»^^M»sSj&JJs »l^\-> THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY 3 \B.1 P 3^ p lUiNOIS ILLINOIS RISTORlUfag||RV!Y |3rcl)i0toric America. The Mound Builders. Animal Effigies. The Cliff Dwellers. The Ruined Cities of America. Myths and Symbols. "I THE MOUND BUILDERS: THEIR WORKS AND KEklCS. BY >^ Rev. STEPHEN DT PEET, Ph. D., Member of Am. Antiquarian Society ; Am. Oriental Society ; Fellow of Am. Assoc. Ad. of Sciences : Member of Victoria Institute, also of Societe de Ethnographie ; Cor. Member of Numismatic Society of New York, Historical Societies of Virginia, Wisconsin, Rhode Island, and Davenport Academy of Science. Also Editor of The American Antiquarian and Oriental Journal SECOND EDITION. IkkUSTRATED. CHICAGO : OFFICE OF THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 1903. t TO THE OFFICERS OK THB SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. IN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE MANY FAVORS AND KIND WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT RECEIVED, THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTPULEY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR. COPYRIGHT BY STEPHEN D. PEET. V, / INTRODUCTION. JTJHE first edition of this book was issued just before the ■* 400th anniversary of the discovery of America, at a time when especial interest was awakened in the history of the country. The present edition is issued at a time when the 100th anniversary of the " Louisiana purchase " is to be celebrated, and it is to be hoped that a new interest will be taken in the prehistoric works of the Mississippi Valley. It will be understood that the mouuds and monuments are more numerous in this valley than anywhere else on the g-lobe. The majority of these have, to be sure, disappeared, and yet through the interest which has been taken by indi- viduals, a knowledge of their existence, character, location, and contents has been secured, and the public is not with- out information in reference to them. The Mound-Builder problem is not as difficult to solve as it once was. Fifty years or more ago it was held that the Mississippi Valley must have been settled by a civilized people, who had migrated from some historic country, as it was reported that silver scabbards, Hebrew inscriptions, and "triune vases" had been discovered in the mounds, but this was owing to a lack of real information and the misinterpretation of facts. At the present time, the belief is common and wide spread that the Mound-Builders were the ancestors of the Indians M'ho occupied the great valley at the time of the Discovery, and were the contemporaries of the Cliff-Dwellers and the Pueblos, whose home was in the Great Plateau of the West They were the contemporaries of the partially civilized tribes who occupied the regions of the Southwest, — Mexico and Central America,— to whom the many ruined cities, which have been so recently discovered, have been ascribed. The author of this book, who has also prepared a work on these "ruined cities," believes that there was in America during prehistoric times a stage of society, and a type of architecture and iirt, which has nearly passed away, and which would be impossible to restore, for the races and tribes that formerly existed here, have been so subjugated and overshadowed by the people who have taken posses- .L884 viii INTRODUCTION. sion that they have jjiven up their efforts to perpetuate their old systems, and many have even lost the memor}'^ of them. It remains, therefore, for the specialists to so rehabilitate the scene, that the present and future generations may be- come informed as to the things which once existed, and be able to carry back the record into prehistoric times. The day of controversy over the Mound-Builder problem has passed. About the only question that arises is whether there are any evidences of contact with other countries in prehistoric times, and whether the curious things found in the mounds shall be ascribed to this or some other cause. The author touches upon this point several times, but does not undertake to decide the question. The picture which is presented by the mounds and the relics is a very interesting one. There were, undoubtedly, great contests between the tribes and races before the Dis- covery. Many changes had occurred in their location. The more cultivated tribes, who had come north as far as the Ohio River, and built their works and left their relics, had retired. Some of the Northern tribes had gone southward, and were dwelling in the mountains of Tennessee and along the rivers that flow into the Atlantic; but there were many villages scattered along the watercourses, both in the North and in the South, which showed that the people were really more advanced than they were after the time of the Dis- covery, for the presence of the white man put an end to the condition of society which was purely aboriginal, and in- troduced a style of art and architecture and a form of society which was more European than native American. It is certainly very interesting to open the door and get a view of a condition of things which once existed, but will never be seen again. It was not such a civilization as has been recently