Denison University Bulletins; Ohio Academy of Science (special papers); the American Archaeologist; Popular Science; Reports of Philadelphia Academy of Natural Science and numerous magazines and newspapers. E. O. Randall, Secretary Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society. Columbus, Ohio, April, 1902. (iii) 235121 PREFACE "There is more ado to interpret interpretations than to interpret the things, and more books upon books than upon all other subjects; we- do nothing but comment upon one another." This volume is not written for scientists or specialists. Many persons interested in archaeology are desirous of extending their knowledge, but have not the time, opportunity, or perhaps courage to wade through the vast amount of literature that has accumulated on this subject in the past fifty years. To lighten this labor, an attempt, is made in the following pages to compile so much of it as relates to Ohio antiquities, and present it in convenient form. As certain features of Ohio archaeology can not be understood when considered alone, there must be brought into the work a number of descriptions of remains^ outside her borders. This is the more necessary owing to the general impression that traces of the Mound Builders, wherever found or of whatever nature, belong to one race existing within one defmite period, of time. To the writer has been assigned the task of preparing the manu- script and selecting the illustrations ; the reproduction of the latter and the publication of the entire work has been assumed by the Ohio Archae- ological and Historical Society. Most of the figures, except those in the chapter on relics, have been borrowed from the sources indicated in the text. The explanation of abbreviated references wail be found in the appendix. ^, ^ Gerard Fowke. Chilhcothe, Ohio, July, 1901. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I. PAGE, Introductory 1 CHAPTER H. Paleolithic Man. The Evidence of His Existence. Objections to the Evidence. Necessity for Careful Examination 6 In Europe 6 In America 7 The Trenton Gravels of the Delaware River 7 Glacial Man in Ohio 15 CHAPTER III. Theories of the Origin and Migrations of North American Indians. Natives of North America. Conjectures as to Their Origin. Ways in Which the New World Might Have Been Peopled from the Old. Possibly a Distinct Variety. Apparently of Great Antiquity. Mounds in the Eastern Hemisphere. Of Various Ages. Widely Distributed. Probable Initial Seat of American Aborigines. Lines of Migration. Suggestions as to Lineage of Mound Builders 31 Mound Building Peoples 43 CHAPTER IV. The Mound Builders. Ohio Mound Builders. Early Writers. Little Known until the Report of Squier and Davis. Great Increase in Number of Authors Since Their Day. Conflicting Opinions Re- garding This People. Theories as to Their Affiliation with His- toric Tribes. No Definite Knowledge Concerning Their Origin or End 54 A. Civilization 61 . B. Religion 76 C. Numbers 78 D. Extent 86 Geographical Limitations of Types 101 B. Age 104 The Mastodon or Mammoth 107 The Buffalo 113 Human Bones 115 (V) vi Table of Contents. PAGE. Trees 117 Terraces 124 The Formation of Terraces 127 Surface Accumulation and Erosion 130 F. Physical Structure 131 Crania 13 1 Jaws, Teeth, and Limbs 142 Summary 146 CHAPTER V. Enclosures. The Enclosures of Ohio. Classification. Theories as to Use. Methods of Designing and Building, Description 149* Geometric Enclosures , 162 Newark Works 162 Marietta Works 171 Charleston (West Virgmia) Works 173 Portsmouth Works 173 Pike County Works 179 Ross County Works 181 Harness Works 184 High Banks Works 187 Chillicothe Works 190 Frankfort Works 190 Hopetown Works 190 Cedar Banks Works 196- "Mound City" 198 Dunlap's Works I99. Blackwater Works 202 "Junction Group" 202 Clark's Works, or the Hopewell Works 204 Baum's Works, Bourneville 206 Bainbridge (Pricer's) Works 206 Circleville Works 208 Remains in the Miami Valleys 209' Turner Works 209* Cincinnati Works 212 Other Works 212 CHAPTER VI. Smaller Enclosures and Works of Irregular Construction. Minor Geometrical Enclosures. Confined Mainly to Southern Half of the State. Probably Walls of Villages. The Smallest, Possibly Foundations for Houses. Irregular Works, Mostly in Northern Part of the State and in Miami Valleys. Evidently for Defensive Purposes. Similar Works Common in Other States 220 Table of Contents, vii CHAPTETl VII. PAGE. Hill-top Enclosures. Effective Defenses. Deficient Water Supply. Large Areas Included. Amount of Labor Involved in Con- struction. Possibly Not Work of the Mound Builders 238 Fort Ancient, Warren County 239 Spruce Hill, Ross County 242 Fort Hill, Highland County 244 Glenford Fort, Ferry County 248 Fort Miami, Hamilton County 254 Fort at Foster's, Warren County 256 "Fortified Hill," Butler County 257 "Fortified Hill," Licking County 259 Fort near Newark, Licking County 261 Fort on Flint Ridge, Licking County 261 Other Hill Forts 261 To what People May We Attribute the Forts ? 265 CHAPTER VIII. Graded Ways, Terraces, Effigies, and Anomalous Structures 271 A. Graded Ways A. At Marietta 272 B. At Richmonddale 273 c. At Piqua 274 D. At Piketon 274 E. At Waverly 278 F. At Newark 278 G. Near Bourneville 278 H. At Madisonville 278 I. Near Carlisle 279 B. Terraces 281 At Fort Ancient and Waynesville 281 At Red Bank, Hamilton County 281 C. Effigies 282 A. Serpent ^lound, Adams County 282 B. The Opossum, Licking County 291 c. The Newark Figure 292 D. The Tapir, Scioto County 294 E. The Bear, opposite Portsmouth 295 D. Anomalous Structures 295 The Cross, Pickaway County 295 Stone Work, Ross County 295 The Trefoil, Ross County 297 viii Table of Contents. CHAPTER IX. p^^^^ The Mounds of Ohio. Numbers. Size. Form. Classification. Stratification. Altars. Position of Skeletons. Property Buried with the Dead. Origin of the Custom. How Mounds were Built 299 Altar Mounds ^^^ Altars 3^^ Temple Mounds ^^^ Lookout Mounds ^^^ Sepulchral Mounds ^1^ How Mounds Were Built 319 CHAPTER X. Structure and Contents of Mounds 322 Northern Ohio 322 Central and Southern Ohio 324 Grave Creek Mound, West Virginia 324 Charleston, West Virginia 328 Knox County 329 Licking County 331 Athens County 335 Lower Muskingum Valley 337 Hocking County 339 Pickaway County 341 Ross County 342 Hopewell's -343 Baum's 347 Chillicothe 348 Harness's 359 Pike County 362 Adams County 380 Brown County 380 Clermont County 381 Montgomery County 382 Butler County 383 Hamilton County 383 Turner Group 385 CHAPTER XL Stone Mounds. Stone Graves. Cemeteries. Village Sites. Shell Heaps. Funnel Shaped Pits. Rock Shelters. Rock Inscrip- tions 388 Stone Mounds 388 Stone Graves 391 Village Sites 406 Cemeteries 412 Table of Contents. ix PAGE. Shell Heaps 413 Funnel-shaped Pits 414 Rock Shelters 415 Rock Inscriptions 417 Localities of Inscribed Rocks 423 CHAPTER XII. Some Analogies Between the Remains of Mound Builders and Those of Modern Indians 425 Traditions 427 The Modern Indian as a Builder of Mounds 445 Reported Objects of Modern Date, Exhumed from Mounds 455 Salt-making 4G2 Conclusions 469 CHAPTER XIII. Indians. False Beliefs Regarding Them. Home Life. Character, as Portrayed by Those Familiar with Them „ 473 CHAPTER XIV. Sources of Material for Manufactured Objects 509 Art in Stone. Methods of Working. Classification. Uses 509 Pecked or Ground Objects 521 Axes, Celts, and Gouges 521 Axes 521 Celts 526 Gouges 532 Hematite Celts 532 Pestles 536 Mullers 539 Pitted Stones 539 Cup-stones 539 Hammer-stones 545 IMortars 548 Sinkers and Large Perforated Stones 519 Discoidal Stones 551 Spuds 554 Plummets 550 Cones 559 Hemispheres 559 CHAPTER XV. Stones for Decorative or Ceremonial Purposes 561 Gorgets 564 Barmer Stones 566 X Table of Contents. Bird-shaped Stones PAGE. 569 569 Spools Working Soft Stone ^'^ rr^ X. 570 Tubes Inscribed Tablets ^°^ Pipes ^^l Sculptures ^^\ The Manitus ^^^ CHAPTER XVI. Chipped Stone Articles ^^^ Sources of Raw Material "1^ Flint Ridge. ^^^ Quarries near Warsaw ^^^ New Lexington 62^ Carter County, Kentucky 625 Kanawha Valley - • • • ^26 Wyandotte Cave ^^^ The Manufacture of Flint Implements 632 Flaking • 634 Arrow-making 635 Time Required 643 Uses of Chipped Flint Articles 645 Other Forms of Flint Implements 657 Perforators 657 Bunts ^m Scrapers 667 Cores » 668 Flakes 670' Ceremonial Flints 672 Serration 673 Beveling 673 Some Odd Suggestions 676 CHAPTER XVII. Other Manufactured Articles 678 Bone 678 Shell 684 Pottery 691 Fabric 697 Mica 701 Copper 704 How Copper was Obtained and Worked 705- Implements and Ornaments of Copper 714 APPENDIX. Explanation of Reference Notes 729* LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE.. Figure 1.— The "Elephant Mound" of Wisconsin 111. Figures 2 and 3. — The "Elephant Pipes" from Iowa Ill Figure 4. — Mound in which skull was found 137 Figure 5. — Section of above mound 138. Figure 6. — Profile of skull from mound 138 Figure 7. — Front and top view of skull from mound 139 Figure 8. — Morgan's "Restoration of High Bank Pueblo" 156 Figure 9.— Morgan's Plan of "High Bank Pueblo" 157 Figure 10. — Six miles of Raccoon creek valley, Licking county 163 Figure 11. — The Newark works, Licking county 164 Figure 12. — Minor work at Newark 166 Figure 13. — The Fair Ground Circle at Newark 169 Figure 14. — The Square at Newark 170- Figure 15. — The Marietta works 172 Figure 16. — The Portsmouth group 174 Figure 17. — Work opposite old mouth of the Scioto 175 Figure 18. — Works on the site of Portsmouth 177 Figure 19. — Mound and concentric circles in Kentucky 177 Figure 20. — Mound within enclosure, Greenup county Kentucky 178 Figure 21. — The Barnes work, Pike county 180 Figure 22. — Ditch and embankment, with Barnes work 181 Figure 23. — Twelve miles of the Scioto valley 182 Figure 24. — Six miles of Paint creek valley 183^ Figure 25. — Harness, or Liberty township group, Ross county 185 Figure 26. — Correct outline of small circle. Harness group 187 Figure 27. — High Banks works, Ross county 188 Figure 28.— Octagon at High Banks 189 Figure 29.— Works at Chillicothe 191 Figure 30. — Works at Frankfort, Ross county 191 Figure 31. — Works at Hopetown, Ross county 192 Figure 32. — The square at Hopetown 194 Figure 33. — The circle at Hopetown 195 Figure 34. — Cedar Banks works, Ross county 196 Figure 35. — "Mound City," Ross county 199 Figure 36. — Dunlap works, Ross county.' 200 Figure 37. — • Blackwater group, Ross county 201 Figure 38. — Junction group, Ross county 203 Figure 39. — Clark's works, or Hopewell group, Ross county 205 Figure 40. — Baum works, near Bourneville, Ross county 207 Figure 41. — Pricer works, near Bainbridge, Ross county 207 Figure 42. — Six miles of the Great Miami valley 210' (xi) xii List of Illustrations. PAGE. Figure 43.— Work in Clermont county 213 Figure 44.— The "Gridiron," Clermont county 213 Figure 45.— Coleraine work, Butler county 214 Figure 46.— Works at Alexanders ville, Montgomery county 216 Figure 47.— Square near Worthington, Franklin county 218 Figure 48.— Ellipse near Bourneville, Ross county 218 Figure 49.— Works near Dublin, Franklin county 222 Figure 50.— Works in Athens county 223 Figure 51.— Archaeological map of Miami county. . .• 224 Figure 52.— Work on Massie's creek, Greene county 227 Figure 53.— Works at Norwalk, Huron county 228 Figure 54.— Works in Ashtabula and Cuyahoga counties 229 Figure 55.— Works near Cleveland 230 Figure 56. — Work near Toledo 231 Figures 57 and 58.— Works in Lorain county 231 Figure 59.— Fort Ancient, Warren county 241 Figure 60.— Spruce Hill Fort, Ross county 243 Figure 61.— Fort Hill, Highland county 246 Figure 62.— Map of the vicinity of Fdrt Hill 247 Figure 63.— Glenford Fort, Perry county 248 Figure 64.— East wall of Glenford Fort 250 Figure 65.— Portion of eastern wall, Glenford Fort 251 Figure m.— Wall on east slope, Glenford Fort 252 Figure 67.— View from interior of Glenford Fort 253 Figure 68.— Fort Miami, Hamilton county • 255 Figure 69.— "Fortified Hill," Butler county 258 Figure 70.— "Fortified Hill," Licking county, with exterior ditch 260 Figure 71.— Hill fort, with exterior ditch, Licking county 262 Figure 72.— Stone fort on Flint Ridge, Licking county 262 Figure 73. — • Fortifications in Butler county 263 Figure 74. — Enclosures in Miami and Montgomery counties 264 Figure 75.— Graded Way, Pike county; from Squier and Davis. .... 276 Figure 76.— Graded Way ; from Squier and Davis 277 Figure 77. — Graded Way ; correct plan and sections 277 Figure 78. — Serpent Mound ; from Squier and Davis 283 Figure 79. — Map of Serpent Mound Park ; from Putnam . 285 Figure 80.— Serpent Mound ; from McLean 286 Figure 81. — Serpent Mound ; from Holmes 290 Figure 82. — The Opossum Mound, Licking county 291 Figure 83. — The Newark "Effigy," Licking county 293 Figure 84. — Groups of conjoined mounds 293 Figure 85. — The "Tapir," Scioto county 294 Figure 86. — The Cross, Pickaway county 296 Figure 87. — Stone work, Ross county 296 Figure 88.— The Trefoil, Ross county 298 Figure 89. — The Marietta Mound ; from a fanciful sketch 301 Figure 90. — The Marietta Mound ; from a photograph 301 List of Illustrations, xiii PAGE. Figure 91. — The Miamisburg Mound; from a photograph 302 Figure 92. — The Tippett Mound, Licking county; from a sketch 302 Figure 93. — Great Stone Mound, Licking Co., impossible "restoration." 302 Figure 94. — Theoretical section of a mound and altar 305 Figure 95. — Outlines of separate loads of earth in a mound 307 Figure 96.— Plan of mound at Mt. Vernon 330 Figiire 97. — Section of above mound 330 Figure 98. — Group of mounds near Brownsville and Linville 332 Figure 99. — Stone mound in above group 333 Figure 100.— Temple Mound at Marietta 338 Figure 101. — Enclosure with interior mound near Adelphi 340 Figure 102. — Section of mound with altar 344 Figure 103. — Sections of mound at Baum's 347 Figure 104. — Imaginary section of a mound 350 Figure 105. — Plan and section of altar 350 Figure 100. — Section of a mound with very large altar 351 Figure 107. — Longitudinal section of above altar 351 Figure 108. — Cross section of same 351 Figure 109. — Cross section of altar 353 Figure 110. — Wooden pick and log cut with stone ax 356 Figure 111. — Section of a mound 360 Figure 112. — Plan and section of Harness mound 360 Figure 113. — Monitor pipe from Harness mound , 360 Figure 114. — Front view of skull from Waverly mound 366 Figure 115. — Side view of above skull 367 Figure 116. — Front view of skull from Waverly mound 368 Figure 117, — Side view of above skull 369 Figure 118. — Mound of stone covered with earth, Chillicothe 390 Figure 119. — Stone graves in a mound of earth, Brown county 393 Figure 120. — Grave in above mound 395 Figure 121. — Cairn with covering intact, in above mound 396 Figures 122 and 123. — Grave, cleaned out, in above cairn 397 Figure 124. — Grave made of clay and stone in above mound 399 Figure 125. — Cairn in Brown county 399 Figure 126. — Grave cleaned out, in a cairn 401 Figure 127. — Cairn in Brown county 403 Figure 128. — Grave in above cairn 403 Figure 129. — Plan and section of stone grave near Ripley 405 Figure 130. — Cairn containing an "arch," near Ripley 405 Figure 131. — Refuse pit, Madisonville 407 Figure 132. — Refuse pit, containing charred corn, Madisonville 407 Figure 133. — Refuse pit containing human skeleton, Madisonville... 408 Figure 134. — One of the Barnesville "Track Rocks" 419 Figure 135. — Some details of above inscription 420 Figure 136.— Barnesville "Track Rock" 421 Figure 137.— Newark "Track Rock" 422 Figure 138. — Inscribed rock at Independence 42^ xiv List of Illustrations . PAGE. Figures 139 and 140.— Aboriginal hut plastered and floored with mud. 461 Figure 141. — Axe with two grooves 521 Figures 142 to 154. — Grooved axes 527-530 Figures 155 to 157.— Hatchets, tomahawks, or celts 533-535 Figure 158. — Hematite celts 536 Figures 159 to 162.— Pestles 537-538 Figure 163.— Mullers 539 Figure 164. — Cup-stone • 541 Figure 165. — Large boulder with numerous cups 546 Figure 166. — Hammers, sinkers, or club-heads; round and grooved. 547 Figures 167 and 168. — Discoidal Stones 555 Figure 169. — Spud-like implement 557 Figure 170.— Plummets 557 Figures 171 and 172. — Cones 560 Figure 173. — Hemispheric stones 560 Figures 174 to 176.— Gorgets 566-568 Figure 177. — Banner stones 570 Figure 178.— Pendants 571 Figure 179. — Perforated round stones 571 Figure 180.— Picks 571 Figure 181. — Bar amulets 572 Figure 182. — Bird shaped stones 572 Figure 183. — Spool shaped stones 573 Figure 184. — Unfinished pipes 573 Figures 185 to 187. — Unfinished slate objects 574-576 Figure 188. — Grinding or polishing stones 576 Figure 189.— Tubes 577 Figure 190. — Monitor pipes 585 Figure 191. — Unfinished effigy pipe 586 Figures 192 to 195. — Effigy pipes ; human heads 591-592 Figure 196. — Effigy pipe ; figure with human head 592 Figure 197. — Effigy pipe ; bird with human head 592 Figure 198. — Effigy pipe ; human figure with coiled snake 593 Figures 199 and 200.— Human faces carved in stone 593-594 Figure 201.— Effigy pipe ; elk 594 Figure 202.— Effigy pipe ; wildcat 594 Figure 203.— Effigy pipe ; otter 594 Figure 204.— Effigy pipe ; heron 595 Figure 205.— Effigy pipe ; eagle or hawk 595 Figure 206,— Effigy pipe ; buzzard 595 Figure 207.— Effigy pipe; paroquet 597 Figures 208 and 209.— Effigy pipes ; unfinished 597 Figure 210.— Effigy pipe ; toucan 598 Figure ail.— Effigy pipe ; unnamed 598 Figure 212. — Effigies ; eagles 598 Figure 213.— Effigy pipe ; toad 599 Figure 214. — Effigy pipe ; possibly groundhog 599 List of Illustrations. xv PAGE. Figure 215. — Effigy pipe ; possibly hawk or eagle 599 Figure 216. — Effigy pipe ; unnamed 600 Figure 217.— Effigy pipe ; coiled rattlesnake 600 Figure 218. — Effigy pipe ; said to be an owl 600 Figures 219 to 221. — So-called ''toucan pipes," and the toucan 607 Figures 222 and 223. — Effigy pipes, wrongly identified 609 Figures 224 to 227. — The manitus and the so-called manitus pipes. . 612 Figure 228. — Effigy pipe ; carnivore with human head 613 Figure 229. — Effigy pipe ; frog 613 Figure 230. — Effigy pipe ; owl 614 Figure 231. — Rude effigy pipes of stone and clay 615 Figures 232 and 233. — Various forms of pipes 615-616 Figure 234.— ]\Iap of Flint Ridge 620 Figure 235. — Mound containing large disks, at Hopewell's 628 Figure 236.— Disks, from Hopewell mound 630 Figure 237.— Diagram of terms applied to flint implements 633 Figure 238.— Flake of obsidian and arrow head made from it 642 Figure 239. — Progressive stages in arrow head making 644 Figures 240 to 242.— Flints with polished bases 647-649 Figure 243.— Flint knives or spear heads 650 Figures 244 and 245. — Flint knives 651-652 Figure 246. — Roughly finished knives or spear heads 653 ' Figure 247. — Flint scrapers 654 Figure 248.— Rare forms of knives and scrapers 654 Figure 249. — Unusual forms, probably for cutting or scraping 655 Figure 250. — Illustrating the manner of drilling curved objects 659 Figure 251.— Modern Sioux pipe made of catlinite 661 Figures 252 and 253. — Experiments in drilling 662 Figure 254. — Flint drill 662 Figures 255 to 260.— Primitive methods of drilling and fire-making. 663-664 Figures 261 and 262. — Experiments in drilling 664 Figure 263.— Flint perforators 665 Figure 264. — Bunts and scrapers 667 Figure 265. — Flint cores 669 Figure 266. — Flint flakes 671 Figures 267 and 268.— Methods of hafting knives and arrow heads. . . 675 Figure 269. — Bone scrapers or skin dressers 680 Figure 270.— Bone arrow heads 680 Figures 271 and 272.— Piercing, weaving and sewing tools of bone. .681-682 Figure 273.— Manufacture of bone fish hooks 683 Figure 274. — Animal jaws cut into ornaments 684 Figure 275.— Hoe made of a mussel shell 685 Figure 276. — Hoe or scraper made of a mussel shell 686 Figure 277.— Spoon made of a mussel shell 686 Figure 278.— Shell gorget 687 Figure 279.— Rattlesnake, carved in stone ^%^ Figure 280. — Belts of wampum 690 xvi List of Illustrations. PAGE. Figures 281 to 285. — Specimens of ancient pottery 692-695- Figure 286.— Clay pipes 6^^^ Figures 287 and 288.— Specimens of weaving, from impressions on pottery 698-699 Figures 289 and 290. — Specimens of cloth from mounds 700-701 Figure 291. — Parts of mica crescent 702 Figure 292. — Cutting and piercing tools of copper 714 Figure 293. — Copper hatchets or celts 714 Figure 294, — Copper plate, with cloth adhering 715 Figures 295 and 296. — Copper ornaments, battered out of form. . .716-717 Figure 297. — Copper ear-ornaments 718 Figure 298. — Antlers of wood, covered with copper, from Hopewell's. 719 Figures 299 and 300. — Copper symbolic figures, from Hopewell's. . . . 720 Figure 301. — Copper eagle, from Peoria 722 Figures 302 and 303.— Copper plates of Mexican design, from Georgia. 72S CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY FROM the first knowledge of our prehistoric earthworks they have aroused a steadily increasing interest, with a corresponding desire to learn something definite in regard to their builders. This hunger for information has, for the most part, been fed on husks. Most publications relating to the sub- ject, whether newspaper articles or bulky volumes, are the work of relic hunters, or persons whose curiosity is excited by some- thing they have seen or heard, or visionaries seeking proof of a pet hypothesis — and generally finding it; careless, unskilled, and superficial observers, whose acquaintance with the science is derived mainly or in some cases entirely at second-hand, and whose statements are unsafe to rely upon no matter how hon- est their intentions. Many such have felt impelled to set forth explanations and theories in regard to recognized facts, the meaning of which was to them as a sealed book. Almost in- variably something is taken for granted; partial examination of a limited field becomes the basis of arbitrary deductions re- specting a wide range of country; hasty surmises appear in the form of definite assertions; indications and possibilities patched together with wild guesses, are recorded as established facts. Some works which have attained a wude circulation, so far from being accurate expositors of facts and trustworthy records of scientific knowledge, as they purport, are nothing more than expressions of opinion by one whose knowledge is only partial, generally incorrect, and interpreted in the light of very limited personal investigation. A few, unfortunately, bear the signatures of distinguished men whose successful work in some other pro- fession or branch of science gives to their words the weight of authority when they decide, usually as a matter of recreation,,, to dabble in archaeology. They too often consider it unneces- sary to verify borrowed statements, or to do such field work as would enable them to determine the correctness of evidence^ upon which they proceed to build conclusions ; they are satisfiedi 1 (1^ ^ ; /:. V J \} ' : ; Archaeological History of Ohio. to cull from those who have preceded them, put their collec- tions together in an attractive form, add a few pages of com- ments and deductions, mostly mere conjecture, and send forth a volume which, being accepted without question because of the authors' reputation, adds to the general confusion. The erroneous and exaggerated statements and deductions contained in such writings have been deemed sufficient proof of a social organization such as would be possible only to a people possessing a far higher degree of culture than that of any tribe of American Indians of which there is record or tradition; so that in the end, there has been evolved a 'lost civilization" for whose assumed existence writers largely ignorant of facts have deemed it necessary to account by inventing a great nation dom- inating all the country from the Atlantic Ocean to the Rocky Mountains, from Canada to the Gulf. There has been pictured out a dense population of busy people living in unity under fixed laws, despotic or indulgent, hierarchy, monarchy, oligarchy, aris- tocracy, anything but democracy, as may seem to the author best adapted to bringing about the conditions of which he consid- ered himself the discoverer or sponsor, but always with the un- derlying principle of force and fear; tilling the soil, paying tribute, assembling periodically for adoration to a Great Spirit or homage to rulers, national games or religious festivals ; dig- ging mica in the east, mining copper in the north, diving for shells and pearls in the south, working flint quarries in various parts of the Mississippi Valley; practicing unknown and un- knowable rites in the Scioto and Kanawha Valleys, animal fetichism in the far west, sun worship on the Mississippi. For these people, who are supposed to have preceded the known In- dians, and to have differed from them in almost every respect, the expression " Mound Builders " has been appropriated as a distinctive title; and has been made elastic enough to embrace the authors of not only the remains in the Ohio Valley, but all the cognate works in the Unifed States. Owing to the vague ■and discursive meaning usually attached to it, however, the term, so far from serving to assist the general reader in arriv- ing at a correct understanding ot prehistoric conditions, is really an obstacle in his way. At once his mind is sent drifting over the whole country, striving to comprehend in a single thought all manner of incongruous peoples and occupations. To popu- Introductory, 8 lar conception, the Mound Builder- is an illusory, mythological personage, who, in fairy-book fashion, roves through the sunny south, floats over 'northern lakes, traverses western prairies, wanders up and down great rivers. Reason or judgment can lay no firm hold on him in either time or space. The name ap- peals to imagination like a haunting strain from a forgotten song. It conjures up the shadowy outline of a being unlike any that ever existed on earth; who combines in harmonious re- lation qualities found only in the highest of educated races with those wdiich never survive a state of savagery. Ignorant of metals, he was a skillful engineer ; without a single animal that could be used as a beast of burden, he was a sucessful farmer; with no means of communication except canoes and messengers on foot, a central power, somewhere, was kept fully informed of all that occurred within a radius of a thousand miles. More- over, almost his entire time was spent in conducting some sort of religious exercises or in defending himself against the at- tacks of enemies. There passes before us a panorama of priests, warriors, nobles, despots, slaves, a supreme ruler, a national re- ligion, bloody wars, endless sacrifices, and all the characteris- tics of an empire like that of ancient Persia or Egypt ; with the turning of a page we are in the midst of weapons, fortresses, look-out stations, ambuscades, sieges, battles, massacres, and "refuges of last resort." It is rem.arkable that persons able to distinguish between the reasonable and the ridiculous will let their intellectual powers become so blurred by thrilling rhetoric or airy flights of fancy, as not to perceive the self-evident contradictions in a large majority of popular archaeological writings. The erroneous prevalent notions concerning native races of North America, whether of the past or present, created and confirmed by gross mistakes and manifest perversions of truth so widely circulated, are discouraging to those who have studied the subject and are desirous of presenting it in the proper light; and they have, as a general rule, withstood the attempts of experienced investigators to substitute for them more correct ideas of native life. Sensible and conservative state- ments of men who have classified the knowledge brought out by spade and trowel, and compared it with that recovered by diligent research from ancient records, make a feebler impres- 4 Archaeological History of Ohio. sion than the utterances of platform lecturers or contributors to popular periodicals, who find pecuniary returns directly pro- portional to the glamor in which they contrive to envelop their emanations. But there have always been some who refused to accept the prevailing superstitions. They have preferred to examine the material from which the ideas are derived. For nearly a century a few delvers into the dust-heaps of vanished races have dug in a methodical instead of a desultory manner; have reported what they observed instead of what unfinished excava- tions may have led them to infer. Their enthusiasm, necessary for the prosecution of such work, has been subordinate to com- mon sense; their deductions are based upon reason and reasons, and not upon imagination. The wide-spread mistakes and fal- lacies regarding the aboriginal inhabitants of the United States, need never have come into existence, had due regard been paid to the published material of men who were not content to ac- cept superficial indications as final proof. But, unfortunately, such publications were few in number, concise in style, limited in extent, and worse than all, buried in ''Proceedings," and 'Transactions," and "Reports," of institutions, societies, and associations, and consequently as maccessible to the public at large as if they had never been issued. There is always room for difference of opinion on questions which must be solved by comparative or analytic study. But in matters where exact conclusions can be reached by any one who will be at the trouble to investigate properly, there is but one side. Systematic investigation has broken up this mythical "nation" into separate tribes whose relationship to one another, if indeed there be any, is very obscure. The variations in size, design, outward appearance, interior arrangements and contents, of enclosures, mounds, earthworks and stone structures, in dif- ferent sections of the country, compel a belief that their inception and construction is due to several disconnected tribes. The re- mains of the upper half of the Ohio Valley are quite unlike those toward its mouth ; the same is true of the Tennessee. The re- gions about the lower lakes, the upper Mississippi, the Gulf States, differ from one another, each having its own peculiar class. Central Kentucky has some features in common with southern Ohio and with the region south of Tennessee, while in other re- Introductory. 6 spects it finds no counterpart elsewhere. In short, the whole Mississippi Valley may be divided into tolerably well defined districts not much larger than the state of Ohio, each possess- ing a class of remains which in some respects is distinctively marked ofif from all the others. It would very much simplify matters if, to each area which properly constitutes an archaeo- logical division, a name or title could be given which should belong to it alone. This would at once bring the science down to a geographical basis ; and the soaring mind of the novice instead of ambitiously striving to attain a height whence it might survey with sweeping glance a vast prehistoric empire, could fold its wangs and return to earth with the hope of finding something definite to work on. So far as the evidence now at hand tends to show, it would soon learn that all this wondrous, complex "civilization" rests upon no batter foundation than earthen enclosures demanding only ordinary sighting and easily contrived apparatus to originate, patience and brute strength to execute ; and the excavation from tumuli of articles not surpassing in any respect similar things made by modern Indian tribes in various parts of the country, but ecstatically proclaimed to be equal in design and finish to the finest pro- ductions of the most skillful potters, sculptors, and lapidaries in modern art centers. In recent years archaeological investigation has attracted a large force of careful, intelligent field-workers whose reports are models of scientific accuracy; and men fully competent to the task have reviewed these records, condensing and comparing them, formulating working theories, making broad generaliza- tions, bringing order out of chaos. With all that has been accomplished, however, archaeology, as a science, is yet in its formative period. There are many un- settled questions concerning which very different or even oppo- site opinions are held by students equally qualified to decide, so far as thought and observation can prepare them; and these disputed points must await further discoveries for definite set- tlement. CHAPTER II PAIvEOIvlTHIC MAN Paleolithic Man. The Evidence of His Existence. Objections to the Evidence. Necessity for Careful Examination. A — IN EUROPE UNTIL practical methods of utilizing metals were de- vised, weapons and implements for which a greater degree of hardness or a keener edge was required than was possible with wood or bone, had to be made of stone. The period during which these conditions prevailed is called the Stone Age. This had two distinct divisions; one in which a. fragment or pebble was brought to the desired shape by com- paratively rough flaking or chipping; and the other when much finer chipping came into practice, and rubbing or grinding was also resorted to. The first era is known as the Paleolithic (''an- cient stone") ; the second as the Neolithic (''recent stone"). It is not to be inferred that the later method superseded the earlier ; it simply marked an advance in the knowledge and method of work- ing in stone. The rudest patterns have been retained in use in nearly all parts of the world within recent times, and the terms really pertain to the form of the implement and to the process by which it is made, rather than to its age. The name " paleo- lith " or " paleolithic implement " is now restricted in the main to specimens mostly leaf-shaped or almond-shaped, not reg- ular in outline, thick at the middle portion, rudely finished, and usually made of flint, quartzite, or argillite ; though other rocks may be used when these are not to be procured. Most collectors are familiar with them under the name of " turtle-backs.' In England and France a large number and variety of arti- cles made by human hands have been discovered in undisturbed gravel beds of the glacial period, and in caves partially or wholly filled with sediments of the glacial floods. At first these attracted. (6) The Trenton Grdvels. 7 little attention; but when it was realized they meant for the human race an age far exceeding what any one had ever im- agined, they naturally excited very great interest. Men of highest scientific standing carefully studied the relics and the deposits in which they occurred; and as a result of their inves- tigations it is now generally considered an established fact that man, physically the same being that he is today, lived in Europe when a large part of that continent was covered with ice. Moreover, the character of his handiwork proves him to have been no mean artisan. His chipped flint implements, his carv- ings and etchings on bone, were fashioned and executed with a delicacy and precision beyond the reach of many primitive tribes of the present day. Such skill does not belong to the earliest stages of savagery or to a life allied with that of the brute crea- tion. It indicates a long period of evolution toward an artistic sense; and after this was developed many centuries more would be required for the growth of such accuracy of perception and proficiency in the use of tools as these objects denote. Con- sequently the first appearance of man in Europe must date many thousands of years in the past. B — IN AMERICA THE '* TRENTON GRAVELS" When their presence with the earliest known human re- . mains in Europe was well established, search was made for them in America. The first investigator, or at least the first to bring them to public notice, was Dr. C. C. Abbott, of Trenton, New Jersey, whose account of the discovery of paleolithic implements in the Trenton Gravels was practically the earliest record of themi in this country. (x\bbott, Chap. XXXIL) It started a contro- versy that has raged unceasingly, and is apparently no nearer a settlement than at the beginning. The results of Dr. Abbott's explorations will riot be de- scribed here, further than to reproduce a single extract which may be taken as a fair example of the discoveries on which his theories are based. He figures a specimen "Taken from the bluff facing the river, but two miles farther south than the exposure near Trenton, from which most of the specimens have been gathered. It was discovered in a perpendicular 8 Archaeological History of Ohio. * exposure of the bluff, immediately after the detachment of a large mass of material, and in a surface that had but the day before been exposed and had not yet begun to crumble. The specimen was twenty-one feet from the surface of the ground, and within a foot of the triassic clays that are here exposed. Directly over it, and in contact, was a boulder of large size, probably weighing one hundred pounds; while at a distance of five feet above was a second much larger boulder. The character of the mass, which was that of the bluff on the bank of the river near Trenton, was such as to render it impossible that this specimen could have reached this position subsequently to the deposition of the con- taining bed." — Abbott, 506. Various archaeologists and others visited this locality at different times after Dr. Abbott has announced his conclusions; several of whom found specimens similar to those described, at a depth which emphatically dispelled any lingering suspicion that they could, in any manner, have made their way from the sur- face to the level at which they were found. No one questioned the correctness of this view, though some may have doubted it, until Mr. W. H. Holmes published the result of his investiga- tions. His position is well shown in the following citation: " The evidence employed to prove the presence of a race of men in the Delaware valley in glacial times is confined almost wholly to the alleged discovery of rude implements in the glacial gravels. Many visitors, men of high repute in archaeology and geology, have visited the site, but the observations made on such occasions appear not to have been of a nature to be of great value in evidence, being doubtful works of art or not having properly established relationships with the gravels in place. I have elsewhere shown that they are not demonstrably imple- ments in any case, that they are identical in every respect with, the quarry-shop rejects of the American Indian, that they do not closely resemble any one of the well-established types of European paleolithic implements, and that they are not a sufficient index of a particular stage of culture. " The gravels at Trenton were exposed in a steep, nearly straight bank, several hundred yards in length, the base of which was washed by the river. There can be no question that Dr. Abbott and others have found, shaped objects of various classes upon the face of this river bluff". Dr. Abbott explicitly states that he has obtained certain of these specimens from the great outcrops, and that they were not in talus form- ations, but in undisturbed deposits. How, then, is it possible to do otherwise than accept these statements as satisfactory and final? " It happened last summer that the city authorities decided to open a great sewer through this very bluff to get a lower outlet to the river. A trench twelve feet wide and some thirty feet deep, the full depth of the exposed gravels, was carried along the bluff just inside The Trenton Gravels. 9 of its margin. At no point for the entire length of the bluff did the excavation depart more than forty feet from the length of the terrace face — from the upper margin of the slope upon which such plentiful evidence of a supposed gravel man had been obtained. The opportunity for studying the gravels in all their phases of bedding, composition and contents, was really excellent, and no one could watch the constantly renewed exposures hour after hour for a month without forming a most decided notion as to the implement bearing qualities of the formation. Not the trace of a flaked stone, or of a flake or artificial fragment of any kind was found, and we closed the work with the firm convictions that the gravels exposed by this trench were absolutely barren of art. But Dr. Abbott claims to have found numerous implements in the bluff face a few feet away and in the same gravels. If this is true, the conditions of glacial occupation of this site must have been indeed remarkable. It is implied that during the whole period occupied by the melting of the ice-sheet within the drainage of the Delaware valley the hypothetical rude race lived on a particular line or zone afterwards exposed by the river to the depth of thirty feet, leaving his strange tools there by the hundreds, while another line or zone, not more than forty feet away at most, exposed to the same depth by an artificial trench, was so avoided by him that it does not furnish the least memento of his presence. One vertical slice of the gravel twelve feet thick does not yield even a broken stone, while another slice not probably one-half as thick, cut obliquely through the gravels near by, has furnished abundant material. That no natural line of demarkation between the two section lines is possible is shown by the fact that the formations are continuous, and that the deposits indicate a constant shifting of lines and areas of accumulation of the glacial deposits ; thus it was impossible for any race to dwell continuously upon any spot, line or plane. The gravels were laid down entirely irrespective of subsequent cutting, natural or artificial ; yet we are expected to believe that a so-called gravel man could have resorted for a thousand years to the space a, leaving his half-shaped or incipient tools at all stages of the gravel building from base to top, failing entirely to visit a neighboring space b only a few yards away, or to leave there a single flake to reward the most faithful search. The easier explanation of the whole matter is that the objects found by Dr. Abbott were not really in the gravels, but that they ^re Indian shop-refuse settled into the old talus deposits of the bluff. " But this case does not stand alone. The first discoveries of supposed gravel implements, are said to have been made when the Penn- sylvania Railway opened a road bed through the creek terrace on the site of the present station. At first numerous specimens of rudely flaked stones were reported and the locality became widely known to archae- ologists, but the implement-bearing portion of the gravels — and this is a most significant fact — were limited in extent, and the deposit was soon completely removed, the horizontal extension containing nothing. At present there are excellent exposures of the full thickness of the gravels at this point, but the most diligent search is vain, the only result 10 Archaeological History of Ohio. of days of examination being a deep conviction that these grades are and always were wholly barren of art. It thus appears that here as well as upon the river front, the works of art were confined to local deposits, limited horizontally, but not vertically, and a strong presump- tion is created that the finds were confined to redistributed gravels settled upon the terrace face in the form of talus. " That the art remains of the Trenton region are essentially a unit,, having no natural separation into time, culture or stock groups, is easily susceptible of demonstration. I have already presented strong reasons for concluding that all the finds upon the Trenton sites are from the surface or from recent deposits, and that all may reasonably be assigned to the Indian. A find has recently been made which furnishes full and decisive evidence upon this point. At Point Pleasant, on the Del- aware, some twenty-five miles above Trenton, there are outcrops of argil- lite, and here have been discovered recently the shop sites upon which this stone was worked. " There are two features of these shops to which the closest attention must be given. The first is that they are manifestly modern; they are situated on the present flood plain of the Delaware, and but a few feet above average water level, the glacial terrace here being some forty or fifty feet in height. These shops, therefore, represent the most modern phase of aboriginal industry. The second point is that every type of flaked argillite found in the Trenton region, associated with the gravels or otherwise, is found on this site. Here are found great numbers of the rude failures, duplicating every feature of the mysterious 'paleolith' with which our museums are stocked, and exhibiting the same masterly quit- ting just at the point 'where no further flaking was possible.' The evi- dence relating to paleolithic art in the eastern United States, so imposing in books and museums, shrinks away surprisingly as it is approached. The evidence furnished by the bluff face and by the railway cutting, the two leading sites, is fatally weakened by the practical demonstration of the fact that the gravels proper are at these points barren of art remains. The articles themselves, the so-called gravel finds, when closely studied, are found to tell their own story much more fully and accurately than it has heretofore been read by students of archaeology. This story is that the art of the Delaware valley is to all intents and purposes a unit, that there is nothing unique or especially primitive or ancient and nothing un-Indian in it at all. All forms are found on demonstrably recent sites of manufacture. The rude forms assigned by some to glacial times are all apparently 'wasters' of Indian manufac- ture. The large blades of 'Eskimo'' type are only the larger blades, knives and spear points of the Indian separated arbitrarily from the body of the art-remains to subserve the ends of a theory. The question asked in the beginning, 'Are there traces of man in the Trenton gravels?' if not an- swered decisively in the negative, stands little chance, considering present evidence, of being answered in the affirmative." — Holmes, Trenton, 17, ct seq. The Trenton Gra-oels. 11 On the other hand, Professor G. F. Wright, an ardent advo- cate of Dr. Abbott's views, in reply to this and other articles of Mr. Holmes, says : — "The sum of Mr. Holmes's effort amounts, however, to little more than the statement that, with a limited amount of time and labor, neither he nor his assistants had been able to find any implements in undisturbed gravel in any of these places; and the suggestion of various ways in which he thinks it possible that the observers mentioned may have been deceived as to the original position of the implements found. But, as had been amply and repeatedly published, Professor J. D. Whitney, Professor Lucian Carr, Professor N. S. Shaler, Professor F. W. Putnam, of Harvard University, besides Dr. C. C. Abbott, all expressly and with minute detail describe finding implements in the undisturbed gravel at Trenton, which no one denies to be of glacial origin. In the face of such testimony, which had been before the public and freely discussed for several years, it is an arduous under- taking for Mr. Holmes to claim that none of the implements have been found in place, because he and his assistants (whose opportunities for observation had scarcely been one-twentieth part as great as those of the others) had failed to find any." — Wright, 2nd., xii. And again : — " Mr. Holmes has made a general attack upon all the evidence of glacial man in America; but the most which he proves is that he him- self has not found any direct evidence, while the various hypotheses to which he resorts to discredit other witnesses are far more improb- able than the existence of glacial man is. It is necessary to state also that his drawings of the supposed condition of the gravel banks when the implements were found are grossly misleading, and some of them absolutely impossible; while one of the theories to which both he and Professor Chamberlin * * * continually resort to account for the possible burial of implements at a depth of from ten to fifteen feet in the gravel is abundantly disproved by facts. The theory is that the implements may have worked down through the holes made by the decay of the tap-roots of trees; but, besides the fact that no instance of that sort has ever been observed, there is superabundant evidence at Trenton, N. J., that, while flint and jasper implements are very abundant in the upper foot of surface soil, below that level only argillite implements are found. Over a considerable area, however, Mr. Ernest Volk assures me that there is not a square yard of the Trenton terrace that will not yield some argillite chippings below the depth of two feet. To credit the tap-roots of trees with the intelligence required to sort out argillite fragments from flint, and permit them alone to settle in the gravel, is more than even a well-supported theory could endure. In short, Mr. Volk's extensive and careful excavations at Trenton, under the direction of Professor Putnam, are establishing beyond all controversy the correct- ness of the early inferences both of Dr. Abbott and Professor Putnam, 12 Archaeological History of Ohio. that there were three well-marked periods of occupation of the Delaware Valley by the human race, namely, 'the Palaeolithic or the oldest, the flaked argillite or middle, and the Jasper or Indian.'" — Wright, 4th, xiv. The reader may, if he chooses, peruse several volumes and many articles in scientific and other journals, upon this subject, only to find that he has the gist of them in the above quotations. While Professor Wright is one of a large company, Mr. Holmes also has many adherents ; and neither side shows any inclina- tion to recede from the advanced position it has taken. There was sufficient evidence of this at the American Association meet- ing for 1897, where the question of artificial objects in the Tren- ton gravels was thoroughly discussed. A brief resume of each speaker's statement is appended : F. W. Putnam. — "I, for one, am perfectly satisfied that the objects are of the same age as the deposit in which they are found. That the region of the Delaware valley was inhatited by man in very early times is beyond doubt. He must, moreover, have been somewhere on the continent, while these early deposits were forming, to have reached this spot at the close of the glacial period when the region became habit- able. It is for the geologists to tell us the age of these deposits." H. B. Kummel. — "The deposit in which the implements occur is, in my opinion, dune-sand, accumulated after the river had partly or completely excavated its trench below the level of the Trenton terrace." J. G. Knapp. — " It is my opinion, based on a recent visit to the spot, that the implement-bearing sand deposits were of wind origin, accumu- lated since the river had cut its trench below the level of the upper Trenton terrace." R. D. Salisbury. — "The relic-bearing sand may be of aqueous origin, dating from the close of the last glacial epoch; it may be of aqueous origin of later age; and it may be seolian. Whatever its origin, it may safely be said that the surface material down to the lowest depth at which the relics have been found has been so disarranged that no affirmation can be made concerning the origin of the relics it contains." G. F. Wright. — " The evidence that the implements found forty-one inches below the present surface, and only five inches above the action of acknowledged glacial floods, belong to the deposits of the glacial floods, is sufficient, I believe, to convince any one who comprehends all the facts." W. H. Holmes. — "In 1892 a great sewer trench, 33 feet deep, was cut, parallel with the river bank, at the very point where so many shaped stones had formerly been found. Though we kept up the search in this trench for five weeks as the work of excavation went on — not a chip was found, not a trace of man. The conclusion reached is that there must have been an error in the observations that could produce hundreds of flaked stones from obscure or partial outcrops at a given spot in a The Trenton Gravels. IS crumbling bank when not a trace can be found at the same point when the beds are fully exposed. It may be regarded as substantially proved that the glacial gravels proper contain no relics of art." H. C. Mercer. — " I was forced to conclude that a significant number of artificial chips rested in situ in the sand, and hence were of an age antedating its deposition. The age of the sand remains to be settled." Arthur Hollick. — " There seems to be no doubt that this sand is a water deposit, and is of glacial age. There is apparently no break in the sequence of deposition from the coarse gravel below, through the fine sand containing clay seams, up to the surface soil, — the entire series representing successive periods of flood and sedimentation." Thomas Wilson. — " The entire examination on which all these con- clusions are founded, except that of Holmes based on the trench, had no bearing upon the paleolithic period, nor upon the existence of paleo- lithic man, nor on any of the objects of his industry. The stratum of glacial gravels, to which the paleolithic objects are claimed to belong and wherein the}^ have been found, was not examined nor considered. If the sand is glacial, man is glacial; if it is not, the question is just where it was at the beginning. ' T. C. Chamberlin. — " It seems to me in so far as this question is typical of the problem of glacial man, it should put all of us in an attitude of firm conviction that at present there is no positive evidence, and in that negative attitude we can rest. As to the existence of man in America in the glacial period, I know of no evidence today that is of scientific value bearing on that point." R. D. Salisbury. — "As to whether we would not regard the imple- ment found underneath the boulder as having been in place in the gravel, I would say, most emphatically no. The river undercuts the bluff. Most emphatically anything found behind a boulder on the slope would be open to great suspicion." E. W. Claypole. — " The evidence that we have been discussing this afternoon is, as you know, entirely in regard to Trenton, and has no bearing on other localities." W J McGee. — "Fifteen years ago there was hardly an archaeologist who did not regard the Trenton region as affording conclusive evidence of glacial man ; today the manner in which the evidence has been torn to shreds is apparent to every one." — A. A. A. S., 1897, 347-390. Years before this, however, Lewis had said : " The geological investigations along the Delaware Valley, * * * throw quite a new light upon this subject. They show that the im- plement-bearing gravel is of post-glacial age, and is a river deposit of comparatively recent formation; and that neither in the gravels of the Champlain epoch, nor in deposits of any previous age have any traces of man been discovered. The evidence appears to indicate the appearance of man at a time which, geologically considered at least, is recent." "It was very interesting to find that it was only within the limits of the 14 Archaeological History of Ohio. Trenton gravel * * * that Dr. Abbott found implements below the surface." "The conclusions to which the facts seem to point may briefly be summarized as follows : — "1. That the Trenton gravel, the only gravel in which implements occur, is a true river deposit of post-glacial age, and tne most recent of all the gravels of the Delaware Valley. " 2. That the paleoliths found in it really belong to and are a part of the gravel, and that they indicate the existence of man in a rude state at the time when the flooded river flowed on top of this gravel. "3. That the data obtained do not necessarily prove, geologically considered, an extreme antiquity of man in Eastern America." — Lewis, Gravel, 306-9. In another place, Lewis says : " The Trenton gravel is truly a post-glacial deposit, but still a phenomenon of essentially glacial times — times more nearly related to the Great Ice Age than to the present. No implements could have come into this gravel except at a time when the river flowed upon it, and when they might have sunk through the loose and shifting material. At the time of the Trenton gravel flood man lost his stone implements in the shifting sands and gravel of the bed of that stream." — Lewis: Gravel, 339, condensed. " It may be that, as investigations are carried further, it will result not so much in proving man of very great antiquity as in showing how much more recent than is usually supposed was the final disappear- ance of the glacier." — Lewis: Gravel, 340. In substance, then, we are told, in regard to the geological formation : — That the gravels and sands were deposited by floods from the glacier in the period when this was at its greatest development. That they were, if glacial at all, due to a glacier of more recent origin than the one which carried down material found a short distance away. That they were not laid down until the glacier had much receded, and were then washed down and spread out by the river. That the upper portion of the deposit was blown in from the sur- rounding country and spread out by the winds. As to the specimens m dispute : — The lower ones are genuine paleoliths, similar in every respect ■except material, to those of undoubted glacial age found in Europe. They are broken, imperfect, and rejected specimens of modern Indian manufacture. They are found promiscuously in the entire area, at all depths. Glacial Man in Ohio. 15 They are confined to the surface, or to the talus formed by crumbling banks, or to other situations whither they have come from a higher level. Different materials and types are stratified in regular order. All sorts are found at the same level. The whole series denotes three distinct periods of occupation and •of culture, reaching back to an immeasurable antiquity. They are all of one general class, and belong to one era, which there is no necessity for believing to cover more than a few centuries. When men of such ability, who have devoted much time to a close investigation of the region, are unable to come to an agreement on any one of the important points at issue, a person less informed has no right even to hold an opinion, much less to express one, upon any phase of the matter. GLACIAL MAN IN OHIO The discovery of these implements at Trenton, led arch- aeologists to believe that similar vestiges of man's presence could be found in the valley of the Ohio and its principal tributaries. The series of gravel beds in the two regions are practically of the same age, belonging to the period immediately following the recession of the ice-sheet after it had reached its south- ernmost limit ; and were deposited by the great floods result- ing from the melting ice. Consequently, Ohio archaeologists have a direct interest in Trenton gravels and in the evidence they contain of human life. The final decision, whatever it may be, as to the existence of man at that time and place, will apply equally to our own state. What is true of one locality, in this respect, is true of the other. Should the scientific world agree that the specimens over which the warfare is waged are un- doubtedly the work of '' glacial man," no reason can be urged, so far as is now to be seen, for assigning a different origin to Ohio relics found under the same conditions. If, on the other hand, it is decided that the American Indian, using that tern? in its ordinary accepted meaning, is the author of the so-called *' paleoliths " of the Delaware valley, similar implements found in Ohio, regardless of the conditions under which they occur, must take their place in the same classification. The future may, however, disclose something which will modify, or even reverse this assertion. 16 Archaeological History of Ohio, Thus far, objects which seem to indicate the presence of man in Ohio prior to the final disappearance of the ice-sheet, have been found in four different sections of the state. The first was recorded by Dr. C. L. Metz, who in 1885, " discovered a flint implement of paleolithic type in undisturbed strata o£ the glacial terrace of the Little Miami," at Madisonville. It was eight feet below the surface. (Wright, 250.) The formation: in which it was found is gravel and coarse sand, of a grayish color ; on this is about eight feet of fine grained sand-and-clay soil, having the yellowish color characteristic of alluvial deposits in this region. The implement is formed from a small pebble of basanite. One end had not been worked, but retains the natural surface ; this has the rounded, water-worn appearance common to stones from streams or gravel beds. On the chipped portion the small facets produced by removal of the flakes are smooth and glossy; the angles where they meet are sharp as if recently made. The dirt has oeen thoroughly cleaned from its surface; but in minute crevices the microscope shows a fine-grained, yellowish deppsit, closely resembling the surface soil and totally different from the coarse gray sand in which it was imbedded. This specimen was found in a partially completed cistern; one of the diggers noticed it sticking in the wall, and pointed it out to Dr. Metz, who first noted its position and then removed it with his own hands. There can be not the slightest doubt that Dr. Metz found it in exactly the place and condition he describes. How it got there is another question. Mr. Holmes says in regard to it : — " I have examined the specimen * * * and find it to be identical in every essential feature with typical rejects of the modern blademaker, lacking the least indication of specialization. It is not safe to call it an implement, no matter what its age, and to present it as evidence of paleolithic culture is little short of folly." — Holmes, Traces, 154, In 1887 Dr. Metz found another implement on the opposite side of the river from Loveland, a few miles from Madisonville. This was thirty feet beneath the surface. (Wright, 250.) It is coarsely chipped and has evidently been through a rather rough experience, as the facets and edges are blunt and rounded in just such manner as would result from attrition against other stones in a strong current. Glacial Man in Ohio. 17 "On carefully examining the Loveland specimen, I found it partly covered with dark, well-compacted earth, resembling the soil of the surface of the terrace, rather than the light-colored, fine-grained calcareous powder characterizing the matrix, such as there is, of the gravel deposits." — Holmes, Ohio, 163. The next discover}- was at Newcomerstown, Tuscarawas county, w^here in 1889, W. C. Mills found " A finely shaped flint implement sixteen feet below the surface of the terrace of glacial gravel. Except for the difference in the material from which it is made, it would be impossible to distinguish it from [a certain type of paleolithic implement found in France]. The similarity of pattern is too minute to have originated except from imitation." — Wright, 250-1. The last sentence is a little obscure. If there was any way in which glacial man at Newcomerstown could have found the opportunity to exercise his powers of " imitation " at such long range as to the region of Central France, the method should be fully explained and not left to conjecture. Later it vv'as explained explicitly that " Mr. Mills found this specimen projecting from a fresh exposure of the perpendicular bank, fifteen feet below the surface. He thrust his cane into the coarser gravel which is seen to overlie the finer deposits. This resulted in detaching a large mass about six feet long and two feet wide, which fell down at his feet. It was in the face of the bank behind this mass that Mr. Mills discovered the implement. There is no possibility of mistake concerning the undisturbed character of the gravel from which he took the implement. All the strata were clearly exposed and observed by him." — Wright, 1893. When Mr. Holmes visited this place, the gravel bank had been so altered by the removal of material for railway ballast that he was compelled to study parts several feet from where the implement was obtained ; but the general character of the whole mass was so uniform that he felt justified in certain inferences concerning the manner in which it may have reached the spot where found. The publication of his report brought the following criticism from Professor Wright. "In the case of the discovery at Newcomerstown, Mr. Holmes is peculiarly unfortunate in his efforts to present the facts, since, in en- deavoring to represent the conditions under which the implement was found by Mr. Mills, he has relied upon an imaginary drawing of his own^ in which an utterly impossible state of things is pictured. The claim of 2 18 Archaeological History of Ohio. Mr. Holmes in this case, as in the other, is that possibly the gravel in which the implements were found had been disturbed. In some cases, as in Little Falls and at Madisonyille, he thinks the implements may have worked down to a depth of several feet by the overturning of trees or by the decay of the tap-root of trees. A sufficient answer to these suggestions is, that Mr. Holmes is able to find no instance in which the overturning of trees has disturbed the soil to a depth of more than three or four feet, while some of the implements in these places had been found buried from eight to sixteen feet. Even if, as Mr. Cham- berlin suggests, fifty generations of trees have decayed on the spot since tlic retreat of the ice, it is difficult to see how that would help the matter, since the effect could not be cumulative, and fifty upturnings of three or four feet would not produce the results of one upturning of eight feet. Moreover, at Trenton, where the upturning of trees and the decaying of tap-roots would have been as likely as anywhere to bury implements, none of those of flint or jasper (which occur upon the sur- face by tens of thousands) are buried more than a foot in depth; while the argillite implements occur as low down as fifteen or twenty feet. "To discredit the discoveries at Trenton and Newcomerstown, Mr. Holmes relies largely upon the theory that portions of gravel from the surface had slid down to the bottom of the terrace, carrying implements with them, and forming a talus, which, he thinks, Mr. Mills, Dr. Abbott, and the others have mistaken for undisturbed strata of gravel. In his drawings Mr. Holmes has even represented the gravel at Newcomers- town as caving down into a talus without disturbing the strata to any great extent, and at the same time he speaks slightingly of the promise which I had made to publish a photograph of the bank as it really was. In answer, it is sufficient to [refer], first, [to] the drawing made at the time by Mr. Mills, to show the general situation of the gravel bank at Newcomerstown, in which the implement * * * was found; and, secondly, [to] an engraving from a photograph of the bank, taken by Mr. Mills after the discovery of the implement, but before the talus had -obscured its face. The implement was found by Air. Mills with its point projecting from a fresh exposure of the terrace, just after a mass, loosened by his own efforts, had fallen away. The gravel is of such consistency that every sign of stratification disappears when it falls down, and there could be no occasion for a mistake even by an ordinary observer, while Mr. Mills was a well-trained geologist and collector, making his notes upon the spot." — Wright, 2nd., XIII. Part of Mr. Holmes' conclusions were based upon certain observations which are thus stated : — "At Warsaw, in Coshocton County, fifty miles west of New- comerstown, I visited an exposure of gravels in a railway cutting, the conditions being almost identical with those at Newcomerstown. The terrace, as in the other case, has been occupied by Indian flint workers, and being in the proximity of extensive flint quarries, there is much Glacial Man in Ohio. 19 refuse of manufacture. * * * The redistributed deposits along the base of the steep slope were well reset, and from these I obtained a number of flaked flints; several of which were firmly imbedded, and two of them were removed from the gravel with some difficulty and with the aid of a pick, one twenty-five and the other twenty-seven feet beneath the surface of the terrace. * * * In a case like this even the experienced scientific observer, whose attention had not been definitely called to the nature and far-reaching significance of such finds, might from a casual observation have recorded the discovery of one or more of these objects from the gravel. * * * These specimens were in the gravels, firmly imbedded, and to all appearances this particular portion of the deposit was in a normal condition." — Holmes, Ohio, 167. In summing up the evidence for and against the claim of great antiquity for these three specimens, Mr. Holmes con- cludes : — " The finds are not demonstrably implements but have the char- acteristics rather of rejects of manufacture." — Holmes, Ohio, 170. The next discovery of this character is reported as follows. It seems convincing; but there has been no discussion of it. " Below Brilliant, Jefferson County, Ohio, a very fine remnant of high-level river terrace ranges from sixty-five to eighty feet above low water. Excavations in this terrace to a depth of forty-three feet show it to consist of interstratified sand, fine gravel, and clay in small quantities, all with rare exceptions cross-bedded. Coarse gravel is found at the top of the terrace; but, except for two or three feet on top, only rare pieces of gravel occur of more than one-half cubic inch in size. At the southern end of this terrace I found a plainly-marked but rude flint im- plement imbedded in the freshly exposed face of the stratified sand and gravel, under about eight feet of undisturbed cross-bedded strati- fication, only the point of the implement showing on the perpendicular face of the excavation. The condition of the stratification in all of the superincumbent eight feet, which was closely examined by me, was such as to convince me that the implement was not intrusive, but had been deposited with the remainder of the material from the terrace. — Sam Huston." — Wright, 1895, condensed. Finally Nev/ London, Huron county, yields several spec- imens found under circumstances which are difficult to explain on any hypothesis that does not assign to them an extreme age. Chief in interest is one bearing no resemblance whatever to any- thing ordinarily classed as paleolithic, but presenting, neverthe- less, stronger proof of the existence of man in Ohio before the 20 Archaeological History of Ohio. close of the glacial period, than does any of the other imple- ments recorded. An abstract of the evidence is given. "Mr. E. E. Masterman, of New London, Ohio, found a grooved stone axe two miles from that town, at a depth of twenty-two feet. The upper eight feet, from the surface, was a very firm clay, yellow above and blue below, with small stones; under this were thirteen feet of silty material, very tough toward the bottom and requiring the use of a pickaxe for its removal. Interbedded in this were streaks of sand one or two inches thick. Last was about one foot of coarse gravel, yielding water, and containing some small subangular stones. Beneath all this was a very tough, blue clay impervious to water. Imbedded to about one-half its thickness in this last clay, lay the implement. It is a grooved stone axe four inches long, two inches wide, and one inch and a half thick. It is made of the hard, banded, green slate so common in the drift of some parts of Ohio. It is deeply weathered and pitted, so that on the surface it looks like a piece of ordinary 'rotten stone'; this weathering extends to the very middle, there remaining only a trace of the original stone retaining the green color and hardness. Concentric limonite stains furnish conclusive proof that the whole process has taken place since the stone received its present form. It would be utterly impossible to produce such an implement fraudulently. It was deposited when the thin gravel bed in which it lay was formed, as it lay directly upon the boulder clay. The natural surface is a plain, with no quarry-face or water-course within a long distance. The thin streaks of sand in the clay absolutely preclude any supposition that the ground had been previously disturbed, while the great depth (twenty-two feet) and the nature of the soil passed through exclude all other theories that have been advanced in similar cases to account for the presence of imple- ments in glacial gravels, such as falling into cracks, rotten root holes, etc. If there is no other origin or date for the fine clay and streaks of sand that overlie it than that which assigns them to late glacial time then the tool must be set down to the same epoch and must be considered the work of glacial man." — Claypole, 304, et seq., condensed. "The geological situation at New London, Ohio, is this: The watershed between the Great Lakes and the Ohio is but a few miles to the south, and drains to the north through the main valley of Ver- million River. The land about New London is level for several miles, and is about two hundred feet below the summit of the watershed. There is no opportunity for any disturbances to have occurred sub- sequent to the glacial period; but in the retreat of the ice from the watershed a temporary glacial lake doubtless occupied the upper part of the valley of Vermillion River, emptying its waters into a tributary of the Mohican, and thence into the Muskingum and the Ohio. But this lake evidently did not exist for a great length of time. " Heretofore numerous flying reports of the discovery of imple- ments in the glacial till have been made, but this is the first instance Glacial Man in Ohio. 21 •where the evidence has seemed in itself altogether convincing and satis- factory." — Amer. Nat., October, 1896, 784. Such is the evidence offered so far, of paleolithic man m Ohio ; five specimens from four localities. The New London ax is neolithic in form, material and finish ; no relic of the sort has ever been exhibited or reported as occurring with the pal- eolithic objects of Europe, and it differs from modern axes in no other respect than its extreme alteration from weathering. Even if the latter condition is due to greater energy of chemical elements in the earth surrounding it, the great depth at which it was found and the apparent integrity of overlying strata, afford better evidence of its antiquity that can be claimed for the chipped objects. The unbroken layers above the latter, though very strong testimony in their favor, do not constitute positive proof. When a bank or face is formed by excavation, erosion, or otherwise, in a glacial deposit, it is quite possible for a mass of sand, clay and gravel to fall or slide from a higher to a lower level without in the least disturbing the regular ar- rangement of the strata. A good example of this was shown some years ago in a gravel pit at Weaver's Station in Darke county. The workmen came to a thick layer of fine sand, about fifteen feet below the surface, which they dug out as far as they could reach with their shovels leaving a cave or recess beneath the undisturbed strata above. With the next period of wet weather this mass slipped down so gradually that although the bottom was pushed out far enough to cover the track at its base, there was not the slightest crack in the upper part along a distance of more than thirty feet. Both ends of the dis- lodged mass, however, were so broken as to resemble ordinary talus. If by any chance a worked stone found its way into the cavity left by the workmen, it may some day come to light and furnish prima facie evidence of glacial man in a new locality. During his explorations in a mound 27 feet high, in Florida, Mr. Moore found trouble because " So great was the height of the mound that frequent slides of masses of sand were unavoidable, and thus exact depths of objects found were often unobtainable, though at times close estimates were to be had since sections of the mound, sliding down a few feet as a whole, retained their integrity, holding undisturbed human remains and associated objects." — Moore, Duval, 33. 22 Archaeological History of Ohio. An object found in the vicinity of a stream, at a depth less than the bottom of its bed, is not to be accepted, no matter what its form or its situation, as unquestionably the handiwork of paleolithic man. A hole cut in a bank by one flood will often be filled by the next one; and in a short time this place can hardly be distinguished from the natural deposits around it.' A layer of compact material may be left standing as a shelf on which caving banks above will pile maiterial that will soon become equally solid. Either process may be repeated in the same spot; and surface specimens can easily be carried into such places and buried from sight. Furthermore, the streams in the glaciated districts of Ohio have worn their beds from the level of the highest terraces bordering them, to that at which they are now found; this erosion was much more rapid in former times than at present. The shifting of such streams from side to side of the alluvial lands through which they flow is also quite rapid in some cases; it being not unusual for a river or creek to change its course scores of yards in a single generation, cutting away the earth on one side and filling it in at a lower level on the other. With a rapid current to carry away the detritus, a stream will in this manner often produce a nearly vertical bank to the top of any terrace against which it may impinge ; and when it again makes its way toward the op- posite side of the valley, denudation will give to this bank a slope whose inclination will depend upon the character of the ma- terial and the length of time given to atmospheric agencies for their action. These alterations have been continually in prog- ress since drainage was established along its present lines. The terraces with a thickness of fifty feet or more along our rivers and creeks owe their formation to precisely the same causes that are daily creating the minor bars along the shores of these streams ; the difference is merely in the diminished forces now at work. The most skilled glacialist is liable to be deceived by the arrangement of secondary terraces. It will, be apparent therefore, that great caution is to be exercised by those who are seeking for paleolithic implements ; many things, as mdicated above, are to be taken into consideration. There are various- ways in which a stone implement that was once on top of the ground, or in the soil near the top, may now be found in clean, gravel much below the present surface, some distance from- Glacial Man in Ohio. 23 the nearest stream or at a considerable elevation above it; or may be covered by a mass of earth nearly equal in thickness to the highest gravel bank whose foot is reached by the water. The discovery of an implement, no matter how rudely finished, under such circumstances, is by no means to be accepted as in- dubitable evidence that man existed in that locality during glacial floods. To establish beyond controversy the fact of human existence during, or at the close of, the glacial period, it must be shown that these implements are scattered promiscuously throughout gravel which has remained as it was originally de- posited ; and it is necessary to prove incontestably that the gravel or sand in which the specimen occurs still retains the exact position and condition in which it was laid down at the beginning. The latter fact can be determined only by geologists who have made a close and careful study of such deposits in every phase of their complicated structure. The question must remain an open one until the claims of those who advocate and those who deny that man lived in Ohio, or in America for that matter, while the ice-sheet held dominion, are less open to dispute than they are at present. Even should every assertion yet made of discoveries in the drift be substan- tiated, the age of man would not be carried to such a remote time as many assume. " Not a few cases have been brought forward in which human relics have been found in such association with glacial deposits as to point strongly to the conclusion that both were of the same age. But in all these cases the deposits in question belong to the very latest stages of the Glacial era and were the work of the retreating ice or even of the torrents that flowed from it after the area in which the remains were found had been left bare. Consequently, if every one of these cases was logically unassailable, and its evidence positively conclusive, the only inference would be that man was a denizen of North America during the final withdrawal of the ice, that he hung Esquimaux-like on its borders and followed it as it withdrew to the northward. Of any earlier date than this, therefore, for man in North America we have no evidence whatever." — Claypole, 302. It is probable that reports of discoveries of this character will multiply with the increase of excavations of glacial deposits ; there are many persons who are given to such " practical jokes " as making false statements regarding circumstances under which specimens are. found, or deftly concealing desirable objects in 24 Archaeological History of Ohio. places where they are being sought. Nor is it at all difficult to find a laboring man who will embrace the opportunity of adding a dollar to his day's wages wlien he can get it by sticking into the sand at the bottom of a cellar or cistern a rude specimen which he has picked up on the surface, and cahing the attention of a collector to it. All the greater need, then, for one to whom may not have been afforded the opportunity for a large field of study, to be chary of hasty deductions. Such practices are by no means uncommon or of recent origin; early in the cen- tury the same warning was uttered. " That some persons have purposely lost coins, medals, etc., etc., in caves which they knew were about to be explored ; or deposited them in tumuli, which they knew were about to be opened, is a well-known fact which has occurred at several places in the western country." — At- water, 120. There is one question which has never been answered in a satisfactory manner; namely, how did these relics get to the places where they are found? The sharp angles, unworn facets, and general '' new " appearance of such specimens as that from Madisonville, prove them never to have been subjected to the abrasion which rounded the quartz and diorite pebbles associated with them. If it be claimed that they were lost at or near the spots where we find them, how are we to account for the losers being on the icy waters? Certainly no people ^ble to manufac- ture boats of any kind would have failed to make tools with which the boats could be constructed. Aquatic animals could not be reached from the shore ; and while some land animals may have fled to the water when wounded, and their bodies been car- ried out of reach, some trace of their bones must survive along with the weapon to which their death was due. None have been reported. Neither has any trace of a habitation been found. In warm countries naked savages may rove at will, subsisting on natural products of the soil and such animals as they can knock over with clubs ; but living at the foot of a glacier they would require shelter and clothing more substantial than could be prepared with these rudely chipped flints. If they had better tools, we should find them ; if they had not, we can not under- stand how they lived in their frigid climate. On the other hand, if these be surface specimens that have in some mysterious way Deeply Buried Modern Objects. 25 made their way into the earth, why do we not find more of them ; and why do we not find finished articles as well? There are continual reports in newspapers and other pub- lications regarding the occurrence of some object or other at a very great depth or under circumstances which, if true, would set it back to a very remote date. Many of them are as well authenticated as stories of finding aboriginal relics in the drift. As examples, a few quotations follow, whose authors were toler- ably accurate observers and who would indorse no statement of whose truth there seemed, to them, to be any reasonable doubt. It is safe to assert that in every case such as these some signifi- cant fact has been overlooked, which would explain in a rational manner the seemingly marvelous discovery. If, however, the reports be correct, some of them are far more remarkable than the discovery of paleoliths or any other implements under any depth of gravel. Schoolcraft refers to "the discovery [before 1818] of a small antique- shaped iron horse-shoe, found twenty-five feet below the surface in grad- ing one of the streets [presumably at Marietta], and the blunt end, or stump of a tree, at another locality, at the depth of ninety-four feet, together with marks of the cut of an axe, and an iron wedge." — School- craft, 17. "At Portsmouth, Ohio, six or seven [large sea-shells] were found buried in the soil, beneath the parallels of the great work. They were at a depth of twenty-five feet in river alluvium." — Whittlesey, Works, 19. Schoolcraft reports that at Shawneetown salt-works a pot of 8 or lo gallons capacity was found at a depth of 8c feet. — Drake: Ab. Races, 62. Short quotes a statement of Dr. Furness : — " Near Waynesville, Ohio about the year 1824, on top of the hill on the east side of the Little Miami River forty or fifty feet above the level of the stream," a well-digger "at the depth of thirteen or fourteen feet came to a dark mould about two feet deep, on the top of which was a thimble and a piece of coarse cloth." "The removal above after passing through the soil consisted of solid clay of a yellowish-brown color." — Short, 126. It is stated that Dr. Edward Orton believed the find au- thentic ; though no explanation is forthcoming as to the manner in which these articles may have reached the place where found. " Dr. McMurtrie relates in his 'Sketches of Louisville' that an iron hatchet was found beneath the roots of a tree at Shippingport, upwards 26 Archaeological History of Ohio. of 200 years old." He mentions "that walls of bricks and hewn stones- have been discovered in the western country" — presumably prehistoric. These were "about 18 feet below the surface of the ground;" while the discoverers "who came upon them in digging" were examining their find "water broke in upon them and they were obliged to make a hasty retreat." — Drake: Ab. Races, 62. In the excavation of the Louisville canal "the workmen came, at the depth of fourteen feet below the surface of the calcareous rock to a brick hearth, covered with what appeared to be the remains of charcoal and ashes." — Schoolcraft, 20. "Col. C. C. Jones, of Augusta, Georgia, recorded the finding of some rudely-chipped, triangular-shaped implements in Nacoochee valley, which in material, manner of construction, and in general appearance, so nearly resemble some of the rough, so-called flint hatchets belonging to the drift type that they might very readily be mistaken the one for the other. A cutting had been made through the soil and the underlying sands, gravels, and boulders down to the bed-rock. Resting upon this, at a depth of some nine feet from the surface, were the three implements described. But the great terminal moraine lies more than four hundred miles away to the north, and consequently these objects do not fall within our definition of true paleolithic implements. The same thing may be said in a less degree of the implements discovered in the gravels and clays of the valleys of the James River." — Winsor : History, I, 344, con- densed. "C T. Wiltheiss incloses testimony of A. J. Templeton and Joseph. Defrees with reference to finding two tablets in a gravel bank within the corporate limits of Piqua, Ohio, on the land of Wilson Morrow. One of these tablets was 15 feet from the surface, which was covered with four- feet of loam. On the surface of the object were 'characters' and in the center lead was inserted. The second was found the next day in the loose gravel which had caved down." — Sm. Rep., 1881, Editor's, abstract. Wiltheiss was a man of more than ordinary intelligence,, a close observer, and was firmly convinced that these tablets were found in undisturbed earth at the depth mentioned. The lead,, however, is sufficient proof that they were not prehistoric. " In the State of Ohio, near Chillicothe, was found a stump, with the marks of an axe upon it, Od feet below the surface." " In the summer of 1819, not far from Franklinton, on the Scioto^ in digging a well, after the workman had descended sixty feet, he found a piece of brass, the remains of a boiler, and a part of a tree, which had been partly burnt." — Haywood, 302. I'his may be one of the stumps referred to In the next ex- tract ; although the author says they " were found at the depth of sixty feet, in digging a well." Deeply Buried Modern Objects. 27 "One writer has said, that they had evidently been cut by a metallic instrument — that the marks of an axe were visible, and that chips, in a state of perfect preservation, were found on and near them. Another has stated that the rust of iron was seen on them ; and a third has affirmed that an axe was found near them. Neither of these statements is true." — Burnet, Letters, 36. This story is like that of " the three black crows." Dr» Edward Orton stated that the chips were not made by any in- strument, but resulted from the gnawing of the (extinct) giant beaver. "I have seen at Portsmouth, Ohio, on the banks of the Ohio River, fire hearths more ancient than the earthworks at that place." — Whittlesey, Relics, 125. The correctness of this statement is very doubtful. Fire- places and ash-beds are not at all uncommon along the banks of the Ohio, at varying depths beneath the surface, but they are in- variably in ground that is subject to overflow and gradually in- creasing in elevation. They are never observed in the higher terraces when these are encroached upon by the river. The fact that human remains of any sort are found at a lower level than the earth- works, ' does not mean for them a greater age, unless they are in the same terrace on which the earth-works stand ; and this is not the case with the fire places. This chapter will be closed with an abstract of the most remarkable report upon discoveries of this nature that has ever been published. "At Blue Banks, about one and a half miles above Portsmouth, Ohio, there are many old fireplaces. * * * They occur at various levels, from near the top of the bank to about thirty feet beneath. At one point there are seventeen different levels on which they are visible. There are three different classes of these fireplaces. Those on the lower levels show only a burned streak of clay from five to eight feet in diameter, with but a slight concavity, on which are found ashes, charcoal, burned stones and bones, with an occasional fragment of pottery, composed of broken stone and clay. At about twenty feet down they are most numerous, and many of them are from one to three feet deep, and are lined with flat stones. The clay, outside the stone, bears evidence of intense heat. In some instances they are nearly filled with ashes and charcoal. The pottery from within them is composed of shell and clay. Above the latter level, while not so numerous, they are more interesting, from the fact that more or 28 Archaeological History of Ohio. less fine relics are obtained from them. They are only slightly concave, and mixed with the ashes are stones broken by the action of fire, bones of various kinds — some calcined, arrow-heads, drills, stone and hematite celts, stone pipes, perforated stones called shuttles, and much broken potr- tery — many pieces being nicely ornamented with lines, etc. These old fireplaces * * * extend along up the river at intervals for twenty-eight miles. * * * About two miles below the mouth of the Scioto, there are also a few of them exposed, at a depth of from fifteen to twenty feet. They are generally called ' ovens ' ; this probably arises from the fact that the clay around the basin-shaped beds is burned so hard that the water often washes them out in large pieces, and when a half section of one of them is exposed it looks like a large clay kettle. * * * j^g f^rst occupants used stone in the manufacture of their pottery. They were succeeded by others who used shell, who in turn gav.e way to people using stone. The latter seem to have occupied the ground for only a brief period when they were displaced by those using shell. In the adjoining fields, however, both kinds of pottery are found intermingled." — Lewis. The foregoing statement impresses one as being a record of actual conditions, carefully studied. Yet there is not the slight- est evidence of any such fire-places as those described. More than that, the character of the formation in which they are said to occur, is such as to refute the idea that they ever existed. " Blue Banks " is a mass of clay which successive floods have deposited, a little at a time, in a shallow gulley or a little bay cut out at some former time by swirls and eddies. Such deposits are found by the hundred along the Ohio. They also fill aban- doned portions of beds of small streams which have made new channels for themselves in the alluvial earth. Generally, but not always, these clay cores are covered with more or less soil. They almost invariably extend below water level, so that even at the river's lowest stages no other material than clay is to be seen ; while at either side of the intrusive deposit a stratum of gravel and sand imderlies the silt. Careful examination of the " Blue Banks " formation over every foot of its exposed surface, fails to reveal a trace of the features claimed by Lewis. The clay is laminated or thinly stratified, and checkered by extremely fine crevices, many of them requiring close scrutiny to detect. Percolating water, charged with iron leached from the clay, has partially followed these crevices, partly spread itself out on more compact layers. Where the included mineral has been re-deposited, it stams the earth yellow, brown, or red, exactly simulating the efifect pro- Supposed Ancient Firebcds. 29 duced by burning. In many cases concretionary action has given curved outlines to the discolored earth ; and when the deposit is very heavy it may form a clay-ironstone, which, as it dries, breaks into angular plates. These features could be mistaken for fire-pits and stone linings. The whole deposit is penetrated here and there by roots of ancient sycamores and cotton-woods, which are quite black, as is usual in such circurwstances ; while piles of leaves, accu- mulated on the bottom and afterwards covered by mud, are macerated and carbonized until they closely resemble powdered charcoal. There are no ashes ; but there is a grayish silt, fine as flour, which is so like them as to deceive any one not familiar with it. In fact, many mounds which are reported as consisting largely of " ashes " are composed of this clayey silt. The works of art come from the surface of the terrace. When the upper portion of the bank caves down the relics go with it ; and the current washing away the loose fine loam, leaves them in, or on, the more solid earth settling on the shore. Into this they are forced by the weight of compact masses, containing at times several hundred cubic feet, Iwhich ^lide down bodily at every flood. Or they may, by the same means, be covered to a considerable depth and long afterward revealed by erosion. A vertical distance of thirty feet from the terrace surface at " Blue Banks " can be seen only when the Ohio is very low. At a good boating stage, that is for seven or eight months in the year, at least one-half of the face of the clay bank is covered by water. Much more of it must have been submerged, then, in past times when the bed of the stream had not scoured out to its present depth. Whatever may be the basis of the statements quoted, it is absolutely certain that no sign is now visible of fire-places in these clays ; nor of any worked objects except such as may have fallen from above and become imbedded in the manner here described. If the asserted conditions were true of any part of the " Blue Banks " deposit that has been destroyed by the river, then we must concede that men familiar with all phases of a life out of doors would make camps on clay which, when wet, is as 30 Archaeological History of Ohio. slippery as soap ; that they would establish them where, at first, a very slight rise in the river would cover the site ; that they would continue to utilize the same spot year after year, possibly for cen- turies, in periods of low water, and that intervening freshets would deposit a thin layer of clay over each successive level of occupancy without displacing even the ashes and charcoal left on it ; that through all this unknown length of time there was an absolute sameness of pottery, and toward the upper part, of man- ufactured articles identical with surface finds belonging to mod- ern Indians; and, finally, that they would camp in such a place when gravel beaches and firm, dry, level terraces offered ideal camping facilities within a few rods in either direction. There seems to be an error of observation, such as is liable to befall any one who is not familiar with the Ohio at all seasons and in all its stages. CHAPTER III THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN AND MIGRATIONS OF. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS Natives oj North America. Conjectures as to their Origin. Ways in luhich the New World might have been Peopled from the Old. Possibly a Distinct Variety. Apparently of Great Antiquity. Mounds in the Eastern Hemisphere. Of Various Ages. Widely Distributed. Probable Initial Seat of American Aborigines. Lines of Migration. Suggestions as to Lineage of Mound Builders. IT scarcely falls within the province of this volume to dis- cuss the original settlement of America ; yet it may not be amiss to touch on the subject. Among the numerous unsolved problems, concerning which the field archaeologist is expected to enlighten the public, there is no other upon which information seems more desired. The questions ''Where did the Indians come from?" and "Who were the Mound Builders?" are more frequently asked than any others. It is unfortunate that we are not yet in position to make more than a guess — and only a plausible guess — at an answer ; but such is the case. Pages could be filled with a list of authors who have advocated theories based on resemblances, most of which possess no especial significance. Too often their produc- tions are incoherent collections of irrelevant facts, ingeniously woven together w^ith uncertain traditions, and colored by vague descriptions borrowed from imaginative travelers. A sample of this style of literature is furnished by one writer who is "Astonished and gratified on discovering a striking similarity between the fac-simile of the ancient Briton's style of writing axid that found in the mound at Grave Creek. Although there are but few charac- ters on the flat stone found in the mound at Grav^ Creek, yet several of that few exactly resemble some of those in the Stick Book [alphabet] of the ancient Britons. Perhaps the former was composed at a time when the emigrant Britons in this country had partially lost the mode of writing previously prevalent in Britain. There are other striking facts which (31) 32 Archaeological History of Ohio. seem to prove that the ancient Britons first peopled this country. Ancient mounds, walls, embankments, and parallels, such as are found in this country, exist throughout England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. The Picts painted themselves in different colors, like the aborigines of this continent. The ancient British Druids were buried in mounds. Among the ornaments worn by the British Druid was one like the ordinary plum- met-stone of the Indians. In our mounds, grates or fireplaces are discovered containing charcoal and partially burnt human bones. The British Druids burnt human beings in the performance of their rites." — Levering, 407, condensed. The author then goes on to describe Welsh, Scandinavian, and Roman remains found in various parts of North and South America, even stating that "many fragments of Roman armour have been found here." One author is satisfied that the inscriptions accompanying the "Cremation Scene" on the Davenport tablets are Hittite; but naively adds " It may be some time yet before our knowledge of the Hittite lan- guage will enable us to arrive at perfectly accurate translations of the inscriptions." — Campbell. Another has discovered that "The Moliazvk Indians had a tradition among them, respecting the Welsh, and of their having been cut off by the Indians at the falls of the Ohio. Col. Joseph Hamilton Daviess * * '•' mentions this fact and of the Welshmen's bones being found on Corn Island." "Some hunter, many years ago, informed me of a tombstone being found in the southern part of Indiana, with initials of a name, and 1186 engraved on it." — Hinde, 374. This tradition and tombstone he explains as follows : — "It is a fact that the Welsh under Owen ap Zuinch, in the twelfth century, found their way to the Mississippi, and as far up the Ohio as the falls of that river at Louisville, where they were cut off by the Indians; others ascended the Missouri, were either captured, or settled with and sunk into Indian habits. Proof; In 1799, six soldiers' skeletons were dug up near Jeff ersonville ; each skeleton had a breast plate of brass, cast, with the Welsh coat of arms, the mermaid and harp, with a Latin inscrip- tion, in substance, 'virtuous deeds meet their own reward.'""— Hinde, 373. Conflicting theories as to northern and southern origin are happily reconciled in the next extract, by the ingenious ex- pedient of setting up another migration or two. Imaginary Migrations. 33 " While Baron Humboldt, whose researches entitle his conclusions to great weight, regards the Toltecs, and other more ancient tribes whose names are preserved in Central American tradition, as northern invaders of the vale of Anahuac, Mr. Squier, whose opportunities were perhaps equally good, believes they emanated from regions still further south. Both may be right ; and if we conceive of a race and civilization existing at some more remote period than Humboldt takes into account, extending their settlements through Texas and up the Mississippi and to its tribu- taries, and afterwards dispossessed and driven out by a great wave of invasion from the north, of which the Toltecs, Olmecs, and other tribes, led the van, many of the difficulties attending the inquiry are removed. We are then remanded to Mexico and Central America * * * as the fountain-head of the Mound-Builders' civilization." — Hosea, Mounds, 71. This is quite simple ; and "if we conceive" a few more things and apply them where they are needed, all the other ''difficulties attending the inquiry" can be very easily "removed." Dr. Crookshanks "once saw a paddle which had been brought from the Pacific, probably from the Feegee isles, which was al- most covered with hieroglyphic characters [similar] to those on the clubs of the Caribs, * * the ruins of Palenque, * ^ and the Peruvian jars. All these indicate to me something of Egyptian character, and the Mexican idols and other sculpture, * * as well as others, "^ ^ partake of the same." He then shows how voyagers to the Cape de Verde Islands would drift to the Caribbean Sea. He sees not only Egv^ptian and Phenician art ; but finds in Chili "evidence of both Greek and Latin origin." After giving various good reasons for the decay of cities, he says, " The Toltecs, after inhabiting their country for over four centuries, were dispersed about eight hundred years ago in consequence of death and pestilence. Now, it would be a most extravagant supposition that the whole nation were cut off by these causes. A goodly number of them would still have remained, and had it not been for their cowardly fatalism — the fear of like disaster in the unfortunate place — they might and would have returned to their ancient dwellings. All nations in a savage state are fatalists to such a degree that if they have bad luck in any way at any town or habitation, they abandon it, and can never be persuaded to return and reinhabit it. This may afford a probable reason * * * for the desertion of the forts and embankments in Ohio and the adjacent states. The stone structures and sculptures identify the southrons with the Egyptians, and the mounds and earthen embankments the northerners with the Tartars and other northern Asiatics. It is not less probable that these abandoned their intrenchments in consequence of conquest, death or pestilence, than that the Toltecs should; and possibly some ol 3 84 Archaeological History of Ohio. them in succession, made several forts, and successively abandoned them for like causes, and became wandering hordes until the country became covered with timber; then every tree became an Indian's fort. [He does not concern himself] whether this great and civilized people migrated to Mexico, or whether the Mexicans extended their conquests and colon- izations here. I believe, they, on this continent, formed two distinct races; the one from Egypt and the Mediterranean generally, partly by way of the Pacific Ocean, and principally by that of the straits of Gibral- tar ; the other from Asia by Behring's straits. These may have amal- gamated. Some idols and other remains give some reason to suspect this; but the [Cincinnati tablet] is not among these indications; the figures on it are not hieroglyphics ; there is too much of sameness to indicate ideas." — Crookshanks, 412. In book I, of his "Aboriginal Races of North America", Dr. Samuel G. Drake gives an excellent summary of literature up to about i860 concerning the primitive inhabitants of America. We find that as far back as 1637 Thomas Morton attempted to demon- strate the Indians could not be descended from the Tartars of Asia; because "it is not like that a people well enough at ease, v^ill, of their own accord, undertake to travel over a sea of ice." But he thinks they may have come from the scattered Trojans, though he does not explain why the Trojans would be any more ''like" to come than would the Tartars. He also finds great simil- arity between the Indian languages and the Greek and Latin — which only proves that he knew very little about the former. Dr. Williamson in his history of North Carolina (no date given) has no doubt the Indians of South America are descended from the Hindoos. They could not have come from the north, he thinks, because the South American Indians are unlike those of the north. Father Venegas ( 1758) after many years residence among California Indians fails to find any knowledge among them as to the particular country from which they may have come, nor can he discover any evidence connecting them v/ith Asians. William Wood, in 1633, says the language of the New England tribes is peculiar to themselves, having no connection with the refined tongues; he disputes the idea, even then prevalent, that they are descended from the Jews merely because some of their words re- semble Hebrew. By the same rule, lie says, they could be proven descended from various other peoples. Mr. Josselyn, in 1638, finds the Indians speaking the language of the Tartars, whom they also resemble in complexion, shape, liabit, and manners. Rev. Imaginary Migrations. 85 Thomas Thorowgood, in 1652, "proves" the Indians are descend- ed from the Jews. Roger WilHams beHeved the same. Cotton Mather, in 1702, is satisfied that the Indians are Scythians whom the Devil decoyed to this country to keep them away from relig- ious teaching. Adair, who lived among the Southern Indians for forty years prior to 1775, published a voluminous work to prove the Indian languages and customs are the same as those of the Jews ; and Dr. Boudinot, in his "Star in the West" iden- tifies to his entire satisfaction the Indians with the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. This theory was ridiculed as far back as 1680, by Hubbard in his History of New England; he finds only fortuitous resemblances. Voltaire can see no reason why the In- dians should be derived from anywhere; they are native to the soil as are the buffalo or the beaver. Dr. S. L. Mitchell of New York, traces their descent from the northeastern nations of Asia, because they are of the same color. A contributor to Dr. Rees's Encyclopedia thinks "it would be surprising indeed that one-half of our planet should have remained without inhabitants during thousands of years, while the other half was peopled." Dr. Mc- Culloh, in his Aboriginal History of America (1829), apparently takes all sides of the question, and ends where he began. Lord Kaimes, in Sketches of the History of Man (1774), not only finds several arguments that Indians are not descended from any people in northern Asia or Europe, but believes that America has not been peopled from any part of the old world. Dr. Swinton, in the Ancient Universal History, thinks Phenicia and Egypt too far away to have furnished colonists to America ; con- sequently it was peopled from northeastern Asia. Dr. Cabrera, of New Guatemala, in his history of the Americans (1822) is very confident that Phenicians built the city of Palenque in Central America. De Witt Clinton (1818), thinks the ancient works in this country are similar to remains in Wales, attributed to the Romans ; also, that the Danes as well as the nations erecting our fortifications were of Scythian origin — Scythian, according to Pliny, meaning all nations in the north of Asia and Europe. There is a very full account of various stories concerning red-haired white Indians who speak Welsh ; supposed descendants of Madoc or Medoc who sailed west from Wales about 11 70 and was never afterwards heard of. " Printed books, " in Welsh, were carefully preserved by these Indians ; unfortunately for this part 36 Archaeological History of Ohio. of the story, printing was not invented until long after Madoc's time. Persons competent to decide have investigated this subject thoroughly, and found nothing whatever to substantiate any theory of Welsh colonization. A summary and discussion of the various theories concerning the manner in which America received its earliest inhabitants is also given in ''Native Races of the Pacific Coast" (H. H. Ban- croft, I, chap. I.) and a condensed resume in "North Americans of Antiquity" (Short, chap. III.). A few facts will be stated which show the possibility of foreign people reaching America without intending it; but it must be borne in mind that beyond a shadow of doubt the settlement of America took place long before any vessels were made of a size that w^ould encour- age voluntary ocean voyages; and such wanderers as might be cast ashore would soon be absorbed by the native population and leave little if any trace of their presence. The Gulf Stream and the trade winds carried Columbus and Cabral to Brazil; and it is only 1,539 miles from Cape Frio to Africa. (Short, 50G.) In forty-one instances between 1782 and 1875, Japanese junks were cast upon our coast. There is "a record of over one hundred similar disasters," (H. H. Bancroft V, 51-4.) At least one Japanese wreck, after drifting ten months, reached the Sandwich Islands. — Whymper. "There are two strange and solitary beings [on Fiji Island] who have come from an unknown country and speak an unknown language. They were picked up by a passing vessel many hundreds of miles from any known land, floating in the same tiny canoe in which they had been blown out to sea. They had lived on shell-fish and a few cocoanuts as best they could, and when found were but skin and bone. No one could understand what they said, and they have never named their country; or if they have, the name does not correspond with that of any island on any chart." — Forbes, 77. "At the present day, natives of the South Pacific Islands undertake, without a compass, and successfully, long voyages which astonish even a regular Jack-tar, who is not often astonished at anything." — Le- land, 71-2. " In the winter of 1833 I saw two Japanese who had been wrecked in a junk near the entrance of the Straits of de Fuca; and if they had been dressed in the same manner, and placed with the Chinook slaves whose heads are not flattened, I could not have discovered the difference." — Schoolcraft, History, I, 217. In 1832 a Japanese junk, with nine of the crew still alive, reached the Sandwich Islands after drifting eleven months. About the same time a similar boat landed near Cape Flattery. Chinese boats, also, have Involuntary Voyages. 87 l)een driven to the northwest coast; and articles have been floated from this coast to Kauai. (Sittig.) In 1843, a Chinese junk was lost on the coast of Oregon. Three young men were saved, taken to England, educated, and sent back to their country. Previous to that date Chinese vessels had been wrecked upon this coast. — Gray, 40. After showing the resemblance of certain forms of art in Queen Charlotte's Island to those in Mexico and Central America ; the striking similarity of various manufactured objects in present use among the Haidas and the Maoris ; and the total difference in language and ceremonial objects belonging to the Pacific Coast tribes and those east of the Rocky Mountains; — Thomas gives his endorsement to the theory that the same races or peoples who in early prehistoric times extended their migrations over the Polynesian Islands from some unknown source, may have worked their way directly across the Pacific to the shores of America. — Thomas, Origin. Wickersham admits the truth of all the evidence adduced by Thomas ; shows that there is very much more than the latter has presented; then describes the trend of the Pacific currents, and contends that exactly the contrary of Thomas's argument is probably the truth — that is, that the Northwest Pacific Coast of America was peopled from Asia, mainly from Japan, by means of the Japan Current, and that, missing the coast, derelict barks or craft were carried onward to the Sandwich Islands, and thence to Polynesia. He cites various authorities and occurrences in proof. — Wickersham. Catlin draws attention to the fact that with all their im- provements in boats and other facilities for navigation, and with some idea of the trade that is to be carried on, Asians do not at this day cross to Alaska. (Catlin, Rambles, 314.) But he fails to give any reason why they should do so ; there is plenty of room for them in their own country which is in no wise inferior to Alaska ; and the traders come to them with all they need. It is asserted, also, that America may have been settled by Europeans who made their way to Iceland, thence to Greenland, and so to Labrador and the St. Lawrence. This was accom- plished in the tenth century by Lief Ericson. Until the time •of the Norsemen there was no vessel capable of making headway against the Gulf Stream and weathering north Atlantic storms. As to the Welsh, this is 88 Archaeological History of Ohio. "A tale, which the knowledge we have acquired of the various Indian nations and of their dialects has set at rest." — Gallatin, 125. For most writers, Behring's Strait has from remotest times been a ferry-way for Asian emigrants to America. " It is impossible to approximate the period of the world's history in which the migration must have taken place [across Behring's Strait], No doubt it was in a remote age, before the old world peoples had devel- oped their present or even historic peculiarities and types of civilization." — Short. 511. " The Scyths of Herodotus have disappeared from the face of Europe, and many have supposed that they found a refuge in America. They certainly had many of the habits and customs of the Indians of the plains. * * * They were always in condition to emigrate, the only motive being the improvement of their condition. But would they voluntarily move through the vast and desolate region of Siberia ta Behring's Strait, abandoning their flocks and herds * * * and horses?" — Foster, 334. It is true that Eskimo and other natives pass safely, at cer- tain seasons, from one continent to the other; but this affords no evidence that people unaccustomed to boats would risk the pas- sage. It is incredible that pastoral or agricultural barbarians would suddenly abandon those pursuits for a life devoted to^ fishing and hunting. Yet, in the case of any people of central or southern Asia, we must either suppose this to have happened, or admit a very slow movement toward the north and east, beginning far back of the Scythians or any other historic race. "Concerning the Aleutian Islands, we know by the evidence of lan- guage and archaeology, that they were first peopled from America and not from Asia. [And further] we know that Siberia was not peopled till late in Neolithic times, and what is more, that the vicinity of [Behring] Strait and the whole coast of Alaska were, till a very modern geologic period, covered by enormous glaciers which have prevented any commu- nication between the two continents." — Brinton, Race, 20 and 21. The Serpent Mound has given rise to two widely different views concerning the migrations of its builders. "All through Mexico the favorite subject for the Toltee or Aztec sculptor was the serpent, generally the rattlesnake. * * * We have already observed the same disposition to sculpture the rattlesnake among the Mound-builders. In the great serpent [in] Adams County, Ohio, we find a striking analogy to the tendency of Mexican art. * * * The part which the serpent symbol plays in the south and east Asiatic sculpture and mythology is well known; * * * j^ occupied a place equally im- Serpent Worship — Lines of Travel. 39 portant among Nalnias and Hindoos. The great serpent in Ohio may be a connecting link between the art of both Mexicans and Asiatics." — Short, 418. " The facts [that an effigy somewhat similar to the Serpent Mound had been discovered in Scotland] would indicate that serpent worship in Ohio had come from Great Britain and had been first introduced by the mound builders. Possibly the serpent worship in Mexico may have been introduced from the other side by way of Polynesia." — Peet, Amer., I, 84. It is a demonstrated fact, however, that trees and serpents were once worshipped or at least held in high veneration, in nearly all parts of the world. " If it should turn out that these [the serpent mounds and figures] are really representations of the great serpent, and that this worship is indigenous in the New World, we are thrown back on the doctrine that human nature is alike everywhere, and that man in like circum- stances and wdth a like degree of civilization does always the same things, and elaborates the same beliefs." — Fergusson, 38. ''Reduced to a similar situation, their wants, their desires, their enjoyments, still continue the same; and the influence of food or climate, which, in a more improved state of society, is suspended or subdued, by so many moral causes, most powerfully contributes to form and to main- tain the national character of Barbarians." — Gibbon. It has been suggested that the Scythians and other Asiatics may have reached America along a route which offered more genial climatic conditions than that by way of Behring's Strait. Because skull-flattening is (or was) practised on the east border of Europe, in western America, and in Polynesia, Short con- cludes that " It originated among the wild hordes of the northern steppes of Asia. * * * This fact is suggestive of a remote intercourse between people separated by seas and mountains, if it does not serve as an argument for the unity and common origin of the human family." — Short, 183. But we are still confronted, under this supposition, with the difficulty of understanding how or why "wild hordes" would make their way from frigid plains through a populated region, to trop- ical islands. Neither do we find any assistance in his suggestion that the numerous remains of Polynesia may indicate that at one time there was a much larger area of land above the water than is now apparent. If such were the case since the buildings were erected, whose ruins are now to be found, it would seem that 40 Archaeological History of Ohio. similar remains must exist below the present sea-level. These have not been reported. Mason shows how a primitive colony could travel from the Indian Ocean to America, under present geological and climatic conditions, and along the present coastal lines. They would find in their favor : An abundant food supply, in the water and on the land. It is the shortest possible route, being on a great circle of the earth. The present natives, all along this route, make sea journeys greater in length than the distance separating any one island from the next in the line of migra- tion. The ocean currents and the winds favor the east-bound navigator, and equalize the temperature. Such migrations may have continued for thousands of years, bringing every people of eastern and southern Asia and of Polynesia to America. "Every one of the industrial and esthetic arts here can be matched by one from Asia or Oceanica." "All in- telligent travelers are struck with the similarity existing between our west coast Indians and existing eastern Asiatics." The author "desires to lay aside * * * any arguments relying upon continents that have disappeared, upon voyages across the profound sea without food or motive, upon the accidental stranding of junks, or upon the aimless wandering of lost tribes. These may all have entered into the problem of the aboriginal life of America." Finally, he believes that America was settled by people who were being dispersed slowly by natural causes, and who were led in this direction because it offered few obstacles and many advantages. — Mason ; Migration. Indeed, if the subject be followed, we will find "There is not a race of eastern Asia — Siberian, Tartar, Chinese, Japanese, Malay, with the Polynesians — which has not been claimed as discoverers, intending or accidental, of American shores, or as progenitors, more or less perfect or remote, of American peoples; and there is no good reason why any one of them may not have done all that is claimed." — Winsor, History, I, 59. The same claim has been made for the Norse, Danes, Irish, Basques, Welsh, Jews, Romans, Greeks, Phenicians, Carthagini- ans, Egyptians, Guanches of the Canary Islands, and even Ethio- pians ; storm-driven, on voyages of exploration, hunting for gold, or impelled by some other motives to cross unknown seas. Not content with existing lands to provide settlers, some writers have evoked continents now buried beneath the sea ; as Atlantis, and a great continent in the Pacific represented by various archi- pelagoes. Any sea-faring race, in any part of the world, may have reached America from either direction, under three condi- tions—namely, favorable winds, of sufficient duration; vessels strong enough to resist any storm they were destined to en- A Distinct or Very Ancient Race, 41 counter; and a food supply adequate to support the crews until they could reach land. It remains to be proven whether there was ever such a concurrence of conditions prior to the tenth century. On the other hand there are not wanting assertions that the American Indians are indigenous to the soil, as Voltaire says, ''like the buffalo or the beaver." It is rather singular that two authors,who have labored faithfully to connect them with the Old- World races, should end by saying: — " If this continent was peopled by migration from the Old World, it must have been at a period far remote, and at a time when mankind was nnacquainted with the use of iron, * * * jj^g entire absence of all the domesticated animals in North America, when first known to the white man, and of the domestic cereals of the Old World, would lead to the inference that if this continent was peopled from Asia, it must have been at a period far more remote than is embraced in the received chronology, and when society was in a purely hunter state." — Foster, 333 and 335. " The most persistent investigation has failed to disclose any marked resemblance between the architecture, art, religion, and customs of the North Americans considered as a whole and of any old world people." — Short, 519. J. W. Powell says " On this subject [the study of physical characteristics of different races] there has been much j-esearch ; * * * but, the more thorough the investigation, the firmer is the conclusion that the aboriginal peoples of America cannot be allied preferentially to any one branch of the human race in the Old World." " The American Indian did not derive his forms of government, his industrial and decorative arts, his languages, or his mythological opinions from the Old World, but developed them in the New. Man thus seems to have inhabited the New World through all the lost centuries of prehistoric time." " There is no evidence that the tribes of the Occident have ever commingled with the tribes of the Orient. * * * 'pj^g occupancy of America by mankind was anterior to the development of arts, industries, institutions, languages and opinions; the primordial occupancy of the continent antedates present geographical conditions, and points to a remote time, which can be discovered only by geological and biological investigation." " Throughout North and South America * * * a vast system of distinct languages was found, usually so unlike each other that they did not furnish a method of communication between different peoples. Of such languages some hun- dreds are well known. * * * "We are therefore forced to conclude * * * that the tribes inhabited this hemisphere anterior to the de- velopment of articular or grammatic speech." — Forum, 682-4, 679-686. 42 Archaeological History of Ohio. In regard to the statement contained in the last paragraph, " Those learned in comparative philology say, that all the multi- tudinous languages and dialects spoken in America, from the Esquimaux to Patagonia, constitute one family, have a common root and origin; and that all the natives and tribes speaking these languages constitute one race. While these several hundred languages are the same in or- ganism and structure, they differ so in vocabulary that many of them have not a single word in common. Now, the growth of a language is a slow process. * * * How long must it require for a barbarous people to develop and complete near four hundred distinct languages? The period must, at all events, be so great, that one thousand years ago is, in comparison, freshly recent, almost of the present day." — Force, 6L In spite of the vast amount of study that men have given to the matter, we do not know, and at present it appears doubtful whether we shall ever know, when, how, whence, or by whom, America was settled, or whether it was ever ''settled" at all, in the ordinary meaning of the word. Ethnologically, the areas east and west of the Rocky Mountains are essentially different. There is manifest, too, a wide variation in character among the races inhabiting the three grand divisions of the continent; greater than v/ould probably be produced by climate alone. These facts indicate more than one line of migration, leading back to differ- ent starting points; yet, given time enough, all these stages of culture may gradually evolve in various branches of one tribe dcvelcpiiig under radically dissimilar circumstances. With the present distribution of land and water and the trend of ocean currents, immigration would be more feasible, to a primitive people, from south-eastern Asia and the adjacent islands than from an_y other direction. We have no means of knowing how long existing conditions in these respects have pre- vailed. Relatively slight elevations and depressions of various portions of the earth's surface, like those which have frequently occurred in all ages of the world, might produce such alteration in land areas, winds, and ocean currents as to carry savages or barbarians to places now impossible for them to reach, or to render practicable lines of travel which they cannot now attempt. •" Man in his wanderings has always been guided by the course of rivers, the trend of mountain chains, the direction of ocean currents, the position of deserts, passes and swamps. * * * Perhaps [at a future date], the post-tertiary geology of our continent will have been so clearly defined that the geography of its different epochs will be known suffi- Origin of Mound Building. 4B ciently to trace these lines of migration at the various epochs of man's- residence in the western world from his first arrival." — Essays, 45. If the existence of a "glacial" or "paleolithic" man in this country can be proven, or if it can be shown, as Powell contends,, that America was inhabited while man was still but little be- yond the stage of a wild beast, his presence can be accounted for in only three ways: — He gradually developed here from a lower stage into a human being; there was a land connection between the eastern and western hemispheres which no longer exists; or there were islands, or possibly continents, now de- stroyed, so distributed that he could be accidentally carried from; one to another. At that early period of his existence he could not have prepared himself for travel by sea. MOUND-BUII.DING PEOPLES Included in the general search for the starting-point of America's pristine population has been the quest for the original home of the Mound Builder. Fortuitous resemblances in physi- cal characteristics, manner of living, personal habits, and mental traits, have furnished arguments in favor of the Red Man's de- scent from nearly every barbarous tribe of Asia, and some por- tions of Europe ; similarly, the remains of the Mound Builders are considered tokens of their identity or kinship with people as fun- damentally different from each other as the Egyptians and early Britons. The analogy is no more convincing in one case than in the other. Mounds are among the earliest and most widely distributed memorials of the dead. Savages could pile up earth or stones be- fore they could carve a rock or hew a piece of wood. Barbarians would feel that they were showing greater honor to the memory of a leader whose loss bore upon all alike, by the erection of a mon- ument to which every individual might contribute a share of time and labqr. Nothing is more enduring; when settled into com- pactness and covered wnth sod, a heap of earth will remain un- changed through vicissitudes that reduce to ruins any other pro- duct of human industry. It is to be expected, then, that such tumuli would be of world-wide occurrence ; and belong not only to primitive ages when men were debarred by limited resources from constructing 44 Archaeological History of Ohio. more elaborate tombs, but continue to be built as tokens of general esteem or affection long after architectural skill had made mag- nificent structures possible A few citations taken at random from hundreds that might be given show the prevalence of mound burial in various parts of the globe. In the British Isles "the smaller tumuli may be seen on almost every down; in the Orkneys alone it is estimated that more than two thousand still remain; and in Denmark they are even more abundant; they are found all over Europe, from the shores of the Atlantic to the Ural mountains ; in Asia they are scattered over the great steppes, from the borders of Russia to the Pacific Ocean, and from the plains of Siberia to those of Hindostan; the entire plain of Jelalabad, says Masson, 'is literally covered with tumuli and mounds.' * * * Nor are they want- ing in Africa. * * * Indeed, the whole world is studded with the burial places of the dead. Many of them, indeed, are small, but some are very large." "Within a radius of three miles [about Stonehenge, Eng- land,] there are about three hundred burial mounds." "Tumuli [were erected over] Queen Thyra and King Gorm, who died about A. D. 950, in Denmark. It appears that in England the habit of burying under tumuli was finally abandoned during the tenth century." — Lubbock, 110 to 123. The mound of the King at Cogstad, Norway, was about 160 feet in diameter; its height is not given. It covered a Viking war-vessel and was erected in the ninth or tenth century. (Vessels, 80.) In A. D. 363, the Roman Emperor, Julian, jfleeing before the Persians, died at Samarah on the Tigris. His body was burned and a "huge tumulus" was erected as a monument. — Myers, 143 and 164. "Far more interesting than any of the [other] tumuli explored by me in the Troad, is the mound attributed by the tradition of all antiquity to the hero Protesilaus. * * * This sepulchre * * * jg ^ot less than 126 meters in diameter. It is now only 10 meters high, but as it is under cultivation, and has probably been tilled for thousands of years, it must have been originally much higher." — Schliemann. Near Aleppo is "an immense artificial mound, nearly half a mile ih circumference, and about one hundred and fifty feet high, surrounded in part by a cyclopean wall, twelve or fifteen feet in height, constructed of huge basaltic boulders. * * * Qne is astonished at the vast num- ber of these mounds occurring throughout Northern Syria and. Mesopo- tamia. Upon the plains of the latter we have counted twenty within range of the vision. * * * Advantage seems to have been taken, in some cases, of a natural eminence; but generally the entire enormous pile is unmistakably of artificial construction. * * * That they date back to the very earliest time there is no doubt." — Myers, 71. " The largest mound near Nineveh covered one hundred acres. Its surface is somewhat irregular, the mound varying in height from seventy Mounds in the Old World. 45 to ninety feet. Not more than twenty to thirty feet is composed of the material of the destroyed buildings ; the remaining elevation marking the height of the artificial platform upon which the palaces stood." — Myers > 114-5, condensed. " Semiramis, the widow of Ninus, raised over him a great mound of earth. Two Trojan heroes were buried under earthen barrows. Hec- tor's barrow was of earth and stone. Achilles erected a tumulus upwards of an hundred feet in diameter, over Patroclus. The mound over the Father of Croesus, King of Lydia, was of stone and earth and more than a quarter of a league [?] in circumference. Alexander the Great heaped a tumulus over Hephsestion at a cost of much more than a million dollars. Deucennus, King of Latium, was buried under an earthen mound. Mound burial was practiced in ancient times by the Scythians, Greeks, Etruscans, Germans and many other nations. — Lubbock, 116, condensed. "About ten miles from the city of Kalgan [China] there is a cluster of over forty mounds, one of them being thirty feet high, and four hun- dred and twenty feet in circumference at the base, and an oval rhound forty-eight feet in length on the summit." — Can. Savage, 32. The Chimus of the Peruvian coast, a dififerent people from those of the Incas, had sepulchral mounds, and "great mounds or artificial hills," whose purpose is not stated. ( Winsor : History I, 275.) The burial mound of Oberea^ in Otaheite, was 267 feet long, 87 feet wide, and 44 feet in height. It was a pyramid made of round pebbles, faced with squared coral stone. — Lubbock, 483. Not all such structures are sepulchral in character ; many owe their origin to a religious instinct. In Wiltshire, England, are prehistoric remains of great ex- tent supposed to be the work of the Druids. The so-called " Temple of Abury consisted originally of a grand circumvallation of earth 1,400 feet in diameter, enclosing an area of upwards of twenty-two acres. C) It has an inner ditch, and the height of the embankment, measuring from the bottom of the ditch, is seventeen feet. It is quite regular, though not an exact circle in form, and has four entrances placed at unequal distances apart, though nearly at right angles to each other. Within this grand circle were originally two double or concentric circles, composed of massive upright stones ; a row of large stones, one hundred in number, was placed upon the inner brow of the, ditch. Extending upon either hand from this grand central structure, were parallel lines of huge upright stones, constituting upon each side, avenues upwards of a mile in length. These formed the body of the serpent. Each avenue consisted of two hundred stones. The head of the serpent was O — A circle of this diameter would enclose nearly 35 acres. 46 Archaeological History of Ohio. represented by an oval structure, consisting of two concentric lines of upright stones; the outer line containing forty, the inner eighteen stones. This head rests on an eminenre * * * from which is commanded a view of the entire structure, winding back for more than two miles to the point of the tail. * * * About midway, in a right line between the extremities of the avenues, is placed a huge mound of earth, known as Silsbury Hill, [which] is supposed by some, Dr. Stukely among the number, to be a monumental structure erected over the bones of a King or Arch-Druid." — Squier, 234. " The circumference of the [above] hill, as near the base as possible, measured two thousand and twenty-seven feet, the diameter at top one hundred and twenty feet, the sloping height three hundred and sixteen feet, and the perpendicular height one hundred and seventy feet," It contains over 13,500,000 cubic feet. — Hoare, 82. " But the most wonderful structure of the kind yet discovered is the gigantic temple ot Karnac in Brittany. The serpentine character of this great work is now well established. It consists of seven parallel rows of huge upright stones, which, following the sinuous course of the structure, can yet be traced for upwards of eleven miles, and it is believed it for- merly extended thirteen miles in length. The stones are placed from twelve to fifteen feet apart laterally, and from thirty to thirty-three feet apart longitudinally. Some of these are of vast size measuring from twenty to twenty-five feet in length above the ground, by twelve feet in breadth and six in thickness ; and are estimated to weigh from one hundred to one hundred and fifty tons each. The number of stones originally comprised in the work is estimated by Mr. Deane, who made a careful survey of the ruins, at upwards of ten thousand. The line of this vast parallelithon is designedly crooked or serpentine, although main- taining a general direction from east to west; and the height of the stones is so graduated as to convey (in the opinion of Mr. Deane) the idea of undulation, thereby rendering the resemblance to a vast serpent more complete and obvious. In connection with this structure is an emi- nence, partly natural and in part artificial (corresponding to Silbury Hill at Abury) called Mount St. Michael, from which a general view of the great serpentine temple is commanded." (Squier, Serpent, 238.) This hill "is no less than 380 feet in length, and 190 feet broad, with an average height of 33 feet," — Lubbock , 163. Although these "temples" find no counterpart in North America, the description of them, as of the mounds referred to, is inserted partly to furnish a basis of comparison in regard to the amount of labor performed in this country and in other parts of the world; partly to show the futility of attempting to establish any theory of desceni or relationship upon a practice so nearly universal. Primitive Home of the American Indian. 47 Omitting from consideration all reference to our aborigines other than the Mound Builders and their possible ancestors, there is as little certainty and as much guesswork in regard to their movements in America as there is in theories regarding their in- definite ancestors. The original home of the American native is generally conceded to liave been on the far Northwest coast. Morgan has offered cogent reasons for such belief. He says : — " Barbarians ignorant of agriculture and depending upon fish and game for subsistence, spread over large areas with great rapidity. The American aborigines undoubtedly commenced their career as fishermen and hunters, but chiefly cs fishermen. The .lunt is a precarious source of "human subsistence. Without the horse to follow the larger animals of the chase upon the plains, it was entirely impossible for nations of men to maintain themselves from this source exclusively or even principally. Nations would rapidly perish if dependent upon so uncertain a source of maintenance. Fish was the basis of subsistence of the Indian tribes, to which their increase in numbers and diffusion over North America is to be ascribed. It was by the abundance of this article of food that certain centers of population w^ere created, which first supplied, and afterward replenished, the continent with inhabitants. " The country within a radius of five hundred miles from the head of Puget sound, was singularly well supplied at the time of its discovery with the requisites for the subsistence of Indian tribes. A mild and genial climate was added to its other attractions. In the amount and variety of the means of subsistence spontaneously furnished, it had no parallel in any part of the earth. " The facts are sufficient to raise a presumption that the valley of the Columbia was the region from which both North and South America ^yere peopled in the first instance, and afterward resupplied with inhab- itants. "The Algonkin, the Dakotan, the Pawnee, and the Shoshonee — seem to proceed from the valley of the Columbia as their original source. In point of time the Algonkins apparently held the advance in the eastern movement, and were thus able to follow the isothermal line, by way of the Saskatchewan, to the great lake region, and thence to the valley of the St. Lawrence; while the Dakotas, striving to move in the same gen- eral direction, took a more southern route, by way of the Platte; and the Pawnees and Shoshonees, moving still later, followed a route still farther south. " It is reasonably certain, first, that the distribution of the aborigines over North America began on the Pacific side of the continent ; Second, that the several stock languages east of the Rocky Mountains and north of New Mexico had become distinct before these stocks migrated east- ward; third, that the nations of Mexico and Central America were emigrants from the north; and last, that the initial point of all these migrations was in the valley of the Columbia. 48 Archaeological History of Ohio. " It is highly probable that the shores of Lake Superior were the central seats of the Algonkin stock, from its earliest appearance on the eastern side of the continent, and that emigrants went forth from this, secondary center of population to the southward and eastward. "Two important facts are made apparent; first, that the Algonkin stock still inhabit the slopes of the Rocky Mountains, over against the valley of the Columbia, thus pointing to that valley as the initial point from which they emigrated to the great lake region, and thence to the Atlantic coasts; and secondly, that they were climatically a northern people. — Morgan, Migrations, 159-253, condensed. After discussing at some length the movements of the various tribes, their connection with one another, their amalgamations and separations, he states his belief that "Among those nations who are without recognized descendants are the mound-builders who lived east of the Mississippi. It is evident that they were agricultural and village Indians, from their artificial embankments, their implements and utensils, and from their selection of the areas most poorly provided with fish and game. From the absence of all traditionary knowledge of their existence, amongst the nations found in possession of their territories, it is also to be inferred that the period of their occupation was ancient. Their disappearance was probably gradual, and completed before the advent of the present stocks, or simultaneously with their arrival. The small number of sites of ancient villages, and the scanty population assignable to Indian villages even of the largest class, particularly in cold climates, are good reasons for supposing they were never very numerous. It is a reasonable con- jecture, as elsewhere stated, that they were village Indians from New Mexico. In fact, there is no other region from which they could have been derived; unless it be assumed that, originally roving Indians, they had become after their establishment east of the Mississippi, Village Indians of the highest type — of which there is not the slightest probability. It seetns more likely that their retirement from the country was volun- tary, than that they were expelled by an influx of roving nations. If their overthrow had been the result of a protracted warfare, all remem- brance of so remarkable an event would scarcely have been lost among the natives by whom they were displaced. * * * it is, therefore, not improbable that the attempt to transfer the type of village life of New Mexico to the Ohio valley proved a failure; and that after great efforts, continued for more centuries than one, it was finally abandoned, and they gradually withdrew, first into the gulf states, and lastly from the country* altogether. "But there is not a fact to show that the village Indians of Central America or Mexico ever spread northward, or competed with the North- ern Indians for the possession of any part of the continent north of the immediate valley of Mexico; whilst several reasons may be assigned against the supposition of a movement in that direction." (Morgan, Theories as to Identity of the Mound Builders. 49 Migrations, 243-5.) ''Every presumption is in favor of their derivation from New Mexico as their immediate anterior home, where they were accustomed to snow and to a moderate degree of cold." — Morgan, 202. Other investigators have come to a somewhat different con- clusion. " Bishop Madison, of Virginia, having with much labor investigated the subject, declares his conviction that these Astecks are one and the same people with those who once inhabited the valley of Ohio. The prob- abilities are certainly in favor of this opinion." — Harrison, 224. " In undertaking to trace the migrations of the Mound Builder, I would direct attention to the warm climate of Central America, rather than to the hyperborean regions of Siberia and Behring's Strait as mark- ing the line of his departure. The primitive lines of migration, so far as they relate to North America, were probably from the south to the north." — Foster, 339. Gillman is not content with an origin so near home, as he speaks of "Mound Builders * * * the mysterious people * * * ^ race whose craniological development and evidently advanced civilization apparently separate it from the North American Indian and ally it to the ancient Brazilian type." — Gillman, M. B., 304. Payn advocates the Carib origin of the mounds. He bases his argument on the well-known fact that the Caribs made canoe voyages to Yucatan and to Florida. Consequently he thinks there is no reason why they should not have sailed up the Missis- sippi and its tributaries, and spread over all the interior region. But maritime nations are not given to living away from water; besides w^hich, the connection between canoe voyages and mounds is not apparent. Starr says of an engraved shell very similar to those figured by Holmes, which w^as found "near Morelia, in the state of Mich- oacan, Mexico:" — "Form, function, character of this IMichoacan specimen are plainly the same as those from Tennessee, Georgia and Missouri. It can no longer be said that the type is essentially northern nor that it belongs exclusively to the Mound Builders of the United States. * * * in fact there are greater differences between the Tennessee specimens them- selves, or between the Missouri specimens alone, than there are between the United States specimens as a class, and this Mexican eorset " Starr, 173. '' One of the specimens from the Hopewell mounds was a remarkably fine piece of incised work on the polished surface of a piece of humaa 4 50 Archaeological History of Ohio. femur. The carving comprises human and animal faces, ovals, circles and other symbolic designs, and resolves itself into several distinct masks and head-dresses together with the serpent and sun symbols. The designs on this carving are repeated in the forms of objects found in the same mound. The most striking resemblance was found in one of the masks which, in the carving, is surmounted with a head-dress in the form of a deer's antlers, while in the mound was found a skeleton having over the skull a head-dress of copper and wood made in this same form with the branching antlers. One carving on the arm bone of a man represents several animal heads interwoven in a curious manner, and over each head are the symbolic designs, ovals and circles, common to nearly all the carvings. These lines are arranged in such a fashion that portions of each head form part of another above and below, and the reverse of the carving shows still different heads. Other specimens represent artistic conventionalized forms of birds and animals. Professor Putnam said the Cincinnati Tablet is undoubtedly genuine, since 'several of the strange figures carved on the stone are of the conventionalized serpent form com- mon in the mounds of Ohio and also agreeing essentially with the serpent head symbol on the old stone sculptures of Central America, which re- semblances were not before known.' This stone was also found to have lines identical with those on a piece of copper found in the Hopewell group. Professor Putnam also called attention to the fact that the elabor- ate and intricate designs and delicate workmanship of the carvings he had illustrated necessitated a high degree of skill, ingenuity and patience for their conception and execution, combined with a certain religious cult expressed by the symbols in the carvings, and he claimed that no such wrork had ever been done by the dolichocephalic tribes of the northern and eastern portions of the United States, nor had any such specimens ever been found in the mounds of later date. His convictions, after more than twenty-five years of exploration and study, are that the builders of the old mounds and earthworks of the Ohio Valley, 'were probably a branch of the great southwestern people represented by ancient Mexicans, the builders of the old cities of Yucatan and Central America, and some of the Pueblo tribes' of the south-west." — A. A. A. S., in Bui. Am. 'Geo. Soc. , condensed. " The marked development of conventionalism and symbolism in the art of the people who built the old earthworks in the Ohio Valley and southward, indicates their connection with certain peoples of the south- west and of Mexico and Central America. It also furnishes one more point of evidence that the. Ohio earthwork builders were more closely allied with the early stock, of which the ancient Mexicans were a branch, than with the tribes of the eastern part of the continent. The art of the ■eastern tribes,— with the exception here and there of slight resemblances which can easily be accounted for by survival from ancient contact, — is of an entirely different character with different motives and different ^symbols; whereas this old art of Ohio is closely related to that of Mexico and Central America, and many of the symbols are identical." — Sym- bolism, 302. Theories as to Identity of the Mound Builders. 61 Some writers have turned the tide of emigration in the other direction ; they argue that the peoples of the southwest are derived from those of the Ohio valley. For example : — " In the light of modern discovery and scientific investigation we are able to follow the Mound Builders. We first found them in Ohio engaged in tilling the soil and developing a civilization peculiar to themselves. Driven from their homes they sought an asylum in the South, and from there they wandered into Mexico, where we begin to learn something more definite concerning them." — McLean, 148. " So we can track the Mound Builders by their structures from the shores of the Great Lakes to the milder region of Mexico and Central America. The truncated pyramid is among the strongest links in the chain which connects the ancient inhabitants of the Mississippi Valley with those of Mexico and Central America. In the rude earthworks we see the germ of the idea which was subsequently wrought out in pro- portions of beauty and harmony, giving origin to a unique style of archi- tecture. The flat-topped mounds are traced, with increasing size and di- versity of form, from Aztalan, Wisconsin to the Teocallis of Central America." — Foster, 98, 188 and 186. In order to show how some writers are simply guessing, com- pare the preceding statement with the following by the same author : — " The Aztecs moved into the valley of Anahuac only about three hundred years before the Spanish Conquest, and had failed to consolidate the Mexican Empire. It is quite probable that these astronomical prob- lems, which indicate a high range of intellect, were not wrought out by their own ingenuity, but were derived from the subjugated race. As to the conquered race, de Bourborg maintains that they were Toltecs or Nahuas — a people identical with the ]\Iound Builders of the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys. — Foster, 340, condensed. The pioneers, Squier and Davis, while believing in a rela- tionship between the races, express no opinion as to which was the earlier. Their final deduction, on this phase of the problem, is very conservative. " We may venture to suggest that the facts thus far collected point to a connection more or less intimate between the race of the mounds and the semi-civilized nations which formerly had their seats among the sierras of Mexico, upon the plains of Central America and Peru, and who erected the imposing structures which from their number, vastness, and mysterious significance invest the central portions of the continent with an [absorbing] interest." — S. & D., 301. Short has no difficulty in getting at the kernel of the whole question. He covers a very wide field in a very few sentences, 52 Archaeological History of Ohio. and displays remarkable analytic powers in determining lines and dates of migrations. " It is not improbable that while few in numbers the Nahuas ar- rived on our north-western coast, where they found a home until they had become a tribe of considerable proportions. Crossing the watershed between the sources of the Columbia and Missouri Rivers, a large por- tion of the tribe probably found its way to the Mississippi Valleys, where it laid the foundations of a wide-spread empire, and developed a civil- ization which reached a respectable degree of advancement. The remain- der of the Nahuas, we think, migrated southward into Utah." [So he continues, scattering various tribes of Nahuas all over the south and west, and finally landing them all in Mexico.] " The 52 years in the Aztec cycle, multiplied by the 24 marks on the calender stone, gives us 1248 years. There is a sign accompanied by the number 13, which corresponds to the year 1479, the date at which the calendar stone was finished. If we subtract 1248 years from the known date 1479 A. D., we have the year 231 A. D. ; * * * we believe this to be the date of the migration from Hue hue Tlalapan, the country of the Mound Builders of the Mississippi Valley, and we further think we are sustained in this view both by the early writers and by the condition of the mounds and shellheaps of the United States."— Short, 517 and 458. The principal objection to all these paradoxical surmises con- cerning wandering Nahuas, Aztecs, Mound Builders, etc., is, that no satisfactory evidence is forthcoming in regard to them. Some very high authorities dismiss the subject as being, at present, en- tirely beyond any means of certainty or knowledge. So far as the arguments of advocates of Toltec migration from the north and from the south are concerned, " We can turn from one to the other of these theorists and agree with both, as they cite their evidences. It is one thing to lose one's way in this labyrinth of belief, and another to lose one's head." — Winsor : History, I, 136. " The traditions of the migrations of the Chichimecs, Colhuas, and Nahuas are no better than the Greek traditions about Pelasgians, Co- hans and lonians, and it would be a mere waste of time to construct out of such elements a systematic history." — Mtiller. There is another fact opposed to these theories of kinship. Both peoples were apparently, inveterate smokers; yet while thousands of pipes have been exhumed from mounds, the name and the use of the calumet was unknown to the Aztecs. — Biart, 103. It will be observed in the above citations that no tangible ob- jects of any character are offered in support of their various assertions, except the shell described by Starr and the Hopewell Objections to Theories of Migration. 63 specimens mentioned by Putnam. These may doubtless be ex- plained in the same manner as other articles from mounds, figured on subsequent pages. In all the territory between New Mexico and the middle Ohio valley, there are no adobe structures like those of the former lo- cality, or great enclosures such as are typical of the latter. The so-called adobes and bricks reported in the mounds and village- sites of the southern states are only masses of burned earth (see page 461.) It is difficult to believe that either custom, after being in vogue for several, perhaps many, generations, would be at once and completely abandoned. Then, no attempt is made to explain how migrating parties may have reached their destination. Two routes were open to either the Pueblo Indians or the natives of Mexico. The first lay over barren, burning deserts, beneath a scorching sun, where for many days in succession neither water nor food is to be obtained. These must be carried in addition to other necessary articles. The second route led to the Gulf coast, and along that to any point where they chose to diverge from it. Either would at last bring them to the fertile lands of the lower Mississippi valley, where they would find everything needed by a savage or a barbarian for rendering life pleasant or even luxurious. It may be that population so increased under these favorable surroundings, as to make it necessary for colonies to branch off and seek a home elsewhere ; but it is improbable they would at once have begun a journey of hundreds of miles toward the north, or that, if they had advanced by slow degrees as is most likely, they would have erected in the country over which they traveled structures which, so far as we can tell from the meager ruins, were markedly different from those in both the region which they left and that where they settled. The same difficulties attend the reverse of the proposition ; namely, that the peoples of the southwest are descended from the Mound Builders. A further discussion of this question will form a part of the matter in the next chapter. CHAPTER IV THE MOUND BUILDERS Ohio Mound Builders. Early Writers. Little Known Until the Report of Squier and Davis. Great Increase in Number of Authors Since Their Day. Conflicting Opinions Regarding this People. Theories as to Their Affiliation with Historic Tribes. No Definite Knowl- edge Concerning Their Origin or End. FOR over half a century after the settlement of Ohio, there was more or less speculation about Mound Builders' work, most of it based on casual obser- vations and incorrect reports. It was generally known the primeval forests concealed earthen remains of various forms, and in some cases of considerable extent ; but definite information concerning them was lacking, and while much diversity of opinion existed as to their origin, no theories ad- vanced in regard to their builders or the purpose of their con- struction met either with zealous advocacy except, in some cases, from the author; or with forcible opposition. Occasionally an article would appear in a periodical or in a volume devoted mainly to some other subject, describing a particular group, or the remains within a limited area. Some of these articles were accompanied by a few crude illustrations. They were generally based upon cursory examinations, and the data which they pre- sented did not afford sufficient grounds upon which to establish a logical argument. Nevertheless, some courageous writers, assum- ing the absolute correctness of these accounts, had no hesitation not only in d^-ducing from them unwarranted theories but also in applying these theories to works of quite different character in remote localities. As a natural consequence, the known facts were soon invested with a magnitude and importance out of all proportion to their real value ; and thus arose a belief in a single race or nation antedating the Indian and occupying the entire Mississippi valley. Critical readers may not have found the evi- dence of a nature to justify this presumption ; but an attempt at (54) Work of Squicr and Davis. 55 contradiction was merely setting the ideas of one person against those of another. An assertion that the earthworks are evidence of a high civiHzation or an autocratic central government, could be met only by a general denial ; while a statement that the labor and skill involved were not beyond the power of known tribes was successfully met by the challenge to cite a single instance in which Indians were known to engage in any such task. Thus' matters stood when, fifty years ago, Squier and Davis gave to the world their great work on the " Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley." It came as a revelation, bringing definitely to public notice the existence in Ohio, and to a less ex- tent in adjoining states, of a class of prehistoric remains differ- ing in character from those belonging to any other part of the country. All doubts as to the high culture of the Mound Builders seemed dispelled. Abundant proof, apparently, was presented in this volume that a people, of whom no known trace remained but who were certainly far superior to the Red Men, had once dwelt in this region. A firm foundation was laid for the mis-^ conceptions and erroneous beliefs which have become so firmly implanted in the minds of nearly all persons who are interested in the science, but are not in position to investigate carefully the statements upon which their beliefs are based. The authors in question give numerous measurements, along with many plates and figures, purporting to be the results of actual personal observations, in addition to perhaps an equal number of others from friends who placed their surveys and de- scriptions at the disposal of the two associates. They claim that regular geometric figures are the rule; that there are perfect circles, squares, and octagons, and evidences of considerable as- tronomical knowledge in the manner of laying these out relative to the cardinal points. According to the figures, all lines are a certain number of feet in length ; enclosures contain exact acres ; angles are turned ofif only in degrees. This would be impossible unless the builders of the works had the same system of mensu- ration that is in use among ourselves. We find such paragraphs as these: — "Another fact, bearing directly upon the degree of knowledge pos- sessed by the builders, is, that many, if not most, of the circular works are perfect circles, and that many of the rectangular works are accurate squares. This fact has been demonstrated, in numerous instances, by careful admeasurements ; and has been remarked in cases where the works 56 Archaeological History of Ohio. embrace an area of many acres, and where the em6ankments, or circum- vallations, are a mile and upwards in extent." — S. & D., 8. " The square and rectangular works [in] certain groups are marked by great uniformity of size. Five or six of these * =i< * ^re exact squares, each measuring one thousand and eighty feet side, — a coincidence which could not possibly be accidental, and which must possess some sig- nificance. It certainly establishes the existence of some standard of meas- urement among the ancient people, if not the possession of some means of determining angles." — S. & D., 48. An octagon "of large size, in the vicinity of Chillicothe, has its alternate angles coincident with each other, and its sides equal." — S. & D., 49. Such assertions are not true in a single instance. Their cor- rectness has been successfully impeached wherever surveys have been carefully made with accurate instruments. It is obvious that several degrees in angles, scores of feet in Hues, rods or even acres in area, have occasionally been added to or subtracted from correct measurements either through a disposition to ''take it for granted," or because they were so saturated with a conviction of resemblance or coincidence between works which in reality differ widely, as to distrust their own judgment or observation when it contradicted their deep-rooted behef. Instead of the absolute symmetry, or identity in form or size, claimed in numerous cases, there has not been found one true circle, square, octagon, or ellipse, among these works, nor any two that exactly correspond in dimensions. There are some with a striking approach to regularity ; but none that can not be laid off with sight-stakes and a line equal to the radius of a circle or somewhat longer than half one side of a square. In view of these facts, which are easily to be verified by any one who will take the trouble to make a correct survey, we are at a loss to understand the animus of the explanatory foot-note, in which they say : — " To put, at once, all skepticism at rest, which might otherwise arise as to the regularity of these works, it should be stated that they were all carefully surveyed by the authors in person. Of course no difficulty existed in determining the perfect regularity of the squares. The method of procedure, in respect to the circles was as follows. Flags were raised at regular and convenient intervals, upon the embankments, representing stations. The compass was then placed alternately at these stations, and the bearing of the flag next beyond ascertained. If the angles thus deter- mined proved to be coincident, the regularity of the work was placed be- yond doubt. The supplementary plan A [see figure 25] indicates the method of survey, the 'Field Book' of which, the circle being thirty-six Work of Squier and Davis. 67 hundred feet in circumference, and the stations three hundred feet apart, is as follows : 1 N. 75 E 300 feet. 2 N. 45 E 300 feet. 3 N. 15 E 300 feet. 4 N. 15 W 300 feet. 5 N. 45 W 300 feet. 6 N. 75 W 300 feet. 7 S. 75 W 300 feet. 8 ..S. 45 W 300 feet. 9 S. 15 W 300 feet. 10 S. 15 E.., 300 feet. U S. 45 E 300 feet. 12 S. 75 E 300 feet. (S. & D., 56.) There can be no doubt of the regularity of a circle meeting these conditions, provided the curve be uniform between all the stations ; the trouble with the symmetrical figure thereby created is that there is no such circle in the State. That at Newark comes nearest meeting the measurements given ; but even it varies con- siderably from them. The fact that the hypothetical figure is put with the Harness works has led to the supposition that the smaller circle of that group is the one thus taken as an illustra- tion (see page 184). It is clear, however, that a circumference of 3,600 feet and a diameter of 800 feet, which is the measurement given on the map, cannot belong to the same figure. If we sup- pose the lines to be laid ofiF on the chords instead of the arcs of the circle, as their plan indicates, the matter is even worse; for we then have a dodecagon with a perimeter of 3,600 feet inscribed in a circle whose radius is only 400 feet. Besides, with a chain of the old standard length — 66 feet — used by them in these surveys, no little ingenuity would be required in laying out a per- fectly straight line exactly three hundred feet long, from one fixed point to another fixed point whose position on a. constantly curv- ing line must remain unknown until the measurement is completed. It is not probable they ever made any such survey as that set forth in their note. Nor is the accuracy of their compass read- ings free from doubt ; they used an old instrument, borrowed from a surveyor of Chillicothe, who had thrown it aside as unre- liable, and who taught them how to manipulate it. Neither oi them had any previous knowledge of the methods of surveying. This was told to the present writer by Mr. Kendrick who had 58 Archaeological History of Ohio. a distinct recollection of the occurrence — his father being the surveyor mentioned. It may seem uncalled for thus to comment upon work done so long ago ; and it certainly would be unfair to criticise the men who did it, were it not for the fact that errors they committed are made the foundation of a science. Under the circumstances it is well to present the mistakes in their proper light simply as a matter of justice to students. Nothing said here is to be construed as imputing any wrong motive to the authors ; they made no attempt at deception, they had no previously formed theory to sustain, there was nothing for them to gain by the slightest perversion of truth, or by any false construction which could be placed on their words. It is evi- dent that any misleading statements are due entirely to errors of judgment. In the entire report there is a manifest desire to rep- resent matters as they appeared to the investigators ; there is no striving for effect, no bid for notoriety. They plainly did not realize the importance of the work they had undertaken, nor did they dream of the value which would be attached to their report in after years. They justly deserve the credit and honor ac- corded them for the arduous labors which never brought them an adequate return, and for having given to the world knowledge that would otherwise, perhaps, never have come to light ; but none the less their faulty interpretations have been responsible for many wrong impressions and opinions with w^hich the working archaeologist finds himself obliged to contend. ^•: H: Hi ^ * And yet Squier and Davis are less at fault than are many succeeding authors who carry to a ridiculous extent the fanciful conceptions which seem to them the logical outcome of alleged measurements and resemblances among aboriginal remains. The exactness with which square and circular enclosures are said to be laid off, gave fresh impetus to extravagant suggestions made before their day, until now no height of absurdity is beyond at- tainment by enthusiastic sciolist or venal charlatan — not to men- tion some who mean well but should know better. On the other hand, the magnificent collection made by Squier and Davis stimulated various scientific societies and mu- seums to undertake explorations on their own account. In this Early Writers. 59 work men trained to observe have gone into the field and re- ported what they saw. Careful surveys and excavations have produced some definite results ; not enough to clear away all the mystery enveloping the ancient people, but enough to destroy the effect of unwarranted opinions and assumptions which would greatly astonish the Mound Builders if they could know what has been said about them. But as before intimated, there were two sides to the question long before the publication of "Ancient Monuments." In the preface to that volume is given a list of early writers on western antiquities. The first in the Ohio valley are Bishop Madison of Virginia, in 1803 (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. VI.) ; Harris (Tour into the territory northwest of the Ohio), 1805; Brackenridge (Views of Louisiana), 1814; Dr. Drake (Natural and Statistical View of Cincinnati and the Miami Country), 1815 ; President Harrison (Address before the Histori- cal Society of Ohio), 1832. Major Long; Dr. Hildreth ; Henry Howe ; Col. Charles Whittlesey ; and Caleb Atwater ; — also con- tributed much to the science prior to the time of Squier and Da- vis. Atwater in particular, deserves credit as making the earliest careful and systematic examinations of the aboriginal tumuli and earthworks. His report was published in the first volume of the Archaeologia Americana in 1819. Most of his drawings are crude, some only rough outlines, and his descriptions are erroneous in many respects ; but when we consider that absolutely nothing in the way of excavation, for the purpose of gaining knowledge, had been attempted before his time, and that in his interpreta- tion of what he found he could derive no assistance from any source, even more serious inexactness could be condoned. Since that time the register of archaeological literature has indefinitely — one is tempted to say infinitely — extended ; but whichever side the writers may take, they find themselves con- fined to an endorsement or denial of beliefs now almost a century old. Even so long ago the line was drawn between those who attributed the earthworks to Indians, and those who would ac- cept nothing less than an extinct nation. The most complete and convenient catalogue of writers on aboriginal remains, accessible to the public, is that contained in the American Antiquarian, volume IX, July, 1887, under the head of ''Early Books Which Treat of Mounds" ; and in the same 60 Archaeological History of Ohio. journal, volume XV, March, 1893, with the title of "Private Serv- ices under Public Patronage." Here may be found the names of nearly, if not quite, all those writers whose published works contain descriptions of mounds and earthworks. The articles are especially good in their references to authors of the first half of the century, who wrote before so much discussion had arisen, and who consequently simply told what they saw or believed, without any thought of controversy. An abstract or abridgment of these papers could not do them justice, and the reader who wishes to gain a full view of the progress in this science will do well to consult the authorities whose names are given in Peet's lists. All that will be attempted here is to give extracts from a few of these writings, showing how the subject has been con- sidered. They are selected with the intention of showing the whole range of thought in as brief a space as possible. A hundred volumes could be filled with other quotations without adding materially to the enlightenment of the reader. Perhaps it will be well to begin with the following from Foster. According to his belief it is "A summary with regard to the origin, customs, and ultimate fate of the Mound-builders." "As a race their origin extends back to a remote antiquity. They possessed a conformation of skull which would link them to the autoch- thones of this hemisphere, — a conformation which was subsequently repre- sented in the people who developed the ancient civilization of Mexico and Central America. They developed traits which distinguished them by a well-marked line of division from the Indians [of Columbus's time]. Unlike the Indians, who were ignorant of the curative powers of salt, they collected the brine of the salines into earthen vessels molded in baskets, which they evaporated into a form which admitted of trans- portation; they erected an elaborate line of defense, stretching for many hundred miles, to guard against the sudden irruption of enemies ; they had a national religion, in which the elements were the objects of supreme adoration; temples were erected upon platform mounds, and watchfires lighted upon the highest summits ; and in the celebration of the mysteries of their faith, human sacrifices were offered up. The magnitude of their structures, involving an infinity of labor, such only as could be expended in a community where cheap food prevailed, and the great extent of their commercial relations, reaching to widely separated por- tions of the continent, imply the existence of a stable and efficient gov- ernment, based on the subordination of the masses. We see the crude conception in the truncated pyramid, as first displayed in Wisconsin, Ohio and Illinois, and the accomplished result in the stone-faced foun- dations of the temples of Central America. And finally the indications Engineering Skill. 61 are this people were expelled from the Mississippi Valley by a fierce and barbarous race, and found refuge in Central America, where they developed those germs of civilization, originally planted in their northern homes, into a perfection which has elicited the admiration of every modern explorer." — Foster, 349, condensed. A. — CIVILIZATION. Upon the question of the degree of culture to which they had attained — or the grade of their ''civilization" as most writers term it — we find Atwater saying prior to 1820, "What surprized me, on measuring those forts [at Circleville] , was the exact manner in which they had laid down their circle and square; so that after every effort, by the most careful survey, to detect some error in their measurement, we found that it was impossible, and that the measurement was much more correct, than it would have been, in all probability, had the present inhabitants undertaken to construct such a work." — Atwater, 144. Squier and Davis express the same idea in summing up their observations in regard to various other enclosures which they examined. "Such are the predominant features of this remarkable series of works. As already remarked, the coincidences observable between them could not have been the result of accident, and it is very manifest that they were erected for common purposes. * * =i>- \Ye may content ourselves with the simple expression of opinion, that they were in some manner connected with the superstitions of the builders. There is one deduction to be drawn from the fact, that the figures entering into these works are of uniform dimensions, which is of considerable importance in its bearing upon the state of knowledge among the people who erected them. It is that the builders possessed a standard of measurement and had some means of determining angles. The most skillful engineer of the day would find it difficult, without the aid of instruments, to lay down an accurate square of the great dimensions of those above repre- sented, measuring as they do more than four fifths of a mile in circum- ference. It would not, it is true, be impossible to construct circles of considerable size, without instruments ; the difficulty of doing so, when we come to the construction of works five thousand four hundred feet, or over a mile in circumference, is nevertheless apparent. But we not only find accurate squares and perfect circles, but also, as we have seen, octagons of great dimensions." — S. & D., 61. Later, they cautiously add somewhat to the above con- clusion, but are still far from claiming for the builders any par- ticular degree of advancement. " The vast amount of labor expended upon these works, and the regularity and design which they exhibit, taken in connection with the 62 Archaeological History of Ohio. circumstances under which they are found, denote a people advanced from the nomadic or radically savage state, — in short, a numerous agri- cultural people, spread at one time, or slowly migrating, over a vast extent of country, and having established habits, customs, and modes of life. How far this conclusion, for the present hypothetical ly advanced, is sus- tained by the character of the minor vestiges of art, of which we shall now speak, remains to be seen." — S. & D., 186. " The earthworks, and the mounds and their contents, certainly indicate that, prior to the occupation of the Mississippi valley by the more recent tribes of Indians, there existed here a numerous population, agri- cultural in their habits, much superior to their successors. There is, however, no reason to believe that their condition was anything more than an approximation towards that attained by the semi-civilized nations of the central portions of the continent, — who themselves had not arrived at the construction of an alphabet. Whether the latter had progressed further than to a refinement upon the rude picture-writing of the savage tribes, is a question open to discussion. It would be unwarrantable, therefore, to assign to the race of the mounds a superiority in this respect over a nation palpably so much in advance of them in all others." — S. & D., 273. An eminent English author is not satisfied with this guarded statement. He insists that " The ancient geometrician must have had instruments, and minute means of measuring arcs ; for it seems impossible to conceive of the accurate construction of figures on such a scale otherwise than by finding the angle by its arc, from station to station, through the whole course of their delineation. It is no less obvious from the correspondence in area and relative proportions of so many of the regular enclosures, that the Mound-Builders possessed a recognized standard of measurement, and that some peculiar significance, possibly of an astronomical origin, was attached to figures of certain forms and dimensions." — Wilson, D., I., 342. Short goes still further : — - " The two principal figures of [the Hopetown] works are a square and a circle — each containing exactly twenty acres. The discovery of these geometrical combinations — executed with such precision — in many parts of the country, leads to the belief that the Mound-builders were one people spread over a large territory, possessed of the same institu- tions, religion and perhaps one government. These facts are highly important as shedding light upon the degree of their civilization. The evidence is ample that they were possessed of regular scales of meas- urement, of the means of determining angles and of computing the area, to be enclosed by a square and circle, so that the space enclosed by these figures standing side by side might exactly correspond. In a word their scientific and mathematical knowledge was of a very respectable order." — Short, 49. Unit of Measure. 63 He also thinks the Cincinnati tablet '' in all probability served the double purpose of a record of the calendar and a scale for measurement." — Short, 45. No one has ever been able to fathom the thought that led to this singular surmise. There is no reason to believe the Mound Builders had any idea of a calendar such as is attributed to the Aztecs. As to a lineal scale, the evidence is equally nega- tive, in spite of the fact that "a. large number of measurements of mounds and earthworks in Iowa" were made by W J McGee, with the result of "ascertaining a common standard of 25.716 inches." — Essays, 447. When we consider that it is not possible to tell within several inches at the best, and in some cases within several feet, of the terminal point of any earthwork, the decimal proves more in re- gard to the calculating power of the computer than it does concerning the ''mathematical ability" of the builder. Another surveyor comes to a very different conclusion : — "In 1883, Col. Chas. Whittlesey, of Cleveland ("The Metrical Sys- tem of the Mound-builders"), analyzed eighty-seven measurements of Ohio earthworks by the method of even divisors and concluded that thirty inches was about the length, or was one of the multiples, of their metrical standard. Moreover, fifty-seven per cent, of all the lines were divisible without remainder by ten feet." — Essays, 447. These figures are valuable, in that they show how the meas- urements were made upon which his calculations are based. If there are any indications of such ''units" as "thirty inches" and "ten feet", they exist only in the minds, or diagrams, of white surveyors and explorers. The tendency is almost universal to run indeterminate numbers into tens, dozens, scores, or hundreds. By accepting as correct the figures of surveys made as these have been, one can plainly show any sort of "unit" or "system" he wishes to; for there will be coincidences without end. The most striking feature of this kind, however, is to be found in a group in ]\.Iissouri, whose location, unfortunately, appears to be known only to its discoverer. According to his statement "the chief mound measures twelve feet in height by thirty-six in diam- eter. * * * The ridges forming the three sides of the triangle [enclos- ing it] are of equal length— 144 feet; their diameter is twelve feet, and their height three, four and five feet respectively. It is remarkable that these heights taken together equal the height of the central mound, 64 Archaeological History of Ohio. and that when they are multiplied together the length of the side of the^ triangle is obtained." — Conant; quoted by Nadaillac, 87. Of course these alleged measurements are asserted to be in- tentional, and to have some ''mysterious significance". The fact is overlooked that the present dimensions cannot be the same as those which held before the works had undergone centuries of denudation. 'K jji jjj >]< >,i Naturally, such knowledge implies skill in smaller matters; in comparing remains in northern and southern Ohio, Atwater claims for the latter ''glazed or polished" pottery, and a "great number" of wells "dug through as hard rock as any in the country." (Atwater, 220.) Of course he never found anything of the sort. Neither is it true, as will be seen in the chapter on stone objects, that " the holes [in gorgets, etc.] are sunk with perfect accuracy, showing that the implement was turned by an apparatus which was far more efficient and precise than the human hand." — Foster, 207. So far as ability to work in stone is concerned, we are not confined to a study of such small articles as gorgets and the like ; some stone chambers which exist, or formerly existed, about two miles from Louisiana, Pike county, Missouri, have often been mentioned as examples of the skill of the Mound Builders in this respect. It is probable these opinions are based on a cut pub- lished in the early part of the century in which these structures are represented as symmetrical and well-made as would be pos- sible by a skilled stone mason with the best tools of the trade. But the accompanying description says "All the walls consist of rough unhewn stone" ; and that "although they are at present considerably decayed, their form is still distinct". — Beck, 306. Broadhead says of a "walled burial place", "The walls were constructed of rough limestone taken from the subjacent' strata of the hill". In the peculiar works in Pike county, mentioned above, "All the walls were of rough stone". Nevertheless the illustrations which he gives of them represent straight lines, sharp angles, smooth curves, and accuracy of fitting, such as would be possible only with slabs dressed by a skilled artisan. (Broad- head, 351-2). The cuts instead of the text, of these descriptions, seemed to have furnished inspiration to various persons for the assertion that large buildings constructed with great regularity, of stone accurately cut and fitted, are still to be found in this Stone Fort in Clark County, Indiana. Qb portion of Missouri. The stones are now so scattered that noth- ing can be ascertained as to their original position. The worst pubHcation of this character which has ever ap- peared in a scientific disguise, is that of a former State Geologist of Indiana, who furnishes a report and figure of a most remark- able "Stone Fort" at the mouth of Fourteen Mile Creek, in Clark county, near Charleston. Across the neck of a peninsula formed by the creek and the Ohio River, he says, a wall is piled up *'mason fashion, without mortar". It has ''an elevation of about 75 feet above its base, the upper ten feet being vertical". The plate which accompanies the report shows a regular revetment of large stones, apparently dressed, or at least squared. A wall along the creek is said to be similarly built, but is not more than ten feet high. — Ind., 1873, 125. Both the plan and description of this so-called fort are en- tirely imaginary. The creek, half a mile above its mouth, ap- proaches the river quite closely, being separated from it by a solid rock ledge only eight or ten feet wide on top at the nar- rowest part, with a vertical cliff on either side. The creek then recedes in a curve, forming a peninsula whose surface contains a few acres of nearly level space. At the lower end of this is a small triangular tract of bottom land enclosed by the river, hill, and creek. The river side of the peninsula stands out in a bold precipice, extending from this low land to a considerable distance above the isthmus; on the side next the creek are similar but smaller cliffs, with some crevices or broken places, where it is possible to pass through or over them. Beginning at the termin- ation of the cliff next to the river, a ditch and embankment sweep round the end of the hill facing the bottom land, and terminate at one of the cliffs above the creek. Accessible places along the latter side were strengthened either by filling narrow crevices with stones or, where necessary, by building short stretches of wall with stones irregularly piled up. When near the isthmus, a wall of mingled earth and stone, taken from an interior ditch, as in the case of the principal embankment, leaves the cliff and is carried diagonally along the hillside to a point near the nar- rowest point of the summit, where it ends in a stone mound which extends entirely across the space between the river bluff and the slope toward the creek. A person approaching this end 5 QQ Archaeological History of Ohio. of the fort must follow the narrow neck of rock, in full view for more than a hundred feet and without any sheher or protection from the missiles of those within. The wall at the west end of the hill was made by first gath- ering rocks and earth from the surface and throwing them pro- miscuously together. Then a considerable ditch was dug, fully twenty feet wide in places, and the earth heaped on the wall, which contains sufficient material to make on level ground a bank five or six feet high. Loose rocks were deposited on the outer side, apparently more as a protection for the wall from effects of erosion than as a feature of additional strength. Many of these have been hauled away ; but it is reported by residents, and enough remains to show that the statement is correct, that in places flat rocks were laid up in a sloping wall against the face of the bank. There was not a wall of this character built up and earth thrown behind it; but the earthen embankment was made first and the stones laid one on another along its face to prevent washing; the outer edge of each being somewhat within the edge of the one next below. The reported "walls" of ten and seventy-five feet in height are only the natural outcrop of the heavy, evenly-bedded limestones. It seems incredible that a person connected in any capacity with a geological survey, even as cook or mule-driver, could ever have made such a ridiculous blunder as to suppose them artificial. ;■: ^ ;|; ^ ^ The utmost confusion of speech and thought results from attempts to probe the depths of this alleged civilization. One writer believes that because in building mounds and enclosures — "All of the material must have been laboriously carried to Its place in baskets, It will be obvious that the real labor expended upon some of them was not much, if any, less than that expended upon the largest pyramid of Egypt. Such works could be constructed only by a people who had a compact, civil organization, with a central authority which could control the labor of the masses, and with dominant civil or reli- gious Ideas which would Induce the masses to submit to long-continued labor." — Read, Arch., 79. While no one can deny that such may have been the case, the query naturally arises. Why do we not find some better or at least some additional evidence of a government of this char- acter? Certainly a separation of society into rulers and slaves presupposes a degree of advancement in knowledge that would Grade of Culture. 67 •develop some of its members into artisans who could at least cut stone or make bricks. The mind can not realize a ''compact civil organization" among people whose limit of constructive ability was reached in the manufacture of pottery, the carving of stone pipes and ornaments, and carrying dirt in baskets. Other writers lose themselves in a tangle of ideas and utter strangely contradictory sentiments. One of them tells us on one page, "For their time and surroundings they had made great strides towards a permanent civilization, and must be ranked as one of the great people of ancient times." — McLean, 89. And on the next, paraphrasing Squier and Davis, "We have no evidence that they attained to the same condition as that possessed by the semi-civilized nations of Europe, who themselves had not arrived at the construction of an alphabet." — McLean, 90. Then he says : "That they were remarkable people of an original civilization there is no room for doubt." — McLean, 129. And finally, "There is one thing that impresses itself upon the mind of the investigator. There could not have been a central government, but there must have been separate, although cognate nations. There is a belt of country running through central Ohio from east to west, entirely devoid of *ancient earthworks. There were in the state two distinct nations, having different sympathies, and on account of the disparity existing between them they placed themselves wide apart, being separated by the belt of neutral territory." — McLean, 140, condensed. Whittlesey, while advocating a somewhat advanced stage for these people, really marshals evidence against it. He under- takes to prove they had high military skill and knowledge, while showing they were not at all prepared for war. "The tools found in the Ohio mounds were almost without excep- tion, intended for peaceful purposes, indicating a people whose habits w^ere not warlike. The earthworks must have been occupied by a people pTepared for defence without being called upon to resist; weapons of war have not been found within these fortifications. The race of the Mounds has left us as much in doubt in regard to their fighting imple- ments as to their history. If they had used stones for this purpose to be thrown from slings, or as battering rams, they should now remain upon the soil in the neighborhood of their forts; there must have been maga- zines of them collected within the works. Perhaps their forts were not erected until after a long residence here, when they were threatened by 68 Archaeological History of Ohio. warlike neighbors. The period during which they were compelled to turn their attention to military affairs was probably short; and, when their preparations were made, they may have withdrawn further south without a vigorous defence. They constructed a large number of strong and per- manent forts. We find no proof that these works were called into requi- sition for defense, but the fact of their existence shows that they were prepared for war. If so, they must have had weapons of offense and de- fence, but what they were we cannot affirm. Their stone axes may have served the double purpose of battle axes and cutting instruments, but a people thus highly advanced in mechanics must have had something better. It is singular that so few weapons of a warlike character are found in the mounds, while so many forts exist in the country. If the tumuli were erected in honor of martial heroes, there should have been in their tombs the warlike implements which they used in battle. Instead of this, most of the relics which have been discovered are mere ornaments and symbols, the latter of a religious cast. "All the contrivances of the race of the Mounds intended for prac- tical purposes, display skill of a high order." — Whittlesey, Weapons, 473-9, condensed. On the other hand, there have not been wanting persons whose conclusions have led in the opposite direction. The ad- vanced stage of culture claimed by so many, is vigorously disputed by others. As far back as 1815 Moses Fiske, of Hilham, Tennes- see, anticipated and logically refuted very many of the arguments propounded since that time and still adhered to in regard to the origin, social condition, time of occupation, and degree of culture, of the Mound Builders whom he calls ''the ancient people" and whom he holds to be distinct from the modern Indian. He speaks particularly in regard to his own State; but much that he says applies equally to Ohio. The small conical or dome-shaped mounds, he says, "are pertinently called barrows or bone heaps. But the truncated ones, may have been castles or to give eminence to temples or town houses. If some of them contain bones, so do some cathedrals. It was probably an honor to be buried there. Nor must we mistake the ramparts or for- tifications for farming enclosures. What people, savage or civilized, ever fenced their grounds so preposterously? But what settles the question conclusively, is, that the areas encompassed by these ramparts, were chiefly occupied by houses and mounds. The tokens are indisputable. * * * Those who can manufacture iron will not cut wood with a flint. * * * Not a chimney is seen, nor an oven ; nor the remains of any bridge or dam, or well, or cellar, or wall of rocks ; no masonry, however rude, either of stone or of brick. * * * They must have been ignorant of letters. Otherwise, in a country of slate, they who fab- ricated utensils of the hardest flint, would have left some inscription to Grade of Culture. 69 be deciphered by posterity. It is absurd to suppose that they were Welsh. If they were conquered, where are the victors? And to imagine that the whole people became extinct by pestilence or some other awful catastro- phe, is an extravagant hypothesis, not supported by any precedent in the annals of mankind. The conjecture that they emigrated to Mexico seems quite plausible. But to suppose them refugees from Mexico, is a sup- position altogether inadmissible." — Amer. , I, 300-7, condensed. One of America's most thorough students, speaking in refer- ence to the earthworks, believes "There is nothing in their construction or in the remnants which they contain, indicative of a more advanced state of civilization than that of the present inhabitants. But it may be inferred from their number and size, that they were the work of a more populous nation than any now existing." — Gallatin, 147. An eminent geographer said early in the century : — "The mounds show no more art, though infinitely more labor, than might be expected from the present Indians. They are mere erections of earth, exhibiting no other traces of skill, than that most of them are of regular forms, contained under circular or right lines. Iron tools were not used in the formation of them. Stones make no part of them. Yet many of the squares and parallelograms make a much more conspicuous figure, after the lapse of unknown ages, than the defences of earth, thrown up on the Atlantic shore, during the Revolutionary War. "The only circumstance, which strongly discredits their having been formed by the progenitors of the present Indians is the immensity of the size of some of them, beyond what could be expected from the sparse population and the indolence of the present race. We know of no mon- uments, which they now raise for their dead, that might not be the work of a few people in a few days." — Flint, I, 194. Another thus records his opinion : — "Of one thing the writer is satisfied, that very imperfect and incor- rect data have been relied upon and very erroneous conclusions drawn, upon western antiquities. Whoever has time and patience, and is in other respects qualified to explore this field of science, and will use his spade and eyes together and restrain his imagination from running riot amongst mounds, fortifications, horse-shoes, medals, and whole cabinets of relics of the 'olden time,' will find very little more than the indications of rude savages, the ancestors of the present race of Indians. "Of ancient military works, I have long been convinced that not half a dozen structures ever existed in the west before the visits of Euro- peans. Enclosures of various sizes, and perhaps for different purposes, with an embankment of earth three or four feet high, and a trifling ditch out of which the earth was dug, undoubtedly were formed. In all prob- ability some of these embankments enclosed their villages ; others the residence of their chiefs or head men. But what people, savage, bar- 70 Archaeological History of Ohio. barous, civilized or enlightened, ever constructed a fortification around five or six hundred acres, with a ditch on the inside! Or what military people made twenty or thirty such forts, within two or three miles." — Peck, 35. If the author just cited had restrained his impatience to the extent of modifying the exaggerations in his second paragraph, and especially in regard to the last two sentences, his opinions would have borne more weight — as they deserve to do. Morgan, who has done more than any one else to arouse critical investigation of fanciful theories, goes to the root of the matter in a few words. "A people unable to dig a well or build a dry stone wall must have been unable to establish political society, which was necessary to the, existence of a state." — Morgan, 219. Thruston, who has thoroughly worked out the archaeology of middle Tennessee, presents the following strong argument, which applies with the same force to Ohio. The correctness of his conclusions is beyond controversy. " The results may be briefly summarized as follows : First. The mounds and earthworks of Tennessee and Southern Kentucky are simply the remains of ancient fortified towns, vilbges and settlements once inhabited by tribes of Indians, some of whom were more devoted to agriculture, more stationary in their habits, and more advanced in culture than the nomadic tribes generally known to the whites. Second. Nothing has been found among the prehistoric monuments and remains in Tennessee, or, indeed, elsewhere in the Mississippi valley, indicating an ancient civilization or semi-civilization. There are many indications, however, of a state of native society, primitive and rude, yet, in some respects, more progressive and advanced than that found existing among the historic red Indians at the date of the European settlement. Third. The remains of the arts and industries and the cranial remains evidently connect the ancient tribes that occupied the Cumber- land and Tennessee valleys with the native tribes of the West or South- west, of the sedentary or village Indian type. They place them in the ethnic scale in the same class as to culture as the village Indians of New Mexico and Arizona, and as the village tribes of old Mexico. The cranial remains and the remains of the arts, homogeneous among the mound tribes, also appear to separate the advanced tribes of mound builders from the more barbarous tribes of northern and northeastern In- dians. * * * Fifth. The remains of art and industry in Tennessee * * * indicate that the ancient inhabitants of Tennessee probably reached as- Grade of Culture. • 71 high a state of development as any of the native races within the present territory of the United States. Sixth. The accumulation of a dense population in favored localities, and the progress made toward civilization, were probably the results of periods of repose and peace, that enabled certain tribes to collect in more permanent habitations, and to pursue for a time more peaceful modes of life than some of their neighbors and successors." "The flint implements and the pottery from the stone graves of Tennessee evince a much higher order of workmanship and degree of skill than similar articles from the Ohio mounds or village sites." — Thruston, Tenn. : 16, ct scq. Contrast this conservative statement of a dispassionate stu- dent with the turgid emanations presented in the next few pages. It seems almost necessary to apologize for offering them to the reader; but it is just this sort of stuff that has helped to form the opinions of many who believe such vagaries entitled to re- spectful consideration as being the warrantable judgment of well- informed men. " With reference to the civilization of the Mound Builders ; * * * they came into the country in comparatively small numbers at first * * * and during their residence in the territory occupied by the United States they became extremely populous. Their settlements were widespread, as the extent of their remains indicate. The magnitude of their works, some of which approximate the proportions of Egyptian pyramids testify to the architectural talent of the people and the fact that they had developed a system of government which controlled the labor of multitudes, whether of subjects or slaves. They were an agricuhural people, as the extensive ancient garden-beds found in Wisconsin and Missouri indicate. Their manufactures afford proof that they had attained a respectable degree of advancement, and show that they understood the advantages of the division of labor. Their domestic utensils, the cloth of which they made their clothing, and the artistic vessels met with everywhere in the mounds, point' to the development of l^ome culture and domestic industry. There is no reason for believing that the people who wrought stone and clay into perfect effigies of animals have not left us sculptures of their own faces in the images exhumed from the mounds." "Their defences were numerous and constructed with reference to strategic principles, while their system of signals placed on lofty summits, visible from their settlements and communicating with the great water- courses at immense distances, rival the signal systems in use at the beginning of the present century. Their religion seems to have been attended with the same ceremonies in all parts of their domain. That its rites were celebrated with great demonstrations is certain. The sun and moon probably were the all-important deities, to whom sacrifices (probably human) were offered. We have already alluded to the devel- opment in architecture and art which marked the probable transition of 72 Archaeological History of Ohio. this people from north to south. Here we see but the rude beginnings of a civilization which no doubt subsequently unfolded in its fuller glory- in the valley of Anahuac, and spreading southward engrafted a new life upon the wreck of Xibalba." — Short, 96 and 100. Fort Ancient has furnished a prolific ground for wonder- mongers. At the foot of the hill on which the three terraces are situated, the current of the Little Miami has worn a deep hole in passing from a bed of stone and hard clay to one of finer, looser material Washouts of this character are quite common ; but no such explanation of its origin meets the approval of at least one visitor to the place. He accounts for it in the following manner. But we are left in ignorance as to the method by which men or animals could find their way into or through a tunnel whose en- trance was at the bottom of a pool ''over thirty feet deep", and its exit in a mudhole more than 250 feet above. "The river here suddenly expands into a large oval basin, of such extraordinary depth and regular cincture as to seem an artificial for- mation. It is said, that when the railroad was under construction around the base of the bluff, the declivity being such as to require a foundation for the road-bed partially built up from the river bottom, the great depth of the basin was a serious obstacle, and a vast amount of material was required to make the railway embankment of the requisite width. This portion of the river has for years been designated by residents in the locality as the 'deep hole,' and twenty years ago, after being par- tially filled by the debris of the railway bed, was over thirty feet deep. It is now nearly twenty feet in depth, with a bottom of soft mud, washed in by freshets. The shores exhibit no such conditions as would create a whirlpool or other excavating agency during high water; and in the apparent absence of any natural cause, we might be justified in assuming that it was excavated by the builders in connection with a subterranean communication between the fort and the river, in which case the terraces before mentioned would appear to have been designed as stations for guards, to protect the mouth of such passage from hostile attempts during a siege. An unusually large depression within the fort, nearly opposite to this point, now filled with soft mud, washed into it from the surrounding surfaces, gives some color to this supposition; especially, in connection with a tradition of the existence of some sub- terranean passage within the fort, founded upon the disappearance and reappearance of game when pursued, which is held by residents who have been accustomed to hunt in the vicinity." — Hosea, Ft. A., 298. This may be the place to which Nadaillac refers when he says that Mound Builders' works "are connected with each other by deep trenches and secret passages, some of them hewn out beneath the beds of rivers. ' — Preh, Pec, 296. Fabulous Reports. 73 Early in the century it was recorded that "a mound in Belmont county, in the State of Ohio, opposite the mouth of Little Grave creek, and nearly half a mile from the Ohio river, was about 15 or 16 feet high. At or near the bottom were several layers of human bones, laid transversely, in a great mass of decayed matter five or six feet thick. The toe and finger nails were nearly entire; the hair, long, fine, and of a dark brown color; it would bear to be combed and straightened out. Along with flint spear heads there were also found four or five iron swords, the silver ferules on the handles engraved with animal and geometrical figures." — Haywood, 327, From Utah, Kansas, Indiana, Illinois, Texas, and perhaps other places, come reports of corn dug from the bottom of a mound, which, bemg planted, produces a bountiful crop. As a rule, the grain of this corn is quite different from any other ever seen. An Arkansas man caps the climax of such discoveries, and his report affords a fitting end to these absurdities. "Near the great mound not far from Osceola there is a threshing floor, paved with adobe, having an area of quite ten acres. The wheat of wide districts must have been threshed on this spot, and stood in bins made of the same material, the remains of which are quite visible. This threshing floor is buried quite two and a half feet beneath the country's surface by a black loam." — Du Pre, 347. Du Pre's article then goes on hysterically about "countless myriads of people"; "skulls and thigh-bones of giants" (it seems that in all such cases the remaining bones entirely disappear) ; in the swamps "remains of brick structures" ; "old military road, the product of ancient skill and toil" ; "countless canals by which floods were rendered impossible" ; "many mounds constructed to record the height of floods" ; "broad farms of hundreds and even thousands of acres, absolutely created by piling up the earth" ; "mightier tasks than those achieved by modern engineers" ; "magnificent cities" ; "bronze idol" ; "crucible, suspended by brass wire" ; "an earthen box with a sliding lid, half full of pills," whose potency had "caused the bones of the mound-building patient to become an impalpable powder." Strangely enough, he makes no mention of the tall man with heavy whiskers and an unusually large jaw, who is generally so conveniently present to afford a scale of measurements, but introduces a novelty in the way of a "burly weather-beaten sailor," who happens along just in time to pronounce an exhumed pot "the water-cooler of a Malay Islander." He "has before him" wheat raised in Arkansas from 74 Archaeological History of Ohio. ''grains taken from an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus." "Strange but true it is, this very wheat still grows among the weeds and grass that cover mounds" near Memphis [Tennessee] ; which is sufficient proof that the Mound Builders are descended from the Egyptians. But because King David 'Visited Araunah to buy his threshing-floor," and the threshing-floor near Osceola con- tains "ten acres, and the same peculiar grain grew beside both peculiar threshing-floors," the deduction necessarily arises that the same race of people "cultivated the same crops and garnered them in the same peculiar manner." He mentions two mounds sixteen miles east of Little Rock ; " the loftier mound is about two hundred and fifty feet in height, * * the smaller is quite one hundred feet; its summit is flat and an acre in area." There are no such mounds in Arkansas ; and perhaps the whole article is merely a burlesque. But statements equally ridiculous are frequently published in all seriousness. The greatest mistake that has ever been printed in regard to American antiquities, comes from no less a personage than America's most eminent historian. It is quite opposite in its nature to the general tenor of those which have just been concluded. It is only fair to say, however, that the following quotation does not appear in the later editions of Bancroft's great work : " The country east of the Mississippi has no monuments. The nu- merous mounds which have been discovered in the alluvial valleys of the west, have by some been regarded as the works of an earlier and more cultivated race of men ; but the study of the structure of the earth strips this imposing theory of its marvels. Where imagination fashions relics of artificial walls, geology sees but crumbs of decaying sandstone; in parallel intrenchments, a trough that subsiding waters have plowed through the center of a ridge ; the tesselated pavement a layer of pebbles aptly joined by water; the mounds composed of different strata of earth, arranged horizontally to their very edge, it ascribes to the Power that shaped the globe into vales and hillocks." — Bancroft, condensed. In many of the above citations it will be observed that writers make liberal use of the term "civilization," apparently without any definite idea as to its meaning. In fact, the word is some- what loosely employed by modern writers on all social subjects. It is vaguely considered to be synonymous with intellectual capac- ity, with a gentle disposition, with refinement of manner, or, in recent years, with the ability to sell great quantities of manu- Planes of Human Progress. 75- factured goods. Which, if any, of all these qualities entitles the Mound Builders to be called ''civilized" is not to be learned from the volumes in which this particular standard is claimed for them. We must be content with the information that such was the case without seeking for reasons. It is a relief to turn from such rhapsodies to the cool, logical formula of a man who devoted a lifetime to ethnological study. Probably no better scheme for indicating the relative standing of American aborigines can be devised than that of Morgan, who makes the following classification of culture stages : 1. Status of Savagery. — From the infancy of the human race to the invention of pottery. 2. Lower Status of Barbarism. — From the use of pottery to the domestication of animals in the eastern hemisphere; and in the western to the cultivation of maize and plants by irriga- tion, with the use of adobe and dressed stone in houses. 3. Middle Status of Barbarism. — From the domestication of animals, etc., to the manufacture and use of iron. 4. Upper Status of Barbarism. — From the use of iron to the invention of a phonetic alphabet, with the use of writing in literary composition. 5. Status of Civilization. — From the use of alphabetic writing in the production of literary records to the present time. — Morgan, Periods, 271. According to this plan, it is clear that the Mound Builders had attained only the second step of five which they must sur- mount before reaching a plane where they could demand admit- tance to the ranks of civilized peoples. In spite of all asser- tions to the contrary, the proposition is easily demonstrated. They had no alphabet. They knew nothing of the economic use of iron or any other metal. Copper, galena, hematite, they had in plenty ; meteoric iron, gold, silver, in small amounts ; all were treated as so many stones, to be rubbed, chipped or beaten into desired forms. They had no domestic animals or beasts of burden, for not one bone of such has ever been found. Cement or mortar was unknown. There is no evidence that they could build with flat stones an unsupported wall that would stand upright. They could not dig a well. They never walled up a spring. They had no hand mills, not even so rude an implement 76 Archaeological History of Ohio. as a Mexican metate, though corn must have been a staple article of food. They did, however, manufacture serviceable pottery, often of elegant design, though they knew nothing of the potter's wheel. Consequently, their place is in the "Lower status of barbarism" ; below the Pueblo Indian, and far below the Peruvian. ' B.— RELIGION. Connected with the culture of any race, indeed forming no unimportant part of it, is a belief in the controlling influence exerted by invisible beings or unknown forces. It is sometimes affirmed by travelers that they find savages who have no concep- tion of a deity. This is no doubt true in so far as it relates to the kind of deity the traveler has in mind. Neither party has any idea of what the other is thinking about, consequently no understanding can be reached. Every person capable of forming a definite thought must of necessity believe in a power of some sort, let him call it what he will, which he can neither see nor understand. This is the germ of religion. Its growth and development fodlow advance in knowledge and power. What particular form the religion of the Mound Builders may have assumed, we do not know. The most we can say is that it must have been of the same general character as that of sedentary barbarians now in existence and unaffected by the influence of traders or missionaries. This lack of knowledge has not prevented abundant theorizing; in fact, it has rather encour- aged it, for where nothing is known anything may be guessed at. A very few extracts will be given, to show the tendency toward the marvelous. No comment is necessary further than to say that no reason whatever is known why we should believe a word of it, while much that is asserted is contradicted by the reports of all explorers. "The mound-builders worshiped the elements — the sun, the moon, and particularly fire. They erected their fire-altars for sacrifice, on the highest summits. Like the Persian sun-worshippers, they, undoubtedly, had their Magi, without whose presence the sacrifice could not go on. No gifts were too costly to be offered up."— Foster, 182. " The simple mound so common in the northern and central region of the United States, represents probably the first attempts at the imitation 'of Nature in providing a place of worship." — Short, 80. A Tyrannical Priesthood. 77 " Every indication shows that it was largely a government of the priesthood. * * * Such a government is only content with the com- plete subjection of the masses, which results in personal servitude, and an abnegation of all political and personal rights. It can not be said that the Mound Builders were entirely ruled by priests, but undoubtedly to a very great extent. There were probably very powerful rulers, or chieftains, who had a voice with the priesthood and who together con- trolled the masses, and had supervision over their labor. The numerous works of the people, and the useless but gigantic tumuli, give evidence that they were not free men, but in a condition of servitude. These men, by stupendous labor, with rude implements, would not have erected of their own accord, the Grave Creek and other mounds simply to gratify a ruler who wished to perpetuate his name. This government appor- tioned the work among the masses and selected the avocation for each and every one. * * * While a portion were engaged in toiling on the earthworks, others provided for them the necessaries of life. * * * While they had a very strong centralized and despotic government, it is extremely doubtful if the race constituted one nation or empire." — McLean, 125. " The impossibility of assigning any other purpose to which the greater number, and many of the largest of these remains could be applied, together with other appearances scarcely to be misunderstood, confirm the fact that they possessed a national religion ; in the celebra- tion of which, all that was pompous, gorgeous, and imposing, that a semi-barbarous nation could devise, was brought into occasional dis- play. That there were a numerous priesthood, and altars often smok- ing with hecatombs of victims. These same circumstances, also indicate, that they had made no inconsiderable progress in the art of building, and that their habitations had been ample and convenient, if not neat or splendid. * * * Thus much do these ancient remains furnish us, as to the condition and character of the people who erected them. " The temples of Circleville, Grave Creek and Newark, no doubt annually streamed with the blood (if not of thousands like those of Cho- lula and Mexico,) of hundreds of human beings * * * The neces- sity of a double draft upon their population, to supply the losses of the battle field, and the demands of their own priesthood, * * * -win serve to strengthen my conjecture, that the fate of the [Mound Builders] was hastened by their laboring under the double curse of an arbitrary government, and a cruel, bigoted, and bloody religion." — Harrison, 223 and 265. At the smaller flat-topped mound at ■Marietta (which he calls eighty feet high instead of eight feet), " On the south side is a peculiar kind of terrace, or platform, which extends out from the body of the mound about fifty feet. This plat- form is supposed to have been occupied by orators who stood in that ele- vated position and descanted upon matters connected with their political jurisprudence, and their governments and cares; or perhaps it was occu- 78 Archaeological History of Ohio. pied by priests, clothed in their sacred robes, teaching their dying fel- low men the road that leads to the abode of the gods, whose throne is the sun, and whose eyes are twinkling stars which glisten in the heavens." — Larkin, 150. " It is probable that upon this platform [on the top of Cahokia mound] was reared a capacious temple, within whose walls the high priests, gathered from different quarters at stated seasons, celebrated their mystic rites, while the swarming multitude below looked up in mute adoration." — Foster, 106. " The evidences are abundant that some mysterious rites were per- formed at the altar mounds; cremation only may have been practiced, but we fear that even more awful and heart-sickening ceremonies took place upon these altars as well as upon the high temple sites in which human victims may have been offered to appease the elements or the sun or moon by their death agonies. What splendid cerem.onial, what mystic rites administered by a national priesthood in the presence of a de- vout multitude may have accompanied these horrible sacrifices are beyond even the limits of conjecture." — Short, 85. " Next, the uses to which the mound and roadway at Fort Ancient were devoted, of course, rests largely in conjecture; but it seems not improbable that upon this mound were conducted the religious ceremonies peculiar to the worship of the sun. The imagination was not slow to con- jure up the scene which was doubtless once familiar to the dwellers of Fort Ancient. A train of worshipers, led by priests clad in their sacred robes, and bearing aloft holy utensils, pass in the early morning, ere yet the mists have risen from the valley below, along the gentle swell- ing ridge on which the ancient roadway lies; they near the mound; and a solemn stillness succeeds the chanting songs; the priests ascend the hill of sacrifice and prepare the sacred fire ; now the first beams of the rising sun shoot up athwart the ruddy sky, gilding the topmost boughs of the trees ; the holy flame is kindled — a curling wreath of smoke arises to greet the coming god ; the tremulous hush which was upon all nature breaks into vocal joy, and songs of gladness burst forth from the throats of the waiting multitude as the glorious luminary arises in majesty and beams upon his adoring people — a promise of renewed life and happiness." — Hosea, Ft. A., 294, et seq. condensed. By the "hill of sacrifice" he means the little mound a few liundred yards east of the fort. This was never more than three or four feet in height. C— NUMBERS. The theory of a high "civiHzation" and a compHcated "rehgion" involves the necessity of a great number of people. Accordingly we find such expressions as these : "The conclusion that the ancient population was exceedingly dense, follows not less from the capability which they possessed to erect, than from the circumstances that they required, works of the magnitude we The Mound Builder as a Farmer. 79 have seen, to protect them in danger, or to indicate in a sufficiently imposing form their superstitious zeal, and their respect for the dead." — S. & D., 302. "These facts, I think, clearly indicate that this region must for- merly have sustained a dense population, who derived their support mainly from agriculture." — Foster, 124. " In some places * * * they cover square miles of surface, and it is hardly to be doubted that they are the work of a people or peoples not less numerous than the present population." — Newberry, P. S. M., 189. " During the period of occupancy by the Mound Builders, there were certainly districts densely populated, as indicated by the remains, which do away with the idea of dependence upon the chase, and prove that they subsisted upon the products of the soil. * * * Jt has been estimated that in the hunter state it requires fifty thousand acres for the support of one hunter; * * * ^ve could then have, upon the above estimate, but five hundred and nine able-bodied men, supported alone by the flesh of wild beasts in Ohio. * * * Their system of agricul- ture must have been very complete in order to sustain so large a popu- lation. These monuments arose slowly, and untold multitudes toiled constantly upon them. In order to have supported the laborers there must have been plenty of cheap food, which in a well populated district could only be produced by skilled labor. Their chief subsistence was probably maize, * * >i= the product of a single acre [of which] is sufficient to sustain, for an entire year, about two hundred able-bodied men." — McLean, 123-24. " The vast amount of labor expended upon the earthw^orks implies that the condition of society among the Mound Builders was not that of free men; * * * the state possessed absolute power over the lives and fortunes of its subjects. This condition of affairs implies con- siderable advance in society, and a complex system of government; and to maintain [this] there must have been cheap food. * * * Maize un- doubtedly constituted the great staple of existence. •*= * * The product of a single acre furnishes rations to sustain, for an entire year, all the way from one hundred and tw^enty, to two hundred and forty able-bodied men. The area of the forest-belt abundantly stocked with game, required to support an equally numerous population, would vary from nearly eight hundred thousand acres to more than a million and a half acres. That the Mound Builders cultivated the soil in a methodical manner * ^ * jg evident from the vestiges of ancient garden-beds." — Foster, 346. But the garden-beds appear only in a limited area, as noticed elsewhere ; and no indications exist that they were ever made use of outside of that section. Certainly none were ever constructed in the Scioto valley. The silliness of the proposition that an acre of maize would support " from 120 to 240 men " is evident at a glance. Suppose 80 Archaeological History of Ohio. we take the smaller figure. If we allow a yield of sixty bushels of corn to the acre, which is equal to the average production on fertile ground with modern farming utensils, each person would receive two pecks, on which he must subsist for an entire year. Twenty times that amount would not keep a man from starva- tion. The ration issued to each grown slave. on southern planta- tions was a peck of corn meal, four pounds of bacon, and a quart of molasses every week. In some places the family was also al- lowed a small garden, with the privilege of raising a few chickens and a pig or two. But the ration was considered sufficient to keep them in good working order. On such a basis, a village whose population would require as much food as one hundred adult Indians — or Mound Builders — would need for a year's supply 1,300 bushels of corn and 20,000 pounds of cured meat. With their crude methods of cultivation this means a corn-field of at least 30 acres ; and as freshly killed game must, of course, have a weight much in excess of 20,000 pounds, a large area of hunting ground was required. Fish and nuts were also important articles of food, and their use may have reduced to some extent the amount of land needed for farming and hunting. On the other hand, however, the aborigine prob- ably ate much more than the Negro — when he had it to eat. He used in addition quantities of berries and some sorts of wild fruits which grew in abundance in these fertile lands, and which added a v/elcome variety to his somewhat monotonous dietary. ^H * * ^ * The considerations that governed the Mound Builder in his selection of a place of residence, are supposed to be the same as those which influence his white successor. "And it is worthy of remark, that the sites selected for settlements, towns, and cities, by tlie invading Europeans, are often those which were the especial favorites of the Mound Builders and the seats of their heav- iest populations. Marietta, Newark, Portsmouth, Chillicothe, Circleville, and Cincinnati, in Ohio, Frankfort in Kentucky; and St. Louis in Mis- souri, may be mentioned in confirmation of this remark. The centers of population are now, .where they were at the period when the mysterious race of the mounds flourished." Quotes from Brackenridge : "The most numerous as well as the most considerable of these remains are found precisely in any part of the country where the traces of a numerous popu- lation might be looked for." — S. & D., 6. "The most dense ancient population existed precisely in the places, where the most crowded future population will exist in the generations. Primitive Communities. 81 to come. The appearance of a series of mounds generally indicates the contiguity of rich and level lands, easy communications, fish, game, and most favorable adjacent positions." — Flint, I, 193. With the exception of Cincinnati and St. Louis, an examina- tion of the census returns will show that none of the places men- tioned are entitled to be called large cities ; and the same is true regarding various other towns to which the argument has been applied. In the last sentence quoted may be found a very simple explanation of the coincidence, as far as there is a coincidence. It is easier to carry goods in a boat, than on pack-horses or men's backs ; rivers furnish water and w^ood with only the trouble of securing them ; fertile land, easily tilled, lies along the banks ; fish was an essential item ; while diflferent sorts of game frequented the water-courses. These are the necessities of life in a new country ; and they are the only necessities. There is, then, noth- ing remarkable or significant in the fact that the pioneer chose spots that had been occupied by his predecessor. As soon as the construction of roads opened up communication with the " back country," and especially with the building of railroads, the largest cities began to spring up where the Mound Builders never lived in considerable numbers. As will appear presently, there is no need for supposing a great number of inhabitants to account for the creation of even the largest earthworks. Besides, ■ "Dense populations, an expression sometimes applied to the Mound Builders, have never existed without either flocks or herds, or field agri- culture with the use of the plow. * * * The difficulties in the way of production set a limit to their numbers. These also explain the small number of their settlements in the large areas over which they spread. [A stone chisel, a wooden spade, a flint knife] were as perfect imple- ments as they were able to command." — Morgan, 218. The most exaggerated views prevail as to the amount of labor that must enter into the erection of mounds and earthworks. For instance : — "No one, I think, can view the complicated system of works here displayed [at Newark], and stretching away for miles, without arriving at the conclusion that they are the result of an infinite amount of toil, expended under the direction of a governing mind, and having in view a definite aim. At this day, with our iron implements, with our labor- saving machines and the aid of horse-power — to accomplish such a task 6 82 Archaeological History of Ohio. would require the labor of many thousand men continued for many months." — Foster, 128. "The importance of some of their works, which, according to the judgment of competent engineers, it would have taken several thousand of our workmen, provided with all the resources of our grand modern industries, months to execute, bears witness to an organized community and a powerful hierarchy." — Nadaillac, 85. "We have seen mounds that would require the labor of a thousand men employed upon our canals, with all their mechanical aids, and the improved implements of their labor for months." — Flint, 131. "One thousand men could not have performed the great labor" of erecting all the Cahokia group in a generation. "If one thousand men were employed upon these great works for forty or fifty years it would surely have taken nearly twice that number to have supplied them with food, clothing, fuel and other necessaries during that long period of time, and then again, we must suppose a numerous train composed of women and children and feeble persons * * * which had to be fed, clothed and maintained." — Larkin, 143. The author last cited has found an easy solution ; he says : — "My theory that the prehistoric races used, to some extent, the great American elephant or mastodon, I believe is new. * * * Find- ing the form of an elephant engraved upon a copper relic some six inches long and four wide, in a mound on the Red House Creek, in the year 1854, and represented in harness with a sort of breast-collar with tugs reaching past the hips, first led me to adopt that theory. That the great beast was contemporary with the Mound Builders is conceded by all, and also that his bones and those of his master are crumbling together in the ground." "It is a wonder, and has been since the great mounds have been discovered, how such immense works could have been built by human hands. To me it is not difficult to belieye that those people tamed that monster of the forest and made him a willing slave to tlijeir superior intellectual power. If such was the case, we can imagine that tremendous teams have been driven to and fro in the vicinity of their great works, tearing up trees by the roots, or marching with their armies into the field of battle amidst showers of poisoned arrows." — Larkin (preface) , and 3. Another common delusion is that in many mounds, — "The singular circumstance is said to exist, and by people, who live near them, and ought to know that, of which they affirm, that the earth, of which they are composed, is entirely distinct from that in the vicinity. It is of no avail to inquire, why the builders should have encountered the immense toil, to bring these hills of earth from another place?" "It is the most inexplicable* of all the m.ysterious circumstances, con- nected with these mounds, that the material of these immense structures, some of which would require the labor of a thousand men for some time in the erection, should have been brought from a distance. There Time Required for Constructing Mounds. 83 is no conceivable motive to us, why the earth, on which the mounds rest, should not have subserved all purposes, that we can imagine the builders to have had in view, as well as that from a distance." — Flint, I, 195 and II, 314. "At numerous places [at Fort Ancient] are found large quantities ■of water-worn stone which, after an incredible amount of labor, have been carried from the river below." — IMcLean, 20. Such statements are not true. Neither earth nor stone is ever carried more than a few hundred feet, unless in very small quantities, for a particular purpose; as making an "altar," for example. Let us bring figures to bear upon this question of labor. The largest mound in Butler county, is in Madison township. "Its altitude is forty-three feet with a circular base of five hundred and eleven feet. The hypothenuse is eighty-eight feet, the contents being ■eight hundred and twenty-four thousand four hundred and eighty cubic feet. At twenty-two cubic feet per load, this would give thirty-seven thousand four hundred and seventy-six wagon loads, which allowing ten loads per day, would take one man twelve years (not including Sundays) to remove the mound,, say a distance of one mile. — (Dr. J. B. Owsley.)" —McLean, 224. If the altitude and base are correctly given, the hypothenuse is almost exactly 92 feet ; if the base and hypothenuse are as stated, the height must be about 34 feet. This is on the assumption that the slope of the mound is uniform and in a straight line from summit to base ; if the surface of the mound be curved, as must naturally be the case, then with the assumed height the hypothe- nuse, if measured on the ground, must be greater than 92 feet ; or if the measurement of 88 feet be correct, the elevation is less than 34 feet. Accepting, however, the figures as to the altitude and circumference, we find the solid content of a cone having these dimensions is in round numbers 297,800 cubic feet ; and the content of the segment of a sphere of these measurements, which is larger than a mound exposed to the elements could possibly be, is about 488,000 cubic feet. Thus we see that the mound is cer- tainly less than three-fifths of the asserted size. On the other hand, a cubic foot of perfectly dry common loam, which is the material composing most of the mounds, weighs about eighty pounds; the weight varies somewhat according to the moisture and to the way it is packed, but the above will fall very close to the average when it is allowed to settle naturally. If we admit, for argument, the preposterous intimation that the average dis- 84 Archaeological History of Ohio. tance which this earth is carried is one mile — though why art Indian or any one else would carry dirt a mile when he could get it within a few rods, is past human understanding — then if we suppose a man to walk, with a load, three miles per hour he must in a day of ten hours travel thirty miles and must carry for half that distance a load of 117 pounds, in order to deposit upon the mound as much as one " wagon load " of twenty-two cubic feet in a day. In order to complete his allotment of ten wagon loads per day, which our author has assigned him, he would, if we change only one of the factors in the problem, have to walk thirty miles an hour ; or carry over 1,170 pounds at a load ; or work one hundred hours in a day. No evidence has as yet been discov- ered to justify the supposition that any of the Mound Builders possessed such a degree of speed, strength, or endurance ! Observations in a number of mounds indicate that the aver- age load as carried in during the construction, was not far from half a cubic foot ; if any difference the amount is a little more. Assuming this amount as approximately the load, the weight will be about forty pounds for loam and about fifty pounds for sand ; which is as much as a man will want to carry for any consider- able distance. By carrying thirty loads a day of this size — a reasonable estimate, for such an amount — a laborer would add fifteen cubic feet to the pile every day. If we allow 450,000 cubic feet for the solidity of the mound in question — which is certainly beyond the actual amount — one hundred men will complete it in 300 working days ; that is, within one year. Not a yard of this earth need be carried more than 600 feet ; for if a circle be laid off with this radius and the earth removed to a uniform depth of a small fraction less than five inches (excluding that portion of the area on which the mound stands) the amount so obtained will be ample for the construction of the tumulus. Suppose we put the calculation in a different form. A regu- lar cone twenty feet high and one hundred feet in diameter at the base, will contain 1940 cubic yards. For one mound that will exceed this size there are a hundred that will fall below it. Tak- ing it as the average, and accepting the usual estimate of 10,000 as correct, the entire amount of earth — and stone — in the mounds of the State will be about 19,400,000 cubic yards. A regular enclosure 1,000 feet square or 1,275 ^^^t in diame- ter, measuring twenty feet in breadth at the top, forty feet at the base, and six feet high, with four gateways each twenty-five feet Twic Required for Constructing Mounds. 85 wide, will contain 26,000 cubic yards. It is doubtful whether any one, except two or three hill-top forts, is so large. The equiva- lent of four hundred such will fully equal the contents of all en- closures, making in all about 30,000,000 cubic yards for the entire solid contents of aboriginal remains in Ohio. No one familiar with them will dispute the liberality of these figures. The lenticular masses noticed in so many mounds, each of which represents the amount carried in at a load, vary in volume from a peck to two pecks ; if the average load be taken at one-half a cubic foot, it will represent almost the mean between these fig- ures. It would require 104,760 such loads to complete the mound. Twenty of these loads would be an easy task for one day ; with fifty persons continually at work, 1,000 loads would be piled up each day. Consequently one hundred and five working days would see the mound completed. With the same force working in the same way, an embank- ment of the size above given could be finished in 1404 days. But a village which would require an enclosure of such mag- nitude could furnish a much larger force of workmen ; if 200 were steadily engaged, the wall could be easily finished within a year ; while, with the same number, less than a month would be needed for the mound. On the estimate of 30,000,000 cubic yards for the prehistoric works of the State, one thousand men, each working three hun- dred days in a year, and carrying one wagon load of earth or stone in a day, could construct all the works in Ohio within a eentury. To show that a load of the size indicated is not excessive, it may be stated that in various parts of the world, where goods must be conveyed by porters and carriers, the long distance load for a man (or woman) varies from 80 to 180 pounds. The aver- age seems to be not far from 100 pounds. In Martinique, accord- ing to Hearn, "women can walk all day long up and down hill in the hot sun, with shoes, carrying loads of from 100 to 150 pounds on their heads." " The slaves are almost the only car- riers of burdens in Rio Janeiro. * * * The usual load is about 200 pounds." — Mason, Travel, 480-483. Forty deck-hands on a western steamboat, working steadily, will transfer 10,000 bushels of corn from the bank to the vessel in one day. An equal weight of dry earth will make a mound forty feet in diameter and ten feet high. 86 Archaeological History of Ohio. D.— EXTENT. The idea of a vast empire possesses a fascination for nearly all who become interested in American antiquities. The real sig- nificance of important facts has been so obscured by this delusion that many careful workers whose opportunities for observation were, and are, of the best, have been led to a faulty interpretation of their discoveries. Frequently they seem on the point of ap- prehending the truth in regard to differences which can scarcely be overlooked ; but the pathway in the other direction is too attractive to be deserted. Squier and Davis say, in the introduction to their great vol- ume, " It yet remains to be seen whether all the ancient monuments of the Mississippi Valley were constructed upon similar principles; whether they denote a common origin, and whether they were contemporaneous or otherwise in their erection. It remains to be settled whether the simi- lar and anomalous structures of Wisconsin and the Northwest are part of the same grand system of defensive, religious, and sepulchral monuments found in the valley of the Ohio, and the more imposing, if not more singu- lar remains which abound in the Southern States." — S. & D., Introduc- tion, xxxviii. If they could have followed their investigations into the regions mentioned, as Squier alone afterward did in New York, they would never have countenanced the theory of a single race occupying all this territory. They appear, indeed, to have reached this belief by degrees ; for later we find them saying : — " There seems to have existed a System of Defences extending from the sources of the Susquehanna and Alleghany in New York, diagonally across the country, through central and northern Ohio, to the Wabash. Within this range the works which are regarded as defensive are largest and most numerous. If an inference may be drawn from this fact, it is that the pressure of hostilities was from the north-east ; or that, if the tide of migration flowed from the south, it received its final check upon this line. On the other hypothesis, that in the region originated a semi- civilization which subsequently * * attained its height in Mexico, we may suppose that from this direction came the hostile savage hordes,, before whose incessant attacks the less warlike Mound Builders gradually receded, or * * entirely disappeared. Upon either assumption, it is clear that the contest was a protracted one, and that the race of the mounds was for a long period constantly exposed to attack. * * In the vicinity of those localities, where, from the amount of remains, it appears that the ancient population was most dense, we almost invariably find one or more works of a defensive character." Unity of Mound Builders. 87 " It may be suggested that there existed among the Mound Builders a state of society something like that which prevailed among the Indians ; that each tribe had its separate seat, maintaining, with its own inde- pendence, an almost constant warfare against its neighbors, and, as a con- sequence, possessing its own 'castle,' as a place of final resort when in- vaded by a powerful foe. Apart from the fact, however, that the Indians were hunters averse to labor, and not known to have constructed any works approaching in skillfulness of design or in magnitude those under notice, there is almost positive evidence that the Mound Builders were an agricultural people considerably advanced in the arts, possessing a great uniformity throughout the whole region which they occupied, in manners, habits, and religion, — a uniformity sufficiently well marked to identify them as a single people, having a common origin, a common mode of life, and, as an almost necessary consequence, common sympathies, if not a common and consolidated government." — S. & D. , 44. These opinions were based upon reports made to them by other parties, and are not the result of personal examinations by the authors. They seem to have no doubt of the correctness of the position thus assumed; for toward the close of their work they practically repeat their language in these sentences : — That the ancient population of the Mississippi valley "was numer- ous and widely spread, is evident from the number and magnitude of the ancient monuments, and the extensive range of their occurrence. That it was essentially homogeneous, in customs, habits, religion, and government, seems very well sustained by the great uniformity which the ancient remains display, not only as regards position and form, but in respect also to those minor particulars, which not less than the more obvious and imposing features, assist us in arriving at correct conclu- sions. This opinion can be in no way affected, whether we assume that the ancient race was at one time diffused over the entire valley, or that it migrated slowly from one portion of it to the other, under the pressure of hostile neighbors or the attractions of a more genial climate. The differences * * * between the monuments of the several portions of the valley, of the northern, southern, and central divisions, are not sufficiently marked to authorize the belief that they were the works of separate nations. The features common to all are elementary, and identify them as appertaining to a single grand system, owing its origin to a family of men, moving in the same general direction, acting under common impulses, and influenced by similar causes." — S. & D. , 301, et. seq. Following the line indicated by Squier and Davis, a host of lesser writers have advocated the theory of a great nation, often carrying their language into the ridiculous. It would be tiresome merely to give a list of names of such authors; but extracts from the works of a few may not be out of place, as thev will serve to show the prevalence of the error. 88 Archaeological History of Ohio. " The remains of this mysterious people known as the Mound Builders are spread over thousands of square miles of the United States. * * * The entire valley region of the Missouri, Mississippi and Ohio rivers with that of their affluents was occupied by this remarkable people — presenting us with a parallel to the ancient civilization which flourished in the earliest times on the watercourses of the old world." " All the way up through the Yellowstone region and on the upper tributaries of the Missouri mounds are found in profusion. (Note.) — The proof is conclusive that the head-waters of the Missouri was one of their ancient seats." — Short, 27 and 31. " In choosing this vast region bang between the great lakes and the gulf of Mexico, and extending from the Alleghenies to the Rocky Mountains and consisting of a great system of plains, the Mound Builders exercised great foresight and wisdom." — McLean, 14. The last quotation is about as sensible as to say that a man displayed great literary inclinations by electing to be born in Boston. Did the Mound Builders examine the entire country before deciding to settle in it? "If, as is generally conceded, the Mound Builders were of the same race that wrought in Lake Superior copper mines, built the pyramids of Mitla and Coahuila, monoliths at Copan, the temples in Arizona, and in Yucatan, Mexico, and Peru, — " etc., etc., for quantity. — Du Pre, 347. The next one is a gem: — "A people, the sun of whose empire once arose beyond the northern lakes and extended south to where great rivers send down their turbid waters to meet the ocean's tide; and further still, to a land of wealth and flowers, where the golden fruits hang in tempting clusters, unborn of human toil, and thence o'er ocean isles, ere it is lost in the western wave." — Larkin, 21. Foster thinks " There are evidences which would lead us to believe that the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers was the seat of the Mound Builders' empire; not that the mounds are the most conspicuous, or the investing lines are more intricate — for the latter are almost entirely absent — but it formed a radiating point between widely separated regions. The navigable streams were the great highways, and when we glance at a map, and trace the courses of the various tributaries of the Great River, we see how vast a region could be traversed by an easy and expeditious communication, without resort to artificial con- structions." — Foster, 109. It seems he has no other reason for this opinion than the junction here of two large rivers, which he learned by "glancing at a map." Not only are there no mounds within a long distance of Cairo, but there is no spot within many miles which is not Garden Beds. 89 subject to frequent overflow. The bottom lands are swamps a part of the year while the uplands, the nearest of them miles away, are infertile, rough, and poorly adapted for cultivation. Perhaps the most ingenious, though of course uninten- tional, perversion of ''evidence" is that of Schoolcraft, in his statement that " There is strong evidence * * * that the teocalli type of Indian civilization, so to call it, developed itself from the banks of the Ohio * * * west and northwestwardly * * * toward Lake Michigan and the borders of Wisconsin territory. The chief evidences of it, in Mich- igan and Indiana, consist of a remarkable series of curious garden beds, or accurately furrowed fields. * * * It is worthy of remark, too, that no large tumuli or teocalli exist in this particular region of the west, the ancient population of which may therefore be supposed to have been borderers, or frontier bands, who resorted to the Ohio Valley as their capital or place of annual visitation. All the mounds scattered through Northern Ohio, Indiana and Michigan are mere barrows or repositories of the dead. — Schoolcraft, 317. Not only are there no garden-beds ''on the banks of the Ohio," but there is nothing at all resembling them anywhere within the borders of the State. Their utter lack of resem- blance to any remains in the Scioto Valley is one of the strongest proofs that they are due to entirely different people. As described by Schoolcraft himself "They extend, so far as observed, ovef the level and fertile prairie- lands for about one hundred and fifty miles, ranging from the source of the Wabash, and of the west branch of the Miami of the Lakes [Maumee] to' the valleys of the St. Joseph's, the Kalamazoo, and the Grand River of Michigan. The Indians represent them to extend from the latter point, up the peninsula north to the vicinity of Michillimacinac. They are of various sizes, covering, generally, from twenty to one hundred acres. Some of them are reported to embrace even three hundred acres. As a general fact, they exist in the richest soil, as it is found in the prairie and burr oak plains." — Schoolcraft, History, I, 55. A better description is furnished by Hubbard, who gives their area and extent along with figures of eight different classes of these remains ; all in narrow raised ridges, and all forming rect- angular plats, except one, which is circular. They are all "in the valleys of the St. Joseph and Grand Rivers, where they occupy the most fertile of the prairie land and burr-oak plains; principally in the counties of St. Joseph, Cass, and Kalamazoo." Some of the gardens contained lOO acres or more, in small plats ; and there were several thousand acres in all. — Hubbard, Gardens. 90 Archaeological History of Ohio. It is probable these were erected, like the mounds in low- lands of Arkansas and Missouri, for the purpose of raising the cultivated soil above the general level in order that crops would not be drowned by heavy rains. The next quotation, from Foster, shows that Colonel Whit- tlesey recognized the distinction between the different classes of remains and was disposed to assign each to a different tribe. Foster, however, refuses to see the way when it is thus pointed out to him, and dismisses as unworthy of consideration the very features which go to prove the different origin of works in dif- ferent sections. "The region adjacent to Lake Erie contains ancient earthworks, which differ somewhat from those of the Ohio valley. Squier was dis- posed to regard these works as much more recent than those of the true Mound-builders, in fact, as belonging to the Iroquois. Colonel Whit- tlesey, however, claims for them as high an antiquity, but belonging to- a different nation. He thinks there were three distinct nations; first, in the Ohio valley, the Agricultural Nation; secondly, the Fort builders on the Lakes, the Military Nation; third, between the Mississippi and Lake Michigan, the Effigy Nation. I hardly see the necessity for this assignment. Recognizing these minor distinctions, it might be claimed' that the earthworks of the Upper Mississippi were constructed by a. different people, for the reason that all the mounds are destitute of enclosures; and that those of the Lower Mississippi were the work of still another people, because the truncated pyramidal form predominates, and are rarely enclosed. In what may be called the frontier of the Mound-builders' empire it became necessary to fortify against sudden irruptions of the enemy, and hence the enclosures; but as we penetrate the heart of the empire, these structures disappear." — Foster, 144, con- densed. The few flat-topped mounds in Ohio are sometimes ad- duced as evidence of the relationship of their builders to tribes of the southern states where this form is common. Only those within the larger enclosin*e at Marietta are of a size to render them worthy of comparison with similar structures at St. Louis and farther south; and the height even of these is relatively insignificant. As no others of the class are found in the state (except very small ones), and as the enclosure surrounding them is not duplicated outside of the Ohio region, it is more than probable the Marietta mounds are merely a coincidence, or due to the suggestion or influence of visitors in either direction. The Serpent, the Opossum, and a few nondescript eleva- tions in other parts of the state which are supposed to resemble Eifigy Mounds. 91 some animal or other, have induced a behef that their builders were in some manner related to or connected with the people to whom are due the effigy mounds of the upper Mississippi. The latter works have now been very thoroughly examined; and in the light of this knowledge we can affirm with certainty what was said fifty years ago, namely, that " From the information which we possess concerning the animal effigies of Wisconsin, it does not appear probable that they were con- structed for a common purpose with those of Ohio. They occur usually in considerable numbers, in ranges, upon the level prairies ; while the few which are found in Ohio occupy elevated and commanding positions, — 'high places,' as if designed to be set apart for sacred purposes. An 'altar,' if we may so term it, is distinctly to be observed in the oval en- closure connected with the 'Great Serpent;' one is equally distinct near the Granville work, and another in connection with the lesser but equally interesting work near Tarlton. If we were to deduce a conclusion from these premises, it would certainly be, that these several effigies possessed a symbolical meaning, and were the objects of superstitious regard." — S. &D., 101. The conclusion would be as easily arrived at, were there no " altars " about these works ; whether it be the correct one or not, is another question. Any one "has a right" to form a con- clusion in regard to those things which transcend his knowledge or understanding ; and, equally, he "has a right" to deny the con- clusion of any one else. Where nothing can be proven, much may be asserted without fear of successful contradiction. Tlie comparison with the works of Wisconsin is a little unfortunate in one respect. Many of the effigies in that state are on hills much higher than any on which an effigy occurs in Ohio. The only similarity in the two systems is that some figures in each have a tolerably close resemblance to an animal ; though it is difficult and often impossible to discover what animal it is that is intended to be thus commemorated. For one thing, we are told " The human figure is not uncommon among the effigies, and is al- ways characterized by the extraordi-nary and unnatural length of the arms." — S. & D., 126. The persons who have identified the various animal forms of Wisconsin are not experts in zoological knowledge; even if they were, they would have considerable difficulty in naming the remains. For example the same group is called " buffaloes " by one writer, and " bears " by another ; and there is contro- "92 Archaeological History of Ohio. versy among some authors as to whether a certain figure is a fox, or a panther, while there has been much discussion m attempting to determine whether another figure is a cross or a bird. Many, if not all, the so-called human effigies are probably efforts at imitating the shape of some bird with extended wings and a forked tail. This is the easiest way in which to account for the disproportionate length of the " arms." Peet says "There were, to be sure, many mistakes made by Dr. Lapham, especially in his identifications, as he seemed to lack the faculty of imagination, or some other quality, which should have enabled him to trace the resemblances in the right direction." — Amer. Antiq., May, 1884. As an example of this " imagination," there is one mound which has been called a mastodon by some and a raccoon by others. The trouble arises from the fact that the two parties are not able to agree on the question of which end of the animal has the head. The trunk of the mastodon to one, is the tail of the " 'coon " to the other. Peet gave a figure of the effigy; the reader may decide. — Amer. Antiq., XI, May, 1889. jj; ^ ^ ^ ^ Many unreasonable inferences are drawn from aboriginal workings in the copper region. No greater skill was required in mining copper than in quarrying flint; it had to be dug out of the ground in a similar manner. Nevertheless, the following quotation from McLean fairly conveys the idea held by a large number of writers, that a high degree of knowledge and un- usual enterprise was necessary for such operations. " When we remember the extreme extent of the country traced to obtain mica and copper, added to the earthworks of Ohio, and other States, and when we remember how extensively these operations were carried on, the Mound Builders must appear to us to have been a great and mighty nation." — McLean, 88. Foster and Whittlesey seem to think the entire journey from the Scioto to the mines had to be made in canoes, and all provisions carried from the starting point. " To penetrate that distant region from the Ohio Valley, involved on the part of the Mound Builders, a voyage of a thousand miles. The pas- sage to and fro was made in the Summer season, for there is no evidence, such as mounds, village plots, or house foundations, to indicate perma- nent occupancy. The climate is too hyperborean to admit of the maturing Copper. 9a of maize, and hence they must have had a well organized commissariat, with no interruption in their lines of communication." — Foster, 269. " As yet no remains of cities, graves, domicils, or highways have been found in the copper regions. [The miners] probably had better means of transportation than the bark canoe. They might thus carry provisions a great distance by water, [and] could readily bring with them in the spring supplies for three months, and before these were exhausted the same craft might return for additional supplies." — Whittlesey, Copper, 179. As to the question of food, the later Indians find no serious difficulty in living upon the natural products of the country, and there is no reason why the ancient miner may not have done as well. Except those on Isle Royale, all the copper deposits worked by the aborigines could be reached without crossing any large body of water. It is doubtful whether the Mound Builders of southern Ohio ever did any mining work whatever in that country. The small amount of copper exhumed from mounds does not justify the supposition that the raw material was dug out by people living where the finished articles are found. If they had made such a tedious journey, they would have procured a greater supply. It is more probable that what they used was obtained by exchange. " Near Racine, there have been at least one hundred mounds either opened or entirely removed concerning fifty of which I have personal knowledge, and not one single specimen of copper has been discovered in these mounds and as this group is of the oldest type, and as they are situated in the region of abundance of copper, the fact leads to the infer- ence that they were built before copper became of common use among the Indians. This is the more likely as the later mounds have not infre- quently articles manufactured from native copper. The conclusion fol- lows that the Indians living at no great distance from the copper regions of Lake Superior did mine copper and make various ornaments and im- plements, not only for their own use, but extensively for the purpose of barter with distant tribes and nations of Indians." — Hoy, 13. A person unfamiliar with the facts would infer from state- ments like that in the next citation, that copper is found in the mounds in vast quantities. Such is not the case. It seems to have held the same rank in the estimation of the Mound Builder that gold holds with us. It can not be far out of the way to say that for one copper article found in our mounds, fifty are found in Wisconsin or Michigan. "94 Archaeological History of Ohio. Notwithstanding all these facts we are assured that " One of the best evidences which we have of the systematic govern- ment and habits of the Mound Builders, together with the comparatively advanced state of the practical arts among them, is found in the ancient copper mines of the Lake Superior region. * * The labor involved in a journey of a thousand miles from the Ohio Valley to the copper regions, the toil of the summer's mining, and the tedious transportation of the metal to their homes upon their backs, and by means of an imper- fect system of navigation, indicates either industry and resolution such as no savage Indian ever possessed, or a condition of servitude in which thousands occupied a condition of abject slavery. No permanent abodes were erected by the miners in this region, no mounds were constructed, but the indications all point to a summer's residence only and a return to the south with the accumulation of their toil when the severities of winter approached." — Short, 89 and 93. Further reference to copper mining and working will be found in the concluding pages. ^ 5}C JjC >Ji 5i< The association in mounds of manufactured articles made of material from foreign localities, has caused much perplexity, and is responsible for some very erroneous conclusions. It will be sufficient to repeat here the remarks of Squier and Davis, which embody the substance of all that has been said upon this phase of the matter since their time. " It cannot, however, have escaped notice, that the relics found in the mounds, — composed of materials peculiar to places separated as widely as the ranges of the Alleghanies on the east, and the Sierras of Mexico on the west, the waters of the great lakes on the north, and those of the Gulf of Mexico on the south, — denote the contemporaneous existence of communication between these extremes. For we find side by side in the same mounds, native copper from Lake Superior, mica from the Alleghanies, shells from the Gulf, and obsidian (perhaps por- phyry) from Mexico. This fact seems seriously to conflict with the hypothesis of a migration, either northward or southward." — S. & D., 306. The final sentence means, at least it is generally under- stood to mean, that in the opinion of these authors the Mound Builders held control of all the area included within the limits of the localities mentioned, and performed the labor necessary for securing the material which they afterward wrought into the various forms in which it is now to be found. But the facts noted do not warrant this assumption. With the exception of a few localized types, artificial objects of nearly every sort are found in greatest abundance in the immediate vicinity of natural iboriQ-inal Trade. 95 ".^ ■deposits of raw material, gradually diminishing in numbers toward distant points. If persons who were at the necessity of making long journeys to reach the source of supply, carried on for themselves the mining or quarrying operations, they would have transported most, if not all, of the product which could be utilized, to their homes, where it could be worked into shape at the leisure or convenience of the owners. They certainly would not have been at the trouble to complete, and then abandon, the great number of implenments found remote from their habita- tions. Indian traders traveled extensively in the exchange of wares. Articles of barter were passed from hand to hand, from tribe to tribe, over large areas and through long periods of time. The Atlantic coast Indians "did more or less barter, especially in pipes, the material for which, a red marble, is rare, and found only on the Mississippi. A more common sort is made of a kind of ruddle dug up by the Indians living to the west of the Mississippi, on the Marble River, who sometimes bring it to these countries for sale." — Carr, Mounds, 522 ; from Loskiel's "Mis- sions." " It has been found that articles from the shores of the Caspian may reach the mouth of the Mackenzie * * in about three years by barter." — Nadaillac, 173. "x\t the beginning of this century, the southwestern Indians had great numbers of horses which they acquired from the Spaniards or nations immediately bordering on New Mexico. These animals are chiefly transferred to the nations northeast of the [Missouri] River * * in exchange for articles procured from the British traders." The Crows made annual exchanges of goods with the Minnatarees and others to the eastward, obtaining European goods which they used, in part, in trading with Snakes to the west. "Iridescent shells from the Gulf of California found their way to Zuni through Sonora and the Colorado people. An Indian in the employ of the first President of Mexico had made two trips to Zuni." Many other instances are given of individual traders making long journeys, or of tribes acting as middlemen between other tribes remote from each other, everywhere east of the Mississippi. — Mason, Travel, 587, ef. seq. Hunting and war parties wandered great distances from home. "The Delawares [at Fort Leavenworth, in 1846] make war upon remote tribes * * * sending out their war-parties as far as the Rocky Mountains, and into the Mexican territories." — Oregon Trail, 19. " In my travels in the Upper Missouri, and in the Rocky Mountains, I learned to my utter astonishment, that little parties of these adven- 96 Archaeological History of Ohio. turous myrmidons [Delawares] , of only six or eight in numbers, had visited these remote tribes, at 2,000 miles distance; and in several in- stances, after having cajoled a whole tribe * * * may have brought away six or eight scalps with them ; and nevertheless * * * retreated with safety out of their enemies' country, and through the regions of other hostile tribes, where they managed to * * * come off with similar trophies." — Catlin, Indians^ II, 102. "Charlevoix, in his history of Canada, has stated what Father Grillon often informed him of, namely, that after having labored some time in the missions of Canada, he returned to France and went to China. As he was traveling through Tartary, he met a Huron woman whom he had formerly known in Canada. She told him, that having been taken in war, she had been conducted from nation to nation, until she arrived at the place where she then was. There was another mis- sionary, said Charlevoix, passing by the way of Nantz, on his return from China, who related the like story, of a woman he had seen from Florida in America. She informed him that she had been taken and given to those of a distant country, and by them again to another nation, till she had been thus successively passed from country to country, had traveled regions excessively cold, and at length found herself in Tartary, and had there married a Tartar, who had passed with the conquerors into China, and had there settled." — Haywood, 271. The history and traditions of nearly all tribes show them continually migrating. In all these ways small objects could wan- der hundreds or thousands of miles from their starting point. By the middle of the sixteenth century European goods had been carried hundreds of miles from the coasts, along different lines from any pursued by the earlier explorers ; undoubtedly a simi- lar trafhc prevailed in prehistoric times. Thus may be explained the occurrence of one or two specimens far from a locality where that particular type prevails; as, to take a single case, the dis- covery in eastern Massachusetts of some "monitor pipes" which are almost entirely confined to the Ohio district. On the other hand, there are certain permanent remains which indicate that colonies or clans separated from the main body of their people and established themselves in a new coun- try. The huge pyramids opposite St. Louis are distinctly south- ern in type ; and no others of this size and form are found north of the Ohio except at one point. "On Angel's farm, situated six miles southeast of Evansville, I found six mounds, four distinct cemeteries, three lines of earthworks, one large stone cist, and one altar. The first and most western mound is 15 feet high, 585 feet in circumference, truncated and 100 feet across the top. The second mound is 8 feet high and 150 feet in circumference. Evansville, Indiana — Aztalan, Wisconsin. 97 The cist was 8 feet long, 4 feet wide, 4 feet deep, walled with slate [shale]. In this were found several skeletons. A third mound is twenty- feet high, 402 feet in circumference, truncated, and 60 feet across the top. The altar was a pit with a floor and a roof of sand rock, the sides and ends lined with slate slabs. Inside it was three feet long, two feet wide, and fourteen inches deep. It contained the remains of a cremated body or skeleton. The fourth mound is 150 feet in circumference, and 5 feet high. The fifth mound is square, 100 yards on every side, and 45 feet high to a plateau, the width of which is 185 feet. On top of this there is an additional mound, 15 feet high. Then at the west end there was an elevated platform 4 feet high, 150 yards long, 55 feet wide. The last mound is 10 feet high, 30 yards in circumference. Around these six mounds is a line of earthwork, resting at either end on the river bank, and inside of this are two other short ones. The outer line is about one mile in length, and about every forty yards there are mound- like widenings on the outer edges. One-half mile northeast of these mounds is a mound 50 feet high and 164 yards in circumference. All of the graves in this section are walled with slate." — Stinson, 591, et seq., condensed. If the above description is correct — and we have no reason to doubt it — the Evansville group, in its situation and construc- tion bears a remarkable resemblance to the one on the Etowah River near Cartersville, Georgia. The "mound-like widenings on the outer edges " of the wall do not appear in the latter works ; and so far as known are not to be observed at any other point except in Wisconsin. This is at the so-called "Aztalan," where the mounds associated with the walls are quite small. Because of its fanciful name, and of the marvelous stories which have gone the rounds of newspapers about "brick w^alls," "stone arches" arid other unusual features, many persons suppose "Aztalan" was once the abode of a tribe or colony from Mexico. In order to show its true character, a tolerably full description is appended. "It is the only ancient enclosure, properly so called in Wisconsin; and although it is usually termed a fort or citadel, it will be shown here- after that it falls more properly into the class denominated ' sacred in- closures.' Without this we might be led to suppose that the ancient Mound Builders of Wisconsin were a distinct people from those of Ohio, so different is the general character of their monuments. "The 'ancient city of Aztalan' has long been known, and often referred to, as one of the wonders of the western world. Many exag- gerated statements respecting the 'brick walls' supported by buttresses, the ' stone arch ', etc., have been made ; for all of which there is little foundation in truth." 7 98 Archaeological History of Ohio. "The name Aztalan was given to the place by Mr. Hyer [the dis- coverer of the ruins], because, according to Humboldt, the Aztecs, or ancient inhabitants of Mexico, had a tradition that their ancestors came from a country at the north, which they called Aztalan; and the pos- sibility that these may have been the remains of their occupancy, sug- gested the idea of restoring the name. " The main feature of these remains is the enclosure or ridge of earth (not brick, as has been erroneously stated), extending around three sides of an irregular parallelogram; the west branch of Rock River forming the fourth side on the east. The space thus enclosed is seven- teen acres and two-thirds. The corners are not rectangular ; and the embankment or ridge is not straight. The earth of which the ridge is made was evidently taken from the nearest ground, where there are numerous excavations of very irregular form and depth. If we allow for difference of exposure of earth thrown up into a ridge and that lying on the original flat surface, we can perceive no difference between the soil composing the ridge and that found along its sides. Both consist of a light yellowish sandy loam. "The ridge forming the enclosure is 631 feet long at the north end, 1,419 feet long on the west side, and 700 feet on the south side, making a total length of wall of 2,750 feet. The ridge or wall is about 22 feet wide, and from one foot to five in height. "The wall of earth is enlarged on the outside, at nearly equal dis- tances, by mounds of the same material. They are called buttresses or bastions; but it is quite clear that they were never designed for either of the purposes designated by these names. The distance from one to another varies from sixty-one to ninety-five feet, scarcely any two of them being alike. Their mean distance apart is eighty-two feet. They are about forty feet in diameter, and from two to five feet high. On the north wall, and on most of the west wall, they have the same height as the connecting ridge; but on the south wall, and the southern portion of the west wall, they are higher than the ridge, and at a little distance resemble a simple row of mounds. On the inner side of the wall, opposite many of these mounds, is a slight depression or sinus, possibly the remains of a sloping way by which the wall was ascended from within the enclosures. The two outworks, near the southwest angle of the great enclosure [these are short walls, one straight, the other having an angle, and both set diagonally to the lines of the main structure], are constructed in the same manner ; but both these mounds and the connecting ridge are of smaller dimensions. When viewed from the road, a short distance west, these outworks would be supposed to be nothing more than a few circular mounds. " On opening the walls near the top, it is occasionally found that the earth has been burned. Irregular masses of hard, reddish clay, full of cavities, bear distinct impressions of straw, or rather wild hay, with which they have been mixed before burning. These places are of no very considerable extent, nor are they more than six inches in depth. Frag- ments of the same kind are found scattered about ; and they have been Aztalan, Wisconsin. 99 •observed in other localities at a great distance from these ancient ruins. This is the only foundation for calling these ' brick walls '. The ' bricks ' were never made into any regular form, and it is even doubtful whether the burning did not take place in the wall after it was built. The im- pression of the grass is sometimes so distinct as to show its minute structure, and also that it was of the angular stems and leaves of the species of carex, still growing abundantly along the margin of the river. As indicating the probable origin of this burned clay, it is important to state, that it is usually mixed with pieces of charcoal, partially burned bones, etc. Fragments of pottery are also found in the same connection. The walls and mounds are of a light colored clay, which becomes red on being slightly burned. From all the facts observed, it is likely that clay was mixed with the straw, and made into some coarse kind of envelope ■or covering, for sacrifices about to be consumed. The whole was then probably placed on the wall of earth, mixed with the requisite fuel and burned. The promiscuous mixture of charcoal, burned clay, charred bones, blackened pottery, etc., can only in this way be satisfactorily :accounted for. "A shaft was sunk to the bottom of one of the large mounds pro- jecting from the wall. No burned clay was on this mound, and we soon discovered that it is only in a few places that this substance exists. The earth was here a yellowish sandy loam, entirely free from spots of black mould ; thus showing that it was built exclusively from the subsoil of the adjacent grounds. The builders had carefully removed the black soil be- fore they commenced the erection of this mound. "The mound at the northwest angle was also excavated. At some distance below the top, was a cavity which was nearly filled with loose earth, in which were indications of bones very much decayed and char- coal. This was divided below into two other cylindrical cavities, ex- tending beneath the original surface of the ground, and filled with the ^ame loose materials. This indicates that when the- mound was partially completed, two bodies had been inhumed in a sitting posture, close to- gether; another body was placed above these two; and the mound carried above all. " At the western angle of the main enclosure are two truncated pyramidal mounds, one measuring about 53 feet square at the top, the other about 60 by 65 feet. From the summit of one, on the highest ground inside the wall, the whole works, and quite an extent of the surrounding country can be seen; while the other rises but little, if any, above the top of the adjacent wall." "A few stones left along the sides and bottom of a small ravine cut into the bank by the passage of water to the river [said stones being in their natural, undisturbed, position] is all the evidence that could be found of an ancient sewer 'arched with stone.' It is quite clear that no such arch ever existed. "It is not possible that this enclosure could have been a work of defence ; for it is entirely commanded from the summit of a ridge ex- tending along the west side, nearly parallel with, and much higher than 100 Archaeological History of Ohio. the west walls themselves, and within a fair arrow-shot; so that an enemy posted on it would have a decided advantage over those within the defences. This ridge would also constitute an excellent breastwork to protect an enemy from the arrows or other weapons shot from the sup- posed fort. From the summit of this ridge the ground descends towards the river; so that the enclosure is on a declivity, and is thus commanded from the opposite side of the river, whence arrows or other weapons could be thrown directly into the fort by persons lying in perfect security. There is no guarded opening, or gateway, into the enclosure. It can only be entered by water, or by climbing over the walls. " We may suppose it to have been a place of worship ; the pyramidal mounds being the places of sacrifice like the teocalli of Mexico. From its isolated situation — there being no other similar structure for a great distance in any direction — we may conjecture that this was a kind of Mecca, to which a periodical pilgrimage was prescribed by their religion. Here may have been the great annual feasts and sacrifices of a whole nation. Thousands of persons from remote locations may have engaged in midnight ceremonies conducted by the priests. The temple, lighted by great fires kindled on the great pyramids and at every projection on the walls, on such occasions would have presented an imposing spectacle, well calculated to impress the minds of the people with awe and solem- nity." — Lapham, 41-49 condensed. The concluding paragraph of Lapham's description is pure fancy. Such pilgrimages and devotions as he suggests were un- known to any race of the United States. The place seems to have been an ordinary Indian village, whose inhabitants were in no great danger from enemies. The masses of burned clay mixed with reeds and grasses are very common in some parts of the south. So far from being remains of sacrifices or intentionally burned for any other purpose, they are simply the walls and roofs of mud-plastered huts which have been destroyed by fire. Catlin describes similar huts constructed by Mandans. The object of the vegetable substance is to hold the clay in place^as hair is mixed with mortar by modern plasterers. (See, also, pages 460-1). It would not be safe to affirm or deny a connection between the builders of the Evansville works and the southern Indians merely because of the resemblance of the works in the two sec- tions; nor between the former and the ancient inhabitants of " Aztalan " by reason of the projections on the embankments. But it is easier to believe them related in in some way or at least having some knowledge of each other, than to suppose the striking similarities are entirely accidental. Distribution of Types. " ''" ' ' /IM. The same difficulty confronts us in the case of certain mounds near Naples, upon the Illinois River, explored by Henderson. His description of their situation, construction and contents would apply equally to many of the tumuli in southern Ohio. He even found " effigy pipes " as perfect in design and execution as any figured in " Ancient Monuments." — Henderson. A group of nine small mounds, a mile below Davenport, also yielded a large quantity of relics quite similar to those found in the Ohio mounds. Among them were nine pipes, all of the so- called mound pipe patterns, and three of them carved with effigies. Those illustrated are of a similar style to the Ohio mound pipes, but much less finely finished. In one of these mounds the re- mains were at least six feet below the present surface which is now only from eight to twelve feet above high water; the bodies apparently having been placed in a pit. — Farquharson, 297. The specimens in the latter group may have been obtained in trade. But it is quite probable that a number of Ohio Mound Builders wandered into the region of the Mississippi and re- mained there. With the migratory habits of native Americans, it is not to be supposed that a single stock or tribe held possession of any section for an unlimited time, or that fertile districts would remain unoccupied for a long period. GEOGRAPHICAL LIMITATIONS OF TYPES. A classification by types and localities shows that distinctive classes of remains are restricted to well-defined areas ; that is, the great enclosures commonly called " sacred " are found between central Ohio and central Kentucky, from the panhandle of West Virginia to the lower Wabash; the garden beds are confined to Michigan and northern Indiana ; the effigy mounds principally in the adjoining portions of Iowa, northern Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota ; the great hilltop fortifications in Ohio ; the pyramidal flat-topped mounds in the southern States and as far up the two principal rivers as St. Louis and Evansville. Very few of these are to be found in localities distant from where they are most common. On the other hand there is abundant evidence that any of the localities named have been occupied by two or perhaps more different races ; nearly everywhere appear aboriginal re- mains so diverse from one another as to make it almost certain 1^2" •' *'"^'' Archaeological History of Ohio. that they belong to a different period of construction or to an unrelated people. Particularly in southern Ohio the dissimilarity to be observed in various remains which were at first thrown into a single classification denotes that several waves of population swept over this region. There is sufficient diversity between the symmetrical enclosures of the bottom lands, the massive hill forts^ and the smaller or irregular embankments found in the same sec- tions, to justify a supposition of separate builders. So of the large mounds, whether of earth or stone, when compared with some of the smaller mounds of either material alone or of both combined ; while the stone graves or cairns fall m a class to them- selves. A " Catalogue of Prehistoric Works East of the Rocky Mountains ", was issued some years ago by the Bureau of Ethnol- ogy, as Bulletin No. 12 of their publications. It gives a map of each state, and attempts to show by means of '' symbols " the number and character of the various remains wdthin its borders. At the best, such a work must be very incomplete ; but in addi- tion, these maps are sadly misleading, and no comparison based on them should be attempted between the remains of different states or even between different parts of the same state. Owing to the small size of the page, the method of " symbolizing " renders it impossible to represent more than one mound or enclosure within an area of several square miles, and some are placed ten miles or more from their proper position. A mound which would scarcely be noticed while walking over it, is given the same prominence as one fifty feet high ; and a group like that at Hopewell's or " Mound City " is not differentiated from three or four sand dunes in Michigan utilized by modern Indians as burial places. Although it has nothing whatever to do with Ohio archae- ology, it will not be out of place to introduce here an abstract of Lewis and Clark's description of an earthwork on the upper Missouri, a few miles above the mouth of the Yankton, both as a matter of general interest and for purposes of comparison. "This interesting object is on the south side of the Missouri, oppo- site the upper extremity of Bonhomme Island, and in a low level plain, the hills being three miles from the river. It begins by a low wall com- posed of earth, rising immediately from the bank of the river and run- ning in a direct course S. 76° W. ninety-six yards ; the base of this wall or mound is seventy-five feet, and its height about eight. It then diverges in a course S. 84° W. and continues at the same height and depth to the IVork on Upper Missouri River. 103 distance of fifty-three yards, the angle being formed by the sloping des- cent; at the junction of these two is an appearance of a hornwork of the same height with the first angle ; the same wall then pursues a course N. 69° W. for three hundred yards ; near its western extremity is an opening or gateway at right angles to the wall, and projecting inwards; this gateway is defended by two nearly semi-circular walls placed before it, lower than the large walls ; and from the gateway there seems to have been a covered way communicating with the interval between these two walls; westward of the gate, the wall becomes much larger, being about one hundred and five feet at its base, and twelve feet high ; at the end of this high ground the wall extends for fifty-six yards on a course N. 32° W. ; it then turns N. 23° W. for seventy-three yards; these two walls seem to have had a double or covered way; they are from ten to fifteen feet eight inches in height, and from seventy-five to one hundred and five feet in width at the base ; the descent inwards being steep, whilst outwards it forms a sort of glacis. At the distance of seventy-three yards, the wall ends abruptly at a large hollow place much lower than the general level of the plain, and from which is some indication of a covered way to the water. The space between them is occupied by several mounds scat- tered promiscuously through the gorge, in the center of which is a deep round hole. From the extremity of the last wall, in a course N. 32" W. is a distance of seventy-six yards over the low ground, w^here the wall recommences and crosses the plain in a course N. 84° W. for eighteen hundred and thirty yards to the bank of the Missouri. In this course its height is about eight feet, till it enters, at the distance of five hundred and thirty-three yards, a deep circular pond of seventy-three yards' diameter; after which it is gradually lower, towards the river; it touches the river at a muddy bar, which bears every mark of being an encroachment of the water, for a considerable distance; and a little above the junction is a small circular redoubt. Along the bank of the river, and at eleven hun- dred yards distance, in a straight line [down the stream] from this wall, is a second, about six feet high, and of considerable width; it rises abruptly from the bank of the Missouri, at a point where the river bends, and goes straight forward, forming an acute angle with the last wall [it is, in fact, nearly parallel with it] till it enters the river again, not far from the mound just described, towards which it is obviously tending." "Where the river passes betw^een this fort and Bonhomme Island, all the distance from the bend, it is constantly washing the banks into the stream, a large sandbank being already taken from the shore near the wall. During the whole course of this wall, or glacis, it is covered with trees, among which are many large cotton trees, two or three feet in diameter. Immediately opposite the citadel, or the part most strongly fortified, on Bonhomme Island, is a small work in a circular form, with a wall surrounding it, about six feet in height. * * * 'pj^g citadel contains about twenty acres, but the parts between the long walls must embrace nearly five hundred acres." — L. & C, I., 63, et seq. 104 Archaeological History of Ohio. As this description may not be perfectly clear in the absence of any illustrations, it may here be added that the work in question cuts off a short bend in the Missouri. The curving or irregular wall first mentioned, starts out below the bend almost at a right angle with the river bank, and at its termination is again approach- ing the river. The long straight wall, beginning here, reaches the river at a considerable distance above the turn; while the second straight wall described, begins almost at the angle of the bend and follows the direction of the current, close to the bank, and terminates just where the channel begins to take a straight course to the eastward. It is possible that, as originally constructed, it was carried onward until it joined the curved wall below ; and it is also possible that a third straight wall connected these two at the upper portion of the area surrounded, these portions having been carried away by encroachments of the stream. It is at least evident that the walls have been shortened to some extent, for they are broken off abruptly, presenting the same general slope at the ends as that of the banks where they ter- minate. There is no mention in the text, and no indication in the figure, of a ditch either within or without the embankments ; so the heights given must be from the ordinary surface level. There is nothing in Ohio approaching these remains in mag- nitude, except, perhaps, the works at Newark; and if the sup- position be correct that connecting walls have been undermined and carried away by floods, the entire structure must have con- siderably surpassed any group in our State, in the amount of material handled during its construction. If defensive in character, a platform of wood must have extended around the interior to afford a standing-place for the garrison, whence they could command the slope in front. E.— AGE. One problem which has withstood the most persistent ef- forts toward its solution, is that of the period at which the mounds were constructed. It has been approached from every side, but so far the answer is as uncertain as at the beginning. There is no lack of guesses, m.any of them quite irrational; and all sorts of data, some of which can have no possible bearing on the ques- tion, are used as bases for calculation. Trees, geological for- Antiquity of Mounds. 105 mations, mastodons, astronomy, are among the things which have served to promote discussion and befuddle readers. Centuries or milleniums are called into requisition with a fluency and free- dom worthy of philosophers discussing the age of the earth. " They [Mound Builders] occupied all the forest-covered region of the Mississippi Valley * * * foj- many hundreds and perhaps thou- sands of years. This is indicated by the general occupation of this wide- spread area, the magnitude and number of such of their works as have resisted the ravages of time [intimating that some are destroyed by the elements] and the great abundance of the stone implements of their manufacture found scattered over the surface; also by the extent of their mining operations." — Newberry, P. S. M., 193. "The ancient population must have numbered half a million, with a probability of a million. The period of their occupation exceeded one thousand and probably reached three thousand years." — Cent. Rep., 107. " There are no traces of Mound Builders' works below Baton Rouge. [Hence] we may conclude that the Gulf of Mexico in the age of the Mound Builders laved the base of the heights on which Natchez stands. * * * Thus the conclusion is deduced that quite three thousand. years have elapsed since the people known as the Mound Builders utterly dis- appeared." — Du Pre, 348. It would have been quite as logical to suppose the Gulf at Memphis or Cairo, so far as it relates to the condition of the country below Baton Rouge. There are mounds along the coast near Mobile on land formed since that below the mound limits on the Mississippi, but as these do not fit in with the idea of great antiquity they are not mentioned. McLean insists that mounds in different portions of the country were built at widely separated intervals. "It is pretty well established that since the time of the Mound Builders, and prior to the advent of the Indian, a race known as the ' Vil- lagers ' occupied certain districts of this country and made the ' garden- beds ' found in northern Indiana, lower Missouri, and in Michigan. Time must be allotted for them to take possession of the country ; then growth and decadence would have required ages, so that an almost in- credible period must have elapsed from the time they took possession of the country until they retired. If the animal mounds were made since the structures in Ohio, then another people lived between the time of the Villagers and the Mound Builders. Since the period of the Villagers and before the advent of the Indians, still another race may have ex- isted." — McLean, 131-2, condensed. In the first place there are no "garden beds in the lower part of Missouri." Immense numbers of small mounds, probably for agricultural uses, extend from Pilot Knob in that State into and 106 Archaeological History of Ohio. probably beyond Louisiana; but they are entirely different from the Garden Beds of the north in their situation and appearance. By McLean's style of reasoning, we could carry any nation back to the beginning of time. He assumes that only a restricted area could be occupied at one period ; that these inhabitants must become extinct and ages elapse ere another people can settle a place a thousand miles away; and that all the races which have thus in turn flourished and died out are of different stocks. Harrison based his ideas of successive populations upon a more valid belief; but he was mistaken in his interpretation of the ''embankments" to which he refers. Some of them were artificial; but most were the ordinary irregularities to be observed in all river bottom lands, being due to natural causes operating at the time the terraces were forming. ., " I think there are indubitable marks of the bank of the Ohio being thickly inhabited by a race of men, inferior to the authors of the great works we have been considering, after the departure of the latter. Upon many places, remains of pottery, pipes, stone hatchets and other articles are found in great abundance, which are evidently of inferior workmanship to those of the former people. I have one other fact to offer which furnishes still better evidence of my opinion. When I first saw the upper plain upon which Cincinnati stands, it was literally covered with low lines of embankments. The number and variety of figures in which these lines were drawn was almost endless. Many so faint, indeed, as scarcely to be followed, and often for a considerable distance entirely obliterated. Now, if these lines were ever the height of the others, (and they must have been to have answered any valuable purpose), or unless their erection was many years anterior to the others, there must have been some other cause than the attrition of the rain (for it is a dead level) to bring them down to their then state. That cause I take to have been continued cultivation. And as the people who erected them, would not themselves destroy works which had cost them so much labor, the solution of the question can only be found in the long occu- pancy, and cultivation of another people, and the probability is, that that people were the conquerors of the original possessors." — Harrison, 226-7, condensed. This ''conquering race" was not the American Indian found here by the whites, but had in turn abandoned the vicinity before the latter appeared upon the scene. This would, in his opinion, set the Mound Builders back to a remote age. All these estimates, however, are moderate compared with some others. Koch's Mastodon. 107' " One of the exterior mounds at Fort Ancient is situated one or two degrees north of east of the main gateway. A similar variation from the true points of the compass exists, it is beHeved, in some of the similar works in the Scioto and Miami valleys, and also in Florida and Mexico.. It would be difficult to account for this variation, if upon investigation, it should be found uniform, unless in some way connected with the ob- liquity of the ecliptic to the earth's axis of rotation ; and it might furnish a clue to the age of the works, in view of the measurable tendency of the ecliptic, in the course of ages, to coincide with the plane of the equator. It would require, in round numbers, nearly eight thousand years to ac- count for a variation of one degree ; but we need not be staggered by the results to which such a theory would lead us." — Hosea, Ft. A., 293, condensed. As the present angle of inclination is not far from twenty- three and a half degrees, this theory would give Fort Ancient an age of about 150,000 years ; which is enough 10 " stagger" almost any one. By a similar calculation, some writer whose, name is not recalled, proves that the Newark works were built at the same time as one of the Egyptian pyramids, and conse- quently by the same people. In describing the " sculptured winged monster " which Is painted on the bluffs near Alton, Illinois, Larkin says, "Persons who visited the Centennial at Philadelphia, in the year 1876, will recollect the skeleton of a gigantic bird, whose bony frame and neck towered to the height of nearly fifteen feet. * * * Now, it is not unreasonable to believe that such a bird lived with the Mound Builders, and went down with them, perhaps when the whole solar system was plunged into an icy wave." — Larkin, 137. THE MASTODON OR MAMMOTH. Several accounts have appeared of discoveries tending to prove that primitive man in the United States was contempora- neous with the mastodon or mammoth. Three of these have attained wide circulation. First in time as well as importance is that of Dr. Koch, of St. Louis. '■ In the year 1839, I discovered and disinterred in Gasconade County, Missouri, the bones of a Mastodon giganteus. The greater portion of the bones had been more or less burned by fire. The fire had extended but a few feet beyond the space occupied by the animal and had been kindled by human agency with the design of killing the huge creature which had been found mired in the mud. The fore and hind legs of the animal were in perpendicular position in the clay with the toes attached to the feet. All the bones which had not been burned by the fire had kept their original position, standing upright, and apparently quite undisturbed in the clay, whereas those portions which had extended above the sur- 108 Archaeological History of Ohio. face had been partially consumed. Mingled with the ashes and bones were many broken pieces of rock carried from the river to be hurled at the animal. I found also among the ashes, bones, and rocks, several arrow-heads, a stone spear-head, and some stone axes. The layer of ashes, etc., was covered by a strata of alluvial deposits from eight to nine feet thick.- [Koch afterward] found in Benton County several stone arrow-heads, mingled with the bones of a nearly entire skeleton, men- tioned above as the Missourium. Two arrow-heads found with the bones were in a layer of vegetable mould, which was covered twenty feet in thickness with alternate layers of sand, clay and gravel. One of the ar- row-heads lay under the thigh bone of the skeleton, the bone actually resting in contact upon it. The layer of vegetable mould was some five or six feet thick, and the arrow-head and bones were found buried in it. Above this layer there were six undisturbed layers of clay, sand and gravel." — From Foster, 63, condensed. Koch's statement has been vigorously attacked by Dana, who proceeds to point out discrepancies in his different reports ; demon- strates his lack of training in observation, his ignorance of geol- ogy, and his desire to make a good story; doubts whether the Indians would have waited for the bones to char through the skin and flesh before they would begin eating ; and says "the char- ring might have been done very long after the miring and death of the animal, and the facts be all as they are reported.'' — (Dana). But the truth of these strictures upon Koch himself might be admitted without in the least invalidating his assertions in regard to what he saw. The only question at issue is " Did Koch find the mastodon bones and the weapons in the position which he claims?" His report is very circumstantial, has an air of truth- fulness, and has not been disproven. Dana fails to explain what motive would have induced the Indians, or whoever they were, to char the bare bones and leave them undisturbed; or to account for the arrow-heads and stones lying around them. The dubious feature of Koch's communication, is the charring of such a large proportion of the bones ; the flesh cov- ering them would thereby have been rendered unfit for use, and so great a degree of heat was certainly not necessary to compass the death of the animal. At the same time it is true that in a beast of such size there would have been a great amount of flesh uninjured by the flames. It is now too late to learn anything more definite about the matter. Mastodon Remains. 10^ The next discovery was in a salt-pit at Petit Anse Island, off the coast of Louisiana. Here a "fragment of matting was found near the surface of the salt, and about two feet above it were remains of tusks and bones of a fossil elephant, * * * thus showing the existence of man on the island prior to the de- posit in soil of the fossil elephant." "At the depth of twelve feet below the surface and immediately overlying the salt-rocks incredible quantities of pottery were thrown out of the pits by miners, mingled with fragments of the bones of the elephant and other huge extinct quadrupeds." — Fos- ter, 56-8. Fortunately the opportunity was afforded for an examina- tion of this locality by a careful observer, whose report is thus summarized : — "Up to the time of Dr. Goessman's visit, all the borings and pits which had reached the salt, had been sunk in detrital material washed down from the surrounding hills, and frequently enclosing the vestiges of both animal and human visits to the spot. Mastodon, buffalo, deer, and other bones; Indian hatchets, arrow-heads, and rush baskets, but above all an incredible quantity of pottery fragments have been extracted from the pits. The pottery fragments form at some points veritable strata, three to six inches thick; this is especially the case where [there] appeared to have been a furnace for baking the ware (a process very im- perfectly performed), and near it three pots of successive sizes, inside of each other. The pots must be presumed to have subserved the purpose of salt-boiling; for although human handiwork has been found so close to the surface of the salt as to render it probable that its existence in mass was once known, yet the boiling process alone has been resorted to, within even traditional times, until the discovery, at the bottom of a salt well, of solid rock salt. * * * It is very positively stated, that mastodon bones were found considerably above some of the human relics. In a detrital mass, however, this can not be considered a crucial test." — Hil- gard, 14. As the pits, after being abandoned by the Indians were filled with material washed in from the surrounding soil, the human remains which lay on the outer surface would be carried in first ; and the mastodon or other bones, coming from a lower level, would be deposited on top of the artificial objects. Finally we have the following report of discoveries in Nebraska. "About two and a half miles southeast of Omaha, in a railroad cut, I found a large coarse arrow or spear head. It was found twenty feet below the top of the Loess, and at least six inches from the edge of the cut, so that it could not have slid into that place. * * * Thirteen inches above the point where the last named arrow was found [he had 110 Archaeological History of Ohio. previously found another near Sioux City, Iowa, at a depth of "fifteen feet below the top of the deposit"], and within three inches of being on a line with it, in undisturbed Loess, there was a lumbar vertebra of an elephant. * * * jj- appears clear from this conjunction of a human relic and proboscidian remains that man here as well as in Europe was the contemporary of the elephant in at least a portion of the Missouri Valley." — Aughey, 254. This find means nothing more than that the arrow-head and the vertebra were deposited together, and has no bearing upon the age of either. There is no mention of any other bone ; and the arrow (which is really a spear head) is quite modern in appearance, such as are common on the surface anywhere. It seems to be taken for granted, even by geologists, that because the mastodon is now extinct, the last one of the species must have died a very long time ago. Therefore, if it can be shown that men were familiar with the animal, the inference follows, of necessity, that man also has been upon the continent for many thousand of years. Newberry says, in speaking of the effigy mounds of Wisconsin, "Among the animals thus represented is what seems to be the ele- phant or mastodon. Small figures of an elephantine animal also appear in the archaeological collections of the Northwest and are claimed to be authentic. These relics go far to prove the acquaintance of the Mound Builders with either the mastodon or mammoth, and may be accepted as presumptive evidence of the synchronism of man here, as in Europe, with one or both of these great pachyderms — and hence of his great antiquity." — Newberry, P. S. M., 195. Figure 1 gives the outline of the "Elephant Mound," from a careful survey made by Middleton with the assistance of a civil engineer. It will be seen that the so-called effigy has very little resemblance to any animal. Jacob Warner's sketch, published many years previously in one of the Smithsonian Reports, is reproduced in the Bureau report for comparison. It differs from Middleton's somewhat, but to no greater extent than would naturally result from farming operations in the time between the two observations^ except that there is a prolongation of the muzzle in Warner's drawing that does not appear in Middleton's. Norris made a sketch different from Warner's in that the supposed ''trunk" is curved inward; he also mentions an extension at the back of the head which seems to have escaped the attention of everyone else, although he says it is ''from 2 to 3 feet high." When there are such The Mound Builder and the Mastodon. Ill Figure 1 — The " Elephant Mound" of Wisconsin. Figure S, Figure 3. The " Elephant Pipes " from Iowa. 112 Archaeological History of Ohio. discrepancies in statement, and the most accurate measurements-- fail to show any ''proboscis" at all, Thomas would have proba- bly been nearer the truth to deny its existence altogether than to say it ''was evidently a shifting line of sand." — B. E. 12, 92. The " small figures of an elephantine animal " to which Newberry refers, are two pipes found near Davenport, Iowa. All the evidence for and against their genuineness is collected by Henshaw, in the Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. Both cuts are reproduced here as figures 2 and 3. The officers of the Davenport Academy of Science, who secured the specimens, are positive of their authenticity ; Henshaw is equally certain they are frauds; and so the matter stands. Another author makes use of a most singular argument in this connection. Pie attempts to show tJiat the Monnd Builders are a very ancient race, not because they vv^cre acquainted with the form of the Mastodon but because it was impossible they could know anything about the animal. The funny twist in his logic may not be apparent at a glance, but it is worth finding. " No bones of any of the elephant family have been found in the ancient monuments of the Mississippi Valley. The striking form of this family is not delineated on their pottery. In all the Mound Builders' relics from the valley of the Ohio, no trace of the elephant family has been found. * * * These animals must have ceased to exist in the United States long before the Mound Builders began to flourish. * * * As they became extinct a great many centuries ago (several thousand years, perhaps), we have it definitely settled then that a great antiquity must be assigned to the Mound Builders." — McLean, 136. Perhaps the trend of speculation upon this subject has all along been in the wrong direction and should be reversed. If the elephant family passed out of existence prior to the advent of the Mound Builder, it may be that the arrival, or development, of the latter in the Ohio Valley is much more recent than commonly believed. Bones, teeth, even entire skele- tons of mastodons or mammoths are frequently found in situ- ations where it would seem impossible they could retain their form and solidity for a great length of time. Big Bone Lick, in Boone county, Kentucky, about twenty miles south of Cin- cinnati, received its name from the vast quantity of bones of these animals, formerly scattered about on the ground. The spot was discovered in 1773 by a party of hunters who used Age of the Mastodon. ' 113 the ribs for tent poles and the vertebrse for seats. Only small fragments, turned up by the plow, are now to be observed, numerous visitors having carried away everything they could find ; but people living in the vicinity a few years ago could remember when the surface was strewn with well-preserved vertebrse, tusks, and other portions of the frame-work. The springs are in a deep basin whose nearly level bottom contains a considerable area of farming land. The only outlet is a narrow depression through which flows a little creek. Where the remains were most abundant the ground is saturated with strong sulphur water, which will explain the preservation of those beneath the soil ; but there are no indications of denu- dation of such character as would remove all the earth to a certain depth and then cease to act. Scarcely a month passes in which the public prints do not herald the discovery of mastodon remains. They usually occur in swamps or other low grounds, especially where shallov,' lakes formerly existed. When aquatic vegetation once gains a foothold in such places the depression is rapidly filled with peat or muck, and animals resorting to them for food or water may mire and perish. In Ohio, and particularly in the north- ern portion of the state, these lakes post-date the retreat of the glacier, and many of them are still far from being filled; so their age, measured even in years, can not be extreme. When we find the bones of any animal in a swamp of this nature, much closer to the roots of the sod than to the solid earth below, it is evident that the time of their inhumation will not em.brace many centuries. Consequently, if the anim.al became extinct before man appeared the latter may be a very recent immigrant. THE BUFFALO. The bufifalo, as well as the mammoth, has served as a time measurer. " None of the bones of extinct animals have been found in the mounds; nor has the buffalo, long a ranger of the Mississippi Valley, been identified in the shapes of the mounds." — Winsor, History, I, 403. The latter statement is contradicted by Henderson who says it is represented in the animal mounds of Wisconsin. 114 Archaeological History of Ohio. He also claims that the spinous processes of a buffalo have been found in a mound in Dakota. — Henderson, 713. Its asserted presence or absence in the effigy mounds is immaterial ; for among the latter, persons gifted with a suffi- cient degree of " imagination " can see anything they are look- ing for, or fail to detect a resemblance to anything they do not expect to find. There is proof, however, that the buffalo was known to builders of mounds from Dakota, as cited above, to the Blue Ridge. From a mound in the river bottom-land near Corning in the northwest corner of Missouri, at a depth of five or six feet, I dug some teeth w^hich were pronounced to be those of a buffalo by anatomists at the Cincinnati Society of Natural History. "In a very large mound, square in shape, three hundred feet on each side and thirty feet high [opposite St. Louis], there were found, in contact with a number of copper implements and ornaments, a num- ber of the teeth of the buffalo. * * * They had most probably been worn as ornaments." — McAdams, 35. Putnam found a "pendant made of buffalo horn" on an altar at the Turner mounds (see page 386). "The entire skeleton of a bison was found by Professor Appey in a large tumulus [near Granville, Ohio,] associated with human remains." — Moorehead, 19. Lying on the natural surface, in a mound near Luray, Virginia, I found the bones of a young buffalo, identified as such at the Army Medical Museum in Washington. Only a portion of the skeleton was present, there being no trace of the leg or shoulder bones. The vertebrae were in their proper position, and the ribs, some of them still firm and strong enough to be taken out intact, extended into the earth of the mound above them. It was evident that the animal had been dissected on the spot, a part of the carcass carried away, and the remainder intentionally covered by the tumulus. It lay within a few feet of a number of graves under the central part of the moimd, and the flesh may have been consumed by workmen engaged in the labor of constructing the tumulus. These are the only instances recorded ; but it is not sur- prising that rem.ains of this animal should occur so rarely in mounds. The entire carcass of a buffalo is too heavy and unwieldy for a party of hunters to carry. The flesh would Buffalo Bones — Condition of Human Skeletons. 115 be cut off where the animal was killed and the bones left where they lay. The latter were not converted into implements or utensils because, being of coarser texture, they were less strong and hard than the bones of smaller or more active (beasts. Or, if some of them were utilized, from these same causes they would decay more rapidly when thrown aside or buried. But a scientist of wide reputation, who holds an important professorship in one of our great universities, assures us that the beast effectively, though perhaps unconsciously, wreaked dire vengeance for this unmerited neglect and contumely. Geese saved Rome ; buffaloes overthrew the Mound Builders' empire. Were the following quotation the composition ot an un- known or ignorant individual, we could dismiss it as twaddle ; coming as it does from one holding so eminent a position, our attitude must be that expressed in Goldsmith's line. "And still they gazed and still the wonder grew." "About a thousand years or so ago, perhaps less, the buffalo, a creature of the plain lands, began to appear in this part of the country. * * * The coming of this creature coincided with the change of these peoples to a more barbarous condition. This pientitude of meat appears to have had a debasing effect on all the peoples of the Ohio Valley. They no longer tilled as much; their settlements, with their mounds and forts, were abandoned as far as this epoch-making beast extended his march. The Indians of the south, where the dense forests and the swamp-mar- gined streams presented a barrier to the migration of the buffalo, remained principally soil-tillers, as did the Indians of New York, while other west- ern tribes became nomadic." — Shaler, 46. HUMAN BONES. Among other bones which have been called upon to offer testimony as to the period at which the Mound Builders inhab- ited this region, are those of the Mound Builders themselves. "Considering that the earth around these skeletons is wonderfully ■compact and dry, and that the conditions for their preservation are ex- ceedingly favorable, while they are in fact so much decayed, we may form some approximate estimate of their remote antiquity. In the bar- rows of the ancient Britons, entire well-preserved skeletons are found, although possessing an undoubted antiquity of at least eighteen hundred years." — S. & D., 168. On Long Island, in the Holston River, East Tennessee, "the skel- etons on low bottom lands were in better condition than those found in 116 Archaeological History of Ohio. the red clay mounds of the uplands. It is inferred from this * * *= that the mounds on the higher portion are much older than those on the lower point." — B. E. 12, 363. The condition of a skeleton bears no relation to the length of time that has passed since the period of its interment. The preservation of bones is dependent almost entirely upon the pro- tection afforded them. If kept perfectly dry they will last indefi- nitely; if exposed to dampness, especially to the percolation of rain water, they will disappear in a very short time. In sandy ground they will last much longer than in clay; which is the real explanation of the difference of condition in the Tennessee graves. Water fully charged with lime seems to effect them but little. The physical condition of the individual also has a decided influence. Frequently, in the same mound, at the same level, in the same kind of earth, in short under identical conditions so far as could be determined by careful inspection, I have found bones so fragile that they would fall to frag- ments when their removal was attempted, while others within a few feet were hard enough to withstand a sharp blow with a trowel. This feature has also been observed in the mounds of Florida and perhaps elsewhere. "At times, in various portions of the mound, the skeleton was rep- resented by remains with hardly greater consistency than putty, while again, often at no great distance from the base, the bones were fairly well preserved. Such remains lay near oyster shells from which, doubt- less, the infiltration of lime was a potent factor." — Moore, Duval, 32. "In the west of France bones in mounds, cairns, and graves, known to be not less than 2,000 years old, are quite sound and solid; while in the east of France, in tumuli of the same age, and under practically iden- tical conditions, the bones have in all cases mouldered into the consistency of ashes, and in many cases have entirely disappeared." — Thomas Wil- son; communicated. In 1803 a party of Indians left Piqua, Ohio, for Michigan. They had gone but a little distance when smallpox broke out among them. Some of them died and were buried in stout oaken puncheons. Excavations in these graves in 1879 revealed fragments of the wood as light as cork though still strong enough to be taken out in pieces as large as a man's hand ; but not a trace of bone was discoverable. In Ross county, in 1900, two bodies were removed from an old cemetery. All the bones of one, buried in 1804, were in Trees on Mounds. 117 ■good condition except a few of the phalanges, which had entirely disappeared. The other skeleton, buried in 1824, was intact except for one arm, which had crumbled away. The essential preliminaries to research in this direction were pointed out two generations ago. "As a starting point to investigation, it ought to be first settled how long human bones will retain their form and solidity without decomposi- tion, when exposed to the air, earth, water, and other causes of decay, interred two or three feet deep in the earth. Will they preserve their form and soundness over two, or at the most three hundred years? Are not the relics of the early pilgrims of New England, and the first settlers of Jamestown mouldered entirely to dust? Will any one say that human skeletons, entombed as those are in the mounds of Illinois, but two or three feet below the surface, remain in a state of preservation five or six hundred years? A sober investigation of these questions would result in an entire overthrow of the hypothesis of existing races of men prior to the Indians, founded upon such remains." — Peck, 36. TREES. The extent of forests and the size of trees growing over mound areas, have been held conclusive evidence that the aban- donment of these works took place many centuries ago. Nearly every publication on the subject of archaeology contains some such assertion. The tenor of all is fairly exhibited by quota- tions from four authors. "The high antiquity of this mining is inferred from these facts: That the trenches and pits are filled even with the surrounding surface ; that over the pits were trees of the same size and character as those in the adjacent forests; that the nature of the material with which the pits were filled indicated the slow accumulation of years. There were counted three hundred and ninety-five annular rings on a hemlock growing on a pile of debris. One trench was filled nearly flush with the wash of the sur- rounding surface." — Foster, 264-7, condensed. "This habitation must have been very ancient, for the present in- habitiants of the country remember to have seen the mound covered with venerable trees, which have now disappeared." — Nadaillac, 485. "Actual examination showed the existence of not far from two hun- dred annual rings or layers to the foot, in the large chestnut tree already mentioned, now standing upon the entrenchments. * * * \Ye are irresistibly led to the conclusion that [Fort Hill] has an antiquity of at least one thousand years." — S. & D., 16. "As to the time which has elapsed since the mines and structures of the Mound Builders were abandoned [they] were found by the incom- tng whites covered with dense forests in which the trees had attained 118 Archaeological History of Ohio. their maximum size. Beneath this present generation of trees, and over- grown by their roots, were lying the prostrate and decaying trunks of a preceding generation. We thus have evidence that at least a thousand years have elapsed since the country was abandoned by its former in- habitants, and their fields and villages were overgrown by the forests."' — Newberry, P. S. M., 194. The count of '' 200 rings to the foot " in the chestnut tree, means that each ring is a little less than one-sixteenth of an inch. While this may be true of the outer few inches- of a very large tree whose growth has practically ceased, any one who will count all the rings in a chestnut tree, from the center to the bark will see that the average thickness is at least twice as great as the measure quoted. Newberry's statement means, if it means anything, that all trees, regardless of species, live and grow for 500 years ; that trees standing on mounds are 500 years old; that they have been preceded by one generation — or more — of other trees which promptly fell down at the allotted time to make room for the new growth ; and, finally, that these older trees have lain on the ground, exposed to the elements, for 500 years and preserved their forms all that time. Absurdity can not go^ further. "Gericke, the great German forester, writes that the greatest ages to which trees are positively known to have lived are from 500 to 570 years. For instance, the pine in Bohemia and the pine in Norway and Sweden have lived to the latter age. Next comes the silver fir which in the Bohemian forests has stood and thrived for upwards of 400 years. * * * Of foliage trees, the oak appears to have survived the longest. [One] reached the age of 410 years. Other oaks in Germany have lived to be from 315 to 320 years old." Other known ages are given of various trees: Red beech, 225 to 245 years; ash, 170; birch, 160 to 200; aspen, 220 ; mountain maple, 225 ; elm, 130 ; and red alder, 145 years. — Sci. Am. It is uncertain whether the last sentence denotes the life limit of species mentioned, or the known age of specimens still growing ; elm certainly lives longer than 130 years. "An elm at Cambridge, just as it had reached its hundredth anni- versary, was fourteen feet in circumference. The 'Aspinwall elm,' at Brookline, was known to be one-hundred and eighty-one years old in 3837, when it measured sixteen feet eight inches at five feet from the ground. A cypress-trunk, which grew near Wilmington, North Carolina, with a diameter of fifty-four inches, exhibits six hundred and seventy annual layers. The trunk was thirteen inches in diameter at the expira- Rate of Growth of Trees. 119 tion of its first century; and twenty-seven inches, about the close of the second; it added seven inches to its diameter during the third century, and a nearly equal amount during the fourth ; and for the remaining three hundred and seventy years, it grew at a still slower, but, on the whole,, nearly equal rate." — N. A. Rev., 204 and 236, condensed. There must be some mistake about the number of rings in this cypress ; for one planted in Philadelphia in i8o8, had in 1892 a height of 120 feet and a girth of 28 feet. Cypress is a soft wood and grows rapidly. An elm in Chicago, known to be just fifty years old, measured eight feet and two inches in circumference, three feet from the ground. In Racine, Wisconsin, "in 1847-48, an organization was formed for the purpose of planting trees, some of which, at this time [he was writing in 1882 — 35 years afterward], have attained to a somewhat remarkable size. I have recently measured some of the largest. The white elms are from six to eight feet in circumference two feet from the ground. Ma- ples from four to five feet; black and golden willows, eight feet; poplars, eight and one-half to nine feet. Not long since I had an opportunity of counting the rings and accurately measuring one of these street elms, the diameter, two feet from the ground, inside the bark, twenty-four inches, rings forty-eight — an average of just one-fourth of an inch to a ring, giving an increase in diameter each year of one-half an inch." [It will be observed that he records forty-eight rings in a tree whose age is known to be not more than thirty-five years.] "Near Racine, in Sep- tember, 1850, there was a pin oak sapling growing. * * * That sap- ling now [in 32 years] is fifty-six inches in circumference." — Hoy, 15. Dr. Hoy says, also, that in most forest trees the breadth of the annual ring diminishes almost uniformly from the cen- ter to the bark, with the annual growth. At the old fort in Desha county, Arkansas, supposed to be of French origin, "thirty-six years ago the trees now growing on the new-made lands along the river some of which are three feet in diameter were small saplings." — B. E. 12, 238. Old Fort Chartres, Illinois, was abandoned in 1772. We learn that in 1820 " in the hall of one of the houses, there is an oak tree about eighteen inches in diameter." — Beck, 109. The acorn from which this oak grew, could not have sprouted until the building had fallen into such decay as to allow the ground beneath to be come wet. " In 1856 I transplanted an elm and a red maple ; each measured, at four feet from the ground, eight inches diameter. In 1876 the elm measured two feet, the maple two feet eight inches in diameter. A dozen 120 Archaeological History of Ohio. or more trees increased in eighteen years from about three inches di- ameter to an average of seventeen or eighteen inches. All were ex- celled in rapidity of growth by a black walnut ; a mere whip-stock when planted, but twenty years afterward a lofty tree, with a trunk four feet in circumference." In 1886 this tree had attained a circumference of six feet. — Hubbard, 409. A fort was constructed on Jamestown Island, below Rich- mond, Virginia, some time in the civil war — certainly not earlier than 1 86 1. In the bottom of the encircling ditch, is a pine tree which I measured in 1891 and found it to be seventeen inches in diameter at four feet from the ground. This measure included the bark. Some years since a hill-side field at Youngsville, Pennsyl- vania, was cleared off and the large timber hauled to a saw mill. Many of the trees had upward of a hundred growth-rings, the greatest number being observed in a hickory in which one hundred and forty rings were counted. A resident of the town^ Mr. Davis, then in his eighty-fifth year, said he had helped to plant corn on that field when a small boy, and that it was then entirely free of any growth that could interfere with cultivation. This is only one instance, of many which have been noted, that no reliance can be placed upon the number of rings in esti- mating the age of a tree. It is probably true as a general rule that one definite ring forms each year ; but the alternations of heat and cold, drought and moisture, prevent the law from being invariable. Not that a tree ever fails to make a certain growth throughout a season ; but the rate may be irregular through inter- ruptions of the vital processes from the causes mentioned. From a check in the flow of sap, there may result a hardening of cel- lular structure that will separate one year's growth into two or more apparent parts, each of which may be mistaken for an annual layer. In this inanner the number of growth-rings formed within a series of years, as well as the rate of growth, may be affected. Trees in tropical regions seem especially sub- ject to these influences. In his description of the ruins at Pal- enque, Charnay says " The size of the trees growing between and over these structures has been adduced as a conclusive proof of the age of these monuments. * * * Mr. Lorainzar computed that these monuments must be 1700 years old, -because he found a mahogany table made of one single piece from a tree in these ruins. His reasoning is based on the erroneous notion that a concentric circle represents one year, whereas I ascertained Windfalls and Root-Casts. 121 that In a tropical country nature never rests; for chancing to cut a twig some eighteen months old, I counted no less than eighteen concentric cir- cles. To assure myself that this was not an isolated fact, I cut branches and trees of every size and description, when the same phenomenon occurred in exactly the same proportion. * * * in my first expedi- tion to Palenque in 1859, I had the eastern side of the palace cleared of its dense vegetation to secure a good photograph. Consequently the trees that have grown since can not be more than twenty-two years old; now one of the cuttings measuring some two feet in diameter, had upwards of 230 concentric circles, that is at the rate of one a month or even less; it follows that the seventeen centuries of Mr. Lorainzar must be reduced to 150 or at most 200 years." — Charnay, 259. On the whole, it is probable that there are few, if any, trees in Ohio four hundred years old ; with an annual growth of one- eighth of an inch of new fiber, a tree will in that time reach a cir- cumference of twenty-six feet. Few varieties of timber will fail to exceed this rate of increase in the fertile ground where most aboriginal remains occur; in fact they should grow more rapidly on the works than elsewhere, as these are usually made of the surface earth and therefore furnish more nutriment to the roots. In any old forest the ground is dotted with little depres- sions where trees have been uprooted by the wind. The absence of similar depressions upon mounds or embankments may, as maintained by some, refute the idea that successive generations of trees have stood on the works. But on a sloping surface such an excavation would probably soon be filled up by the wash from above, or form the starting-point of a gulley that would destroy its outline. A more satisfactory contradiction of the theory may be found within the structure. Tne roots of trees reach many feet into the interior of mounds. In exploring a tumulus at Waverly it was found that a root from a sassafras tree which grew on the top, followed a tortuous course through the structure and passed into the original soil beneath at a dis- tance of thirteen feet vertically and thirty-two feet horizontally from the point whence it started. Where it disappeared it was nearly two inches in diameter ; so that it probably extended much farther. When these roots decay, the casts may easily be recog- nized by the mould in them, either from the roots themselves or from matter that has worked its way in from the surface. If successive generations of trees had flourished in such situa- tions, it would seem that mounds must contain a great number Archaeological History of Ohio. of these casts ; but they are comparatively few. This gives reason for supposing that the mounds do not reach back many centuries. To avoid such conclusion, recourse is had to the groundless assumption that until relatively recent times the Ohio valley was devoid of forests, and that consequently the country was a prairie in the age of the Mound Builders. Mr. Read, who first put this idea into tangible form, made no attempt to prove that the earthworks are either ancient or modern, as measured in years. Others have put this construc- tion on his words. He wished only to call attention to possi- ble conditions. " But was this ground ever occupied by forests until the abandon- ment of these works ? Their erection with Mound builders' tools, if it involved the clearing of a forest as a preliminary work, is so nearly im- possible that we can not imagine it would be ever undertaken. It involved not only the clearing of these lands of the forest, but also the neighboring lands which were to be subjected to tillage. It is with the utmost diffi- culty, in moist and tropical climates, that men armed with steel tools make successful battle with the forests. It is much more reasonable to suppose that these works were located in a treeless region, and the works evidently of the same age scattered over the country indicate that this treeless region was of large extent, covering probably most of the alluvial valley. The inference would follow that the abandonment of the region marked the time when the slow intrusion of the forests reduced the amount of tillable land below the necessities of the community ; the time since their abandonment marks the whole period of forest growth on the alluvial bottoms." — Read, Arch., 84. The abundance of charred or decayed timber in mounds, some of it coming from large trees, effectually disposes of this hypothesis. There was not only timber, but it existed in great variety, as much so, perhaps, as at tue present day. We know also that modern Indians had no difficulty in clearing up as much land as they needed, by deadening and burning. To admit Read's theory, and Harrison's, next presented, we would be com- pelled to carry the Mound Builder back almost to the Ice Age. " The process by which nature restores the forest to its original state, after being once cleared, is extremely slow. In our rich lands, it is, indeed, soon covered again with timber, but the character of the growth is entirely different, and continues so through many generations of men. In several places on the Ohio, particularly upon the farm which I occupy, clearings were made in the first settlement, abandoned, and suffered to grow up. Some of them, now to be seen, of nearly fifty years growth, have made so little progress toward attaining the appearance of the im- Renezual of Forests. 123^ mediately contiguous forest, as to induce any man of reflection, to deter- mine, that at least ten times fifty years would be necessary before its com- plete assimilation could be effected. The sites of the ancient works on the Ohio, present precisely the same appearance as the circumjacent for- est. You find on them, all that beautiful variety of trees, which gives such unrivaled richness to our forests. This is particularly the case, on the fifteen acres included within the walls of the work, at the mouth of the Great Miami, and the relative proportions of the different kinds of timber, are about the same. The first growth on the same kind of land, once cleared, and then abandoned to nature, on the contrary, is more homo- geneous — ^^ often stinted to one, or two, or at most three kinds of timber. If the ground had been cultivated, yellow locust, in many places, will spring up as thick as garden peas. If it has not been cultivated, the black and white walnut will be the prevailing growth. The rapidity with which these trees grow for a time, smothers the attempt of other kinds to vege- tate and grow in their shade. * * * This state of things will not, how- ever, always continue. * * * jj^g preference of the soil for the first growth, ceases with its maturity, * * * ^nd whenever this is the case, one of the oft-rejected of another family, will find between its decaying roots, shelter and appropriate food. * * * j^ will easily be conceived what a length of time it will require for a denuded tract of land, by a pro- cess so slow again to clothe itself with the amazing variety of foliage which is the characteristic of the forests of this region. Of what immense age, then, must be those works, so often referred to, covered, as has been supposed by those who have the best opportunity of examining them, with the second growth after the ancient forest state had been regained?" — Harrison, 248. Some error of observation or reasoning is involved in these conclusions. It is true that when a field is abandoned in some parts of the United States, growth will spring up of one timber to the exclusion of other kinds. It is true, also, that in certain portions of Ohio some varieties usurp lands which have been denuded. The sort of timber thus asserting itself seems depend- ent to a considerable extent upon the geological formation of the soil. But no one variety can monopolize the area for more than a few years. Others will crowd in to do their part in restor- ing the original estate. Trees have sprung up on what was prai- rie land when Ohio was settled ; hill-sides once in cultivation are covered with a dense growth of timber. In either of these situ- ations, a large number of species occurs. These facts are patent to any one who uses his eyes. 124 Archaeological History of Ohio. TERRACES. By overlooking an obvious explanation of a very simple matter which has no bearing upon the subject anyway, low lands along streams are offered as proof of the great age of earthworks. " No work of any kind has been found occupying the first, or latest- formed terrace. This terrace alone, except at periods of extraordinary freshets, is subject to overflow. * * * 'pj^g f^^^ ^j^at none of the an- cient works occur upon it, while they occur indiscriminately upon all the others, bears directly upon the question of their antiquity." — S. & D., 10. " There is no good reason why builders should have avoided erecting these structures on the lower terraces, unless the terrace was formed since or was being formed about the time the Mound Builders took their departure." "The streams generally show four successive terraces, which mark four distinct areas of their subsidence. The last, upon which the works do not occur, must have been the longest in forming. * * * This geological change proves, for the mounds, a very great antiquity." — McLean, 135. Few mounds are on these terraces, precisely because they are "subject to overflow" ; still, some are found in such places. The lowest terraces were not the ''longest in forming". Some of them are of very recent origin. There are few farm houses on the low terraces; does this prove ''a very great antiquity" for those at a higher elevation? Harrison offers an explanation, true in its premises, but not necessarily so in its conclusion. " To the question of the cause of no recent vestige of settlements being found on the Ohio, I can offer only a conjecture. Under certain very possible conditions, a flood might produce a height of water equal to that described by an Indian chief, (to which he said he was an eye wit- ness,) to General Wilkinson, at Cincinnati, in the fall of 1792. And which, if true, must have been several feet, (eight or ten,) at least, higher than that of 1832. The occurrence of such a flood, when the banks of the Ohio were occupied by numerous Indian towns and villages, nearly all of which must have been swept off, was well calculated to determine them to a removal, not only from actual suffering, but from the suggestions of superstition ; an occurrence so unusual being construed into a warning from heaven, to seek a residence upon the smaller streams. Before the remembrance of these events had been obliterated by time, the abandoned region would become an unusual resort for game, and a common hunting ground for the hostile tribes of the north and south, and, of course, an arena for battle. Thus it remained when it was first visited by the whites." — Harrison, 227, condensed. " In the year 1772, 'the June fresh,' was not less than five feet higher than the flood of 1832. In the spring of 1778 Wheeling Island was over- Eifects of Floods. 125. flowed, and the top of the mound only in sight. This fresh was less by- seven feet than that of 1772." — Hildreth, Floods, 51-2, condensed. It appears from this that not only is the Wheeling Island mound on overflow ground, but that the mound itself must have been almost, or entirely, covered in 1772. Valuable evidence on this point is furnished by Squier. " Mr. [De Witt] Clinton was unable to learn of the occurrence of any remains upon the first terrace back from the lakes, and, upon the basis of the assumed fact of their non-existence, advanced the opinion that the subsidence of the lakes and the formation of the terrace had taken place since these works were erected — a chronological period which I shall not attempt to measure by years. This deduction has been received, I believe, by every succeeding writer upon the subject of our antiquities, without any attempt to verify the assumption upon which it rests. I have, however, found that the works occur indiscriminately upon the first and upon the superior terraces, as also upon the islands of the lakes and rivers." — Squier, N. Y., 10. The erosion of their banks by streams is cited as another "proof of age". " There are several Instances of streams encroaching upon the works and carrying portions away. In order to get an approximate length of time for these encroachments, it must first be observed how many inches the stream advanced per year, and even then it would be impossible to tell how far the works were originally placed from the stream." — ■ McLean, 134. In the enclosure just east of Chillicothe "the large circle had been encroached upon, and the terrace near which, at one time, was the bed of Paint Creek was broken down, leaving the wall of the enclosure; but the creek now runs more than a mile away." — Peet, Amer., I, 63. What he calls the bed of Paint Creek is a "cut-ofif" of the Scioto, which could have been torn out in a few years (see page 191). Near here, the river has moved its entire channel, in low ground, several hundred yards since the town was settled. " At Piketon the stream had withdrawn from the terrace and had left an old channel, with ponds full of water, near the foot of the covered way. The graded way which ended with the terrace may, at one time, have been used as a canoe landing or levee, for the village was on the summit of the terrace. At Hopeton the walls of the covered way termin- ate at the edge of the terrace, at the foot of which it is evident the river once had its course, but between which and the present bed of the stream a broad and fertile bottom now intervenes. The graded way at Marietta ends with the terrace, but there is now an interval of 700 feet between the end of the way and the river bank. These changes indicate great an- tiquity in the works of Southern Ohio." — Peet, Amer. I, 54. 126 Archaeological History of Ohio. The facts are as stated ; but the impHcation that any connec- tion ever existed between the streams and the artificial works, other than exists at present, is wholly incorrect. The river at Piketon is several hundred yards from the foot of the graded way (which is a natural formation) and fully fifty feet lower. At Hopetown the ''broad and fertile bottom" is frequently flooded. At Marietta the river is as close to the graded way as it ever was. " These streams have not only encroached upon the works, but after- ward receded, in one instance [the High Bank works], to a distance of three-fourths of a mile." — McLean, 134. When the High Bank works were constructed, the river flowed at the foot of a steep bluff bounding the terrace upon the north and west sides. On the north, the channel held its ancient way until within the past few years ; but it has now shifted more than two hundred yards and soil is rapidly accumulating in its former course. On the west the river is more than half a mile away. Some effort has been made to estimate the length of time necessary for this change. Such estimates are pure guesses ; one century is ample for the work ; twenty may have passed since it began. It is significant that no large timber grows on the made ground. As the amount of water passing down our rivers is practically uniform from year to year, it follows that as a stream encroaches upon one side it must build up the shore on the other ; and the rate of filling is dependent upon so many factors that nothing short of actual observation is of any value in determining the time that is required for a given deviation. There are places along the Scioto and Great Miami where new channels have been cut through cultivated fields, or where crops are raised on soil depos- ited in what was the bed of the river, within a generation. Larger streams make equally rapid changes. In 1756 Fort Chartres, Illinois, was half a mile from the Mississippi. Before 1762 the river was deflected and built up a large island in front of the fort. In that year the island could be reached by fording the cut-ofif; in 1770 the channel between was forty feet deep. About 1772 one side of the fort was undermined by the river. In 1820 there was a sand bar in front of the ruins, nearly half a mile in width. — Beck, 107, condensed. Geological Changes. 127 THE FORMATION OF TERRACES. As there has been some misapprehension in regard to the terraces or "bottom lands" of the Ohio river and its tribu- taries, it may be well to explain here how they are formed. Prior to the glacial period, the Ohio was not in existence. Its waters as far down as the mouth of the Kentucky, which now find their way to the Mississippi through the present chan- nel, flowed northward across Ohio. When the ancient drainage systems were blocked by the advancing ice-sheet, a lake was formed which filled all the old valleys and rose to the level of a slight depression at Madison, Indiana, through v^hich it found an outlet. Into this lake, torrential streams from the melting ice poured a vast amount of drift. Finally the glacier was a thing of the past; but it had left all the former channels so choked with the sands and gravels from northern regions as to prevent the streams from resuming their old course, and they have ever since made their escape in the other direction. Meantime, the material carried by the sw^ollen waters was being distributed with tolerable regularity wherever the varying cur- rents could deposit it, and in the end, when the new drainage lines were fairly established, the spaces between the hills were filled with a long, narrow plain at the level or somewhat above the level, of the highest terrace or bottom now ^remaining. Through this plain, the streams as we now see them, began to make their way. Minor inequalities of surface would, at first, determine the course of the new river. For a certain length of time it would follow this way, and tl^ere would be formed a bed bounded by steep banks, while the land on either side extended with a practically uniform surface to the bordering hills. The natural tendency of running water to deviate from a direct course would soon create a sinuous channel, impinging against opposite banks at irregular intervals ; and in this way bends and curves would be established. On the outer or convex side of each curve the current, having greater velocity, under- mines the bank and carries away the material composing it ; while on the inner side is deposited the sediment resulting from similar erosion farther up the stream. With successive additions these deposits are built up into sand and gravel bars, 128 Archaeological History of Ohio. over which the water rises only in time of freshets; with- increasing deflection of the river they gradually widen until portions in the rear are so far from the main channel that no coarse detritus reaches them. Finer matter left by the quiet water furnishes a foothold for vegetation which still further impedes the flow, thus continually increasing the depth of soil. Then there are two terraces on one side and one terrace on the other side. In time, the river begins in the same manner to eat away the bottom which it has formed, and to build another on the opposite side at a still lower grade. This process is repeated until there is no longer sufficient fall for the stream to scour out its channel deeper ; when this stage is reached the banks on both sides may cave in and be carried away, but ter- race-making is at an end. A river may continue its erosion in one direction until it reaches the rocky border of its valley; or it may stop at any point and begin to work its way back. It may leave a por- tion of the original deposits undisturbed, with a bluff face the entire height. It may carry away the entire mass and after- ward fill its place with similar material whose surface is a few feet, or many feet, lower than that of the part removed. It may leave the bottom land on either side at one level or at several levels between the hill and the bank of the stream. It may leave deposits at successive levels on opposite sides of the stream at the same point, or there may be one bank on one side and more than one bank on the other side. But, unless the action of the main current is modified by that of a tributary, there will not be two terraces in the same order at the same height above the water. That is to say, the third terrace, for instance, on one side will not measure the same number of feet above the water as the third terrace on the opposite side. This does not agree with the generally accepted theory that the terraces are cut out in orderly succession, from level bot- toms, l)y intermittent lowering of the stream, either through sudden slight elevations of land surface or equally spasmodic subsidence of some portion of the river bed ; but it does agree with -the observed facts. Consequently, any calculations as to the age of the first (lowest or latest formed) terrace, based upon geological considerations, are apt to be misleading. The period of its formation depends entirely upon the fluctuations. Aboriginal Occupation of Terraces. 129 of the stream and the degree of slope. Places exist upon the Ohio where the last work of this sort was completed many cen- turies ago; some terraces on its tributaries are still in the process of formation ; and there are terraces on the Scioto, Miami, and other streams, which in the course of ages will be carried to the Gulf and replaced by others at a considerably lower level. But whatever be the age of the lowest terrace, whether a century or a score of centuries, it has no connection with the age of mounds which are not built upon it. Indians — or Mound Builders — may have encamped for months at a time on the banks of a creek or river; at a desirable fishing station they may even have piled up a small amount of earth on which to raise a hut or a wigwam sufficiently high to avoid the mud resulting from a heavy rainfall; but they were not so stupid as to erect permanent structures of either wood or earth in situations from which they would be driven at every flood and which would be untenable for a considerable portion of every year. There are apparent exceptions to this statement. Some mounds stand in bottoms subject to occasional overflow; and village-sites are common on river banks even lower than those over which the water sometimes rises. But in the former case it will usually be found that no higher land is near, unless on the hills where the people did not wish to go; and again, the location may be above all but the greatest floods which come only at long intervals, so that, like many of the whites who have succeeded them, the aborigines would believe such an exceptional condition of affairs would probably never occur. In seeking a location for a village, the great desiderata are wood and water; the river produced both, for the driftwood along the shores was always abundant, accessible, thoroughly sea- soned, and needed very little labor to prepare it for use. The soil was fertile and easily tilled, while fish were to be caught in plenty almost at the door. In view of such advantages, the natives could well afford to be routed out once or twice in a generation, when the alternative involved more labor and less, convenience. 130 Archaeological History of Ohio. SURFACE ACCUMULATION AND EROSION. Two Other standards of measurement would be valuable aids in determining the age of prehistoric earthworks, if we could ensure their fixity; both are subject to so many dis- turbing influences whose effects can not be calculated, that it is unsafe to place much reliance on them. One of these is the rate at which soil will accumulate on level ground, where there is neither wash nor overflow. According to some geologists this amounts to about three inches in a century. Could we be sure of this figure, the depth of village-sites beneath the pres- ent surface would afford a clue to the number of years that have elapsed since their abandonment. But the growth of veg- etation and the action of earthworms are uncertain, the amount of detritus carried in by winds may either exceed or fall short of the amount removed by the same agency, and no balance can be struck. The other factor is the rate of erosion in embankments or other works, on a sloping surface. We have to consider here the amount of rainfall, the degree of slope, the drainage area, the size of the outlet, the amount and kind of vegetation, and the character of the soil. It is like attempting to solve an equation when some of the letters are missing. It may be said, however, that in all cases where breaks due to atmos- pheric influences occur in earthworks, the volume of material thus removed is remarkably small. At the largest ravine cut- ting through the northern wall of the Hopewell enclosure in Ross county, not more than a dozen wagon loads of earth would be required to fill the broken space to the height and breadth of the wall on either slope. At Fort Ancient ''the embankment may be traced to within three to eight feet of the stream" in the minor ravines. " Hence it appears that not more than three feet of that exca- vation has been done since the construction of the earthworks." This statement, which is a little obscure, seems to imply a belief on the part of the authors that the embankment was carried continuously across the little ravines, and that the figures given are a measure of the amount of the erosion since it was made. But the wall may have stopped at first just where the ends are now seen ; for if it were made without a break the portion Classification of Skulls. 131 in the ravine would go out with the first heavy rain unless :stayed with timbers ; and if sufficiently heavy timbers were used no further defensive work would be necessary. Nor is there any authority for assuming that all the erosion indicated at the bottom of the ravine has taken place since the wall was built; the gulley may have been there before. It would not take a great while for a ditch to increase three feet in depth on a hill-side; yet on the same page they estimate the age of the work at ''thousands of years." — S. & D., 19. To prevent an assumption of certainty concerning such cal- <:ulations, Fort Miami offers two ravines. One of these on the north side of the fort receives the drainage of a compara- tively limited area ; the cut here is deep and wide. On the south side there is a much smaller break in the wall, through which passes the drainage from a considerably larger area. F. — PHYSICAL STRUCTURE. CRANIA. A vast amount of time and labor has been devoted to meas- urements of skeletons with the hope that some relation of parts may be discovered which will serve as a basis for classification into types and a guide to tribal connections. Such investigations are especially directed to the skull ; various tables are formulated, differing in minor particulars, but all having in view the idea that development of the human cranium is somewhat like the crystalli- zation of minerals — each class possessing a type of its own from which there may be slight deviations but which, on the whole, is sufficiently marked and distinct to dissociate it from all others. The first, and principal, measurement of the skull is the ''cephalic index" ; this is obtained by dividing the breadth of the skull by its length and multiplying the quotient by 100. When the result is below a certain number, the cranium is called "doli- chocephalic", meaning "long-head" ; when above a certain other number, it is termed "brachycephalic" or "short-head" ; while one falling between these two is classed as mesaticephalic, or "middle-head". These are the three grand divisions ; within them fall sub-divisions governed by other proportions. Each is assumed to belong to a distinct type of humanity ; so that when a skull is properly indexed something can at once be inferred as to the racial affinitv of the individual of whom it once formed a part. 132 Archaeological History of Ohio. It is a beautiful scheme ; the only trouble with it is that no one has ever been able to reduce it to a system from which it is possible to obtain any certain or definite results. When this difficulty is overcome — no special progress appears yet to have been made in that direction — we may look for the announcement of some interesting discoveries. As the matter now stands, very little dependence can be placed in conclusions drawn from the use of such tables ; there is a general resemblance among skulls of races who are somewhat homogeneous, so that we may with some assurance of correctness say one belongs to the Caucasian, or Indian, or Negro, or some other race, or even, in a few instances to some particular branch of a race ; but it does not seem safe, now, to go much further. Even this comprehensive statement must be based, not upon a few linear measurements, but upon the gen- eral appearance of the entire cranium. When we proceed to details, we are only applying the principals of phrenology. If a single tribe should have the sole occupancy of a country for centuries, under conditions of life remaining practically unchanged during that time, the monotonous uniformity of their method of living might result in the evolution of a well defined type of cranium by which they could readily be distinguished from all other races. But with a roving people, like most Ameri- can Indians, who must adapt themselves to continual changes of topography and climate, who form confederations and adopt cap- tives, the intermingling of dififerent strains will be attended with a diversity of physical structure affecting not the head alone but the entire frame as well. At any rate skulls of almost every nor- mal shape and size have been taken from a single mound, or from the same cemetery, mingled in a way to indicate that those who interred the bodies had no thought of making any distinc- tion of caste. In such cases, any attempt at classification by drawing a hard and fast line between the "long-heads" and the *'short-heads"labeling one division "ruling class" and the other "slaves and captives" is, to say the least, very unsatisfactory. And it does not help the matter to establish a third division be- tween these, and call it "progeny of the two races." Professor Putnam clearly presents his ideas in regard to the distribution of the two principal divisions in North America, the intermingling of types through migrations, and the resultant for- mation of intermediate varieties. Long-heads and Short-heads. 133 "We find that the prevailing form of the skulls from the older fburial places across the northern portions of the continent, from the Pacific to the Atlantic is of the long, narrow type (dolichocephalic) , while the skulls of the old peoples of Central America, Mexico, and the south- western and southern portions of the United States are principally of the short, broad type (brachycephalic). Following the distribution of long and short skulls as they are now found in burial places, it is evident that the two forms have spread in certain directions over North America ; the short or broad-headed race of the south spreading out toward the east and northeast, while the long or narrow-headed race of the north has sent its branches southward down both coasts, and toward the interior by many lines from the north as well as from the east and west. The two races have passed each other here and there. In other places they have met; and probably nowhere is there more marked evidence of this meeting than in the Ohio valley, where have been found burial places and sepulchral mounds of different kinds and of different times. This variation in the character of the burial-places agrees with the skulls found in them. Some contained the brachycephalic type alone; in others, both brachycephalic and dolichocephalic forms were found with many of the mesaticephalic or intermediate form ; indicating a mixture of the two principal types, which seem to be of different races or subraces." — Put- nam, Ohio. His interesting conclusions in regard to the aboriginal popu- lation, are presented here in a much condensed form: " We seem compelled to admit the following groups of North Amer- icans. The Preglacial or Interglacial race, or Paleolithic man. The "Eskimo." The Dolichocephali. The Brachycephali. These groups, call them by what name we will, are the principal ones in North America. From them are composed the North Americans, or, as they are called, the Indians, with all their resemblances and differences." — Putnam, Ohio. Whittlesey's view is of the same general nature as that of Putnam, though he differs from the latter somewhat as to the method in which the association of the last two races was brought about. " Colonel Whittlesey's sagacious generalizations concerning the advance of a more civilized race from the south as far as southern Ohio, and their final expulsion by more warlike tribes from the lake region, are fully confirmed by recent investigations. The Indians of Mexico and South America belong to what is called a 'short-headed' race, i. e., the width of their skulls being more than three-fourths of their length, whereas the northern Indians are all ' long-headed '. Now out of about 1,400 skulls found in the vicinity of Madisonville near Cincinnati, more than 1,200 belonged to a short-headed race, thus connecting them with southern tribes. Going further back it seems probable that the southern tribes reached America across the Pacific from southern Asia, while the ■northern tribes came via Alaska from northern Asia." — Howe, I, 234. 134 Archaeological History of Ohio. Mooreliead remarks of some skulls which he exhumed : — ''In some of the large mounds, especially those of Hopewell's earth- work in the Scioto valley, and mounds of the Little Miami valley, the, crania are remarkable for their great thickness and low, retreating, narrow foreheads, with heavy superciliary ridges." — Moorehead, 240. On page 217 he gives a figure of a skull ; it shows a common, mistake in drawing or photographing whereby an apparent "low forehead" is created when in reality the cranium is well formed, and has a full forehead. The error consists in resting the skull on the lower jaw, thus allowing its base to drop to the level of the chin; the specimen is thereby tilted backward until the vertex is considerably to the rear of where it properly belongs. On page 222 another cut illustrates the manner in which the same erroneous impression may be given with a fragmentary cranium. Instead of so placing the fragment that it would hold the posi- tion belonging to it in life, the fractured edges, front and rear, are on a practically horizontal line; in this way the ''flat head'^ observed is determined by the relative loss of the bone from the occiput. Most works on anthropology contain such misleading illustrations ; and some very elaborate discussions are based on an artist's oversight instead of, as the writers suppose, on the conformation of a prehistoric skull. "The strong mixture of the two races, brachycephalic and dol- ichocephalic, as exhibited in several of the mounds on Mr. Hopewell's, farm, was to us at first inexplicable. But as excavations brought to light new finds we could come to but one conclusion, both from an inspection of the crania and the implements. The short-headed race, predominating to such an extent in the river valleys of Tennessee, also controlled the Scioto and Miami settlements. . The few long-heads present were un- doubtedly subservient to the short-heads." He pronounces "the osteo- logical affinities of the people" (the aborigines of southern Ohio) as "resembling those of the stone-grave people of Tennessee so closely that there is little doubt that the builders of Hopewell's earthwork are but an advanced offshoot to the north of these people." — Moorehead, 195 and 198. This is followed by two pages of fanciful theorizing by the author. In other portions of his ''Primitive Man" there is a large amount of pure, unfounded guess-work in regard to "long-heads" and "short-heads," who roamed about at random,, making settlements here, forays there, conquering and enslaving or stoically resisting elsewhere; all of which has no other founda- tion than the discovery of skulls differing somewhat from each- The Squier and Davis Skull 135 other in form, and concerning which variations no scientific or satisfactory basis has as yet been estabhshed. No one at all competent to render a decision in this matter has yet made an examination of the cranial remains exhumed from the mounds in Ohio ; until this is done, and until anatomists can agree among themselves as to the meaning of the various measurements, it will be as well not to attempt any race distinc- tions based on such sciolistic observation. Even now, however, there is no excuse for so silly a state- ment as that of Larkin. " The head of the Indian * ^ * indicates the cruel savage that he is. The Mound Builder has a head that will compare favorably with that of the most intellectual people now living." — Larkin, 2. But this is no worse than a diagram by Nadaillac. In trying to show ''the degraded type" of a skull of ordinary Indian form, by means of comparison with a ''European skull", he represents the latter as having the form of an arc of a circle terminating at each end in radii of a somewhat larger circle — a shape unlike that of any skull which ever existed. — Nadaillac, 483. The skull figured by Squier and Davis has passed under the inspection of various anatomists and archaeologists, who have given it careful study. Foster says of it : — " Squier and Davis profess to have collected but one skull which they regarded as authentic of the Mound Builders, but any comparative anatomist, on referring to their plate, will instantly recognize it as of the Indian type. Dr. Morton justly describes it as 'perhaps the most admirably formed head of the American race hitherto discovered.' Com- paring this skull with those which I have figured, it will be seen that the Scioto skull differs widely from the true Mound Builder's skull in its most characteristic features." — Foster, 291. The importance of this cranium justifies a detailed statement of the conditions under which it was found. The report of the explorers is, in substance, as follows : — " The only skull incontestably belonging to an individual of that race [the Mound Builders] which has been recovered entire, or suffi- ciently well preserved to be of value for purposes of comparison, was taken from the hill-mound * * * situated upon the summit of a high hill, overlooking the valley of the Scioto about four miles below the city of Chillicothe. * * * It is about eight feet high by forty-five or fifty feet base. The superstructure is a- tough yellow clay, which at the depth of three feet is intermixed with large, rough stones. * * * 136 Archaeological History of Ohio. These stones rest upon a dry carbonaceous deposit of burned earth and small stones, of a dark black color, and much compacted. This deposk is about two feet in thickness at the centre, and rests upon the original soil. In excavating the mound, a large plate of mica was discovered placed upon the stones, at the point indicated by the letter a in the section. Immediately underneath this plate of mica and in the centre of the burned deposit, was found the skull * * * resting upon . its face. The lower jaw, as indeed the entire skeleton, excepting the clavicle, a few cervical vertebrae, and some of the bones of the feet, .all of which were huddled around the skull, were wanting. No relics were found with the bones, except a few shells of the fresh-water mollusks from the neighboring river. " From the entire singularity of the burial it might be inferred that the deposit was a comparatively recent one ; but the fact that the various layers of carbonaceous earth, stones, and clay were entirely undisturbed, and in no degree intermixed, settles the question beyond doubt, that the skull was placed where it was found at the time of the construction of the mound. Either, therefore, we must admit that the skull is a genuine relic of the Mound Builders proper, or assume the improbable alter- native that the mound in question does not belong to the grand system of earthworks of which we have been treating. "The skull is wonderfully well preserved, unaccountably so, unless the circumstances under which it was found may be regarded as most favorable to such a result. The imperviousness of the mound to water from the nature of the material composing it, and its position on the summit of an eminence subsiding in every direction from its base, are circumstances which, joined to the antiseptic qualities of the carbonaceous deposit enveloping the skull, may satisfactorily account for its excellent preservation. * * * "The vertical occiput, the prominent vertex, and the great inter- parietal diameter, are, according to Dr. Morton, features characteristic of the American race, but more particularly of the family which he denominates the Toltecan, and of which the Peruvian head may be taken as the type. [It] exhibits in a marked degree, the cranial characteristics of the American race, of which it may be regarded as a perfect type." — S. & D., 289. The mound in question is number 8 of figure 23. It is shown in figure 4. A section shown in figure 5 is reproduced from (S. & D., fig. 199). The skull is represented in figures 6 and 7 (S. & D., Plates XLVII and XLVIII). If this is an "Indian" skull, then it is plain that one "Indian", at least, was buried by Mound Builders in their customary fash- ion. Foster evidently deems himself competent to decide sponta- neously what skull is to be called "Mound Builder" and what Mound Builders' Skulls. 137 138 Archaeological History of Ohio. Figure 5 — Section of Mound 8. Figure 6 — Profile of Skull from Mound 8. Mound Builders' Skulls. Figure 7 — Front and Top \ie\vs of Skull from Mound b'. 140 Archaeological History of Ohio. "Indian". He describes skulls from Chicago, Merom, and Dubuque, of which he says : — " Without doubt they are the authentic skulls of the Mound Builders." The first are from mounds only two and a half feet high and the last from mounds which " are by no means conspicuous in size and are desti- tute of the, long lines of circumvallation which so often invest those of the Ohio Valley." One "was exhumed from a mound about twelve feet high at Dunleith [opposite Dubuque]. The corpse was buried about two feet below the surface, and was covered with wood and stone; * * * this skull is one of the most anomalous ever found. * * * j^ ]^as a marked resemblance in its contour to that from * * * near Chicago." It is evident these are modern Indians, not connected in any way with the Ohio Mound Builders. Yet, because the three skulls from near Merom, Indiana, have a cephalic index of 73, y^, and 74, respectively, Foster says, " I think we are justified in drawing the conclusion that the Mound Builders were not the ancestors of the North American Indian." From them he also deduces " the former existence on this continent of an an- omalous race, characterized by a remarkably depressed forehead, * * * and subsequent discoveries which have been made but confirm me in the views originally entertained as to the low type of the Mound Builders' skulls." " Thus far but few authentic Mound Builders' skulls have been exhumed, and they indicate that that race must have ranked intellectually below the lowest types of Australia and New Caledonia." "All the speci- mens indicate a low intellectual organization, little removed from that of the idiot." The shape of these Merom skulls furnishes him grounds for asserting that " with a single exception, in the figures here- tofore given of the Mound-builders' skulls, I fail to recognize the typical characters." He even goes so far as to claim, in effect, that the largest mound in the Ohio Valley is of Indian origin ; for he says " The skull from the Grave Creek mound, West Virginia, figured by Morton and reproduced in School- craft's works, is of the Indian type." Recognizing his incon- sistent attitude in attributing mounds to Indians, and calling the Mound Builders Indians, while still maintaining the idea of a broad gulf between the two, he defends his position by a quotation from Dr. Lapham : — " It seems quite probable that men with skulls of this low grade were the most ancient upon this continent ; that they were the first to heap up those curiously-shaped mounds of earth which now so much puzzle the an- tiquary ; that they were gradually superseded and crowded out by a su- No Persistent Type of Skull 141 perior race, who adopting many of their customs continued to build mounds and to bury their dead in mounds already built. Hence we find Mound Euilders with skulls of the ancient form, associated with others of more modern type. The discovery of these skulls with characteristics so much like those of the most ancient of prehistoric types of Europe, would seem to indicate that if America was peopled by emigration from the old world, that event must have taken place at a very early time — far back of any of which we have record." — Foster, between 275 and 306. Force neatly disposes of Foster's entire discussion in a single sentence: " Efforts have been made recently to find some peculiarity in the crania of the Mound Builders. The late Dr. Foster declared in his ' Pre- historic Races of the United States,' that he had discovered the type of the Mound Builders' skull, and that it was a degraded type. Dr. Foster's argument is very good except that he failed in the first step; he failed to get crania of the Mound Builders." — Force, 62. Through a study of Dr. Wilson's measurements, it is revealed to Short that no warrant is found for the division into " long-heads " and " short-heads ". He perceives that " the type of skull among the American aborigines, ancient or modern, v/as in no sense constant, since among the same tribes long and short skulls occur in almost equal numbers. This fact is especially true among the savage Indians. — Short, 164. But in attempting to present an epitome of the various theories, he loses his way and leaves the whole question in a muddle. — Short, chapter IV. . Nadaillac accurately sums up the situation, though with- out any comment as to its bearing or meaning. " Though most of the skulls which can be attributed with any cer- tainty to the so-called Mound Builders are short or Brachycephalic, there are numerous exceptions; and often beneath the same mound have been found skulls which appear to date from the same period, yet which present different forms ; numerous excavations have established similar facts in the Old World." — Nadaillac, 487. The unsatisfactory nature of such classifications, and the dubious quality of any deductions based upon cranial measure- ments, have impressed themselves on more than one careful investigator; whose conclusions, fairly represented in the next quotations, give very little support to any theory based upon such data. "In skulls, however, the main measures are the length, which is compounded of a half dozen elements of growth, and the breadth and 142 Archaeological History of Ohio. height, each the resultant of at least three elements. Two skulls may differ altogether in their proportions and forms, and yet yield identical measures in length, breadth and height. How can any but empirical re- sults be evolved from such a system of measurement alone?" " The length of growth of each plate from its center in different di- rections regulates the entire form of the skull." — Petrie, 592. "In the examination of 38 skulls of men, the cephalic index ranged from 69 to 86; the capacity from 1220 to 1920. In 29 skulls of women the index varied from 68 to 82; the capacity from 1182 to 1580. I am led to treat this entire series of crania as having belonged to one race. From such figures as these, craniologists seek to establish an average which shall be taken as the type ; and yet after all it must be admitted that in point of fact, so far as this collection is concerned, the typical cranium, ar- adduced fiom the measurements, has no real existence. In the crania from the stone graves of Tennessee, or those from Greenland there runs through each series a certain prevailing form which is at once recognized. Here, however, no such uniformity exists. The crania differ among themselves in every possible way." — Carr, Crania, condensed. " The classification into long and short skulls is open to the ob- jection that it forces into opposite classes crania closely related to each other. In proportion as arbitrary divisions are increased these difficulties are multiplied, and this simple, two-fold classification presents the fewest." — Dr. Meigs, from Short, 160, condensed. " From an old and well-filled European graveyard may be selected specimens of klimocephalic (slope or saddle skull), conocephalic (cone- skull), brachycephalic (short skull), dolichocephalic (long skull), platy- cephalic (flat skull), leptocephalic (slim skull), and other forms of crania equally worthy of penta- or hexa-syllabic Greek epithets." — Owen, quoted by Short, 160. JAWS, TEETH, AND LIMBS. Various other portions of the frame-work are studied, with conflicting results. It is a very common newspaper statement that a Mound Builder has been dug up somewhere " whose jawbone will slip over that of a large man." Sometimes the man elevates the marvelous into the miraculous by having a growth of "remarkably heavy whiskers." It is not necessary to procure a Mound Builder in order to perform this feat ; the phenomenon is equally apparent with any other full grown human jaw. It may be observed, also, in curved or open-angle objects generally, having approximately the same form and thickness ; as spoons, saucers, miter-joints, gutter-spouts, or slices of melon rinds. The significance is as great in one case as in the others. The experimenter has failed Lazi's and TectJi of Moiind Builders. 143 to perceive a considerable interval between the end, or angle, of the jaw which he held in his hand and the one with which it was being compared. He should invert the former and apply it to the lower part of the latter, when he would find much less difference than he expected. Even should the Mound Builder's jaw exceed in size that of the modern white man, it does not follow that his entire skeleton was on a corresponding scale. Mastication of tough or coarse food promotes growth of the necessary organs ; if muscles are strong and large the bones to which they are attached must be heavy enough to meet the strain upon them. For this reason both maxillaries may attain proportions much in excess of other parts of the skull. Frequently this development affects the teeth as well; the prominent chin brings the upper and lower incisors to the same vertical line, allowing the edges to impinge instead of over- lapping, so that the crowns of all the teeth alike wear off flat in practically the same plane. Many persons who have noticed the fact, without reflecting upon its cause, that *'the front teeth are flat instead of sharp," deem it ample evidence that the ''Mound Builders had double teeth all around, a peculiarity which distinguishes them from all other known races." Others, better informed, suppose the amount of wear thus manifest must indicate the attainment of an extreme age. As a rule, this would be true; but nothing has been found to show that the Mound Builders had any methods of preparing food which were supe- rior to those in vogue among later Indians, and it must be conceded that a diet of parched corn, bread made from grains and nuts crushed on a stone mortar or with a stone pestle and baked in ashes, meat cooked on coals with a liberal admixture of sand and silt or boiled in water heated by dropping red-hot stones into it — would not require more than an ordinary life time to wear out the hardest teeth that can develop as long as lime is the chief component in them. " Dr. Sozinsky says : ' The dental profession was unknown to the Mound Builders, and they had no need for it ; for toothache and all such diseases were troubles with which they were but very little ac- quainted.' Dr. Farquharson mentions the invariable soundnesss of teeth in the remains found in the Davenport mounds. Dr. Patrick says : ' It is the exception to find a sound set of teeth. * * * The marks of alveolar abscess are common ; loss of molars and bicuspids is frequent, -with complete absorption of the sockets.' The writer's observations, which 144 Archaeological History of Ohio. have been limited, accord exactly with those of Dr. Patrick." — Hender- son, 710. After an examination of several hundred skeletons from mounds, cemeteries, and village-site burial places, I can add my testimony, also, to Dr. Patrick's. It is very rare indeed to find a full set of sound teeth, even in the skull of a young person.. Often all the teeth are present, but some, perhaps most, are dis- eased. Sometimes the teeth remaining are sound, but the num- ber is deficient. A skeleton under the center of a mound orig- inally over twenty feet high, near Waverly, had only twenty-two teeth left, and thirteen of these showed marks of decay. None of them were much worn. Of the other bones, the humerus and tibia have been seized upon most frequently in the effort to advertise the Mound Builder as not like other men. In the former there is sometimes a per- foration just above the elbow. The size varies in different arms, but it is seldom as much as half an inch in diameter. It is usu- ally considered a peculiarity confined to the Mound Builders, a sort of racial birth-mark ; but it is found in only a small per cent, of their skeletons, and occurs in other races as well. It is some- times spoken of as an indication of inferiority; though for what reason, and what sort of short-coming is meant, does not appear. Dr. Matthews says in regard to this anomaly, *' We believe that the perforation is not congenital but acquired ; and that it has no connection with the rank a people may hold in the scale of races, but is the result of some mechanical cause connected with their occupations. We believe, furthermore, that it results from repeated and forcible extension of the forearm, in which the summit of the olecranon process of the ulna impinges against that long, thin bony partition which ordinarily separates the coronoid from the olecranon fosse of the hu- merus. The absorption of this partition naturally follows." — Mat- thews, 218. There is often observed in the tibia a flattening as if it had been pressed from each side. This is sometimes so pronounced that the thickness from side to side is less than half the measure from front to back. " That flattening of the leg-bone or tibia, peculiar to prehistoric man in Europe, and perhaps the result of rugged exertion in climbing mountains and traversing the country with that rapidity which the chase required where the horse is wanting, is more noticeable in the remains of some of the Mound Builders than in any other people. * * * j^s Size of Mound Builders. 145 prominence among the people of the mounds indicates the possession of great pedestrian powers." — Short, 185. It may indicate various other things also: — " Flattened or platycnemic tibias * * * may be produced in any race by the prolonged use of certain muscles, either in constant trotting, in prolonged squatting, in carrying burdens, or in the use of peculiar foot gear." — Mason, Travel, 261. " It is a recognized fact that the flattened tibia does not occur in childhood, but that the peculiarity is acquired as years advance. * * * The flattening is entirely due to [the] inverse action of the tibialis posticus [as] exerted when the foot is fixed and the tibia raised, as in the act of rising from a kneeling position. This action * * * jg produced in the upright position; more still in walking, above all up inclined planes both in mounting and descending them, and infinitely more in running and jumping. Lifting and carrying heavy loads [is also an important cause.]'* — Matthews, 223. The confusion prevailing in regard to these minor features extends to the entire skeleton. For nearly a century there has been a continual reiteration of the sentiment that Mound Builders were a gigantic race. Almost invariably a skeleton from an aboriginal burial-place is that of a " very tall " person. If figures are given, it is usually " fully seven feet." One early author, indeed, claimed just the opposite. " The skeletons found in our mounds never belonged to a people like our Indians. The latter are a tall, rather slender, straight limbed peo- ple ; the former were short and thick. They were rarely over five feet high, and few indeed were six. Their foreheads were low, cheek bones rather high; their faces were rather short and broad; their eyes were very large; and they had broad chins." — Atwater, 209. But the common belief satisfies more people. The skeletons of Mound Builders show that, as a race, there was no practical difference between them and any other people living an outdoor life, with plenty of coarse but nutri- tious food. Physically, they differed very little from our pion- eers. The shortest skeleton of a male I have ever found in a. mound was about five feet in length ; the longest was six feet four inches. Owing to the displacement of bones exact meas- urements are seldom possible; but there need be no error of more than an inch in most cases. The bones sometimes show the eiTects of rheumatism, tubercular trouble, or fractures.. 10 146 Archaeological History of Ohio. There were, of course, many abnormal features of physical structure among them; it would be strange if they were the only people on earth free from such visitations. But owing to the hardships and exposure incident at times to their manner of living, not many of the weak, sickly or deformed would sur- vive childhood. SUMMARY. The foregoing epitome of arguments and theories shows that a search for the origin of the Mound Builders is included within and forms a part of the larger inquiry as to the starting- point of the American Indians. If any race had its beginning on the Western Continent, it has been more or less modified in physical appearance, men- tal traits, character and disposition by accessions from the Old World. All known facts are at variance with the belief that large additions to population may have come from either Europe or Africa, unless in times so remote that little trace now survives of influence from this source. The western coast may have been accessible to primitive Asian peoples by way of Behring Strait; along ocean currents; or by means of islands in the Pacific, now submerged. Under present conditions of climate no extensive travel is practicable across the Strait except for Eskimo; though small parties from farther south may sometimes use this route. The Japan current makes it possible, now, for any race of Southeastern Asia, to and including the Malays, to reach the Alaskan coast. The hypothesis of former islands in the equatorial portion of the Pacific, in a position to afford any assistance to a move- ment in this direction, involves geological changes within recent times, of which we have no evidence. It also involves a reversal of winds and ocean currents whose trend is now away from the American coast instead of toward it. It seems probable that the center of distribution for the first Americans was that part of the Pacific Coast containing the Gulf of Georgia and the mouth of the Columbia River. From here they spread southward along the coast and eastward .over the Rocky Mountains. Distinctive Stages of Progress. 147 This dispersion dates from so far in the past that different tribes of Indians now vary as greatly from each other in psy- chological attributes as do different nations of Asia or Europe. When one part of the American race started eastward and the other southward from their pristine home, the separation was final There is no good reason for believing a general migration ever took place in either direction across the territory intervening between those who reached the Ohio valley and those who established themselves in New Mexico and south- ward; though traders and roving bands probably created and maintained a communication along this line. In many particulars the Aztec differed from the Indian of the Pueblo ; the Mound Builder, apparently, was in most respects unlike either ; while the hunting Indian of North America resem- bled none of the three. This refers to their manner of living and their social customs. It is more probable that the culture status of each particular group developed where it was found, than that any one should be transformed into another with no intermediate stages. In what some writers designate as the " architectural " features of domestic life, the inventive power or mechanical ingenuity of the " wild Indian " in the northern states seemed to find its limit in the use of skins or bark. The agri- cultural Indian of the southern states, the Iroquois, and the Mandan, went a step further and utilized wood in the construc- tion of buildings. The last also plastered, banked, and covered his house with clay. The Mound Builder seems not to have entirely outgrown this stage, although making use of earth for various purposes besides defense or burial. The Pueblo Indian advanced to the knowledge and use of adobe. The ancient Mex- ican, mentally the foremost of North American people, had learned to dress stone. None of them had reached the stage of metal working, except in its simplest form with raw material. Even casting was an unknown art. Mounds are to be found in every part of Europe and Asia ; some of them are older than the dawn of history, others were con^Liuctcd well within the Christian era. Consequently, no theory of descent or relationship can be based upon them. The custom of building mounds no doubt slowly developed among people who settled in districts where we find these remains. 148 Archaeological History of Ohio. Nothing yet discovered proves for any of the Mound Builders a higher intellectual capacity than is, or was, possessed by more than one well-known tribe of American Indians. There were several mound-building tribes within the limits of the United States, who may, or may not, have been related or contemporaneous. The period within which they occupied this territory can not be definitely ascertained by any of the means usually employed for that purpose. Nothing is to be learned of the origin of the American Indians, or, as a corollary, of the Mound Builders, by a compar- ison of their customs or implements with those of foreign peoples. Under analogous circumstances races or tribes of a like degree of culture, though unrelated, and ignorant of each other's existence, will attain similar ends by practically the same methods. A resemblance in certain typical forms of mounds, earthworks or utensils, does not prove that people to whom they belong are related or even that communication existed between them, but may mean only that the social conditions were essentially alike. The habits of primitive people are determined by their envi- ronment. Barbarians are at the mercy of forces with which Nature is equipped, and the means by which they must protect themselves are about the same everywhere. The ability to- modify materially external physical conditions must precede the beginning of the lowest forms of civilization. The divergent customs which so sharply mark off one nation from another, are due simply to evolution along the different lines on which they started out. There is no probability that any manuscript, inscriptions, or other records, will ever be disclosed, which will aid in solving the unanswered questions concerning Mound Builders. Addi- tional information is to be gained, if at all, only by investigation of their tumuli, cemeteries, and village-sites. The discouraging feature presents itself, that we seem unable to find anything new, or essentially different from what we already have. Our museums are filling up with material from all these sources ; and yet, for years, the accumulation has added nothing in the way of real information to what we already knew. CHAPTER V ENCLOSURES. The Enclosures of Ohio. Classification. Theories as to Use. Methods of Designing and Building. Description. IN OHIO, enclosures fall into three different classes — the heavy embankments of earth peculiar to the level or low lands of the southern half of the State ; the larger hill-top fortifications composed of earth and stone in varying propor- tions, confined mainly to the same locaHties as the first; and the far greater number resembling in some respects both the above, but usually smaller, seldom symmetrical, evincing less care in design or construction, and placed on high or low ground indiff- erently, sometimes with little regard to topographical features. The fertile valleys of the Muskingum, Scioto, and Little Miami, seem to have been the favorite home of the builders of the first series. With the exception of one group on the Kana- wha River, and two others in Greenup county, Kentucky, which are really a part of the Portsmouth works, all the principal low land enclosures are confined to the vicinity of these streams. Every theory yet advanced to explain the purpose for which such works may have been constructed, is largely conjectural and in some respect or other inconsistent with facts which soon become apparent to the careful observer. At an early day all were called "forts" alike; but when closer inspection made it apparent that many, especially the larger ones, were not adapted to the require- ments of warfare, it was assumed that they were intended to cloak the performance of religious ceremonies. This view is clearly set forth by Squier and Davis : — " Reflection, however, has tended to strengthen the opinion, that those works not manifestly defensive were connected with the supersti- tions of the builders, and that all the enclosures of the West (except perhaps some of the petty circles), were either miHtary or religious in their origin. [It is not] improbable that a few were designed to answer .a double purpose." • (149) 150 Archaeological History of Ohio. " If we are right in the assumption that [the enclosures] are of sacred' origin, and were the temples and consecrated grounds of the ancient people, we can, from their number and extent, form some estimate of the de- votional fervor or superstitious zeal which induced their erection, and the predominance of the religious sentiment among their builders. Their mag- nitude is, perhaps, the strongest objection that can be urged against the purpose here assigned them. It is difficult to comprehend the existence of religious works, extending, with their attendant avenues, like those near Newark, over an area of little less than four square milesl We can find their parallels only in the great temples of Abury and Stonehenge in En- gland, and Carnac in Brittany, and must associate them with sun worship and its kindred superstitions." — S. & D., 49. " The structure not less than the form and position of a large num- ber of the earthworks of the West, and especially of the Scioto Valley, render it clear that they were erected for other than defensive purposes. * * * When we find an enclosure containing a number of mounds, all of which it is capable of demonstration were religious in their purposes, or in some way connected with the superstitions of the people who built them, the conclusion is irresistible that the enclosure itself was also deemed sacred, and thus set apart as ' tabooed ' or consecrated ground, especially where it is obvious, at the first glance, that it possesses none of the requi- sites of a military work. * * * ^Ye j^^^.g reason to beheve that the religious system of the Mound Builders, like that of the Aztecs, exercised among them a great, if not controlling influence. Their government may have been, for aught we know, a government of the priesthood; one in which the priestly and civil functions were jointly exercised, and one sufficiently powerful to have secured in the Mississippi Valley, as it did in Mexico, the erection of many of those vast monuments, which for ages will continue to challenge the wonder of men. There may have been cer- tain superstitious ceremonies, having no connection with the purposes of the mounds, carried on in inclosures specially dedicated to them. * * * It is a conclusion which every day's investigation and observation has tended to confirm that most, perhaps all, of the earthworks not manifestly defensive in their character, were in some way connected with the super- stitious rites of the builders— though in what precise manner, it is, and perhaps ever will be, impossible satisfactorily to determine." — S. & D., 46. "The great size of most of the foregoing structures precludes the idea that they were temples in the general acceptation of the term. As. has already been intimated, they were probably, like the great circles ol England, and the squares of India, Peru, and Mexico, the sacred, enclosures, within which were erected the shrines of the gods of the ancient worship and the altars of the ancient religion. They may have embraced consecrated groves, and also, as they did in Mexico, the res- idences of the ancient priesthood. * * * Analogy would therefore- seem to indicate that the structures under consideration, or at least ai large portion of them, were nothing more than sacred enclosures. We find * * * the altars upon which the ancient people performed their- sacrifices. We find also pyramidal structures * * * which correspond. Purpose of Large Enclosures. 161 entirely with those of Mexico and Central America, except that, instead of being composed of stone, they were constructed of earth, and instead of broad flights of steps, have graded avenues and spiral pathways leading to their summits." — S. & D., 102. Since the day of these authors much has been written to the same effect ; but nothing has been added to their argument, nor a scrap of evidence adduced in its favor beyond what they oft'ered, namely, that such must have been the object in view, because we know of no other motive which would have led to the construction of these works. But no explanation has ever been offered as to the character of ceremonies requiring for their performance areas of twenty or thirty acres, or even more, with passage-ways over a mile in length, all concealed from prying eyes by massive walls of earth or high palisades. The most primitive races practice some sort of rites and make sacrifices of personal comfort, through a sense of duty or under the influence of spiritual fear; while some of the greatest architectural achievements of our race owe their exist- ence to the same feelings. But people whose constructive power reaches its limit in piles of earth, whether symmetrical or not, could scarcely possess so comprehensive and connected a system of religious ideas as would lead to the creation of immense and elaborate works for their observance, to the exclusion of similar or equal structures for the requirements of social or military needs. It is impossible to imagine any condition of life that would lead people to enclose areas so great for no other purpose than to conceal the operations of one part of the populace from the remaining portion; or to conceive of what use the walls would be if all should take part in the exercises. There is nothing in our knowledge of barbarous races, of any age or country, to jus- tify such a supposition. True, the priests of most religious sys- tems in ancient times concealed parts of their rites from the multitude; but it is absurd to cite records of the use of caves or groves for this purpose in support of a theory that the same end could be attained or even attempted by means of a low wall around a twenty acre field. Recognizing this difficulty, some authors have abandoned the idea of a religious origin, and assigned to these enclosures an office similar to the Roman circus, considering them places where persons who wished, or were compelled, to entertain the 152 Archaeological History of Ohio. populace with games or feats of strength and valor, would have abundant room for the display of their skill and prowess ; the spectators meanwhile viewing the performance from seats pro- vided for them along the top of the wall. This is giving the Mound Builder credit for more enterprise and public spirit than seems warranted. If boundaries were needed, they could be marked off by lines; and the hills or terrace-banks in the imme- diate vicinity of any of these works overlook level tracts as well adapted for such purposes as those within the walls. It is suggested, also, that they were "game preserves," into which wild animals suitable for food could be driven and con- fined until needed. Even admitting the people to have been so enervated as to enjoy this form of sport, they would have found more difficulty in providing food for their captives than in chasing them down as they were needed or in driving them into some ravine and slaughtering them as they came across the pass at the top. The native wild animals of the region would pay scant respect to any walls that could be made of earth ; besides, the numerous openings or gateways preclude any such service for the works. The same objections are fatal to the theory that the enclosed space was used for farming purposes by inhabitants of villages situated outside the walls, who took this method of protecting their crops. It is true that palisades may have been set along the top ; but palisades strong enough to be of any service in such position would have been equally effectual in the absence of walls, thereby obviating the necessity of erecting the latter. The reader will bear in mind that all such theories are based solely upon the idea that the manners, customs, and condition of life among the Mound Builders, were such as to harmonize with the conception which has found lodgment in the mind of the theorizer. In other words, through a study of the earthworks an author has been led — or has led himself — to believe that they denote for the builders a certain social organization ; the particular kind or degree of this being whatever he chooses to imagine it. Having thus formulated a system of government, he proceeds to show what motives would lead people in such stage of culture to construct the enclosures. Then, from the enclosures and allied works, he infers the performance of sundry ceremonies and ob- servances which shall have to find their expression by such means, and shall at the same time correspond with the stage of culture Purpose of Large Enclosures, 163 in which the actors are supposed to be living. This is not reason- ing in a circle, but along three straight lines which, if we may set aside a mathematical axiom, begin and end at the same point. In a few sentences, Foster summarizes the various opinions, except as to the stock-yard notion, "The large [enclosures] may have been walls, surrounding their towns and cultivated fields, and even used to protect their fields from predatory animals. The smaller ones may have been designed to guard their temples and sepulchral mounds from profane intrusion. Every nation has its games, and the ruder the nation is, the greater the attempt at barbaric pomp and magnificence. There can be little doubt that the Mound Builders had their national games which were celebrated within these enclosures. They had, too, their religious observances, their funeral ceremonies, and their grand councils; but no clear line, I think, can be drawn in reference to the different purposes of these structures." — Fos- ter, 176. So far as the " sepulchral mounds " are concerned, nearly all of them are outside of the enclosures. Perhaps the most plausible hypothesis is that villages were located within the walls; though it does not follow, as seems to be generally held, that the latter are intended as a defense against invaders. "A few of these enclosures may possibly owe their origin to a religious sentiment, but of a large majority of them it may be safely said, in view of recent investigations, that they were simply fortified villages. Self-protection was the primary object of the people who lived behind these walls." — Carr, Mounds, 555. The numerous gate-ways show that ready entrance and exit was desired, and they are almost invariably so wide that speedy closure would be impossible, since this could be accomplished only by means of palisades or breastworks of logs. These would take time to erect and must be removed again to make the openings available. Further, a wall higher than a man's head, especially one with an interior ditch, would give the defender no advantage over his assailant; for unless a platform were constructed entirely around the inner side, he could see over the top only by climbing up a slope on which he would find it difficult to secure a foothold. The embankments at Hope- town and at the Hopewell group, in Ross county, are certainly not constructed with a view to defense; the circle in the former runs for a part of its course along the slope of a terrace whose top commands the interior; while in the latter the wall closely 154 Archaeological History of Ohio. follows the top of a terrace on which an enemy could have ample space of level ground for his approach and maneuvers, while the inmates would have barely room to stand. It would seem that if either had been intended for a protective purpose, the walls would have extended far enough back on these upper levels to afford sufficient room for defensive movements. In most of these works, the garrison could be easily cut off from their water supply by an investing force of large num- bers. Should the besiegers once gain possession of the top of the wall, the defenders would be in a death trap from which there was no escape. Again, there are no surface indications of occupation within them, such as have led to the discovery of so many village- sites ; but it is quite possible that all such refuse has been covered by natural accumulations to a greater depth than farming opera- tions can reach. They have not been disclosed by any excava- tions for cellars, foundations, etc. Morgan thinks the larger circle at High Banks may have been a garden enclosure ; the smaller ones '' suggest the circular estufas found in connection with the New Mexican pueblos. * * The circles were adapted to open-air councils after the fashion of the American Indian tribes." — Morgan, 215. After assuming that the Mound Builders were of the same stock as the Pueblo Indians, he says that when they " reached the Scioto valley, in Ohio, they would find it impossible to construct houses of adobe brick able to resist the rains and frosts of that climate, even if they found the adobe soil. * * * They might have used stone. Or they might have fallen back upon a house of inferior grade, located upon the level ground. * * ^ Or, they might have raised these embankments of earth, including rectangles or squares, and constructed long houses upon them, which, it is submitted, is precisely what they did." — Morgan, 206. " The embankments enclosmg the squares were probably the sites of their houses ; since, as the highest, and because they were straight, they were best adapted to the purpose. If these embankments [referring to those at High Banks] were reformed, with the materials washed down they would form new embankments thirty-seven feet wide at base, ten feet high, and with a summit platform twenty-two feet wide. If a surface coating of clay were used, the sides could be made steeper and the sum- mit platforms broader. On embankments thus formed out of their original materials respectable as well as sufficient sites would be provided for long joint-tenement houses, comparted into chambers like stalls opening upon a Purpose of Large Enclosures. 155 central passage-way through the structure from end to end, as in the long houses of the Iroquois. These embankments answered as a substitute for the first story of the house constructed of adobe bricks. The gateways were protected, it may be supposed, with palisades. The pueblo, exter- nally, would thus present continuous ramparts of earth ten feet high, around an enclosed area, surmounted with timber-framed houses with walls sloping like the embankments, and coated with earth mixed with clay and gravel, rising ten or twelve feet above their summits ; the two forming a sloping wall of earth twenty feet high. Figure 47 [Morgan, 210, repro- duced here as figure 8] shows not only the feasibility of occupying these embankments with long houses, but also that each pueblo was designed by the Mound-Builders to be a fortress able to resist assault with the appliances of Indian warfare. Occupying to the edge of the embankments, they could not be successfully assailed from without either by Indian weapons or by fire. The inclosed court, which is of unusual size, is one of the remarkable features of the plan. It afforded a protected place for the villagers, room for their drying-scaffolds, and for gardens, as well as for fuel for winter use." — Morgan, 207, et seq, condensed. Figure 8 [N. A. Cont., IV, 210, fig. 47] presents a '' Restora- tion of High Bank Pueblo," according to the ideas set forth by- Morgan; while figure 9 [same, fig. 48] gives a ground plan and section of the house which he thinks may have been erected on the walls. But the theory takes as its basis that the walls are com- posed of, or at least coated with, tough clay which will stand with a very steep slope from top to bottom. None of the embankments are thus constructed, being made of the loam and gravel constituting the soil about them, which will not maintain a greater angle than an ordinary fill made of similar material for a road or railway. To erect on the walls at their present height a dwelling, except of very contracted width, would require a breadth at top greater than can be given to any of them with the amount of material used, unless means be taken, as by a. palisade or retaining wall of some description, to keep them from crumbling down; there is no evidence that this was ever done. We have now come back to the starting-point ; namely, that every theory which has been devised to explain the larger enclos- ures has a valid objection. Yet some one of them must certainly be applicable to any given enclosure ; because every conceivable reason for their existence — except, perchance, the right one — seems to have been advanced. If careful examinations should be made by experienced investigators, of the embankments, ditches^ 156 Archaeolcgical History of Ohio. Geometrical Enclosures. 157 SECTION. PART ELEVATION. 5te4z^/^f---^-frr ./^ Part Plan on A.B Figure 9 — Morgan's Plan of " High Bank Pueblo. 158 Archaeological History of Ohio. and included areas, to a depth at or below any level which was disturbed by the Mound Builders, we might be able to arrive at definite and defensible conclusions. Until this is done, any explanation must remain open to question. It is quite possible that such explorations would leave us still in the dark; for there is no assurance that the desired information would be forthcoming. Perhaps we may obtain a hint from the far-away Fiji Islands. In one community there is "A town fortified with an earthen rampart, about six feet thick, faced with large stones, surmounted by a reed fence or cocoanut trunks, and surrounded by a muddy moat." Battles are conducted among them exactly'as among Indians. — Fiji, 37. Any interpretation of the enclosures must apply to the long walls or parallels connected with them. The solution of the problem, if it is ever achieved, will be something different from Feet's explanation of features which do not exist. " Let us ask what works there are and what uses we may discover in them. We have first the village defenses. This we see was always protected by a circumvallation. This circumvallation was generally in the form of a square and a circle, but the circle was always protected by a high wall and sometimes by two such walls, and the openings in the wall of the square were always protected by a watch tower or additional platform guard on the inside. Second, there were near the villages many fortified hill tops, places to which the villagers could resort in times of attack. These fortified hills were generally located in the midst of several villages, so that they could be easily reached by all. Third, the sacrifi- cial places and the places of religious assembly, were always provided with circumvallations or long covered ways. Nothing of a religious nature was ever undertaken unless the people could be protected by a wall. Fourth, we find that the sweat-houses, so-called, were always close by the village enclosure, but if by any means it was remote, there was always a covered way provided, so that it could be reached in safety from the village enclosure. Fifth, the same is true of the dance circles and places of amusement. These were sometimes remote from the village, but in all such cases there was a covered way between the village and the dance ground. Sixth, the fields were cultivated, but the fields were reached by passing through the parallels or covered ways, and lookout mounds or observatories were always provided to protect those at work and to sound the alarm to them. Seventh, there were landing places for canoes and places at which the villagers could reach the water's edge. These, how- ever, were always protected by covered ways. Every village had its landing place, but nearly every landing place was furnished with a graded and a protected or covered way, the canoes being kept from the water and Labor of Construction Probably Voluntary. 159 from the enemy by the same contrivance. Eighth, we find a few isolated enclosures. These are parallels, supposed to have been used for races and other games. They, too, present the peculiarity of having a wall to protect them. The sacrificial or burial places were also isolated, but even the burial grounds were furnished with heavy earth walls or cir- cumvallations. The lookouts were also at times isolated from the villages, but even the lookout mounds were surrounded with circles to protect them, and some of them were connected with the village sites by covered ways. It would seem as if the people were not willing even to trust their sentinels or watchmen to the open fields or to risk the chance of his reach- ing an enclosure by rapid flight, but even he must be protected by a wall or covered way. •'This presents a new view of the earthworks of the region. It shows that the people realized their danger; that while they were peace- able themselves and were given to agriculture and to a peculiar religious cult, yet they were in the midst of a savage foe which was always lurking near. * * * The Mound Builders of Ohio, then, and the Indians of later times were plainly very different from one another." — Peet, I, 93, et seq. What his " sweat-houses " or ''dance circles " are, no one knows. Many of the village-sites are remote from streams large enough to float canoes; of those closer, not one now presents a " graded way " to the water, nor a "covered way " directly to a canoe landing. According to Major Long there was such a protected grade at Piqua; but nothing remains to show the accuracy of the statement. Neither is there any evidence of most of the " protective walls " which Peet thinks he sees. One conclusion seems warrantable. Earthworks of every description, whether low-land enclosures for social requirements of any character; or hill-top forts for protection; or mounds intended as a mark of respect for the dead; or anomalous struc- tures at whose meaning we can not guess ; — of whatever kind and for w^hatever purpose, they were probably public in their nature and erected by the joint efforts of the whole community. This is a less pleasing view of the matter than the picture of great multitudes of workmen, drafted from a dense popnl^t^'or, and toiling day after day under the direction of task-masters; but it is more in accordance w4th the testimony of the works themselves. It may be added that invariably the great bulk of the struc- tures is of earth from the immediate vicinity, despite the gen- 160 Archaeological History of Ohio. eral impression that it is " brought from a distance." This is a. patent fact to all who are familiar with soils. "The walls are usually composed of earth taken up evenly from the surface, or from large pits in the neighborhood. Evident care appears in all cases to have been exercised, in procuring the material, to preserve the surface of the adjacent plain, smooth, and as far as possible, un- broken." — S. & D., 48. No instruments beyond stakes and lines are required in marking out any of the enclosures, large or small. A circle may be accurately laid off with a line of sufficient length, which is firmly secured at one end and kept tightly stretched while the other end is being carried around. A deer-hide may be cut, as a shoemaker cuts a string from a small piece of leather, into a thong with a length greater than the radius of any prehistoric circle in the State, and of sufficient strength to withstand the strain of such use; or several thongs may be tied together if necessary. Should there be obstructions interfering with the free sweep of the line, points on the circumference may be marked at any desired intervals by drawing the cord taut and setting stakes at the outer end. If these are close together they may be connected by straight lines of embankment whose very small angles of divergence will in time disappear under the influence of wind and weather; and the wall will finally assume the form of a curve, practically continuous and requiring careful measure- ment to distinguish from a true circle. Not only can we say that the circles may have been outlined in this manner; we have evidence that such was the method employed. "That their work was marked out before commencing the same we have every reason for believing. Of the three, or rather four, sacred enclos- ures at Alexanderville, not one is complete. These incomplete remains prove that all of these works were commenced at the same time, all aban- doned before being finished, and all show what method was pursued in their construction. The three mounds of the smaller circle, we found not to be mounds at all, but intended to form component parts of the in- tended circle, and were not placed in a straight line to the circle, but located on the line of the curve. The whole line was established before the work was begun, and work was performed on different parts of the line at the same time. This fact is also true of the square a short distance removed from the circle. We must not rely on the plan of these works as given in the "Ancient Monuments," which is faulty in more than one- particular. Methods of Laying Out Enclosures. 161 "A circular work eighty feet in diameter, in Butler county, is in- complete, being composed of four mounds three feet in height, corres- ponding with the cardinal points of the compass. Between the mounds the walls gradually taper until they meet midway. These mounds may represent the original height of the proposed wall. In another part of the same county, are eleven hillocks (small mounds) which made a complete circle two hundred and thirty feet in diameter. All of the eleven hillocks, except one to the southwest, had their corresponding depressions facing the center. The exception was due to a tree falling. It was plain that a plan for a work had been laid out here, the mounds or stakes had been set, and then for some cause the work was abandoned." — Mc- Lean, 84, 172, and 220, condensed. B \:^ The construction of a square figure without instruments is somewhat more difficult, but can be compassed with a little care and patience. Lay off a straight line, AC, and mark its middle point, B. Procure two cords of exactly the same length, some- what longer than the distance AB. Stretch these cords from A and C until their ends touch at the point P ; draw a line equal to AB from B, through P, to D. From D draw lines to A and C. In the same manner find a point, E, on the opposite side of the line AC, and draw AE and CE. The points A, D, C, and E, will mark the corners of a square. Or, if lines equal to AB be extended from each of these points their intersections will fall at the corners of a new square having twice the area of the first. By repeating this process, an enclosure of any size may be marked off. If all measurements are accurate, each figure successively formed will be regular; but a mistake at any stage of the work is multiplied in each following step. Consequently, the larger 11 162 Archaeological History of Ohio. the initial square is made, the closer will be the approximation to exactness in the completed work. In fact there is no necessity for making more than a single series of measurements ; for with one cord of 525 feet for the line AB and two others somewhat longer but not to exceed 742 feet, for AP and PC — measures quite within the reach of any hunter of large game — a square can be at once laid off which will enclose an area of a little over 25 acres. The easiest method of constructing a square, when exact dimensions are not required, is to lay off a circle, divide the cir- cumference into four equal arcs, and draw chords to these. To construct an octagon, lay off a square ; prolong the diam- eters as far beyond the sides as desired; connect their ends with the corners of the square. The angles of the octagon will vary with the extent to which the diameters are carried; but this extension must not exceed two-tenths of the original length, at each end of the diameter. A slight increase beyond this limit will produce a square whose diameters are the diagonals of the one on which it was built; a greater increase will form a four- pointed star. It may be objected that such calculations as the last surpass the abilities of barbarians. We have the evidence of the works themselves that calculations or measurements of some description were made ; those indicated are the simplest possible for tolerably accurate work. Anything less intricate must be mere guess-work or " rule of thumb." At any rate, people who would find these simple methods beyond their reach, would certainly be unable to devise means for ensuring the " mathematical accuracy " of which we hear so much. ^ GEOMETRIC ENCLOSURES. It would be equally impracticable and unnecessary to attempt an illustration or even a description of all the enclosures In the State. But all of those usually termed " geometrical " may be presented In order that the reader may perceive for himself upon what a slender basis this so-called '' civilization " Is laid. THE NEWARK WORKS. In Licking county there are probably 500 earthworks of all descriptions without including in the estimate the excavations at Flint Ridge. In the vicinity of Newark, mile after mile of Licking County. 163 embankments, circles and other geometric figures, parallels, lodge-sites, and mounds, covering an area of more than four square miles, amaze the archaeologist and curiosity seeker alike as they spend hours and days in traversing the ground in every 'direction, constantly finding something worthy of investigation and description. Part of these are shown in Figure lo (S. & D., 98, Plate XXXVI, No. 4), which is a map of six miles of the Raccoon Map of 6/x Miles OF THE RACCOON CREEK VALLEY Lickincj Co. Ohio Figure 10. creek valley. There are numerous mounds and many other works within this area which are not represented. The principal groups, commonly known as the Newark works, are shown in Figure ii (B. E., 12, 458, Plate XXX), from a survey made by Whittlesey for Squier and Davis. The plan is erroneous in several particulars, although it furnishes an excel- lent idea of the system in its entirety. Owing to the growth of the city many of the remains are now obliterated. Atwater's map shows only the large enclosures and parallel walls. On the brink of the terrace are represented embankments extending from the small circles containing mounds, which lie 164 Archaeological History of Ohio. U'erj/^' ^t'•>>oV ;l^ •I H The Nezmrk Works. 165 to the south and the north of the parallels; all these walls stop at the top of the terraces, but " graded ways " are indicated in the lower bottoms, in line with them. His drawing of the eastern portion of these works is quite different from Whittlesey's. He claims that the streams were at the foot of the high terraces when the works were constructed, and says ''passages down to the water have been made of easy ascent and descent." — At- water, 126-8. According to the description which accompanies Whittle- sey's plan, "The greatest elevation of the embankment of the great circle E, is sixteen feet; the greatest depth of the ditch, thirteen feet; the wall will average twelve feet high by fifty feet base, and the ditch seven feet in depth by thirty-five in breadth. It is not, as has been generally repre- sented, a true circle; its form is that of an ellipse, its diameters being twelve hundred and fifty and eleven hundred and fifty feet respectively. There are two or three slight irregularities in the outline, too trifling, however, to be indicated in the plan. " The wall of the circle is six feet high and of the octagon and square about five and a half. At each of the angles of the octagon is a gate- way, which is covered upon the interior by a small, truncated pyramidal elevation, five feet in height, and measuring eighty by one hundred feet at the base. These are not of the same class as the * Temple Mounds,' and were made for a different purpose, apparently, though it is some- what uncertain what may have been the intention of either. It is probable that most, if not all, of them were in some manner connected with the de- fense of the enclosure to which they belong. " The enclosure F is a true circle two thousand eight hundred and eighty feet in circumference. At a point immediately opposite the en- trance it would almost seem that the builders had originally determined to carry out parallel lines ; but after proceeding one hundred feet, had suddenly changed their minds and finished the enclosure, by throwing an immense mound across the uncompleted parts. It has been pretty thoroughly excavated, but the excavations seem to have disclosed nothing, except an abundance of rough stones, which must have been brought from the creek or some other remote locality, as none are scattered over the remarkable plain upon which these works are situated. "It would be unprofitable to indulge in speculations as to the prob- able origin and purpose of this group of works." — S. & D., 68-71, con- densed. The rough stones noted in the circle F are angular fragments of sandstone, not at all waterworn, which could be procured only on some of the hills in the vicinity. They constitute a large part, perhaps half, of the wall about this closed entrance. The 166 Archaeological History of Ohio. remainder is of the soil covering the adjacent ground. Never- theless McLean says of this part of the wall: "It was discovered that [it] was constructed entirely of clay. Fromi this it has been concluded that originally it was built of sun-dried bricks,, but during the lapse of ages, the external or exposed surfaces have crum- bled away. It may be that all the larger works of this series together with the heavier walls were either composed of or else faced with sun- dried bricks." — McLean, 33. No triice of " sun-dried bricks " or any other sort of bricks, has ever been found in connection with prehistoric works in Ohio- — unless of intrusive character. Figure 12. Some errors in the plan and description may be pointed out. The northern parallels, gh, reach only to the brink of the- upper terrace. There is no reason for supposing they ever reached down its slope as indicated, for not only is there no' inequality of its surface apparent, but the owner of the land, who was familiar with them before this survey was made, says they terminated at the top of the bank. Atwater correctly rep- resents this feature. Neither is there the slightest evidence of an elevated way across the low ground beyond, as represented in some drawings. Its surface is irregular, with numerous slight elevations and depressions, none of which are artificial. The small circle G is placed too far to the north ; between it and the parallels is the singular structure shown in Figure I2* (B. E. 12,460, Fig. 315). The Newark Works. 167 There are two large deep excavations immediately north of the octagon, and also slight depressions along the walls as well as at some little distance away, both within and without the enclosure, whence the earth for the embankment was taken. The terrace on which the octagon stands is about fifty feet above the creek-bed. Had clay been desired for the walls, it could have been obtained in any amount in the low ground along the stream. There is a strong spring of very cold water under the bank at the point nearest the work. All the low terraces bordering that upon which these remains are situated, are liable to overflow. The streams have flowed immediately under precipitous banks of the upper terrace at a period quite recent — in some parts, undoubtedly since the works were built. Yet, notwithstanding assertions of various writers, from the time of Atwater down to the present, there is no indica- tion of a roadway or even of an easy grade having been con- structed to make access to water more convenient. North of the octagon is a gulley or depression, apparently not due to sur- face drainage, which might be the result of a path worn in the face of the bank; but it extends only five or six feet back from the terrace margin. Between the two parallels, gh, and also between those at the southeast part of the group, is a re-entrant curve, which may be artificial, although similar indentations are quite common along streams anywhere, in loose material. The slope of these concavities is as great, at their upper part, as that of the unaltered terrace on either side ; so that, if dug at all, it was not for the purpose of facilitating passage in either direction. The walls of the southeast parallels stop at the top of the bank ; indeed, one of them does not quite reach the edge, though this may be due to the plow. The re-entrant space here may result from digging out gravel to make a causeway across the old channel that marks a former course of the creek along the foot of the terrace ; but it is possible that this raised space is due to an ox-bow loop at this spot. In tHe figure a section across the end of this level shows a roadway built up, with a wall along each side of it. This section is imaginary, as no trace of an artificial wall now exists there, though numerous hummocks and little ridges diversify the surface. Besides, there is no reason for the " way " ending where shown, as the same general level holds for a considerable distance. There is a natural break across a 168 Archaeological History of Ohio. sharp angle of the terrace a few rods from this "artificial grade ;" it is very plainly natural. From its position the Mound Builders could not utilize it. The other break may have been made by water in the same way and at the same time, and the walls carried to it because it was in a convenient position. The three mounds in a Hne west of the pond (which is only a swamp much of the year) are close to the bank; the fourth can not be found, and could not exist as shown, because there is not room for it between the pond and the other mounds. The line of their trend should be to the northwest instead of to the northeast. The ditch within the large circle, E, is considerably deeper at the entrance than elsewhere ; the bottom presents the appear-" ance customary to old depressions, being of a grayish clay color when dry but resembling the loam around when wet. There is nothing looking at all like the compact clay bottom, intentionally made, reported by some late investigators who are apparently not familiar with the different aspects of the various soils and subsoils. It has also been asserted by some writers that an " un- derground tunnel " connects the ditch with a pond on the out- side, by which means the " moat " may be flooded at will. Aside from the question of what possible benefit could be derived from such flooding, is the fact that the surface of the pond is lower than any part of the ditch. An inspection of figure 13, (plate XXXI, B. E. 12, 460), the " Fair Ground Circle," E, and of figure 14, (plate XXXIV, B. E. 12, 466), the *' Square," will show that these enclosures approach much nearer to true geometrical symmetry than is shown in the preceding plate, from Squier and Davis. The wall of the circle varies in width from 35 to 55 feet, and in height from 5 to 14 feet. The ditcH is from 28 to 41 feet wide, and from 8 to 13 feet deep. It will be seen that the amount of earth taken from the ditch is not equal to that in the bank. Measuring on top of the wall, the longest diameter (from east to west) is 1,189 ^^^^'^ the shortest, I; 163 feet. A true circle will fall within the zone or ring cov- ered by the wall, frequently coinciding with its middle line for some yards. This is different from Whittlesey's "ellipse." The southern corner of the square is destroyed; by assum- ing to be at the point (8) where the adjacent lines intersect when produced, we find the angles to be : — At station 2, 90° 51' ; at sta- The Newark Works. 169 figure 13 - The " Fair Ground Circle " at Newark. 170 Archaeological History of Ohio. iwwfflwpwjifiwiiiawiw^^^ V 7. Figure 14 — The " Square " at Newark. The Marietta Works. 171 tion 3, 89° 40' ; at station 6, 90° 26' ; and at station 8, 89° 3'. The sides, measured in the same direction, are 928 feet ; 926 feet ; 939 feet; and 951 feet. The maximum diameter of the " observatory circle " (F) is 1,059 feet; the minimum, 1,050 feet; the mean, 1,054.5. The nearest exact circle has a diameter of 1,054 feet, and the widest divergence between this and the line of actual survey is four feet. The " circumference of 2,880 feet " must have been measured entirely inside the embankment. In the Octagon, the angles at center, of the diagonals, are only 10' from right angles ; of the diameters, only 2'. In these plates, as in all that are copied from the report of the Bureau of Ethnology's reports on the mounds of the Central States, the solid black line represents the chords or dis- tances which were laid off before any bearings were taken; the angles, when not on the wall, are at the intersection of adjacent straight lines. All stakes were set as near the middle as was possible by measure and judgment. Greater care was taken in gettings bearings and distances than is usually employed in rail- way or canal surveys. Middleton and I, who did the work, stand by our figures, and with all the more reason, too, that in some cases they completely upset our antecedent ideas and opin- ions. These magnificent works bid fair to remain for the instruc- tion of future ages. The Licking County Fair Association holds the title to the circle E, while the State has acquired the circle F and the octagon. It is probable that none of these will ever suffer any diminution in size. In fact, the State authorities have a little overdone the matter of restoration. Unless there is considerable reduction, from weathering, of that portion which has lately been built up, visitors in generations to come will infer that some parts were originally heavier than others, when such was not the case. As the earth become more compact, the difference will be less ap- parent than at present. THE MARIETTA WORKS. In figure 15, (S. & D., 73, plate XXVI), is a reproduction, from the survey of Whittlesey, of the works at Marietta. The plain on which these works stand is from 80 to 100 feet above the river level, and about three-fourths of a mile long by half a mile broad. 172 Archaeological History of Ohio. •SOO lOOO zooo Figure 15 — The Marietta Works. "The walls of the principal square, where they remain undisturbed, are now [the survey was made in 1837] between five and six feet high by twenty or thirty base; those of the smaller enclosure are somewhat less." — S. & D., 73. Priest's and other old maps show parallel walls extending •outwardly toward the river, from the middle and northwest gate- Works at Charleston, West Virginia. 173 ways of the larger enclosure. These do not appear upon later charts, nor is any mention made of them. It is doubtful whether they ever existed. The large conical mound, with its encircling ditch and em- bankment is now included within the cemetery grounds, and is secure from injury. The flat-topped mounds are reserved as parks; with commendable care, the town authorities have, from the first, taken measures for their preservation. The " Via Sa- cra" or graded way, to be described later, is also public property. All of these are subject only to such damage as may result from persons walking on them ; a small matter, easily remedied. Everything else relating to this group has been obliterated by the town, which now covers the entire terrace. In the early days of Alarietta, in an effort to determine the age of the works, "Dr. Cutler, Gov. St. Clair, and many other gentlemen, ascertained that one tree somewhat decayed at the center, was found to contain, at least, four hundred and sixty-three circles. In one of the angles of a square, a decayed stump measured eight feet in diameter at the surface of the ground; and though the body of the tree was so mouldered as scarcely to be perceived above the surface of the earth, we were able to trace the decayed wood, under the leaves and rubbish, nearly one hun- dred feet." — Harris, 154, condensed. WORKS AT CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA. A group of mounds and enclosures extending for two miles along the Kanawha river, just below Charleston, plainly marks the seat of a colony of Ohio Mound Builders. Norris opened a number of them, which in construction and contents are identi- cal with the Ohio mounds ; and one of the largest was so similar in every respect to the mound at Grave Creek, West Virginia, that it might have been due to the same workmen. — Burial Mounds, 53, et seq. THE PORTSMOUTH WORKS. Figure i6 (S. & D., yy, plate XXVII), represents the Ports- mouth Works, consisting of three groups, two of which are on the Kentucky side and one in Ohio. "A reference to the accompanying map, exhibiting a section of eight miles of the Ohio Valley, will show the relative positions and general plan, though not the exact proportions of the series." The lines of these embankments "are not far from one hundred and sixty feet 174 Archaeological History of Ohio, apart," each "measuring about four feet in height, by twenty feet base." "The total length of the parallels now traceable may be estimated at Figure 16. eight miles, giving sixteen miles of embankment to the parallels alone. If we include the walls of the entire series, we have a grand total of upwards of twenty miles." — S. & D., 77. The Portsmouth Works. 175 Figure 17 — Work opposite old mouth of the Scioto. 176 Archaeological History of Ohio. It is almost certain that some portions of these works had been destroyed by natural influences prior to the settlement of the country by the whites. Figure 17 (S. & *D., 78, plate XXVIII), shows that portion of the Portsmouth Group which is in Kentucky, "Opposite the old mouth of the Scioto, about two miles below the town of Portsmouth. The terrace on which it is situated * * * ig much cut up by ravines and is quite uneven. * * * 'pj^g principal work is an exact rectangle, eight hundred feet square. The walls are about twelve feet high, by thirty-five or forty feet base, except on the east, where advantage is taken of the rise of ground, so as to elevate them about fifty feet above the centre of the area." The long lines to either side " are exactly parallel to the sides of the main work, and are each two thousand one hundred feet long. Some measurements make them of unequal length ; but after a careful calculation of the space occupied by the interrupting ravines, they are found to be very nearly, not exactly, of the same length." A singular work is shown at N. "It is on a very narrow point between two deep ravines with nearly vertical banks. The embankment of this work is heavy, and the ditch deep and wide and interior to the wall. From the bottom of the ditch to the top of the wall, is perhaps twelve or fifteen feet. The enclosed oval area is only sixty feet wide by one hundred and ten long." Other details of the group are well shown in the figure. — S. & D., 78. There is a slight error in the course of the east parallel extending southward; it extends down the terrace bank to the ravine; beyond this, it is built over the point between the two^ ravines. Apparently it once extended across the entire distance unbroken. This is shown in A, figure 17. The group within the present limits of Portsmouth, now completely destroyed, is shown on a larger scale in figure 18. "The most reasonable conjecture respecting it is, that it was in some way connected with the superstitions of its builders; in what man-- ner, of course, it is impossible to determine." The third group of this series is in Kentucky, near the mouth of Tygart river. "It consists of four concentric circles, placed at irregu- lar intervals in respect to each other, and cut at right angles by four broad, avenues, which conform in bearing very nearly to the cardinal points. A large mound is placed in the center ; it is truncated and terraced, and has . a graded way leading to its summit. * * * Qn the supposition that this work was in some way connected with the religious rites and cere- monies of the builders, this mound must have afforded a most conspicu- ous place for their observance and celebration. And it is easy, while standing on its summit, to people it with the strange priesthood of ancient superstition, and to fill its avenues and line its walls with the thronging devotees of a mysterious worship. Whatever may have been the divinity The Portsmouth Works, 177 th V o oo / \..^^ "%, PORTSMOUTH GROUP) 600 F££T Figure 18 — Works on the Site of Portsmouth. 12 P0f^T>5M0UTH GROUP €CAL£ aoo FeeiT Figure 19 — Large mound and concentric circles near Tygart River^ 178 Archaeological History of Ohio. of their belief, order, symmetry, and design were among his attributes ; if, as appears most likely, the works that most strongly exhibit these features were dedicated to religious purposes, and were symbolical in their design." — S. & D., 78. A better understanding- of this unique structure may be had from the enlarged plan in figure 19. On the Kentucky side of the river, between the most western of the Portsmouth Group and that above the mouth of Tygart River (which by an odd error is marked '' Tiger Creek " on the map) are several mounds which are omitted from the general plan. One of these is represented in figure 20 [S. & D., fig. 19, p. 82.] Figure 20.— Mound with encircling ditch and embankment, Greenup County. Ky. " It consists of an embankment of earth five feet high by thirty feet base, with an interior ditch twenty-five feet across by six feet deep, enclos- ing an area ninety feet in diameter, in the center of which rises a mound eight feet high by forty feet base." It serves as a type of hundreds of similar structures in the mound-building area ; the opening in this is to the south, but it is usually toward the east. The wall and ditch are ter- minated on each side of the gateway, so that entrance is on the natural surface. — S. & D., 82. The best and most accurate account of the lower group of the Portsmouth Works which has yet been printed, is that by Lewis. A map accompanies the account. He finds the total area actually Covered by artificial work in this group to be about nine acres and the cubic contents approximately 42,000 cubic yards. He corrects certain errors of Squier and Davis in calling artificial some ravines and eminences of natural formation. — Lew^is, Fort, 375. The Barnes Works. 179 The walls of this enclosure, taken as a whole, are heavier than those of any other of work in a similar situation. It is plainly not a defensive structure, because the south corner runs over a natural knoll in such a manner as to make its inner slope continuous with the slope of the terrace. There is an easy approach from the outside, while on the inside the wall is steep as earth will lie, and more than twenty feet in vertical height. WORKS IN PIKE COUNTY. The work on the Barnes farm, in Seal (now Scioto) town- ship, five miles below Piketon, is shown in figure 21 [S. & D., 66, plate XXIV.] "It consists principally of * * * the square and the circle; the former measuring in this instance a little upwards of eight hundred feet upon each side, the latter ten hundred and fifty feet in diameter. They are connected by parallel walls, four hundred and seventy-five feet long, placed one hundred feet apart. These are intersected by a runway, which has here cut a passage in the terrace one hundred and twenty-five feet wide by fifteen deep. * * ^ We have here the square, the circle, and the ellipse, separate and in combination, — all of them constructed with geometric accuracy. * * * Nothing can surpass the symmetry of the small work A. * * * The work D consists of a small circle, from which leads off a wall, extending along the brow of the terrace bank, until the latter turns, nearly at right angles, towards the north." — S. & D., m. There are several errors in this description. ^ is a circular embankment around a square level area; but the ditch, so far from being narrow and touching the circle only at the corners (see figure 22, which is reproduced from the cut in their text), reaches the outer embankment all around. In other words, the outside line of the ditch is a circle, while the inside is a square. In their Plate XXXIII, No. IB, Squier and Davis show a work near Mount Sterling, Kentucky which is precisely like their figure of the circle A. Whether it is correctly represented in the cut, or whether the two are of the same nature there is no means of knowing. At any rate the former is associated with other works which are more closely allied in form with the works farther south than with anything in Ohio. The section e-f in " Ancient Monuments " is wrong ; there was never any wall here, although there is a ditch terminated at the east by an embankment, as shown. A narrow strip south of the ditch is of the same general level as the field north of it. East 180 Archaeological History of Ohio. ANCIENT WORKS Pike County, Ohio scAt-e Figure 21.— Enclosures five miles below Piketon. Works in Pike and Ross Counties. 181 of the circle i^ is a small ravine resulting from the wash of a pathway established here for the purpose of ascending and descending the bank. The half circle beyond has been somewhat reduced from its original size, by the caving off of the gravel bank on which it stands. The square measures 854 feet east and west by 852 feet north and south. The parallels are only 68 feet apart; the eastern one measures 647 feet, the western 621 feet, to the circle. From the square to the ravine is 427 feet for the eastern wall, and 400 for the western. The ravine is no feet wide. All these figures, which are correct, vary considerably from those of Squier ..^^bk. -:^^-£^ — ^-r- -^^y^,Sv^j^-f=^^^:^-^^-^-^ ^r^^^; '^im; Figure 22.— Ditch and Embankment, incorrectly drawn. Pike County. and Davis. The large circle is so nearly destroyed by cultivation, that it can no longer be traced with certainty. WORKS IN ROSS COUNTY. The most interesting archaeological district in the State, is comprised in Ross county. There is no single group which equals the one at Newark; but if the combinations of square and circle occurring in several parts of the county were brought together, as are the two at Newark, they would cover a much larger area and present features of greater interest. Squier and Davis say "Not far from one hundred enclosures of various sizes, and five hundred mounds, are found in Ross county, Ohio. The number of tumuli in the state may be safely estimated at ten thousand and the number of enclosures at one thousand or fifteen hundred." — S. & D., 4. 182 Archaeological History of Ohio. They were too modest in their estimate of Ross. The entire number of such remains is probably not less than one thousand. Figure 23 — Twelve Miles of the Scioto Valley. This may seem extravagant. But let the reader examine figure 22, [S. & D., plate II] "Twelve miles of the Scioto Valley", and figure 24 [S. & D., plate III, pt. 1] "Six miles of Paint Ross County Enclosures. 18a 184 Archaeological History of Ohio. Creek Valley " ; let him remember that, owing to the small scale on which these are constructed, scores of mounds and other works had to be omitted ; finally, let him bear in mind that these maps show only a small portion of the county and that much of the remainder is dotted with these remains; — and he will be willing to concede that one thousand is a moderate claim. Only the principal groups will be here considered ; first those near the river, then those in Paint Valley. HARNESS WORKS. Figure 25 [S. & D., 56, plate XX] is a reproduction of Squier and Davis's survey of the " Liberty Township Works " on the Harness farm eight miles south of Chillicothe. The pointer on their map should be turned 90 degrees to the left. As the drawing is given here, the top is toward the east. The authors say : — " This work is a fair type of a singular series occurring in the Scioto valley, — all of which have the same figures in combination, although occupying different positions with respect to each other, viz., a square and two circles. These figures are not only accurate squares and perfect circles, but are in most cases of corresponding dimensions, — that is to say, the sides of each of the squares are each ten hundred and eighty feet in length; and the diameter of each of the large and small circles, a fraction over seventeen hundred and eight hundred feet respectively. * * * It will be observed, that while the wall of the larger circle is interrupted by numerous narrow gateways, that of the smaller one is entire throughout, — a feature for which it is, of course, impossible to assign a reason. * * * The whole work appears to have been partly finished, or constructed in great haste. * * * No one would be apt to ascribe a defensive origin to this work, yet it is difficult to conceive for what other purpose a structure of such dimensions, embracing nearly one hundred acres, could have been designed." — S. & D., 56. In another place, after describing the many striking resem- blances in area and other properties to be observed in the works at Newark, Hopetown, High Bank, and Marietta, they say " It is not to be supposed that these numerous coincidences are the result of accident." — S. & D., 71. It can not be too often or too strongly impressed on the reader that these "coincidences," so often given and referred to in their text, have no existence in the works themselves. The larger circle of this group is plowed level, and no measure- ments could be obtained. The square is nearly obliterated, mak- ing any estimate of its angles or dimensions unsafe; but it The Liberty Township, or Harness Works. 185 ' •^e- >ArEA 4.0 ACRt.9 Diameter f 7 Soft ^UPPteMEr/TARY HAHNE^SS GROUP Ross County, OhJo SCALC Figure 25 — The "Liberty Township Works" of Squier and Davis. 186 Archaeological History of Ohio. appears to vary considerably from ''accuracy." The smaller circle, however, is all in woodland or pasture, and could be sur- veyed without difficulty. Under the impression that this was. the hypothetical figure given by Squire and Davis (see page 56) as absolute proof of the uniformity of curve, especial care was taken in its measurements. The diameter, it is true, is given in their plate as 800 feet,, while the supposed "perfect circle" had, according to their text, a circumference of 3,600 feet ; or, as it was platted, circumscribed, a dodecagon of 3,600 feet perimeter. It was evident from this that an error existed somewhere, which we hoped to locate. The result of the survey is shown in figure 26. Stakes were set 100 feet apart along the middle line of the embankment, beginning at the south side of the gateway. The bearing of each stake was then taken from the one next preced- ing. Had the curve been regular, as claimed by the authors, each angle of divergence, to the last one, would have been the same. Instead of that, they read as follows : 21° 35^; 8° 09\- 20° SV; 4° 45\ 10° 44^ 17° 16^ 17° ST; 11° 35\- 18° 35^; 14° 43^; 13° 54^; 19° 28\- 13° 13\ 17° 18^ 14° 29^; 7° 30\ 2° 36\ 5° 5?, 25° 19^ 19° Or; 12° 55^ 8° 48\ There wxre twenty-two full chains, making 2200 feet. The last chord, from station 23 to station 24, at the end of the wall was thirty feet, making the angle of divergence much smaller than it would have been with a full chord. The wall terminated abruptly at station 1; as this portion is in land on which the original timber is standing, there can be no presumption that it ever extended farther, although in the original survey it is rep- resented as reaching in an unbroken line to the gateway or open- ing and thence to the larger circle ; as shown by the dotted lines in figure 26. From station 1 to station 24 the distance is 313, feet, making the entire circuit, by this system of short chords, 2,543 feet. Measured exactly on the circle, with allowance for curvature, this figure would have been slightly larger. It is only thirty feet in excess of the circumference of a true circle with a diameter of 800 feet ; which goes to show that Squier and Davis merely ran a line around the embankment, called the work a ''perfect circle," and made the diameter 800 feet for even figures. In a "perfect circle" of this size, each reading of the compass at An Example of Mathematical Accuracy. 18T intervals of lOO feet would show a deviation of a little more than fourteen degrees. Yet they say "The greatest care has, in all cases, been taken to secure perfect fidelity in all essential particulars." — S. & D., 10. 1 -'- ArathQeohgicai History of Ohio. OUNLAF WOHHS f^e99 Coi^ntxt Ohio SOA nry 4/ tOro .f.j^xf J^^-:^-^ Figtm 3«w Enchsmres m R0U dmmty. 3fn bl/'.^//atlr group fs m :o ^ 202 Archaeological History of Ohio. " situated on the right bank of the Scioto river, six miles above Chillicothe, * * is rhomboidal in figure, with an avenue eleven hundred and thirty feet long extending to the south-east, and also a short avenue, leading from a gateway to the north, connecting with a small circle." — ■ S. & D, 63. There are a number of mounds within a mile of this group. It is very clear that the builders of the work had no wish to construct either a " perfect circle " or an " accurate square " ; for there is abundant room to make a figure of any form desired, on a much larger scale than the one found here. THE BLACKWATER GROUP. The " Blackwater Group" shown in figure 37 (S. & D.,, 61, No. 2) "is situated on the right bank of the Scioto river, eight miles above Chillicothe. It is especially remarkable for its singular parallels, A and B of the plan. Each of these is seven hundred and fifty feet long by sixty broad, measuring from center to center of the embankments. * * The ground embraced in the semi-circular works C and D is reduced several feet below the level of the plain on which they are located." — S. & D., 63.. JUNCTION GROUP. The system represented in figure 38 (S. & D., 6t, Plate XXII, No. 1) is for some reason called "Junction Group" by Squier and Davis. It is situated on Paint Creek, two miles south-west of Chillicothe. Each enclosure "consists of a wall three feet high, with an interior ditch." "That they were not designed for defensive purposes is obvious, and that they were devoted to religious rites is more than probable." They may have answered a double purpose, and may have been used for the celebration of games, of which we can have no definite conception. It has been sug- gested that the enclosure A, as also B and C, were occupied by struc- tures, temples perhaps, which in the lapse of time have disappeared. Sim- ilar groups are frequent,— indeed, small circles, resembling those here represented, constitute, in the Scioto valley, by far the most numerous class of remains. They seldom occur singly, but generally in connection with several others of the same description, and accompanied by one or more mounds; sometimes they are connected with long parallel lines of embankments." — S. & D., 61. Enclosures in Ross County. 203 Figure 204 Archaeological History of Ohio. CLARK S WORKS^ OR THE HOPEWELL GROUP. Figure 39 (S. & D., 26, Plate X) is the ''Clark's Work" of Squier and Davis, which is now better known as the " Hope- well Group," from the name of the present owner. An abridg- ment of the description by Squier and Davis follows : " It has many of the characteristics of a work of defense, and is accordingly classified as such, although differing in position and some other respects from the entrenched hills. The minor works which it en- closes, or which are in combination with it, are manifestly of a different character, probably religious in their design, and would seem to point to the conclusion, that this was a fortified town, rather than a defensive work of last resort. Its general form is that of a parallelogram, twenty- eight hundred feet by eighteen hundred, with one of its corners somewhat rounded. On the side next the creek, it is bounded by a wall four feet high, running along the very edge of the terrace bank, and conforming to its irregularities ; these however are very slight. Its remaining sides are bounded by a wall and exterior ditch ; the wall is six feet high by thirty- five feet base, and the ditch of corresponding dimensions. The lines ascend the declivity of the table land back of the terrace, and extend along its brow, dipping into the ravines and rising over the ridges into which it has been cut by the action of water. Wherever the ravines are of any considerable depth, the wall has been washed away ; but in all cases leaving evidences that it once extended uninterruptedly through. The bank of the terrace is thirty, that of the table land fifty feet in height. The area thus enclosed is one hundred and eleven acres. To the right of the principal work, and connecting with it by a gateway at its center, is a smaller work of sixteen acres area. It is a perfect square; its sides measuring respectively eight hundred and fifty feet. The walls of the smaller work are much lighter than those of the large one, and have no attendant ditch. Within the area of the great work are two small ones; one of them is a perfect circle, three hundred and fifty feet in diameter, bounded by a single slight wall, with a gateway opening to the west ; the other is a semi-circular enclosure, two thousand feet in circumference, bounded by a slight circumvallation and ditch. Within this are seven mounds; three of which are joined together, forming a continuous ele- vation thirty feet high by five hundred feet long, and one hundred and eighty feet broad at the base. Nearly all the mounds examined were places of sacrifice, containing altars. Where the defences descend from the table lands to the left, is a gully or torrent-bed, which was turned by the builders from its natural course (towards x) into the ditch. The slight wall along the terrace bank is composed chiefly of smooth, water- worn stones, taken from the creek and cemented together by tough, clayey earth. The wall of the square is wholly of clay, and its outlines may be easily traced by the eye, from a distance, from its color. It appears, as do the embankments of many other works, to have been slightly burned. Clark's Works, or the Hopczvell Group. 205 That they have in some cases been subjected to the action of fire, is too obvious to admit of doubt. At the point 2 in the lower wall of the square Figure 39. stones and large masses of pebbles and earth, much burned, are turned up by the plow. The comparative slightness of the wall and the absence of a ditch, at the points possessing natural defences — the extension of the artificial defences upon the table lands overlooking and commanding 206 Archaeological History of Ohio. the terrace — the facilities afforded for an abundant supply of water, as well as the large area enclosed, with its mysterious circles and sacred mounds — all go to sustain the conclusion, that this was a fortified town or city of the ancient people. The embankments measure together nearly three miles in length; and a careful computation shows that, including mounds, not less than three millions cubic feet of earth were used in their composition." — S. & D., 26, et seq. Very little is left of the wall along the edge of the terrace toward the creek; enough, however, to show that, like all the other walls, it is composed of material similar to that on which it rests. The stream is now fully a fourth of a mile away, and flows on shale. The terrace bank, at whose foot it probably flowed when this enclosure was inhabited, is composed of the glacial drift common on all streams ; instead of being " thirty feet high," it is not more than fifteen. It would have been no great task to carry the material of the wall from its slope. The " clay " of the other portions of the embankment is of the same nature as that in the fields around. The darker earth, due to decay of vegetation, washes off of the upper part of eleva- tions, and accumulates around their base; the difference in color is sometimes quite pronounced, and so has led to the supposition that material for the earthworks came from some other locality. It is impossible at this late day either to verify or contradict their calculation of the amount of earth heaped up. WORKS OPPOSITE BOURNEVILLE. In Figure 40 (S. & D., 57, Plate XXI, No. 1) is seen the work on the Baum farm opposite Bourneville. The "hills" to the right are composed of gravel and sand of glacial origin probably marking the limit here of the ice-sheet. A bold spring rising in them sends a perennial stream toward the junction of the square and the larger circle. This and surface drainage have carried down sufficient of the loose material from above to obliterate all traces of the wall and excavated areas at this point. The square in this group is nearly exact ; the greatest varia- tion, at any corner, from a right angle is only 47 ' ; the difiference between the longest and the shortest side is twelve feet. WORKS NEAR BAINBRIDGE. One of the largest works in the Scioto valley is that shown in Figure 41 (S. & D., 57, Plate XXI, No. 2). It is in Paint Enclosures in Ross County. 207 .♦ y \ 4^^ ^^*# S/^i/M WORK6 /?06S Coor7fy,Ohio. SCAL.C ■^ /ooo ^S£-r \/ / Figures 40 and 41. 208 Archaeological History of Ohio. creek bottoms about three miles east of Bainbridge. Much of the Hne of embankment is very heavy. According to Squier and Davis, the eUiptical mound is " two hundred and forty feet long by one hundred and sixty broad, and thirty feet in height/' The last measure is greatly exaggerated ; the mound is not more than twenty feet high, and being still covered with the original timber, it cannot have appreciably lowered since their time. They also say that " several very large and beautiful mounds, composed entirely of clay, occur about one-fourth of a mile distant." These mounds are of the ordinary earth around them; one, in fact, is mostly sand and is much worn by the weather. The usual mea- sure of " ten hundred and eighty feet " is given as the length of each side of the square ; the south wall of this is now destroyed, but a measure of i,o8o feet from the ends of the north wall, along the east and west sides, will terminate in the thoroughfare which, according to their illustration (Plate XXI, No. 2), cuts across the square. WORKS AT CIRCLEVILLE. One group of the larger enclosures was situated north of Ross county. There was formerly a square connected by parallel lines with a circular enclosure, on the site of Circleville; the town takes its name from having made its beginning within the latter. This enclosure was peculiar in consisting of two concentric embankments, with a ditch between them; the only case of the kind in the Scioto valley. All these works are now entirely destroyed. Before they were defaced, two quite opposite views were held as to their purpose. " The square has such a number of gateways, as seem intended to facilitate the entrance of those who would attack it. And both it and the circle were completely commanded by the mound, rendering it an easier matter to take, than defend it." — Harrison, 225. " The round fort was picketed in, if we are to judge from the appear- ance of the ground on and about the walls. Half way up the outside of the inner wall, is a place distinctly to be seen, where a row of pickets once stood, and where it was placed when this work of defence was originally erected." — Atwater, 145. A zealous advocate of the recent origin of mounds, has inter- preted this statement to mean that Atwater saw the pickets in position. But it is clear that he refers only to a break, or step, in the slope. The Miami Region. 209 On review, it will be seen that the larger square and cir- cular works in combination, ordinarily termed " sacred enclos- ures," on which have been built up such thrilling stories of a " high culture," with all its attendant elements of ''advanced knowledge," " central government," '' ruling priesthood," '' cen- ters of modern population," etc., etc., in the Mississippi valley in prehistoric times, are just eleven in number ; the Marietta group having no circle. Seven of these are on farming land, at least three miles from the nearest village of a thousand inhabitants. Two of them are at the little towns of Frankfort and Circleville. The remaining two are at Newark and Chillicothe, neither of which can claim to be much of a " city." The works which do occur at or near larger places are not of the same character as the enclosures in question. The identity of measurements, the uniformity of curves, the exactness of angles, do not exist. With this removal of the foundation upon which the imposing edifice is reared, the whole fabric of a "lost empire " comes to earth, and instead of a " civilization " we see only a stage of barbarism. REMAINS IN THE VALLEYS OF THE MIAMIS. Although the remains in the two Miami valleys are quite different in character from those characteristic of the Scioto, and are less numerous, they possess as great interest for the archaeologist. The largest mound and the largest lowland en- closure in Ohio are below Dayton. That some portions of this part of the State supported a considerable population is apparent from the number of remains shown in Figure 42 (S. & D., Plate III, Part 2), which gives a view of " Six miles of the Great Miami valley." There are other localities where as many earthworks can be found in the same space. THE TURNER GROUP. The most remarkable structure in this part of the State is that on the Little Miami river, between Milford and Newtown, now known as the " Turner Group." One portion of the work, unique so far as known, is thus described. " On a detached ridge, composed of limestone gravel, covered with a. clay loam, is a low wall nearly in the form of a circle. The average diameter of the circle is four hundred and seventy feet. Outside of the circular figure, there is a space from twenty to thirty feet wide, on the 14 210 Archaeological History of Ohio. natural surface of the ground. On the two opposite sides of the circle where it occupies the height of the ridge, is an external ditch, enclosing about half the figure. It is from seventy to eighty-five feet broad at the top, and from twelve to eighteen feet deep. On the east is an embank- ment or grade extending by a gradual slope, from the enclosure A to the plain. It is one hundred and sixty-eight feet wide where it joins A, and has, at the edges, raised side-walls like those made for pavements in EXHIBITIlf» A SECTION OF SIX MILE5 OXEAT MIAMI VALLET irra^/ rfs ^Incifnt ^IforiumentJ Figure 42. cities with a drain or gutter inside. The space between the sideways is rounded like a turnpike, as represented in the section dc. Its length is six hundred feet. It reaches to the next terrace, twenty-five feet lower. There are some examples of graded ways among the ancient works of Ohio, but none resembling this." — Whittlesey, Works, 9, condensed. Putnam describes this as *' A hill through which two ditches, 30 feet deep had been cut, separating the hill into three parts. On the hill is a circle 550 feet in diameter, surrounding two mounds. The earth from the ditches was The Turner Group. 211 used to make the graded way from the top of the hill to the level land below. This graded way connects with an embankment of earth 1500 feet in diameter. At the foot of the graded way is a small circle enclos- ing a burial mound. South of this was the great group of altar mounds, around each of which was a wall of stones, four feet high, built below the surrounding level of the field." — Putnam XX, 554. Professor Putnam is at fault regarding the depth of the ditches. The knoll (or " hill " as he calls it) is less than thirty feet higher than the surrounding level, and the ditches nowhere reach more than half the depth, except near one end ; some of the lowering here may be due to erosion. In this region there are three distinct terraces. The upper- most is represented by a few scattered knolls, most of it having been removed while the Little Miami was scouring out a channel There is an isolated remnant near the river, having an elevation over the next lower terrace of nearly thirty feet; and it is from this that the graded way descends. The latter is composed of gravel and earth. The lower portion, as exposed by a railway cut, is plainly of natural origin; the upper part, however, is of soil of a different character from the material beneath. The slope along its top from one terrace to the other, is gradual but not uniform; while the natural slope of the banks to either side of it is quite abrupt, such as would be left by a stream flowing at its foot. There is only a thin deposit of soil on the highest terrace ; the circle and included mounds are of much coarser material which, it is clear, came from the deep ditches at either side. There is a much greater thickness of soil on most of the lower terrace, a ravine near by showing several feet of silt free from gravel. If the graded way is built up from the lower plain, the material composing it must have been taken in part from the artificial ditches, and in part from the terrace on which it stands ; for while much gravel is found on its surface, the finer earth exposed by the railway cut is of different color from that found in the works above it. Owing probably to long cultivation there is not now the slightest trace of sidewalls along the embank- ment as described by Whittlesey and shown by the model in the Cincinnati Art Museum ; nor does it seem possible that the amount of earth now above the surface level could be so disposed as to give the form of the model. The great change which can be wrought in such loose material in a few years by farming opera- tions and by heavy rains upon freshly plowed ground, render it 212 Archaeological History of Ohio. unsafe, however, to advance any definite opinion in regard to= this. The position and slope of the graded way or spur are such as to indicate that it is artificial ; while its magnitude, so far be- yond any imaginable utility, would lead to the belief that it must be natural. The probability is that a projecting point was left by a loop in the stream which once flowed under this bank ; and that the Mound Builders seeing in this feature something which they could turn to advantage, modified its form in some measure by their own labor. What purpose or object they may have had in so doing is a matter of conjecture. The question of its origin can be settled only by a careful examination of trenches cut across it, to ascertain whether the interior shows any evidence of surface material at a level below that reached by the plow. AT CINCINNATI. Dr. Drake thus enumerates the ancient works in the vicinity of Cincinnati. He falls into the same error as Harrison, in con- sidering the various '' inequalities of surface " artificial when they are plainly natural. " The remains on the site of Cincinnati, are an ellipse 800 by 600 feet, the bank not over three feet high ; what seems to be the segment of a very large circle, though it can be traced only three blocks ; a circle sixty feet in diameter ; two low parallels connected at the ends ; an excavation 12 feet deep and fifty feet across ; two other shapeless and insulated eleva- tions, more than six feet in height, which, it seems probable are artificial ; and four mounds, the largest about 35 feet high before being disturbed. In addition, the site of our town exhibits many other inequalities of sur- face, which are no doubt artificial ; but they are too much reduced, and their configuration is too obscure, to admit of their being described. The plains on the opposite side of the river have not a single vestige of this kind. The mound at Third and Main Streets was about eight feet high, one hundred and twenty long, and sixty broad. In it were found plummets of jasper, rock crystal, granite and other stones; pulley-like objects of cannel coal and argillaceous earth ; incised bones ; mica ; galena ; copper plates ; large marine shells cut in such manner as to serve for domestic utensils; spool-shaped copper objects; and the remains of not more than 20 or 30 skeletons." — Dr. Drake, 199, condensed. OTHER WORKS IN THE MIAMI VALLEYS. The complicated structure shown in figure 43 (S. & D., 94 plate XXXIV, No. i), is one mile east of Milford, in Clermont county; that in figure 44 (same. No. 2B), is about twenty miles farther east. — S. & D., 94. Miami Valley Enclosures, 213 V'.. \ ANCIENT WORK C ferment Cooofy, Oh/o. /COO ^£'£T Figure 43. Figure 44. The "Gridiron," Clermont County, Ohio. 214 Archaeological History of Ohio. The diverging lines of the first, on the hill, and the " grid- iron " interior arrangement of the other, induce some skepticism as to the accuracy of the drawings. Thomas makes the following comment on them: — " Some of the singular works described and figured in Ancient Monuments and elsewhere are to a large extent imaginary. Of these we may name Nos. 1 and 2, PI. XXXIV of that work. The wing to No. 1 is not only imaginary, but, according to the Bureau agent who visited the locality, was made impossible by the topography." — B. E. 12, 566. On a level terrace five miles north of Hamilton a double wall encloses with the terrace bank, an irregular space of about "25 acres. The inner ANCIENT \AJORK Bvfler Co. Ohio I Figure 45, wall is about three feet high, the outer four. They are parallel and only a few feet apart. An exterior ditch from five to six feet and 35 feet wide, probably furnished earth for both embankments. — S. & D., 29. The work shown in figure 45 (S. & D., 35, plate XIII, No. 2), "is situated near the village of Coleraine, Hamilton County, Ohio, on the right bank of the Great Miami river, and encloses an area of ninety-five acres. The walls have an average height of nine feet, and have an exterior ditch of proportionate dimensions. * * * The up- heaved gravel upon the exterior side of the wall, wherever it is under cultivation, supports dwarfed and sickly maize; while on the inner side: the grain is luxuriant." — S. & D. , 35. The explanation given in regard to the great thickness of gravel on the outer side of the wall also accounts for the ''clay embankments" sometimes found. Where there is a substratum of Square and Circles near Dayton. 215 clay, into which the ditch reaches, that material will form the top of the wall ; and when the ditch becomes partially filled, so that the clay in it is no longer visible, there is straightway an argument that " these walls are composed of earth which must have been carried a long distance, as there is none like it to be seen in the vicinity." (Compare the concluding sentence of the next para- graph.) Six miles below Dayton, on the east bank of the Miami, were a square and two circles, differing in plan from those of the Scioto valley in being placed at several hundred feet from each other. Not one of them was ever carried to completion, one side of the square being only half-finished, while a large arc was lacking in each circle. According to the surveyor's figures, the square would have enclosed thirty-one acres; the smaller circle had a diameter of 875 feet, the larger of 1950 feet. "The embankments are now between five and six feet high, and have a base fifty feet wide. They are composed of tough yellow clay, which is found to be superimposed on the loam, of the original level. It must have been brought from a distance, as there are no excavations perceptible in the vicinity. — S. & D., 82. This work is shown in figure 46 (S. & D., 82, plate XXIX). It is evident from the plan that, with the river where it now is, the larger figure could never have been made a ''perfect circle." If the uncompleted portion had been carried on with the same curvature, it would have reached the river some distance below the point of beginning; in which case it would no doubt have been adduced as another example of a work "partially destroyed by the encroachment of a stream, which fact is a proof of its extreme antiquity." The ''encroachment" could readily enough occur; but on the outside of a curve it may go on rapidly and be a matter of a quite recent period. With a single exception no recent surveys have been made which can serve as a check to the areas of works along the Great Miami, as given in "Ancient Monuments." The exception, how- ever, proves that the evil fate which led to such egregious mis- takes in the Scioto valley pursued the early surveyors farther west. In the first volume issued by the present Ohio Archaeo- logical and Historical Society, on page 266, Professor McFarland presents "a correct plan of the earthwork described by McBride in Squier and Davis, Plate XI, No. 2, and by McLean in his 'Mound Builders.' " McBride's plat " gives the area as ' 25 acres ' ; the text says ' 20 acres.' A careful survey made under my personal supervision. 216 Archaeoloi^ical History of Ohio. ANC/ENT WORK$ Mont<^on;cry County Oh/o. ^CALe /ooo /^scr Figure 46. Work near Oxford. 217 ■gives eight acres. * * * Only the wildest kind of guess work could have produced a plat so far out of the way in respect to size, shape and position." * * * Even so late as 1840, the stream flowed in that part marked ' old channel.' * * * The terrace mentioned by Mr. McBride is nothing but landslides." — McFarland, 265-7. The same investigation that corrected the mistake as to area of this enclosure, revealed the purpose of its creation. This one, at least, was a stockaded village. " A plowman said that when the field is fresh plowed the eye can easily trace out the center of the wall by a streak of dark earth. Acting on this hint we caused six or eight trenches to be cut directly across the wall, down to the general level of the earth. Looking into these cross- sections the most careless eye could not fail to detect immediately the position of the dark band. This was about one foot wide and was filled with earth of a darker hue. The spade cut through small pebbles of limestone which had been changed to lime, and thus the part of the cross-section occupied by the band was speckled with white spots. We also found pieces of charcoal too deep down to have been put there by accident." " It is evident that a row of pickets, or palisade, had been destroyed by fire, as there is no other way to account for the burned pebbles, charcoal, and tolerably uniform width of the black streak wherever a cross-cut was made. The narrow trench or cavity left by such burning, being hardened on the exposed faces by the heat, would remain open till a considerable amount of leaves or trash would accumulate in it, before caving in from the top. Fresh earth, thus covering the marks of fire and decay, would protect such traces from alteration until it was removed by cultivation or denudation ; so that if similar evidence is sought in other embankments, we must look for it at or near the natural surface of the ground." — McFarland, 268, condensed. If such use of palisades was customary among the Mound Builders, it is probable that many works which seem incomplete, as along steep banks or the edges of streams, had the missing parts thus supplied. * * j!j A square enclosure in Franklin county, located near Worth- ington, is presented in figure 47 (S. & D., PI. XXIX). The cut suflficiently explains its position relative to the streams and the general topography. The circle next represented, figure 48 (S. & D., 85, plate XXX No. 3,) is a mile east of Bourneville, on a high terrace. The authors say of it : — 218 Archaeological History of Ohio. ANCIENT WORK ^ f^ranA/in County, Ohio. ^^S('l!?i5!ii".%i)f^ Figure 47 — Square near Worthington. Figure 48 — Ellipse near Bourneville. Position of Enclosures, Etc. 219 "The small work here figured, is one of the most beautiful in the State of Ohio. * * * it consists of a wall of earth, eight or ten feet in height, with a broad and shallow exterior ditch. In figure it is ellip- tical, with a transverse diameter of seven hundred and fifty, and a conjugate diameter of six hundred and seventy-five feet. It has a gateway one hundred and twenty feet wide, leading into it from the southwest. It opens upon a small spur of the terrace, which has been artificially rounded and graded, so as to make a regular and easy descent to the lower level. * * * The proprietor esteems the soil much richer within the enclosure than upon the adjacent plain. We are unprepared to ascribe any other than a religious origin to this structure." — S. & D., 85. The "regular and easy descent" is entirely natural, due partly to the manner in which the material (glacial drift) was deposited, and partly to subsequent erosion. There is a bold spring midway of the slope on this descent. As in so many other cases where these works are concerned, the favorable con- tours determined the location of the village ; the Mound Builders would not choose a place difficult of access and then waste a vast amount of labor in altering the topography of the neighbor- hood, when there were scores of places that offered every induce- ment for settlement without demanding any such exertion. CHAPTER VI SMAIvIvBR ENCLOSURES AND WORKS OF IRREGULAR CONSTRUCTION. Minor Geometrical Enclosures. Confined Mainly to Southern Half of the State. Probably Walls of Villages. The Smallest, Possibly Foundations for Houses. Irregular Works, Mostly in Northern Part of the State and in Miami Valleys. Evidently for Defensive Purposes. Similar Works Common in Other States. BESIDES the larger geometrical works above described, there may be found in nearly all parts of the southern half of the State small, tolerably regular, circular, square, or elliptical enclosures. They occur associated with all the great low land eal-thworks ; in connection with groups of mounds ; or standing singly, miles from any other aboriginal structure, sometimes on the highest summits. The interior usually mea- sures from 150 to 250 feet across; the walls in some cases are scarcely traceable, in others from five to six feet high with a base of ten times the height. There is but one entrance way ; on the east side in most, sometimes on the north or south, very seldom on the west. Only the heavier embank- ments are accompanied by ditches ; and while in the larger enclo- sures "ditches, when they exist, are nearly always interior to cir- cles or exterior to squares," (S. & D., 8), in the case of these the ditch, when there is one, is inside the wall, regardless of the out- line. Occasionally a mound stands on the space enclosed, some- times quite small, again taking up nearly the whole area within the ditch. A few of these mounds have been excavated, and skele- tons found in them. Rarely, a circular bank surrounds a square interior, the ditch varying in width to accomodate itself to both, as at the large group in Pike county, shown in figures 21 and 22. It is possible that some of them, as suggested by Morgan for the larger squares, served as the foundation for houses whose openings faced the inner court. If such was their purpose, the .utility of the ditch is not apparent. The central mound would (220) Minor Enclosures. 221 certainly exclude a number from this category, unless it was erected after the building was intentionally abandoned or de- stroyed. " Lest these comparatively little works [referring to those which are from 150 to 250 feet in diameter] should appear insignificant, from the small scale on which they are presented, it may be well enough ta remark, that the circle formed by the stones composing the great temple of Stonehenge is but little more than one hundred feet in diameter, and that most of the circular earth and stone structures of tne British islands are considerably less in size than those here presented." — S. & D., 93. ;is 5is * 5ti t- In figure 49 (B. E. 12, 450, figure 309), is represented a fair example of the smaller enclosures of the State. This group is situated near Dublin in Franklin county. Each consists of a ditch within an embankment. The passage ways are at the nat- ural level, both wall and fosse coming to an end at their margin. Measuring on the middle line of the embankment in each case, the diameter of number i is 120 feet ; of number 3, 162 feet. The sides of number 2, to the points where they would intersect if produced, are 287, 212, 262 and 220 feet. The wall of number i is about ten feet broad and two feet high, the ditch fifteen feet wide and two feet deep. In number 2, the wall is from 25 to 35 , feet wide and quite uniformly about three feet high ; the ditch is 20 feet in width, except on the west side, where it is ten feet wider ; its depth varies from two to four feet. The embankment of number 3 is 18 feet across and two feet high; the ditch 22 feet wide and three feet deep. All measures begin at the level of the natural surface. Besides the two mounds in number 2, there are many flat stones which are said to have formed graves containing very large skeletons. The group in figure 50 (S. & D., 63, plate XXIII, No. 2) is four miles north of Athens, on a plain of about 1,000 acres,, elevated sixty to seventy feet above the Hocking River, which flows from half a mile to a mile east of the works. The largest circle, A, encloses a level space 130 feet in diameter; the wall is seven feet high and the ditch six feet deep. Of course the authors ascribe a "religious origin" to the group. — S. & D., 63. In figure 51 (Sm. Rep., 1884, p. 37), from a map prepared by C. T. Wiltheiss, the remains of Miami County are shown. Major Long gives an extended description of the earth- works and other remains about Piqua. <^-7-7 Archaeological History of Ohio. " We observed one elliptic and five circular works, two of which are on the east bank of the river, the others on the west. The ground appears in all cases to have been taken from the inside, which forms a Figure 49 — Group of Enclosures near Dublin ditch in the interior." All these were small, the largest measuring 83 by 295 feet in its two diameters. "The elevation of [the different para- pets] varies at present from three to five or six feet." He describes also the wall of stones north of the town, and while offering no definite suggestion as to its purpose unless "it must have been a religious monu- ment," gives various objections to " the possibility of its being intended as a work of defense." Group of Small Enclosures Near Athens. 223 ANCIENT WORK Athene Co. Oh/'o aOOO PSET Figure 50. 224 Archaeological History of Ohio, \ Figure 51 — Archaeological Map of Miami County. Various Works, Domiciliary or Defensive. 225 " About half a mile to the south of the town at Piqua, there is an old Indian cemetery; upon [the exposed strata of limestone] rocks it appears that the corpses were placed and that they were covered with slabs of stone." Even at that early day, "most of these mounds had been broken open." — Long, St. Peters, 50, et seq. Circular embankments of still smaller size are numerous and wide-spread. For example, at the High Banks works, " A number of small circles occur about a hundred rods distant from the octagon, in the forest land to the southeast. They measure nearly fifty feet in diameter, and the walls are about two feet in height. It has been suggested that they are the remains of structures of some kind, and also that they were the bases of unfinished mounds. There are no indications of entrances or passageways, a circumstance which favors the latter hypothesis. Similar small circles occur within or in the immediate vicinity of several other large works." — S. & D., 50. It is probable, as pointed out by Morgan, that walls of this character mark the sites of council houses or communal dwell- ings. In periods of wet weather some measures must be adopted to prevent the surface water from finding its way to the interior; and in winter the base of the building would need additional protection against the ingress of cold air. Both these requirements could be met either by making a ridge of earth along the line of posts forming the frame of a wooden structure^ and extending downward over it the bark or other material with which the walls were covered; or by piling earth against the base on the outside as is now done by many inhabitants of cold countries. Such embankments as these would also result from the decay of walls plastered with mud. WORKS OF IRREGULAR CONSTRUCTION. The more elaborate earth-works, having been so often described and figured, are somewhat familiar to the public; equally deserving of study, though not so impressive, are others to which less attention has been paid. These vary in design from a straight wall to a combination of rudely elliptical or nearly circular enclosures, with accompa- nying wing walls or supplementary structures covering many acres. Apparently their general purpose was for protection to settlements around them or to villages within them. In some 15 226 Archaeological History of Ohio. cases, the point of a high hill with precipitous sides, or a penin- sula in a level bottom, is cut off from the adjacent country by an earthen or stone wall, straight, curved, or broken, as may be most suitable; again, as large a level area as may be desired is enclosed by a crooked embankment, whose ends abut upon a cliff or stream ; or where these plans are not feasible, the entire space required is often artificially enclosed. All these methods may be combined in one series. Generally, but not always, a deep ditch accompanies the wall; it may be on either the inner or the outer side. It is probable that the earth in a majority of these structures supported palisades. In Ohio, remains of this sort are most numerous in the valleys of the two Miamis and in two or three tiers of counties south of Lake Erie, though they are not uncommon in other parts •of the State. Many of them closely resemble enclosures and defensive works in other states, known to have been built or occupied in the historic period. In a few, transverse cuttings have shown marks along the center line due, beyond question, to the decay or burning of posts that stood in them. An excellent example of the form under consideration is situated in Greene county, a few miles from Xenia. At some former time Massie's creek, after eroding a deep, sinuous channel, abandoned its course and formed a cut-off. On the detached area thus .separated from the level land the aborigines con- structed the work shown in figure 52 (S. & D., plate XII, No. 3). The north, east, and south sides of the island, if it may be so called, terminate in abrupt cliffs which needed no protection. The sloping surface toward the west was guarded by a double line of ditch and embankment, carried entirely across, but interrupted by several gateways. Typical of this class, also, are the works at Norwalk, pre- sented in figure 53 (S. & D., plate XV, No. i). The method of closing the entrance in the ellipse, the manner in which the end of the hill is guarded against forays, the dependence upon the stream and its banks for security in other directions, and the partially excavated ditch within the ellipse, show the principal features in all groups of this character. All the lines of embank- ment were low, none more than three feet high before being .cleared. Irregular Works in Northern Ohio. 227 /^\v///'ifp¥r^vv/rr\'^''^^^ ^iwn^^f^P'^^'"'^^^^^^^^^^^^ ANCIENT WO^K Cteene^ Coonfy, O/i/'o. SCACS ^3o ^ser Figure 52. Other enclosures of this class are given in figure 54 (same, Nos. 2 and 3), the first near Conneaut and the second three miles southeast of Cleveland; figure 55 (S. & D., 40, figs. 6 and 7), on the Cuyahoga River, respectively six and eight miles above Cleveland; and figure 56 (same, fig. 8), an appar- ently unfinished work, near Toledo. Two in Lorain county are illustrated in figures 57 and 58 (S. & D., 39, figs. 4 and 5). The first consists of "double embankments, with an intermediate ditch. The embankments are very slight, not much exceeding a foot in height." In the second, which is near the first, there are two embank- ments, each with an outer ditch, but there is no gateway to the inner line..— S. & D., 39. 228 Archaeological History of Ohio. Iniii# ^W/0iiii\\f'' m^'^Hi!^^ " « X ' ^ ^ ^. Figure 53 — Works at Norwalk, Huron County. Irregidar Works in Northern Ohio. 229 Figure 54. 230 Archaeological History of Ohio. .^^*V \A/0/^/ij ^ There has been much difference of opinion concerning the relation between these works and the larger enclosures. But there has been no discussion as to their purpose; it is agreed by all that they are defensive in their nature. At first Squier and Davis were inclined to attribute the two classes of work to the same people. " The traces of ancient fortifications in the northern part of the State of New York, and upon the head waters of the Susquehanna in Pennsylvania, may, it is believed, be referred with entire safety to the same hands with those of the Mississippi valley. It will be seen that they have a close resemblance to those of northern Ohio, both in position and structure." — S. & D., 44. Short adopted this view and attempted to explain the causes leading to so great a change in conformation. " The Indian has no more knowledge of who constructed the fort- like enclosures of Western New York, and common upon the rivers dis- charging themselves in Lakes Erie and Ontario from the South, than of the builders of the mounds of the Ohio and Mississippi. * * * It is probable that these defences belong to the last period of the Mound- builders' residence on the lakes, and were erected when the more war- like peoples of the North who drove them from their cities first made their appearance." — Short, 28. Foster unconsciously came near arriving at the probable truth of the matter while trying to prove something else. " The Mound-builders, if their enemy were like the modern Indians, had only to guard against sudden attacks, and a row of pickets, without reference to whether the trench were inside or outside, would be effectual. * * * These [small] enclosures are the most conspicuous along what may be called the frontier of the Alleghenies, and disappear altogether as we enter the immediate valley of the Mississippi. * * * This Methods of Defense Among Barbarians. 233 -would seem to imply that there was another race, occupying the moun- tain region to the east, * * * —a race of Highlanders, essentially different in habits— * * * who from time to time, made predatory excursions into the Mound-builders' country, and succeeded at last in extirpating the inhabitants. On the west, it may be inferred, the country was secure against such irruptions." — Foster, 175. In " Ancient Monuments " are figured many works in South Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Pennsyl- vania, and New York, which have a decided resemblance to the more irregular enclosures of Ohio. This fact, however, can have no other significance than that their builders working under analogous conditions and circumstances, with the same kind of material, constructed works essentially similar in character. It cannot be made to mean anything more than that they were the same kind of people — not that they were the same tribes, or even allied to one another. " All primitive defences, being designed to resist common modes of attack, are essentially the same in their principles, and seldom differ much in their details." — Squier, N. Y., 84. " In all the works of the northern part of the state described by Colonel Whittlesey, the walls are low and the ditches shallow; none of them having a total slope from embankment top to bottom of ditch of more than eight feet at any point, and most of them having a measure considerably less than this. In most of them the soil on the enclosed area is noticeably more fertile than that in the vicinity outside; indicat- ing a village-site, probably in not very remote times. ' Nothing can be . more plain, than that most of the remains in northern Ohio, particularly those on the Cuyahoga river, are military works. It is very safe ^ to presume that palisades were planted on them. Of the works bordering on the shore of Lake Erie, through the State of Ohio, there are none but may have been intended for defense; although in some of them the design is not perfectly manifest. They form a line from Conneaut to Toledo, at a distance of from three to five miles from the lake; and all stand upon or near the principal rivers. They are so different from the large enclosures in the interior of the State that I am disposed to regard them, not only as designed for other purposes, but as the work of another and probably later people. By whatever people these works were built, they were much engaged in offensive or defensive wars. At the south, on the other hand, agriculture and religion seem to have chiefly occupied the attention of the ancient people. Upon the assump- tion that two distinct nations occupied the State,— that the northern were warlike, and the southern agricuhural and peaceful in their habits,— may we not suppose that the latter were overcome by their northern neighbors, who built the military works to be observed upon the Ohio 234 Archaeological History of Ohio. and its tributaries, while the more regular structures are the remains of the conquered people?'" — S. & D., 41, condensed. The authors, unwilling to relinquish their prejudice in favor of a single race, make this comment upon Whittlesey's contri- bution : — " The differences between the northern and southern earthworks,, pointed out by Mr. Whittlesey, are not greater than would naturally be exhibited between the structures of a sparse frontier population, and those erected by more central and dense communities. * * * 'pj-jg j-g^^g^ by whom these works were erected, possessed [a] knowledge of the science of defense * * * much superior to that known to have been possessed by the hunter tribes of North America previous to the dis- covery by Columbus, or indeed subsequent to that event." — S. & D., 42, The best general description of remains of this character is furnished by Read: " The most of these works are confined to the valleys of the streams where there is land specially adapted to the cultivation of maize. * * * They are much more abundant in the northern and southern than in the central parts of the State, a fact which might be easily explained from the small extent of the alluvial valley on the table land. Sti'll there is a marked difference in the character of those in the northern and southern regions. The former have more the appearance of defence works, both in their location and mode of construction. They ordinarily occupy elevated spurs, projecting from the table land into the valleys, over- looking extensive alluvial plains — often where erosion has left these spurs with a narrow connection with the table land, and a wider expanse of surface on the part projecting into the valley. In such cases the works consist of one, two, or three ditches and embankments across the neck, plainly intended to protect the spur against aggression from the table land. The enclosed surface often shows evidence of having been leveled off, the material removed so deposited as to increase the angle of the slope rising from the valley; and in some cases the location of an old footpath leading from the summit into the valley can be clearly traced. The enclosed surface is generally filled with pit-holes and shows evidence of long occupancy. * * * These protecting walls and ditches take different shapes, determined by the form of the surface to be pro- tected. * * * The size of these enclosures seems to be related to the size of the arable land in the adjacent valley, and hence to the size of the village communities that could be supported by them. It seems a reasonable inference that these enclosures were strongholds, for pro- tection and observation, and designed to meet the normal wants of small communities of agriculturalists, and that they were not erected to meet the exigencies of a campaign. The great number of them, and the small size of each, scattered along the bluffs of a single stream, like the Cuyahoga, would tend to confirm this conclusion. * * * im the valley, and at a distance from these protected enclosures, are some- Modern Iroquois Embankments, Similar to Those in Ohio. 235 times single mounds, which seem not to have been burial mounds, raised to such an elevation merely as would give an extended view above the top of the growing corn. * * * In this whole northern region true burial mounds are rare, and those that have been observed are of small size." — Read, Arch., 80. Near the north line of Pickaway county two parallel streams enter the Scioto some 300 feet apart. Across the peninsula thus formed extend three parallel lines of embankment, separated only by narrow ditches in- terior to each. — S. & D., 36. This is the most southern point in central Ohio where a work of this particular kind has been recorded. It signifies that a party from the Lake district established themselves here for a time ; though it may have been only a temporary village-site or a summer's camping-place. After Squier had concluded his archaeological work in south- ern Ohio, he extended his labors to western New York and the southern border of Lake Erie. He comes to the following conclusions : — " It has long been known that many evidences of ancient labor and skill are to be found in the western parts of New York and Pennsylvania, upon the upper tributaries of the Ohio, and along the shores of Lake Erie and Ontario. Here we find a series of ancient earth-works, en- trenched hills, and occasional mounds or tumuli. It has all along been represented [by various authors whom he names] that some of the en- closures were of regular outlines, true circles and ellipses and accurate squares — features which would imply a common origin with the vast system of ancient earth-works of the Mississippi valley. Submitted to the test of actual survey, I have found that the works which were esteemed entirely regular were the very reverse, and that the builders, instead of constructing them upon geometrical principles, regulated their form entirely by the nature of the ground upon which they were built. And I may here mention, that none of the ancient works of this State, of which traces remain displaying any considerable degree of regularity, can lay claim to high antiquity. All of them may be referred, with certainty, to the period succeeding the commencement of European inter- course." " Were these works of the general large dimensions of those of the Western States, their numbers would be a just ground of astonishment. They are, however, for the most part, comparatively small, varying from one to four acres — the largest not exceeding sixteen acres in area. The embankments, too, are slight, and the ditches shallow; the former seldom more than four feet in height, and the latter of correspond- ing proportions. * * * Most occupy high and commanding sites near the bluff edges of the broad terraces by which the country rises from the level of the lakes. * * * When found upon lower grounds, it is. '236 Archaeological History of Ohio. usually upon some dry knoll or little hill, or where banks of streams serve to lend security to the position. A few have been found upon sJight elevations in the midst of swamps, where dense forests and almost impassable marshes protected from discovery and attack. In nearly all cases they are placed in close proximity to some unfailing supply of water, near copious springs or running streams. * * * These circum- stances, in connection with others not less unequivocal, indicate, with great precision, the purpose for which these structures were created. * * * Few positions susceptible of defence, under the systems practiced by all rude people, are to be found upon [the first and second] terraces; the builders, consequently, availed themselves of the numerous headlands and other defensible positions which border the supposed ancient shores of the lake, simply because they afforded the most effectual protection with the least expenditure of labor." " Misled by statements which no opportunity was afforded of verify- ing, I have elsewhere, though in a guarded manner, ventured the opinion that the ancient remains of western New York belonged to the same system with those of Ohio and the West generally." " In full view of the facts before presented, I am driven to a con- clusion little anticipated when I started on my trip of exploration, that the earth-works of Western New York were erected by the Iroquois or their western neighbors, and do not possess an antiquity going very far back of the discovery. Their general occurrence upon a line parallel to -and not far distant from the lakes, favors the hypothesis that they were built by frontier tribes — a hypothesis entirely conformable to aboriginal traditions. Here, according to these traditions, every foot of ground was contested between the Iroquois and the Gah-kwas and other western tribes; and here, as a consequence, where most exposed to attack, were permanent defences most necessary." — Squier, N. Y., 2, 12, 11, and 83. The contrary opinion to that expressed by Squier, would not have become so firmly fixed, perhaps, but for Gallatin. His standing as a student of Indian languages gave to his words undue influence in aboriginal affairs generally. Consequently, when he ridiculed the idea that earthen walls were made by Indians, few were inclined to doubt his correctness. Either through a lack of acquaintance with early records, or a lapse of memory in regard to their contents, he wrote, " If considered only as fortifications, ramparts of earth in a forest 'Country strike us as a singular mode of defense against savage enemies and Indian weapons. All of the defensive works, without exception, that were used by the Indians east of the Mississippi, from the time they were first known to us, were of a uniform character. They all consisted of wooden palisades strongly secured, [were] of a moderate size, and such Fortified Tozvns of the Hurons and Iroquois. 237 as could be defended by the population of an Indian village." — Gal- latin, 148. But Gallatin overlooked the fact that palisades cannot stand without support; and this support usually takes the form of a bank of earth heaped against the foot. Frequently, too, a ditch was dug alongside as an additional defense. From Canada and New England to the Gulf and the upper Missouri, fortification by means of ditch, embankment and palisade, was com- mon; and this was continued until within the present century, or until the final expulsion of the Indians, in war among themselves as well as with the whites. There can be no reasonable doubt that many of the large earth-works in the Southern States are the sites of villages or towns occupied in De Soto's time. — Carr, Mounds, 593, et seq. " The fortified towns of the Hurons were all on the side exposed to Iroquois incursions. The fortifications of all this family of tribes were, like their dwellings, in essential points alike. A situation was chosen favorable to defence, — the bank of a lake, the crown of a difficult hill, or a high point of land in the fork of confluent rivers. A ditch, several feet deep, was dug around the village and ihe earth thrown up on the inside. [Palisades] were planted on the embankment, in one, two, three, or four concentric rows, — those of each row inclining towards those of the other rows until they intersected." — Jesuits, xxviii. " The Iroquois resided in permanent villages. * * * Having run a trench several feet deep around five or ten acres of land and thrown up the ground on the inside, they set a continuous row of stakes or palisades in this bank of earth, fixing them at such an angle that they inclined over the trench. Sometimes a village was surrounded by a double or even a triple row of palisades. * * * Around it was the village field, consisting, oftentimes, of several hundred acres of cultivated land. * * * But * * * when their power had become consoli- dated and most of the adjacent nations had been brought under subjection, the necessity of stockading their villages ceased, and with it the practice." — Iroquois, 312. " Indeed, now that the palisades that once enclosed the villages known to have been occupied by the Iroquois have rotted away, there is no structural difference to be seen between them and any of the earth- works of Western New York; and as these, in their turn, are identical in this respect with the hill-forts of the Ohio valley, it must follow, if the Iroquois or their western neighbors erected the New York series of these works, that there is no reason why these same western neighbors, or a people in the same stage of civilization, could not have built those in Ohio and still further to the west, due regard being had to their popu- lation and to the necessity for such defenses." — Carr, Mounds, 592. CHAPTER VII HILL-TOP ENCLOSURES. Effective Defenses. Deficient Water Supply. Large Areas Included} Amount of Labor Involved in Construction. Possibly Not Work of the Mound Builders. THE difficulties of accounting for large symmetrical em- bankments in bottom lands, do not exist in the case of walls of similar proportions upon, or around, the summits of hills To all who carefully examine their location it is evident they were made for defensive structures. Whether composed entirely of stone, or of earth, or of both combined ; whether confined to a plateau or extending down a hillside; whether having a ditch either interior or exterior, or rising directly from a level surface ; — in all, the method of construction and their position relative to the surrounding country, make it obvious they were intended as a place of refuge in time of danger from foes. So long as the defenders could muster in sufficient numbers to man the walls and had an ample store of provisions and munitions of war, these places would be impregnable except against overwhelm- ing odds. But provisions means also water; and the most perplexing question in the study of all these forts, one that has never been solved in a satisfactory manner, is that of water supply. No springs exist within them, as they are above drainage; shallow depressions in some have been called reservoirs, but these would be very precarious as they depend entirely upon rainfall and are dry much of the summer and autumn ; it would be a tedious and arduous undertaking to carry an adequate supply up these long steep hills at any time, and with an active, alert enemy at hand would be impossible of performance. Even should the few ponds be cleared out to a depth that would ensure plenty of water the year round, the difficulty still presents itself that most of these enclosures have no depression within them where water would stand for a day. (238) The Principal Hill-Top Enclosure of Ohio. 239 FORT ANCIENT. Easily first among prehistoric fortifications, is Fort Ancient in Warren county. The Little Miami at this point makes a sharp bend from south to east. Two ravines head near each other on the table land to the left of the stream ; one of these trends west, the other south, into the river. The promontory thus formed has an elevation of about 270 feet. Around the tortuous margin of its summit a ditch has been excavated and the earth piled on the outer side in a wall which varies from three to twelve feet in height, above the natural surface. Across the narrow level neck between the two ravines the ditch is outside the wall, and the lat- ter rises to an altitude of nineteen feet. East of the fort, a few rods from the walls, are two mounds, about ten feet high before being disturbed ; an artificial ditch reached from each of these to the ravine bounding the fort on the corresponding side. Beginning at these mounds a double line of embankment extends eastward, curving around a small mound and coming together at a distance of 2760 feet from the starting-point. At every opening where the wall is worn away, stone may be seen cropping out at the base ; whether they underlie the entire embankment, or whether they are only placed at the depres- sions to prevent surface water from washing out the earth is as yet unknown. To the left of the pike, above the railway station, may be seen a few stones piled in the form of a leaning wall, near the outside margin of the embankment. They are now covered with earth, settled down over them from the wall. The total length of the walls of the fort, not including any detached works, is 187 12 feet; the longest straight line that can be drawn within them is a little less than 5000 feet. Many thousands of " Indian relics " have been gathered up within a radius of two miles about the fort. They include every variety of form and material that can withstand exposure to air and moisture. At several places within the fort walls and in the immediate vicinity, flint implements were made in great quan- tities. A feature of much interest in connection with Fort Ancient, is the stone pavement about two hundred yards outside of the eastern wall. 240 Archaeological History of Ohio. " An excavation four feet in width and ten feet long was made,, and one portion of the pavement was actually laid bare. We found at a depth of twelve inches a considerable quantity of fine gravel, which had been filled in between the stones, and which seems to have been intended to secure evenness of surface. The pavement is laid with limestones, which were probably brought from the ravines and creek-beds in the neigh- borhood. Some of them are two to two and a half inches in thickness, others not more than an inch and a half. The pavement rests on the original surface, the clay being fourteen to fifteen inches below it. It is supposed to have been on the surface, of course, and the earth above is. due to vegetable decay and the accumulation of debris. Some of the stones give evidence of having been subjected to the action of fire, but most of them show no trace of heat. The use of this pavement is wholly conjectural. * * * Its area, approximately, is 130 by 500 feet. * * * The plow has greatly disturbed in a number of places a few of these stones, but most of them are as they were placed at first. They seem to have been slightly worn on the upper side, as if they had been used for many years as an assembly-ground." — Ft. A., 54. For additional information concerning this remarkable pro- duct of prehistoric skill and industry the reader is referred to a volume entitled " Fort Ancient," by W. K. Moorehead. It em- bodies the results of months of labor spent in making surveys and excavations. The land upon which the fort is located, with the exception of a small portion at the northern end, is now the property of the State, and in charge of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society ; so its preservation is ensured for centuries to come. A correct plan of the enclosure and surrounding area is shown in Figure 59, reduced and slightly altered from Moore- head's map. The plan by Squier and Davis, which has been extensively copied, conveys an incorrect idea of the course of the walls. Many of the sections represented as regular curves or tolerably straight lines have numerous sharp bends and angles. The lines of contour and the course of ravines are quite misleading, as they give a very erroneous impression of the height and steep- ness of the hill-sides. None of the streams are shown in their proper places, especially that which is represented as flowing westward along the southern side, apparently about half way up the hill ; in reality this flows directly south across a narrow strip of bottom land into the river. The " mounds " marked on the line of enclosure are only heavier sections of embankment. The Largest Hill-top Enclosure in Ohio, 241 16 Figure 59 — Fort Ancient, Warren County. 242 Archaeological History of Ohio. These authors also state that the parallel walls " continue for about thirteen hundred and fifty feet;" which is less than half their real length. In order that he may find an excuse for ascribing a " reli- gious significance " to the work, Peet congratulates himself upon his good fortune "* in apprehending the significance of these walls and mounds of the lower enclosure" at Fort Ancient. " They bear a resemblance to the form of two massive serpents, which are apparently contending with one another." — Peet, I, 1. There is more to the same effect. SPRUCE HILL. Figure 60 (S. & D., 11, Plate IV), is a copy of the Squier and Davis survey of the fort at Spruce Hill, opposite Bourne- ville in Ross county. This work overlooks the entire region from the hills east of the Scioto to the high land about Hillsboro, as well as the country for many miles north and south. The hill on which it stands is a long, narrow spur projecting from the table land toward the south, with steep, in some cases almost precipitous, sides. The wall, composed entirely of bowlders and cobble-stones resulting from the disintegration of the sandstone strata at and near the surface, closely follows the margin of the level summit, a little below the top of the slope at every point except where the lines connecting the ends are carried across. It was only from this direction that danger need be apprehended by the inmates, as no other portion of the enclosure could be reached save by a tedious ascent of the steep hill, over loose rocks in many places, and constantly exposed to missiles of the besieged. Although nowhere more than two feet in height now, the amount of material scattered along the line where it has stood is abundant for the construction of a barrier sufficient to check the advance of an unorganized or undisciplined foe. The few breaks or openings easily accessible are all in the part crossing the neck of the spur, and are quite narrow, with the wall curving inward at each. Thus, every entrance could be speedily closed to form a cul-de-sac where an enemy, when he once got in, would find himself exposed to attack on three sides. At the time of the original survev, spruce Hill Fort, 243 Figure 60 — Spruce Hill Fort, near Bourneville. "' where the wall is best preserved, there is little evidence that the stones were laid one upon the other so as to present vertical faces, much less that they were cemented in place." — S. & D. 11. 244 Archaeological History of Ohio, Since that date the owner of the land, m building a fence, carried it for a few rods along the old line. In order to save rails, he gathered up all the loose stones and built them into a wall. This was told to me by the man who built the fence. This short stretch of modern stone wall has several times been cited as proof that the Mound Builders could erect a stone wall that would remain upright for an indefinite time. It has now fallen. The interior of the fort has been long in cultivation ; but the clearing, except in a few spots, reaches only to the top of the slope, so that the wall is still mostly in the original forest. It is. evident that Squier and Davis followed the margin of the cleared land in making their survey, at least for the greater part of the way, and made the course of the wall correspond. Many curves and angles which exist in the structure do not appear in the drawing. " On the inside of the wall, at line D, there appears to have been a row of furnaces or smith's shops, where the cinders now lie many feet in depth." — Atwater, 149. These masses of burned earth and stone also occur at some other points, notably on the western side. No examination has ever been made of them, so no explanation can be offered. There is a large depression within the fort which is generally supposed to be artificial, intended to form a reservoir or perma- nent lake. Its shape and situation are such that it must be due to natural causes. It is now nearly filled up. In the shale forming the bed of Paint creek, at the foot of Spruce Hill, are many concretions, some of them two or three feet in diameter. Floods and freezing split and break these in various shapes, thereby giving rise to stories of " wells," " fish traps," " hiding places for treasure," etc. Such concretions are common in many places, and the diverse forms they assume, though often peculiar, are altogether natural. This fort is probably the largest area in the world surrounded by an artificial wall made entirely of stone. FORT HILL. Fort Hill, three miles north of Sinking Springs in Highland county, is located on one of the western peaks of the Sunfish Hills, entirely detached by Brush creek and deep ravines from Fort Hill 245 any other elevated area. The hill-sides present a succession of minor cliffs, shale banks, washouts, and loose broken rock; in ■only two or three places can a continuous grade be found to the summit. At the top, a sandstone ledge crops out, and the weath- ered fragments of this are piled up into a rude wall around the hill, conforming in some measure to its irregular outline. The height of the wall was increased by throwing on it a large quan- tity of earth, excavated along its inner side, leaving a considerable ditch. " It is worthy of note that this work is in a broken country, with no other remains, except perhaps a few small, scattered mounds, in its vicinity. The nearest monuments of magnitude are in the Paint Creek valley, sixteen miles distant, from which it is separated by elevated ridges. Lower down, on Brush Creek, towards its junction with the Ohio, are some works; but none of importance occur within twelve miles in that direction." " In 1845, a standing chestnut was 21 feet in •circumference, and a fallen oak 23 feet. The length of the wall is 8,224 feet; its height usually from 6 to 10, though in some places, 15 feet ; the base is 35 to 40 feet." " The ditch has an average width of not far from fifty feet; and in many places is dug through the sandstone layer upon which the soil of the terrace rests. At the point A the rock is quarried out, leaving a mural front twenty feet high." — S. & D., 14 •and 16. The use of the term '' quarried " by the authors has led to a belief that work was carried on here similar to that employed in getting out large blocks for building. Such was not the case. The rock at this point is not in heavy layers but in angular, flat- tened slabs, thinning out to an edge on every side, and most of them small enough to be handled by one man. It is but little more difficult to take them from a bluff, at least to as great a depth as roots and frost penetrate, than it is to pick them up in the bed of a creek. No other tools than handspikes would be needed. The accompanying map, figure 6i, is reconstructed from those of Squier and Davis, and H. W. Overman of Waverly. Over- man's map of the immediate vicinity is also given in Figure 62 (O. A. H., I, 262). An abstract of his report is appended. " Fort Hill is three miles north of Sinking Springs, in Highland county, Ohio. Its elevation is about five hundred feet above the bed of Brush Creek. It was constructed by an excavation of earth and stone around the brink of the hill, thus raising a wall, which, at the present time, has a base averaging twenty-five feet and a height aver- aging from six to ten feet. Its entire length is 8,582 feet. It contains 246 Archaeological History of Ohio, Figure 61. Fort Hill 247 50,856 cubic yards of material. The area enclosed is thirty-five acres. The gateways or entrances are thirty-three in number and are spaces from ten to fifteen feet in width, arranged without apparent order or regularity except that an average number is found on either side,— the eastern half containing the same number as the western. The HIGHLAA^D COTJNTY, OHIO. By H. w. Overman, J-lgure 62 — Map of the V'icinity of Fort Hill. same may be said as to the northern and ■ southern divisions. The space enclosed is level. There are two small ponds, one located near the northern extremity, the other in the north-central part of the Fort. In winter and during rainy weather these ponds contain water and could be made to hold and retain almost any desired quantity. The entire circumference of the wall for at least one hundred feet from the summit is very steep and precipitous, so that the inmates would certainly be able to repel a much superior force from the outside. 248 Archaeological History of Ohio. " There are evidences of the former existence of a considerable vil- lage or settlement about one mile south of the summit of the hill. Three >^S^#tS^i^£iii^ Figure 63 — The' Stone Fort at Glenford, Perry County. circular enclosures and other artificial structures are visible." man, 260-1. GLENFORD FORT. Over- One of the most interesting works in the State is the large stone fort in Perry county, near Glenford. A sketch is given in The Glenford Fort. 249 Pig. 63 (E. E. 12, No. 470, Fig. 319). It stands upon a hill which is entirely isolated from the surrounding high land except for a very narrow ridge wdiich gently declines for some distance toward the southeast, and then rises to the general level. The spur thus cut off is elevated about 300 feet above the creek at the foot of the western slope; its practically level summit is termi- nated in nearly every direction by a vertical ledge of sandstone from six to ten feet in height, the outcrop of the cap-rock. On the eastern side -this bluff is absent for a few hundred feet and the slope is tolerably uniform from the top half way to the bottom. The wall of the fort follows closely around the margin, except at the line c — d where, for some unexplainable reason, it is carried along the steep hillside below. It varies from six feet high at the southeast and northwest sides, to a foot or even less along the gentle eastern slope where one would naturally suppose it would be heaviest, as no other part is so easily approached. It may be, however, that for this reason palisades were erected, and only a retaining wall of stones made. Several small breaks •eroded in the solid rock foundation intercept the course of the line. It is carried across some, around others, and terminates at each side of the deepest ; the sides being vertical, no protection was needed in the last, as it would be easy to drop a boulder on the head of an intruder. At the southeast corner is a natural passage-way, formed by a long crevice opening out directly on the isthmus. The wall is re-entrant along both sides of this and much strengthened at its outlet. There is a confused heap of stones on each side here, which may have forrried a sort of bas- tion, breastwork, or other defensive structure. The entire length of the wall, which is much more tortuous than can be shown on the small scale of the accompanying map, is 6,610 feet, and the enclosed area about 26 acres. Very few stones are to be seen on the surface within the enclosure ; all which were accessible at the time seem to have been gathered up to form the walls, and the mound shown in the cut. The latter is now about 12 feet high and 100 feet in diameter; but a great amount of stone has been hauled away from it. At several points are minor openings, most of them conveni- ent to good springs at the foot of the hill. Views of this structure are shown in figures 64, 65, 66 and 6y. 250 Archaeological History of Ohio, Figure 64 — Looking north along the east side of Glenford Fort. The Fort at Glenford. 251 Figure 65 — View on the east wall of Glenford Fort. 252 Archaeological History of Ohio. Figure C6 — Present appearance of the east wall of Glenford Fort. The Fort at Glenford. 253 Figure 67 — View from the interior of Glenford Fort, near the stone mound. 254 Archaeological History of Ohio. FORT MIAMI. The defensive earthwork in the extreme southwest angle of the State is commonly known as Fort Hill ; but as that title is due by pre-emption 'to the work in Highland county, this should be called Fort Miami from its location on a high hill overlooking all the territory about the mouth of the Great Miami river. There is very little stone in the wall, it being composed al- most entirely of earth obtained from a ditch along the bottom, on the inner side. The gateways are comparatively narrow and few in number ; from the situation of some of them it would seem they were but little used ; others are toward the easiest approaches. The average cross-section of the wall is considerably in excess of that of any other enclosure in the State, similarly situated, but the area enclosed is only a few acres, holding no comparison in this respect with several other structures whose walls are much lighter. The gullies draining the interior through the walls are but little worn down ; the deepest is not more than three feet below the base of the wall on either side although it drains an acre or more. No estimate of time can be made from such measurement, because the wall itself may have been cut off to a considerable extent by the same water that lowered the bottom of the ravine ; and the erosion of the former may have been greater than that of the latter. At one place in the north wall, at the largest ravine,, there are some stones which seem to have been piled on one another into a rough wall, as a revetment. The ends of the wall at this break show marks of burning, but this may be due to brush fires in clear- ing the land. The structure is excellently adapted to defensive purposes, but there must have been, particularly on the north side, some ad- ditional protective work, as the wall there though very steep on the outer side, has its top almost on a level with the interior sur- face, exposing its inmates to easy assault by any one who could reach the summit. Two mounds on a ridge a few hundred yards to the eastward of the fortification are about eight and eleven feet high. An approximately correct sketch is given in figure 68 (S. & D., plate IX, No. 2) ; the annual report of the Indiana Geological Survey for 1878 gives a niap of the region about the mouth of the Great Miami, showing the ^onncr course of the river. Fort Miami, Fort Miami, near North Bend. 255 and works on the hills north of Lawrencehitrg. The river has made extensive changes of channel. In the early settlement of this region, "A large space of the lower ground was enclosed by walls, uniting it with the Ohio. The foundation of that, (being of stone as well as those of the citadel), that forms the western defence, is still very visible where it crosses the Miami, which, at the period of its erection, must have discharged itself into the Ohio much lower down than it does now. I have never been able to discern the eastern wall of this enclosure, but if its direction from the citadel to the Ohio, was such as it should have been, to embrace the largest space, with the least labor, there could not have been less than three hundred acres enclosed." — Harrison, 263. 256 Archaeological History of Ohio. " The engineers who directed the execution of the Miami works, appear to have known the importance of flank defenses. And if their bastions are not as perfect, as to form, as those which are in use in modern engineering, their position as well as that of the long lines of curtains, are precisely as they should be. I have another conjecture as to this Miami fortress. If the Mound Builders were really the Astecks, the direct course of their journey to Mexico, and the facilities which that mode of retreat would afford, seems to point out the descent of the Ohio, as the line of that retreat. It was here that a feeble band was collected to make a last effort for the country of their birth, the ashes of their ancestors, and the altars of their gods " — Harrison, 225, condensed. FORT AT Foster's crossing. "A singular structure, locally known as the The Fort,' is on the hill top opposite the station of Foster's, in Warren county. It is a circumvallation over half a mile in extent, made up of a carefully laid wall of flat stones along the outer side several feet in height ; behind these are loose stones, both large and small, making nearly half the structure ; and behind and over these stones a mass of clay burnt to all degrees of hardness, in places forming a vitreous surface over the slag,, which resembles that from a blast furnace. At every part of the work through which a trench was dug the same story was told, — burnt stones and clay, ashes and charcoal, and the mass of stones, faced on the outer side by a good stone wall." — Putnam, Foster's, 126, condensed. This is an tmcompleted defensive work. Only a portion of the wall was ever built. From a corner at the top of the hill nearest the river, a short line bears eastward, running somewhat below the brow of the declivity ; another, much heavier, line fol- lows the brink of a ravine which leads in a southerly course di- rectly away from the river and into a small creek. Both these walls terminate abruptly at points where there is no reason ap- parent why they should not continue. Except for a narrow isthmus at the corner mentioned, the hill is entirely isolated by steep slopes of deep ravines ; and except for a few hundred feet at the southeast, there may be traced an unbroken artificial ter- race around the margin, in a position corresponding to such por- tion of the wall as exists. This tends to prove that the ground was leveled to afford a base upon which to begin structures of this character. On the side next the river, beyond the point where the embankment ceases, there are a few places where burned earth, similar to that in the walls, may be found. The embank- ment is nowhere more than four or five feet high on the inside ; on the outer side, owing to the necessity for a steeper slope than Fort in Warren County. Fortified Hill in Butler County. 257 is afforded by the natural surface, it measures in some places fully thirty feet vertically from bottom to top — not that the wall was made so high, but its base overlaps the hill-slope to that extent. There is no visible evidence of a regular stone wall ; though many stones lie in confusion on the slope and at the foot of the wall, on the outer side, just as at Fort Ancient. In fact, except for its smaller area and the immense amount of burned earth, this work was apparently intended to be very similar to the great fortification a few miles farther up the stream. It is very probable that the builders made low retaining walls of stones ; and these may still be standing where the earth holds them in position. But there is no reason to believe that a solid wall, such as has never been found elsewhere, was built here. There is a low irregular mound of earth on the narrow isth- mus, just without the fort. Owing to a lack of definite knowledge of any but the super- ficial aspects of this work, no attempt will be made to explain its object, the cause of so much burned earth, or the possible method of construction. FORT NEAR HAMILTON. The " Fortified Hill " in Butler county, shown in figure 69 (S. & D., 16, plate VI) is "on the west side of the Great Miami River, three miles below the town of Hamilton. * * * The hill, the summit of which it occupies, is about half a mile distant from the present bed of the river, and is not far from two hundred and fifty feet high, being considerably more elevated than any other in the vicinity. It is surrounded at all points, except a narrow space at the north, by deep ravines, presenting steep and almost inaccessible declivities. The descent toward the north is gradual; and from that direction the hill is easy of access. * * * Skirting the brow of the hill, and generally conforming to its outline, is a wall of mingled earth and stone, having an average height of five feet by thirty- five feet base. It has no accompanying ditch ; the earth composing it, which is a stiff clay, having been for the most part taken up from the surface, without leaving any marked excavation. There are a number of 'dug holes,' however, at various points, from which it is evident a portion of the material was obtained. The wall is interrupted by four gateways or passages, each twenty feet wide ; one opening to the north,, one on the approach above mentioned, and the others occurring where the spurs of the hill are cut off by the parapet, and where the declivity is least abrupt. They are all, with one exception, protected by inner lines of embankment, of a most singular and intricate description. The 17 258 Archaeological History of Ohio. ^4k An FORTIFIED H/LL Qut/et County, Ohio. Figure 69. •excavations are uniformly near the gateways, or within the lines cover- ing them. None of them are more than sixty feet over, nor have they any considerable depth. Nevertheless, they all, with the exception of the one nearest the gateway S, contain water for the greater portion, if not the whole of the year. A pole may be thrust eight or ten feet into the soft mud at the bottom of those at E." — S. & D., 16. Peculiar EnclosiLre near Granville. 259 The stone mounds, S. and W., are each about eight feet high. The mound at the north contained a quantity of stone which seemed to have been burned. " The ground in the interior of this work gradually rises, as indi- cated in the section, to the height of twenty-six feet above the base of the wall, and overlooks the entire adjacent country." — S. & D,, 16. Owing to long cultivation, the complicated system of walls at the northern end, peculiar to this work, cannot now be definitely followed. Admitting, however, that they are correctly represented in the sketch, it is difficult to see how they could be of any partic- ular service as a means of defense. There is a narrow ridge con- necting the part of the hill on which the enclosure stands with the higher table-land beyond; but the secondary walls extend some distance to each side of this and are either opposite to slopes less easy of ascent than at other points not so strongly defended, or else are so placed that an intruder could not be seen from them until he had surmounted the outer wall. In case a determined rush should admit an enemy, the defenders would be in a trap. The same amount of earth piled upon the exterior wall and carried a little farther out on the isthmus, would make a better protection. The so-called '' Tlascalan gateways " at the other end of the enclosure are so overgrown with trees and bushes, that it is im- possible to ascertain whether they are correctly figured or not ; but it can be seen that they are quite unusual in their conformation. The wall on the v/estern side was never heavy, and in some places can not now be found, even in the uncleared land ; while on the eastern side its course is along the hill-side, some distance below the summit. The original drawing has been altered to show this feature. FORT NEAR GRANVILLE. Figure 70 (S. & D., plate TX, No. i) is known as ''Forti- fied Hill," two miles east of Granville. It must not be confused wdth the " Fortified Hill " in Butler county. " The embankment is for the most part carried around the hill considerably below the summit and is completely overlooked from every portion of the enclosed area. The ditch is exterior, the earth taken out being thrown on the upper side. In some places the ditch is partially filled by earth washed in and the space behind the bank leveled up, giving the effect of a terrace. The elevation varies, but at no place is the top of the wall more than ten feet above the bottom of the excavation. On 260 Archaeological History of Ohio. FORTIFIED HILL ^^^f h/ear G tarn i He, Licking Co. O. Figure 70. top of the hill are two small mounds surrounded by a circular ditch and embankment a hundred feet in diameter. North of these is a truncated mound. All these contain altars, thus connecting them with the mounds of the large low-land enclosures. Nothing was found on these altars except ashes and fragments of pottery. "This is the only hill-work which has been observed to embrace a minor work of the description of Forts in Lickins^ and Butler Counties. 261 ■^^5 the work here presented. * * The principal enclosure is palpably a de- fensive work although deficient in a supply of water, and it is probable that this work, together with one of like character upon the opposite side of the valley, three miles distant, constituted the place of last resort of the ancient inhabitants.' " — S. & D., 24. FORT BELOW NEWARK. The work just described differs from the ordinary hill-top enclosures in having the embankment within the ditch instead of outside. Another of the same kind may be seen 6h miles south- east of Newark. It stands on a hill which is cut off on everv side by deep ravines with steep slopes. Surrounding the summit is a wall 2,176 feet in length, winding in and out to preserve a con- stant level. One end of the hill forms a ridge somewhat lower than the other portion ; and here is located a gateway 89 feet in width opening on a small area nearly level. Several earth and stone mounds in various directions are visible from this point. This work, locally known as '' the race track," is shown In figure 71 (B. E. 12, 468, fig. 317.) FORT ON FLINT RIDGE. Near the western extremity of Flint Ridge is a fortification made principally of flint blocks gathered up on the surface or from the outcrops close at hand on three sides. A small portion ot the eastern side is composed of earth. Figure y2 (B. E. 12, 469, fig. 318) shows the shape. Most of it has been removed, as interfer- ing with cultivation, so that the original height is uncertain ; but it was probably not great, as the base is narrow at every point. The area enclosed is about seven acres. Within stands an earth mound 100 feet in diameter and fifteen feet high; and the debris of a small stone mound which is now from one to three feet high and scattered over an area thirty feet across. OTHER HILL FORTS. In figures 73 and 74 (S & D., 21., plate VIII), four works are shown. Number 1 is four miles above Hamilton. On three sides are high, steep banks, along the top of which are embankments ; the fourth side, leading out on a table-land, is protected by a wall and ditch. A peculiar feature in this work is the entrance. The walls curve inwardly around a circle of about a hundred feet diameter ; outside of this is a mound about five feet high and forty feet across. The passageway between these and the em- bankment is only six feet wide. 262 Archaeological History of Ohio. Fiprure 72 — Fort on Flitit F'iHcre. Large Hill-top Enclosures in Butler County. 263 CANAL; SCA •'^ x■'''^jJ^''';a\^*--- ™,.^-: 6 Ml. SOUTH-WEST OP HAMILTOH, O. Figure 73. 264 Archaeological History of Ohio. Figure 74. Who Built the Hill-Top Fortiiications? 265 Number 2 consists of an earthen embankment carried around a high, detached hill, six miles south-west of Hamilton. Number 3 is of earth and stone, on a high terrace two and a half miles above Piqua. Steep bluffs from fifty to seventy-five feet high al- most surround it. [In accordance with the usual assertion in regard to works of this character, it is stated that " the stones * * of this rampart are water-worn, and must have been brought from the bed of the river " ; though it is never explained why the builders should have been at this trouble when plenty of similar stone was close at hand ; the " water-worn " appearance being due to ordinary weathering or to glacial action]. Within the work is a mound five feet high with an encircling moat. Number 4 is three miles below Dayton; it is a rampart of earth sur- rounding an isolated hill, with steep slopes on every side except toward the south; on this side is a gateway within which is a ditch twenty feet wide and seven hundred feet long. An elevated ridge, and a depression at h forty feet deep, within the wall, are natural formations. Along the north-west side is a terrace, apparently artificial, about thirty feet below the embankment. — S. & D., 21. These works are not figured as possessing any striking or novel features, but on account of their close resemblance in form to the fortifications of the Iroquois. Works of the same kind are not uncommon in various parts of Kentucky and Indiana. TO WHAT PEOPLE MAY WE ATTRIBUTE THE "FORTS"? With aboriginal methods, the construction of any one of the large hill-top enclosures necessarily required a considerable time. There must have been a threat, or at least a prospect, of serious danger before they would be undertaken. Yet, if constructed as places of refuge by the race which built the earthworks of the valleys, as is the universal belief, they would have to be completed before an enemy was able to take perman- ent possession of the region. By the expression '' a considerable time ", is not meant a period of years. If the builders of the forts were endowed with the foresight to prepare for a remote contingency ; to provide a resort from enemies who might come upon them at some unknown future time ; to anticipate trouble of which there were no present indications ; — then they might go on with the construction at their leisure. But if menaced while still unprepared for defense; if compelled to take measures at short notice for the preservation of their lives or liberties ; especially if coerced to build with one hand while fighting off an assailant with the other; — then each 266 Archaeological History of Ohio. day becomes of vital importance. " Time ", in such event, is only a comparative term. The actual number of days required to build one of these forts could be readily determined if we knew the number of yards of material in it, and the amount of work a man could — or would — perform in a day with a basket and a wooden shovel. The first factor it is possible to calculate; the second can only be guessed at. Overman gives the contents of the Fort Hill embankment as 50856 cubic yards. If intended for temporary quarters only,, as it must have been on the assumption under which we are calculating, one thousand persons would not be an excessive number to house within an area of thirty-three acres, especially if we suppose them to dwell in several separate villages during intervals of peace. Set aside one-half of these as too young, too old, or otherwise unfitted to take part in ordinary labor. Deduct one-half the moiety to engage in occupations necessary for sub- sistence and comfort. This will leave 250 persons who may put in full time on the proposed fortress. Each will have to deposit 204 yards of earth and stone, none of which need be moved more than one hundred feet; the average distance will be less than sixty feet, even if the ditch from which it is obtained be made three times as broad as the embankment. Half a cubic foot of this, tightly packed, will weigh about 65 pounds, which is a moderate load. Ten minutes will be ample time to fill and empty a basket. At this rate, each man would deposit one cubic yard in a day of nine hours ; so that, even if idle more than one-third of the time, the number of men indicated could construct this fort in less than a year. Under the stress of fear they would work faster and more steadily ; the task could easily be finished inside of six months, if necessary. In the case of a structure entirely of stone the question may be solved in another manner. Glenford Fort contains 26 acres ; with the above number of men, each must clear up a little more than one-tenth of an acre. How many weeks would a willing worker demand to pick up all the stones on a lot measuring fifty by one hundred feet, and carry them about one hundred yards ? The hill-top forts also afford almost positive proof that the territory occupied by their authors was quite restricted. It is not credible that anv community would erect impregnable Who Built the Hill-Top Fortifications? 26T fortifications in the heart of their country, leaving all the outlying region unprotected, especially in those directions from which it is almost certain an attack was to be expected. But there is another consideration. In form, situation, and apparent purpose of construction, these forts are so unlike the geometrical earthworks of the plains as to create a doubt whether the two classes of works are to be attributed to one race. Except for their greater size, they bear a decided resemblance to those along the lakes, and eastward. This similarity between works in the northern and southern parts of the State suggests the idea of racial connection between their builders, closer at least than that between either of them and the designers of the squares and circles. Even though those writers who make a distinction between the authors of the works north and those south of the middle of the State have not questioned the statements that all enclosures in any particular locality, no matter what their form and position, are due to one race, yet in view of the migratory instincts and habits of all native American peoples of whom we have any knowledge, it is unreasonable to suppose that a single tribe or race has held for unnumbered centuries continuous and undisputed possession of a territory with a definite boundary. Such stability is impossible among savages or barbarians — at least such as have lived in this country. Consequently, we are not justified in the supposition that no race or tribe other than the Mound Builders has ever lived in southern Ohio; or that no other people have ever found it necessary to fortify them- selves against attack. All writers on our antiquities have agreed that these strong fortresses are intended as defensive enclosures to which the Mound Builders would retire at the approach of a foe numerically super- ior. But most of them are many miles from the fertile lands where the Mound Builders had their permanent homes. They are in regions not easily accessible, without an adequate water supply inside the walls, and there is but little cultivable land in the immediate vicinity of several of them. That a people with any judgment should make a long journey to reach a place so unsuited for their manner of life — or at least amid surround- ings so totally unlike those to which they were accustomed — carrying with them their property and a large supply of food — seems incredible. Their towns could readily be defended against 268 Archaeological History of Ohio, assault or attacks such as would be made by predatory bands; and a foe of sufficient strength to conquer them in their homes could easily pen them up in these forts until starvation extermin- ated them. Again, even if we admit for the moment that all mounds on hills are intended as "signal stations" from which warning could be given of the advance of an enemy, such mes- sages could not reach the settlements in time to allow an entire community to migrate with the proper supplies and safely ensconce themselves before the foe would be upon them. The latter had no roads to build, no wagon trains to drag through the forests; every warrior was his own commissary department and lost no time in waiting for rations to overtake him. A war party, unincumbered with impedimenta of any sort, could travel many more miles in a day than a party containing women, children, and feeble persons ; and we are not to suppose these would be left behind to fall victims to the first onslaught. If villages and crops were left without protection, what would remain of them when the owners returned? The amount of labor expended upon Fort Ancient, or any other of these immense works, would be ample to render impregnable the scattered homes of all the people who could find shelter within its massive walls. These structures, however, are unmistakably defensive in their nature ; and their size indicates warfare of no small propor- tions. They prove that the Mound Builders or some_ other people in Ohio engaged in desperate conflicts involving large forces. If we accept the customary solution of the fate of the Mound Builders, namely, that they were driven from the country, then it is plain these forts were a prominent factor in the struggle. It is with some hesitancy that an opinion is here advanced very dift'erent from Vv^hat has hitherto been admitted without question ; but as it does not seem that the Mound Builders could, or would, have made them, we must attribute the isolated forts to the invading party. There is no improbability in the suggestion that at least some of the hill-top and other irregular enclosures of Ohio and the adjacent States may owe their existence to a race in the same stage of advancement as several tribes that lived in the Northwest Territory in the middle of the eighteenth century; while the complicated earthworks such as those at Newark and Portsmouth, and in Ross county, may have their origin in the IVho Built the Hill-Top Fortificaiions? 269 necessities of some tribe in the social condition of the sedentary- Indians of the southern States. An exception, it is true, exists in structures hke Fort Miami or Spruce Hill. These might be permanently occupied by a farming- community, for they are upon hills which rise directly from level, productive bottoms. But wild, rugged country, like that in which Fort Hill and Glen- ford Fort are located, is suitable only for hunters and warriors. If the latter attempted to occupy portions of southern Ohio at the time it was in possession ot the Mound Builders, they would need a base of operations, and a safe retreat when repulsed or when not actively engaged. Such a place must be difficult to assault, easy to defend, and at some distance from towns against which the operations of its garrisons were directed — all which conditions are complied with in the sites of the insulated forts. To the natural inquiry '' What were the inhabitants doing, all the time this fortifying was going on?" it may be replied " What could they do?" If their dread of marauders would lead all the inhabitants over thousands of square miles, to abandon enclo- sures in the bottoms and crowd into those on the hills, as we are told they did, it would prevent them from molesting the invaders when the latter chose to settle in one spot. Let us examine the conditions as they are set forth by all writers who have studied the subject: — There is an agricultural people, living in the midst of fertile, easily tilled lands ; there is a broken country all about them abounding in game; there is a wild, roving, hunting race, at some place to the northward or eastward. The latter people are more accustomed to warfare than the former; they want game, they also have no objection to plundering villages ; when resting from war or the hunt, and not wishing to return to their homes, they must be prepared for reprisals. This naturally leads to the selection of a position where they may easily defend themselves, and to the construction at the site chosen of a protective work of some sort — timber, earth, or stone, according to their numbers, the relative convenience or abundance of material, and the anticipated length of occupation. The large area and massive walls of some of these struct- ures are, it is true, presumptive evidence against such a hypothesis. Hunting or war parties were never known to fortify on so large a scale. 270 Archaeological History of Ohio. But if a tribe or clan, influenced by the abundance of game or the opportunities for plunder, should decide to settle in a coun- try already in possession of a people opposed to the intrusion of strangers, it would be compelled to take such measures as were necessary. If a defensive work for the protection of a village of a thousand persons, must have ten times the size or strength of one that is sufficient for a village of a' hundred inhabitants, by the same conditions there are at once ten times as many laborers to take part in the work. With the advent of different bodies of aliens, the original inhabitants may have found themselves compelled to adopt the same kind of tactics ; to abandon their more exposed settlements and congregate in defensible positions which they would fortify after the manner learned from their adversaries. There is another view of the matter. Unless the Mound Builders were the first inhabitants of Ohio, they must, of course, have come from some other region and they must have found the territory already occupied. Either war or amalgamation would follow. If the former — which is the more likely, for such is '' the natural condition of man " in a savage state — either the invaders or the earlier inhabitants may have built some of the forts. So we have our choice among four possible sources, any or all of which may have to be taken into consideration in seeking the origin of the strictly defensive enclosures : — The Mound Builders, on their arrival ; the tribe, or tribes, whom they found here; invaders, toward the close of the Mound Builders' occupa- tion ; and Mound Builders in resisting the last. CHAPTER VIII GRADED WAYS, TERRACES, EFFIGIES, AND ANOM- ALOUS STRUCTURES. A. — GRADED WAYS. ON page 209 is a description of the possibly artificial grade at the Turner Group. So far as known, no other pas- sageway is formed by making a fill to connect plains of different levels. But at several places in Ohio gentle inclines through a depression, from a higher terrace to a lower, or to a stream, are attributed to the Mound Builders, who are supposed to have cut them out for roadways, throwing the earth to either side. Squier and Davis have the following reference to them. " There is a singular class of earthworks, occurring at various points at the West, * * the purposes of which to the popular mind, if not to that of the antiquarian, seem very clear. These are the graded ways, as- scending sometimes from one terrace to another, and ocasionally de- scending towards the banks of rivers or water-courses. The one at Mar- ietta, is of the latter description ; as is also that at Piqua, Ohio. One of . the former character occurs near Richmonddale, Ross county, Ohio ; and another, and the most remarkable one, about one mile below Piketon, Pike county, in the same State. A plan and view of the latter is here- with presented. [ See figure 75 (S. & D., 88, plate XXXI, No. 1) ]. It consists of a graded way from the second to the third terrace, the level of which is here seventeen feet above that of the former. The way is ten hundred and eighty feet long by two hundred and fifteen feet wide at one extremity, and two hundred and three feet wide at the other, measured between the bases of the banks. The earth is thrown outward on either hand, forming embankments varying upon the outer sides from five to eleven feet in height ; yet it appears that much more earth has been excavated than enters into these walls. At the lower extremity of the grade, the walls upon the interior sides measure no less than twenty-two feet in perpendicular height." " It is, of course, useless to speculate upon the probable purpose of this work. At first glance, it seems obvious; namely that it was con- structed simply to facilitate the ascent from one terrace to another. But the long line of embankment extending from it, and the manifest con- (271) 272 Archaeological History of Ohio. nection which exists between it and the mounds upon the plain unsettle this conclusion." — S. & D., 88-9. A. AT MARIETTA. Of the four mentioned by them, that at Marietta has been most often described ; but only because more people have seen it. Among the earlier notices, these may be found : — " A causeway forty yards wide, and from ten to twelve feet high, rounded like a turnpike road, leads from it to the river." — Cuming, 106. In a numbered sketch, made in 1785, of the Marietta works, is given: — " No. 6, Coveied away from the town to the then locality of the river, which is supposed at that time to have run along the edge of the second bottom. These walls are now twenty feet high, and the graded road be- tween them was one hundred feet wide, and beautifully rounded like a modern turn-pike." — Stebbins, 329. " The entrances at the middle are the largest, particularly that on the side next the Muskingum. From this outlet is a covert way, formed of two parallel walls of earth, 231 feet distant from each other, measuring from centre to centre. The walls at the most elevated part on the inside are 21 feet in height and 42 feet in breath at the base, but on the outside average only five feet high. This forms a passage about 360 feet in length, leading by a gradual descent to the low grounds, where it probably at the time of its construction reached the margin of the river. Its walls commence at sixty feet from the ramparts of the fort, and increase in ele- vation as the way descends towards the river ; and the bottom is crowned in the centre in the manner of a well-formed turnpike road." — Harris, 149. The account by Squier and Davis Is more complete. The " Via Sacra," or graded way, at Marietta " is six hundred and eighty feet long by one hundred and fifty wide between the banks, and consists of an excavated passage descending regularly from the plain, upon which the works just described are situated, to the alluvions of the river. The earth, in part at least, is thrown outward upon either side forming embankments from eight to ten feet in height. The centre of the exca- vated way is slightly raised and rounded, after the manner of the paved streets of modern cities. The cross-section gh [see figure 15] exhibits this feature. Measured between the summits of the banks, the width of the way is two hundred and thirty feet. At the base of the grade, the walls upon the interior are twenty feet high. From this point there is a slight descent, for the distance of several hundred feet to the bank of the river, which is here thirty-five or forty feet in height. [There is an] entire absence of remains of antiquity upon the beautiful terraces to which this graded passage leads. They may nevertheless have been once as thickly populated as they are now ; and this passage may have been the The Via Sacra. 273 grand avenue leading to the sacred plain above, through which assemblies and processions passed, in the solemn observances of a mysterious wor- ship." — S. & D., 74. The plan given does not represent the squares as " exact ". Whittlesey is less romantic in his explanation of its probable use ; — "'The grade at Marietta leads from a strong work down to the Mus- kingum River, and had an evident purpose, that of access to water. It is principally an excavation and not an embankment." — Whittlesey, Works, 9. There is no doubt that this work is artificial ; but it was never made for the sole purpose of being used as a roadway or means of passage between the two terraces. It is wide enough for a hundred men to walk abreast in it, and leads out on a strip of bottom land but little if any wider than itself and which could never have been much wider. It is more than likely that earth was obtained here for making mounds and embankments in the vicinity. Very probably it originated in a pathway to the river, which was gradually widened by removal of earth for the works. If this was the case, another path led from the lower terrace to the water. The stream may have been reached, how- ever, through the ravine which discharges almost in a line with the upper side of the '' Via Sacra ". It is to be observed that the earliest recorded measurement gives the height of the walls on each side of the cut, as only five feet. The scale of " twenty feet " for the inside, includes the undisturbed earth of the side-slopes. These walls, which long ago disappeared, were probably built of earth taken up from the surface of the upper terrace, as was the case at Piketon. The water of the Aluskingum is now at a much higher level than it was formerly, owing to the dam near the mouth; but if ever as low as denoted by Squier and Davis, it is very clear that the graded way was made without any reference to the stream, B. AT RICHMONDDALE. No such work exists in the vicinity of. this village ; nor is there any visible evidence of aboriginal occupation about there, except a few mounds scattered over the high terrace to the north. None of the latter are within a mile of Richmonddale ; 18 274 Archaeological History of Ohio. and there is no conceivable reason why a " graded way " should be made, when there is no place for it either to begin or end. Probably the authors allude to some one of the numerous ravines in which no water now flows on account of changes of slope carrying drainage in other directions. C. AT PIQUA. The reference to this is based upon Major Long's observa- tions early in the century. It is evident we have here to deal only with a natural ravine or guUey, on one side of which an embank- ment has been made. At Piqua, " near the bank of the river, there are remains of a water- way; these remains consist of a ditch dug down to the edge of the river, the earth from the same having been thrown up principally on the south side or that which fronts the river; the breadth between the two para- pets is much wider near the water than at a distance from it, so that it may have been used either for the purpose of offering a safe passage down to the river, or as a sort of harbor in which canoes might be drawn up ; or perhaps, as is most probable, it was intended to serve both purposes. This waterway resembles, in some respects, that found near Marietta, but its dimensions are smaller. The remains of this work are at present very inconsiderable, and are fast washing away, as the road which runs along the bank of the river intersects it, and, in the making of it, the parapet has been leveled and the ditch filled up." — Long, St. Peter's, 52. D. AT PIKETON. The work at Piketon has long been cited as the most remarkable instance of this form of aboriginal industry. Figure 76 from the original drawing by Squier and Davis, and repro- duced in a hundred publications since their time, has always been given as a correct representation. The actual work is shown in figure '/y, in plan and section, from a recent careful survey. It will be seen that there is no " crown " to the roadway, as their cross-section shows, except that which is due to the ■construction of a turnpike passing through it; and the error and exaggeration, in various other respects, of their " plan and view " will be apparent at a glance. In itself the work is of no special interest or importance, and the details are trivial ; but they show a negligent, slip-shod manner which casts doubt on more important work, and should be gone into with some minute- ness, because these perverted accounts have done much toward The Pike County Graded Way. 275 impressing readers with erroneous ideas of the people who are credited with its formation. Compare the "view'' with the sections. The depression is not in any degree artificial but is due entirely to natural causes. Formerly, when Beaver creek was at a much higher level than its present bed, at least a part of its waters found their outlet through this cut-off or thoroughfare. Its length, following the curve from the creek bank to the lower terrace at the other end, is 2225 feet; at the narrowest part it measures 120 feet across. The elevation of the upper terrace above the lower is 22 feet — not 17. The greatest base measure of either wall is 69 feet; one of them is 636 feet, the other 761 feet, in length along the top. The east wall has been cultivated until not more than three feet high; the west wall is untouched, and only a few rods of it have an elevation of more than six feet. Instead of tapering to a point at the south end, the west wall is higher there than anywhere else, having the appearance of a mound with an elevation of nine feet. Xo earth was carried up out of the depression ; that composing the walls was gathered on the surface and piled along the brink of each bank, a part of it being allowed to spread down the sides in order to produce a steeper slope. Both walls change direction at more than one point ; and so far from extending its entire length on the upper terrace, the east wall descends the slope and terminates near the bottom. The measure of '' 1080 feet " so frequently found in other parts of Squier'and Davis's descriptions, as well as here, will not apply to any part of the '' graded way " unless the line be carried out into the open fields. If the walls were leveled and all the earth in them spread out evenly, it would not make a difference of more than two feet in the elevation of the space between them. The early mistakes in regard to this work are repeated and exaggerated by ^IcLean. Whittlesey says : — " The great excavated road at Piketon also descended to water." — Whittlesey. Works. 9. While, as we have seen, it is not " excavated " by human labor, it undoubtedly once "descended to water," though not in the sense he means to convey. It is cut through the fourth or Iiighest terrace, and terminates on the third, at the end toward 276 Archaeological History of Ohio. J^sstts^i^ I, f I ^1 II m Figure 75. The Fikcton Graded Way. 277 Figure 76 — Squier and Davis's "view" of the Graded Way. Figure 77 — The "Graded Way" at Piketon. 278 Archaeological History of Ohio. the river, which then flowed at that level. When Beaver creek carved out its present channel, the old thoroughfare remained practically unchanged for an unknown number of centuries, until the Mound Builders came along and built their little walls on either side, all unconscious of the trouble they were making for future archaeologists. E. ABOVE WAVERLY. Colonel Whittlesey falls into a worse error concerning another old " cut-off ". This was made by the Scioto, after the third ter- race was formed. It would be difficult indeed to " discover the spot to which the earth was transported ", as it has gone toward making low bottoms farther down the river. He describes it as an excavation in Big Bottom, " near the line between Pike and Ross counties. The design appears to have been to form a cut or passage from the bottom land above Svvitzer's Point to the bottom land below. Only a very small portion of the earth removed is now to be seen ; having been transported to some spot which I did not discover. At the north- east end of the east bank is a mound. A little to the west and north- west is a natural ridge which appears to have been trimmed by art, and to have been used in connection with the lower portion of the western line of the embankment. The mass of earth removed here is greater than at Piketon." — Whittlesey, Works, 7. F. NEWARK. " There is also a grade, partly in excavation and partly in bank, from a portion of the Newark works in Licking county, leading to a branch of Licking or Pataskala river." — Whittlesey, Works, 9. This has been described under the Newark enclosures. G. NEAR BOURNEVILLE. Atwater alludes to the "graded way to the spring" at the ellipse described on page 217. — Atwater, 149. It never appears to occur to these writers that the existence of springs, and of an easy approach to them, may have deter- mined the location of earthworks. They seem to proceed upon the assumption that the builders made their enclosures at random, and then set to work to make the locality habitable. H. AT MADISONVILLE. " The ancient roadway near Madisonville, is cut along the face of a steep hill extending from the creek to the top of the hill. It is upward Graded Way in Butler County. 279 of 1,600 feet in length, having an average width of twenty-five feet." — Howe, II, 23, condensed. The only "ancient roadway" at this place is an old wagon road, now overgrown with trees and partially destroyed. It is not at all like any prehistoric work, either in its position or its construction. It begins in a ravine and ends at the top of the hill near a pioneer farmhouse ; and there are no aboriginal remains anywhere near it. I. NEAR CARLISLE. McLean describes with much minuteness a "graded way," about two miles west of Carlisle in Butler County. This is raised instead of sunken. He traces it from the top of a hill, down the slope, across a bottom or "upper terrace" to the bank of Twin creek, giving numerous measurements. Here it stops ; but he imagines it as formerly extending across the "second ter- race," which was probably a "swamp" at one time and needed this "causeway" in order to enable the Mound Builder to reach the fort from which the "graded way" proceeds. He attempts to establish a chronology, by supposing all this "swamp" to have been carried away by erosion, to the level of the "second terrace," which he places thirty-one feet below the "upper terrace." No definite number of years is given, because there is no measure of erosion, and so " The question is, 'how long has it taken Twin Creek to cut the thirty-one feet?'" — McLean, 134. The site of this professed artificial roadway is on a hill- side overlooking the valley of Twin creek, and on the bottom land at its foot. Two nearly parallel deep ravines, a few hun- dred feet apart, form a headland with steep, almost precipitous, sides. Around the margin of this and across the rear end of it an embankment is carried. On the side toward the creek it curves inward to surround the head of a small ravine which affords an easy approach from the bottom land below ; conse- quently there is no need for a "graded way," and none was ever made. The ridge described as such is entirely a natural formation, due to erosion. The upper portion preserves the ordinary slope of the ground, as may be understood from his measurement which gives an incline of more than twenty degrees. This does not sound large, but makes a pretty stiff 280 Archaeological History of Ohio. climb, nevertheless. That part of the ''way" along the foot of the hill is due to the approach of the ravine on one side toward a shallow washout on the other. What McLean calls the con- tinuation of this "graded way" across the bottom, or "upper ter- race," is nothing but the ridge formed by an old fence row and by the earth thrown up in making a turn with a plow at the end of the field ; it is visible only in some places, as he says, and never had any existence where it is not now to be seen. His "second terrace" is nothing but the shore of the creek, and is subject to overflow with every hard rain — unless, indeed, he means the low bottom beyond the creek. This may once have been a "swamp," as he suggests; but if so it existed before the stream was formed, and extended to the hills several hundred vards away. If the Mound Builder was here at that time, he v^^aw the retreat of the ice-sheet; for it was very shortly after that time that Twin creek began its task of "cutting down the thirty-one feet." In a word, it may be said that with the single exception at Marietta, the alleged "excavated graded ways" are natural depressions, possibly slightly modified, which happened to be where they were needed ; or the place was taken possession of because the grade was there. The few pathways which are actually artificial have escaped notice by reason of their insignificance. Where a group of works or a village-site is located on a terrace immediately above a very steep slope, steps were no doubt cut in the bank, or per- haps a narrow passage way dug, to facilitate ascent. The depression thus begun would deepen and widen with every storm, until finally a trough with considerable width and easy slope would be eroded, which can be distinguished from one entirely natural only by the fact that no water from the upper plain drains into it. Such gullies may be observed at the present day along the banks of any stream whose banks are of soft, loose earth, up and down which persons are accustomed to pass fre- quently. They are not uncommon where prehistoric village-sites were located on a bank with a tolerably steep slope ; but, as stated, their origin is overlooked. The nearest approach to a "graded way" that is to be found in the Scioto Valley, is a ravine of this kind just north of the circle at High Banks. The river bluff, about sixty feet high at Terraces. 281 this point, is so steep as to be very difficult of ascent. A path- way was made by the inmates or builders of the circle, in order to reach the water. This is now a large gully. In the loose sand and gravel forming the bluff, rains would rapidly erode the sides and bottom of such a path, and in a comparatively short time cut it down to an easy slope. Passageways similar to this could be cited, but no other is so large. B. — TERRACES. AT FORT ANCIENT AND WAYNESVILLE. Three terraces are represented on some maps, as existing on the steep hill-side where the fort makes its nearest approach to the river. Two are undoubtedly artificial. On the opposite side of the river is another, extending fully a mile. Still another is to be seen across the deep ravine north of the fort. " These terraces are from 20 to 25 feet wide ; they run along the hill-sides with surprising regularity of level. * * * The terrace •across the river is 137.7 feet above low-water level. * * * The second north of the fort is 136.6 feet; [that] along the Fort hill is 135.2 feet, there being thus an extreme difference of about 30 inches. There can be no question that these terraces are artificial. They terminate abruptly at either end without any change in natural surface conditions, which would not be the case if they were due to water action in the glacial period. Pottery fragments and flint flakes a foot below the level surface prove that the earth was dug from the upper surface and thrown to the lower. * * * At Waynesville, 10 miles up the river, there are a number of clearly defined terraces of undoubted artificial origin along the hill-sides bordering on Caesar's Creek." — Ft. A., 98-9. AT RED BANK. "The hill at Red Bank [Hamilton county], just north from the railway station, * * * ^g terraced on its eastern and southern slopes. The terraces are five in number." — Hov/e, II, 23. These terraces are plamly artificial and of an age antedating the settlement of the country by whites. They are about equi- distant, from the top to the bottom of the hill. No suggestion can be made as to the purpose of such remains. None yet offered seems to have any bearing on the question. They are not for "defense," because there is nothing to be defend- ed ; nor for "molesting enemies in canoes," because they are too far from the water ; nor for gardens, because the soil on them 282 Archaeological History of Ohio. is infertile as compared with that close by; nor for ^'dwelling places," because they are not easy of access, are flooded from the hillside above at every rain, and any house built on them could be destroyed by rolling rocks down on it. C — EFFIGIES. In several states are mounds presenting the rude outline of some animal or other. They are almost invariably of earth, though occasionally one is found of stone. By far the greater number is found in the Northwest, especially in Wisconsin and Iowa, where they exist by thousands. While an expert zoologist would prooably hesitate at identifying and classifying the various forms, other persons, with greater courage and a more delicate appreciation of similitudes, have had no difficulty in discovering the human figure as well as that of many quadrupeds and birds. Some can even name the particular varieties represented, although the resemblances are, as a rule, no more striking than may be observed in the clouds of a summer sunset. They are frequently, and it may be correctly, called emblematic or sym- bolic ; perhaps "effigy" is a safer term. Ohio possesses several of these effigies, only two of which reallv resemfcle anything. A. THE SERPENT. First, and above all others for its size and striking appear- ance, is the Serpent Mound of Adams county. In figure 78 is reproduced the engraving of the survey of this work, made by Squier and Davis. They claim that "the accompanying plate [is] laid down from an accurate survey." " The entire length, if extended, would be not less than one thousand feet> * * * The neck of the serpent is stretched out and slightly curved, and its mouth is opened wide, as if in the act of swallowing or ejecting an oval figure, which rests partially within the distended jaws. * * * The point of the hill, within which this egg-shaped figure rests, seems to have been artificially cut to conform to its outline, leaving a smoooth platform ten feet wide, and somewhat inclining inwards all around it. The section ab will illustrate this feature." — S. & D., 96. But an inspection of the section ab will show at once that it does not illustrate anything of the kind ; and, further, the section ab is quite incorrect in so far as it purports to present a section of the extreme point of the ridge. This, like any other The Serpent Mound. 283 Squier and Davis's Figure 78. Figure of the Serpent Mound. narrow ridge, is highest along the middle line, or very near it, and slopes in both directions. Ground with a contour such as that represented would soon have a trench washed through the center. 284 Archaeological History of Ohio. While the statement iii regard to the length is true enough, "an accurate survey" should present a closer guess than one that is fully one-fourth less than the correct number ; for the efQgy is somewhat more than 1,300 feet long from end to end. In the Century Magazine for April, 1890, Professor Putnam gives an excellent description of the Serpent Mound, with a full account of his explorations there. A sketch which accompanies the article is reproduced as figure 79. Professor Putnam says, in part: — " The graceful curves throughout the whole length of this singular effigy give it a strange, life-like appearance ; as if a huge serpent, slowly- uncoiling itself and creeping silently and stealthily along the crest of the hill, was about to seize the ovaj in its extended jaws. * * * Will it be forcing the fact to argue * * * that in the oval embankment with its central pile of burnt stones in combination with the serpent, we have the three symbols everywhere regarded in the old world as emblems of those primitive faiths? Here we find the linga-in-yoni of India, or the reciprocal principles of nature guarded by the serpent ; or life, power, knowledge, and eternity. Moreover, its position, east and west, indi- cates the nourishing source of fertility — the great sun-god, whose first rays fall upon the altar of stones in the center of the oval. So that here we have associated the several symbols which in Asia would be accepted without question as showing the place to be a phallo-solar shrine combined with the serpent faith." It is not east and west ; and if it were the middle of the body is considerably higher than the oval enclosure so that the latter could not receive ''the first rays." " Its very position on the high cliff terminating in the rough over- hanging rocks, washed by the spring torrents and near the three forks of the river, is to be considered when comparisons are made." ''Spring torrents" will wash anything they can reach ; there are not three forks unless small ravines are so designated, in which case a score might as well be cited as three; and it is a stretch of the imagination to apply the name "river" to a little creek whose bed is dry with every drought. " This combination of natural features probably could not be found again in any part of the great route along which the people must have journeyed from the Mexican Gulf." Except as to the "head" formed by the projecting point of the cliff, to which Professor Putnam makes no allusion, all the topographic features about the Serpent can be practicallv dupli- The Serpent Mound. 285 cated at various places within a few miles. If it is intended to say that exact duplications of all its features are to be looked for, it is a safe proposition to assert that such can not be found. No two places in a broken country can have precisely the same Sketch map of SeRPeNT MOUNO PARK AOAMS COUNTY, OHIO, Figure 79. Vicinity of the Serpent Mound. appearance. Besides, are such remains as this to be found in Mexico? None are reported. Even if they should exist in Mex- ico, why are none of the kind to be found in the vast intervening territory? Are we to suppose the builders, if accustomed to the manner of worship indicated, would travel for months in order to find in the peculiar topography of Brush Creek a proper site for giving tangible or visible expression of their symbolism? 286 Archaeological History of Ohio. " Is all this to be taken as mere coincidence in the development of faith in America and the old world? There seems to be too much here to admit of such a theory; and when other facts, in other lines, point in the same direction, it is playing false with our reason to be too skeptical." He makes comparison with a mound somewhat similar in construction in Scotland, and says : — " Is there not something more than mere coincidence in the resem- blances between the Loch Nell and the Ohio serpent, to say nothing of the topography of their respective sections? Each has the head pointing ^A^^)! i:.' iiMi'ii.i '',1 '"-'1111 ,'i'-, •, ,'.\'>ii ' Figure 80. McLean's Figure of the Serpent Mound. west, and each terminates with a circular enclosure containing an altar, from which, looking along the most prominent portion of the serpent, the rising sun may be seen." The Scotland work seems, from an illustration, to be on the shore of a mountain lake, and amid very different scenic sur- roundings. For another view as to the significance of such similarities, see a citation from Fergusson, on page 39. McLean made a thorough examination of the Great Serpent, and gives a drawing which is reproduced here as figure 80 ( Amer. Antiq., Jan'y. 1885, p. 46). He has evolved a most singular theory. " Thirty feet from the point of the rock is the end of the nose of the frog. The frog is in the act of leaping; the hind legs stretched The Serpent Mound. 287 "backward, the fore legs outward and forward, the body drawn up at the back, and the head depressed. * * * The apparent height is perhaps three and one-half feet. The head is fifteen feet long by twenty broad. It is considerably destroyed. The length of the body is forty-six feet. The right foreleg extends down the slope. For eleven feet it is bold. The left foreleg has been destroyed by denudation, except for a distance of five or six feet. The hind legs extend backwards fifty feet. Between the two hind legs, and removed a distance of seventeen feet, the egg- shaped wall is inserted. This wall is about two and a half feet high, with no outlet, and the bank seventeen feet across at the base. This wall or egg is oblong, the length one hundred and thirteen feet, and the greatest breadth from bank to bank fifty feet. The interior is hollow. In the center is a low mound fifteen feet in diameter at the base. It has been disturbed. A hole in the center reveals burnt stone. The opposite end from the frog extends into the mouth of the serpent effigy. From the top of the bank of the egg to the same forming the mouth of the serpent is twenty-four feet. Calculating from the extreme point of the jaws the egg extends into the serpent's mouth a distance of sixteen feet. * * * The entire length of the whole series, from the point of the frog's nose to the end of the serpent's tail, is thirteen hundred and thirty-one feet." Various other measurements are given, not necessary to reproduce here. " The whole series apparently represents the following : A serpent is on the mainland, resting in a coil, hid by a slight depression, and protected by declivities at two points of the compass. While in this position it beholds a frog sitting near the point of land beyond. The serpent unfolds itself, glides along the edge of the mainland until it reaches the tongue or spur, drops its head into the declivity, and just as it reaches the highest point beyond, strikes at the frog. But the wily batrachian becomes alarmed, leaps in time and emits an egg, which in turn is injected into the mouth of the serpent." — McLean, Serpent. It is a physiological fact, of such common knowledge as to have become almost proverbial, that certain muscles respond with vigor and promptitude to the influence of sudden or extreme fright. There is also a property of matter, known in physics as inertia, owing to which a substance may fall directly downward when its support is precipitately removed. But it is difficult to picture in the mind any combination of circumstances which would constrain a frog (presumably of the gentler sex) to move with such electric celerity as to jump from around an egg nearly twice as long as itself and with a corresponding breadth. The imagination balks. 288 Archaeological History of Ohio. The man who had them tame the mastodon finds in the Serpent Mound evidence that the Mound Builders beHeved in immortality and eternal damnation. " I have no confidence in the theory that a people so highly developed as the Mound Builders have shown themselves to be by their great works so artistically made, would worship one of the lowest and most depraved of reptiles. I am inclined to the opinion that the serpent with them was symbolical of a devil or infernal spirit, whose sparkling eyes would point to the slumbering fires within which would engulf them in everlast- ing pain and destruction, and that this great effigy was built with open mouth ready to devour its prey, to warn their fellow men to avoid the fatal snares of their hated enemy." — Larkin, 163. According to the newspapers, a preacher in Adams county finds even a deeper significance in the ''Serpent." He thinks the Garden of Eden was located in this vicinity, and that when Adam and Eve were banished (probably to the Sunfish Hills, as there is no other place in Ohio where a man would have to v/ork so hard to make a living), the Almighty himself erected this sem- blance of Satan, carrying in his mouth the apple which caused all the trouble, as a memento of the occurrence. The most scientific description and convincing explanation ever given in regard to this remarkable effigy, is that by Holmes. "When almost to the brink of the cliff, we reach the tail of the ser- pent. Beginning with a small pit at the terminal point, we follow the un- folding coil for two full turns, and then advance along the body which in- creases gradually in height and width. Upon the crest of the ridge we find ourselves at the beginning of three great double folds. Following these we come to a point where the body straightens out along the ridge. Beyond this we reach the curious enlargement with its triangular and oval enclosures. Here the body embankment is divided into two parts, which respectively pass to the right and left of the enclosures. At the sides they descend slightly upon the slopes of the ridge, and at the widest part of the oval are somewhat obscure on account either of original conformation or of subsequent erosion. Beyond these breaks they continue, closing en- tirely around the oval embankment within. From the point of junction the body continues for a short distance, perhaps forty feet, and then ter- minates in a rounded and slightly widened point. This terminal elevation is entirely omitted by Squier and Davis, but is noticed by more recent writers. [ The ] auxiliary ridges, and the minor appended features rec- ognized by Squier and Davis and by some recent visitors, are too obscure to he identified with absolute certainty, and I consider it unsafe to in- troduce them into my illustration ; but the entire body of the serpent, and the peculiar features of the enlarged portion are all distinctly tracea- ble, and leave no doubt in the mind as to their artificial character. The The Serpent Mound. 289 topography of the outer end of the promontory is somewhat peculiar. The extreme point is about thirty feet beyond the end of the artificial em- bankment, and is slightly cleft in the middle. The right-hand portion has no exposure of rock, and descends in a narrow, rounded spur. The left-hand point is a naked shelf of rock a little to the left of the direct con- tinuation of the earthwork, and some ten feet below its terminal point. It is rounded at the margin and perhaps twenty-five feet wide. The vertical outline is curved, and presents a number of encircling ledges marking the thickness of the firmer strata. The entire exposure of rock at the point is perhaps forty feet in height. Beneath this, talus extends to the creek bottom. From the point, the exposure of rock ex- tends back along [ down ] the creek, descending slightly and soon disap- pearing. Most of the attempts to throw light upon the most extraordinary features of the work have been made through the medium of oriental phil- osophy; but it manifestly wrong to go thus out of our way to seek a symbolism for the oval enclosure, as do Squier and Davis, who liken it to the symbolic egg of old-world philosophy; nor need we make a serious effort to combat the idea that the terminal portion is a frog, as suggested by McLean. It would not seem unreasonable that the former feature should be simply the eye of the effigy; but we have another ex- planation more in accord, perhaps, with the analogies of native ceremonial art. The heart, which represents the life, is made a prominent feature in all superstitious delineations of living creatures, as shown by a multitude of examples. When we restore the head and neck of the reptile, omitted by Squier and Davis and misinterpreted by others, the strange oval takes the position of a heart, and in all probability marks the site of ceremonies that must have been connected with this work. This leads to a considera- tion of a proper identification of the head of the effigy, and the ref- lations of the natural to the artificial features of the site. From the bank of the creek we have a comprehensive view of the serpent ridge. Having the idea of a great serpent in mind, one is at once struck with the remarkable contour of the bluff, and especially of the exposure of rock, which readily assumes the appearance of the reptile lifting its front from the bed of the stream. The head is the point of rock, the dark lip- like edge is the muzzle, the light-colored under side is the white neck^ the caves are the eyes, and the projecting masses to the right are the pro- truding coils of the body. The varying effects of light must greatly in- crease the vividness of the impressions, and nothing would be more nat- ural than that the Sylvan prophet should at once regard the promotory as a great manito. His people would be led to regard it as such, and this would result in the elaboration of the form of the reptile, that it might be more real. The natural and the artificial features must all have been re- lated to one and the same conception. The point of naked rock was. probably at first and always recognized as the head of both the natural and the modified body. It was to the Indian the real head of the great ser- pent manito." — Holmes : Serpent, condensed. 19 290 Archaeological History of Ohio. Figure 81. Holmes's Figure of the Serpent Mound. A sketch by Mr. Holmes is reproduced in figure 8i (Science, VIII, 204, Dec. 31, 1886, figure i, page 626). The vein of speculation seems worked out, so the reader must formulate a theory for himself if not satisfied with those presented. The Opossum. 291 The promontory upon which this effigy stands was pur- •chased some years ago with money furnished by a number of generous ladies in Boston who had become interested in the work through the efforts of Professor Putnam. It was put in thorough repair, fences built, trees planted, and defaced portions of the artificial work restored and sodded over. The title deed was then transferred to the Peabody Museum, of Harvard College. Owing THE OP06OUM Licking County, Oh/o. Figure 82. to the difficulty of supervision from such a distance, the property became much impaired. Professor Putnam proposed that it be turned over to the State; and upon his advice and suggestion, the Trustees of Harvard, in 1900, deeded the entire property to the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society, in fee, with no other condition than the very reasonable one that the effigy be kept unimpaired and the adjacent grounds preserved as a park. B. THE OPOSSUM. The effigv at Granville is shown in figure 82 (S. & D., plate XXXVI. No. 2). 292 Archaeological History of Ohio. " It is known in the vicinity as ' the Alligator ' ; * * the figure bears as close a resemblance to a lizard as any other reptile." The total length, following the curve, is about 250 feet: breadth of body, 40 feet; length of each leg 36 feet ; average height 4 feet ; elevation at shoulders 6 feet. "It seems more than possible that this singular effigy, like that [of The Cross, near Tarlton], had its origin in the superstition of its makers. It was perhaps the high place where sacrifices were made on stated or extraordinary occasions, and where the ancient people gathered to cele- brate the rites of their unknown worship. Its position, and all the cir- cumstances attending it, certainly favor such a conclusion. The valley which it overlooks aboimds in traces of the remote people, and seems to have been one of the centres of ancient population. * * Upon the in- ner side of the effigy is an elevated circular space, covered with stones which have been much burned. This has been denominated an altar. Leading from it to the top of the effigy is a graded way ten feet broad. — S. & D., 98. The name "Alligator Mound," does not seem well chosen. The form, as may be seen in the figure, is that of an animal » with short legs and a short neck ; but the tail instead of taper- ing is of nearly uniform diameter and has a pronounced coil at the end, in both of which features it differs decidedly from any saurian. While individuals may have seen the alligator on some trip to the South, it is altogether improbable that the animal was familiar to the Mound Builders as a race. Their knowledge of the species would be of so limited a nature that they would scarcely desire to commemorate it in this manner. The figure recembles an opossum much more than it does an alli- gator. The propensity of uncivilized people to hold in awe or at least in superstitious regard anything unusual or mysterious, would lead them to consider the marsupium an organ worthy of religious recognition. Hence it is not improbable that this hum- ble animal would be honored in their ceremonies. The opinion sometimes advanced that it is a clan emblem or totem, is improbable. If the i\Iound Builders were divided into clans, it is not likely that only one — or two — would thus leave their mark. C. THE NEWARK FIGURE. Concerning the mound in enclosure E, at Newark, shown in figure 83, Squier and Davis say : — " In the center is a mound of singular shape. It much resembles some of the ' animal-shaped mounds ' of Wisconsin, and was probably de- signed to represent a bird with expanded wings. It can hardly be called The Newark Effigy. 293 a mound but is rather a group of four, so arranged and connected as to constitute an unbroken outline. Its greatest length is 155 feet." — S. & D., 68. " It is common to find two or three, sometimes four or five sepulchral mounds in a group. In such cases it is always to be remarked that one of the group is much the largest, twice or three times the dimensions of any of the others; and that the smaller ones of various sizes, are arranged Figure 83. around the base, generally joining it, thus evincing a designed dependence and intimate relation between them." [This is shown in their plan, re- produced here as figure 84 (S. & D., 170, fig. 57)]. " No. 1 is situated six miles below Hamilton in Butler county. The largest is twenty-seven feet high. :^=^3-r^rC.^ Figure 84. Groups of Conjoined Mounds. " No. 2 is a mile north of Chillicothe, and is numbered 4 in figure [23]. The small one indicated by the letter ; was excavated, and was found to contain the skeleton of a girl enveloped in bark. The largest of the group is about thirty feet high. " No. 3 is situated in Pike county, near the end of the embankmen' from the Graded Way." — S. & D., 170, condensed. Group No. 2 is the one to which reference is made on page 354 to page 357. It may have been the intention, never carried to completion, to construct a group of this kind at Newark. Four conjoined 294 Archaeological History of Ohio. mounds is all that can be made of the figure ; and yet it has been compared to a flying eagle ; a bird, without specifying what kind ; a bird's foot ; a bow with an arrow across it ; a man on his back with outstretched arms; a honey bee; a man swimming withoilt legs; a large temple with a tower in front and wings at each side; and possibly other things. The outline of the mounds is not so definite as the figure indicates. ANCIENT WORK ^c/'ofo Coi//7/y. 0/7/0 QCAl.£ Figure 85. D. THE TAPIR. Five miles north of Portsmouth, on the west side of the river, is the enclosure shown in figure 85 (S. & D., 82, plate XXIX). It is 480 feet long, by 407 feet wide, but not a true ellipse. A mound within "is of the form and relative size indicated in the plan,, and is composed of loose broken sandstone and earth, based upon dis- located and broken sand rock. It is from one to eight feet high, being lowest at the east end or head, and at the projecting points. It is probably of the same design as those of Wisconsin. * * * ]\Jq expla- nation of the probable design of this work will be attempted here; it is impossible, however, to disconnect it from the superstitions of the ancient people. * * * Workmen engaged in excavating [for Works of Unknown Meaning. 295 the canal] found large quantities of mica, in sheets, in the immediate vicinity of this enclosure." — S. & D., 82. Some writers have managed to find in the mound mentioned a resemblance to the South American tapir ; proving thereby, of course, that the makers were familiar with that animal. E. THE BEAR. On the opposite side of the ravine from the western termi- nation of the parallels extending westward from the lower group of the Portsmouth Works, on the Kentucky side, is an effigy which apparently is intended to represent a bear. It is one hun- dred and five feet in length, and much resembles some of the Wisconsin figures. — Lewis, Fort, 375. D. — ANOMALOUS STRUCTURES. Among the works of the Mound Builders are some whose purpose not even a vivid imagination can fathom. No rational explanation is ever attempted by any one who describes them. Three of these will be illustrated, merely to show that the psychological workings of an unknown people are not to be measured by our own standards. The builders of such figures probably knew what they were about ; but we cannot even guess at their thoughts or intentions. The structure known as "The Cross," shown in figure 86 (S. & D., 98, plate XXXVI, No. i), is near Tarlton, Pickaway county, on the point of a narrow ridge overlooking Salt Creek. It measures ninety feet across, each way, and is about three feet high. There is a slight ditch all around its margin, and a circular depression in the center twenty feet in diameter and twenty inches deep. Several small mounds, including one partly of stone, are close by ; and some large ones on top of the hill, farther back. — S. & D., 98. ^ ^ :\' t- -^ The singular structure shown in figure 87 (S. & D., 85, plate XXX, No. 4) is on the little stream of Black Run, two miles south of the fort on Spruce Hill, opposite Bourneville. It is composed entirely of stones which are not laid up, but are rudely piled together. The main work 296 Archaeological History of Ohio. ^ PicAaway Counly, Oh/'o, foo ^eer Figure Figure 87. Works of Unknown Meaning. 297 is an ellipse 170 by 250 feet. There is an opening "fifty feet wide on the south, where the walls curve outwards and lap back upon them- selves for the space of sixty feet." Five walls start "within ten feet of the unbroken line of the elliptical enclosure, and extend thence north- ward, slightly converging, for the distance of one hundred feet. The lines of the outer walls, if prolonged, would intersect each other at the distance of two hundred and fifty feet. These walls are twenty feet broad at the ends nearest the enclosure and ten feet apart. They dimm- ish gradually as they recede, to ten feet at their outer extremities. * * * The stones [of the main work] cover a space fifteen or twenty feet broad, and are irregularly heaped together to the height of perhaps three feet. * * * The purposes of this strange work are entirely inexplicable; its small size precludes the idea of a defensive origin. It is the only structure of the kind which has yet been discovered in the valleys, and it is totally unlike those found on the hills." — S. & D., 87. Peet finds in this work, two intertwined serpents, the five straight walls being the tails, and the curve at either side of the entrance the heads. Later, he concludes the walls are rattles. — Amer. Antiq., July, i886, and July, 1890. Peet possesses a peculiar faculty for seeing snakes. But he is justified in exploiting this discovery; in fact, he should give it more prominence than he has done, for there is probably not another work in the world where two snakes are represented as the proud possessors of five tails — or five sets of rattles, whichever it is. The 'Trefoil" near Bainbridge is presented in figure 88 (S. & D., 91, plate XXXII, No. 5). " It can, of course, be regarded only as connected with the super- stitions- of the builders, for the reason that it could offer no good purpose for protection, nor subserve any of the useful purposes for which enclos- ures are required, such as the Hmits of fields and possessions, or the boundaries of villages." — S. & D., 91. It serves as another example of the carelessness with which these men did their work. The pike in reality runs almost due west; the mounds are all north of the pike; there is no second terrace on that side where it is represented; and the Maysville pike turns off at some distance beyond the limit of the map. In addition to which there is not room on the terrace for a work of the size they figure. Still, they evidently* found something out of the ordinary, of which no part has escaped the destructive influ- ence of plow and harrow. 298 Archaeological History of Ohio. /INC/ENT WOffK f^oss Coanfy^ Ohio, SCO /^e^r Figure 88. ***** From the illustrations and descriptions in the preceding pages, the reader may gain a clear idea of the appearance, situa- tion, and construction of Ohio enclosures. All the so-called "sacred" or geometrical structures are figured, they being re- garded as the most important. Of other classes only a few are selected from each for presentation; enough, however, to show the characteristics of all. To present fully the interesting archae- ological details of every county in the State, would require many large volumes ; a task beyond the power of an individual or the resources of a society or institution. CHAPTER IX THE MOUNDS OF OHIO. Numbers. Size. Form. Classification. Stratification. Altars. Position of Skeletons. Property Buried with the Dead. Origin of the Cus- tom. How Mounds Were Built. THE total number of mounds in Ohio has been estimated at ten thousand. This is probably under rather than over the correct figure ; for while they are almost unknown in the. northwestern counties and are comparatively scarce in some parts of the rugged hill lands of the south and southeast and along the main water sheds, there is scarcely a township in any other part where they are not found. In the neighborhood of every stream in the southern half of the State, except some of those flowing through rough or swampy country, the surface is so dotted with them that signals could be transmitted from one to another for a hundred miles or more. There is scarcely a point along the Scioto below Circleville, or on either Miami in the lower half of its course, or in the valley of any tributary to these streams, where one may not be withm a few minutes' ride of some permanent evidence of aboriginal habitation. The same is true of the Cuy- ahoga and some other rivers belonging to the Lake Erie basin.. On the summits of steep hills; in bottom lands subject to over- flow ; on every terrace bordering a stream ; on plateaus and up- lands ; wherever there is cultivable or naturally drained land, a. good point of observation, an ample supply of water, a conven- ient topography for trails — the Mound Builder has left his mark. Even in places where it would seem a nomad would not care to- go, except as led by the excitement or necessities of the chase^ and then for as brief a time as possible, such evidence is not lacking of prehistoric residence, or, at least, sojourning. In magnitude they vary from one reduced by farming opera- tions until it is scarcely perceptible and probably never more than three feet in height or twenty feet across, to those fully thirty (299) 300 Archaeological History of Ohio. feet in elevation with a base diameter of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet. Such mounds as that at Miamisburg, with an altitude of sixty-eight feet, or at Grave creek, West Vir- ginia, two feet higher, are so far beyond the ordinary that they must be excluded in giving figures that shall fairly represent the usual dimensions. The majority of them are composed entirely of earth, though there are many altogether of stone and occasionally one occurs in which both materials are used. As a rule the earth mounds resemble in shape a medium between a low cone, and a flat dome or segment of a sphere. Some have an elliptical outline; others are flat-topped. All these usually come under the designa- tion of "conical mounds," which is, perhaps, as accurate as any single descriptive word could be, though none are or ever have been exactly conical ; earth could not be built into that form, nor, if it could, would it retain its shape through the first storm. The base diameter of a conical mound, undisturbed by cul- tivation, is very seldom less than four times and from that to ten times its vertical height. As this would not look impressive in a picture, they are almost invariably represented with the slope much exaggerated. The Marietta mound is especially unfortunate in this respect, as may be seen from the cut of it reproduced from Nadaillac (see figure 89). Some illustrations are even worse than this ; the artist never feels it his duty to explain how one of the builders could climb up the sides with a load of earth. The actual slope is shown in figure 90, from a photograph. While inaccuracies are to be expected in a volume written for the ''general public" by an author ignorant of his subject, it is somewhat depressing to find similar errors com- mitted by men who have opportunities for personal examination of the objects which they portray. As an illustration, Plate XI, of the ''Ohio Centennial Report," represents three "Ancient Mounds." It shows how little reliance is to be placed upon ordi- nary descriptions and observations. The first, reproduced as figure 91, outlines a mound as it really is, so far as proportions are concerned ; the second, figure 92, is as it looks to a casual observer ; while the third, figure 93, is an impossible "restoration," where stones less than a foot in diameter are made, according to the accompanying "scale," to appear as large as haycocks. Even books which profess to record only the careful observations of trained Real and Imaginary Forms of Mounds. 301 Figure 89 — Sketch of the Marietta Mound; from Nadaillac. Figure 90 — The Marietta Mound; from a photograph. 802 Archaeological History of Ohio. ^^-jmms' _ >^'^^^_s^^ TWO MILES CAST OF MIAMISBURC MONTGOMERY CO. OHIO. i>h>to Jertht H'uttmReam an4}ki1him Oh„t!i,tcr,cal Scru/y fy J. SUUr. 1872. Figure 91. .-f^zf^- TIPPETS MOUNO LICKING. CO. OHIO. iv