disclosed by the discoveries in the far East ; nor was it such a civilization as formerly existed in the central provinces of Mexico and Central America; but it was a stage of society so unique and so purely aboriginal, that it would seem that every American citizen should know about it. TABlcE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. The Distribution of Mounds ^ CHAPTER H. The Mound-Builders and Their Works 15 CHAPTER HI. The Mound-Builders and the Mastodon 3^ CHAPTER IV. The Mound-Builders and the Indians 49 CHAPTER V. Burial Mounds Viewed as Monuments 59 CHAPTER VI. The Sacred Enclosures of Ohio ^i CHAPTER VII. The Great Cahokia Mound 97 CHAPTER VIII. The Migration OF the Mound Builders 113 CHAPTER IX. Village Life and the Mound Buildehs' Cultus 133 CHAPTER X. The Race Question ^57 CHAPTER XI. Defensive Works of the Mound-Builders 185 CHAPTER XII. Religious Works of the Mound-Builders 221 CHAPTER XIII. The Water Cult and the Solar Cult 245 CHAPTER XIV. The Relics of the Mississippi Vallfy 273 CHAPTER XV. Symbolic Carving A>-ong the Mounds 293 CHAPTER XVI. The Southern Mound-Botlders; Their Works and Their Relics 309 IkbUSTRATIONS. CHAPTER I. PAGE. Figure i — Mound at Marathon, Greece 3 2— Burial Mound of Protesilaus, Thessaly 5 3 — Burial Mounds in China 1 1 4 — Burial Mound of a Norse Sea King 14 5 — Burial Mound of an Ancient Briton 15 CHAPTER II. Figure 14 — Animal E ffigies 22 15— Burial Mounds in Illinois 23 16 — Fort at Conneaut, Ohio 24 17 — Fort at Weymouth, Ohio 25 18 — Village Enclosure in Ohio 26 19 — Village of the Stone Grave People 28 20— Chunky Yard in Georgia 29 CHAPTER III. Figure i— Elephant Effigy in Wisconsin 32 2 and 3— Obsidian Arrows from Idaho 33 4, 5. 6 and 7— Shell Beads from Mounds 33 8 — Bone Needles 33 9 — Pottery Vase from Michigan 34 10 — Hoes from Tennessee 35 1 1 — Sickles from Tennessee 36 12 — Banner Stone from Florida 37 13 — Gold (not Silver) Ornament from Florida 38 14 — Gold (not Silver) Ornament from Florida 38 15— Nondescript Animal from Davenport Mound 39 16 — Copper Ax Covt-red with Cloth 40 17 — Elephant Pipe found in Corn-field in Iowa 41 18 — Section of Mound on Cook Farm in Iowa 42 19 — Plan of Mound on Cook Farm 43 20 — Hieroglyphics on Davenport Tablet 44 21 — Hieroglyphics on Stone Tablet 45 22— Map of the Mounds on Cook Farm in Iowa 47 23 — Altar Containing Sandstone Tablet . . 47 24 — Davenport Tablet 48 CHAPTER IV. Figure i— Buffalo and Bear near Prairie-du-Chien 49 2 — Earthworks at Hopeton, Ohio 51 3 — Stratified Mounds near Davenport 53 4 — Circle and Square near Chillicothe, Ohio 54 5 — Circle and Square on Paint Creek, Ohio 55 ILLUSTRATIONS. xi CHAPTER V. PAGE. Figure i— Burial Mounds near Gideon's Bay, Minnesota 66 2 — Mound near Moline, Illinois 68 3— Mound and Shell Heap, Tohead Island 68 4 — Group of Mound* on a High Ridge 69 5 — Burial Mounds near Moline, Illinois 69 6 — Burial Mounds near Wyalusing, Wisconsin 70 7 — Effigies near Beloit, Wisconsin 71 8 — Effigies and Mounds near Koshkonong, Wisconsin 71 9 — Mounds at Waukesha. Wisconsin 72 10— Mounds at Indian Ford, Wisconsin 72 1 1 — Mounds on Rock River 72 12 — Mounds at Newton, Wisconsin 72 13 — Burial Mounds near Aztlan 73 14 — Stone GravLS in Ohio 75 15 — Altar Burial in Hopewell Mound 76 16 — Body Showing Copper Mask and Copper Horns "]"] CHAPTER VI. Figure i— Platform Mound near Marietta. Ohio 83 2 — Platform and Circle at Highbank, Ohio 84 3 — Circular Mound at Portsmouth, Ohio .... 85 4 — Circle and Square at Circleville, Ohio 86 5 — Octagon and Circle at Newark, Ohio 87 6 — Works at Portsmouth, Ohio 94 CHAPTER VII. Figure i — Cahokia Mound 98 2 — Big Mound at St. Louis 104 3 — Map of Works at St. Louis 106 4 — Pyramids and Effigies at Aztlan, Wi?conbin no CHAPTER VIII. Figure i — Grave Creek Mound 114 2 — Map of Works on Paint Creek, Ohio 115 3 — Fort at Hardinsburg, on the Miami Rivi r, Ohio 116 4 — Great Mound at Vincennes, Indiana 117 5 — Typical Fort of the Stone Grave People 1 18 6 — Burial Mounds on the Scioto River, Ohio 119 7 — Serpent Mound in Ohio 122 8 — Serpent Mound in Illinois 123 9 — Altar Mound on the Kenawha River, 124 10 — Village Enclosure on the Scioto River, Oh o 126 II — Stratified Mound in Wisconsin 130 CHAPTER IX. Figure i — Village with Water Supply 134 2 — Village with Sacrificial Mound 135 3 — Stockade Village near Granville, Ohio 136 4 — Stockade Village in Ohio 137 5— Stockade Village Four Mile Creek, Ohio.. 138 XII ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGB. Figure 6--Sacred Enclosures in Kentucky 139 o— Mound-Builders' Village and Covered Way 140 o — Stockade Fort in Tennessee 141 o — Stockade Fort in Ohio 141 o — Mound Builders' Fort 147 7 — Observatory Mound at Newark 153 8— Graded Way at Piketon, Ohio 154 CHAPTER X. Figure i— Mound No 2, Mound City 163 2 — Mound No. 3, Mound City 163 3— Mound No. 18, Mound City 164 4— Mound No. 6, Mound City '. 164 5 — Mound No. 10, Mound City 165 6 — Paved Altar at Mound Citv 165 7 — Sculptured Pipe from Altar Mound No. 8 166 8 —Enclosure on Paint Creek 167 9— Sculptured Bird from Altar Mound No. 8 168 10 — Spool Ornaments from Tennessee 170 1 1 — Double Mound near Chillicothe 173 12— Succession of Burials in the Adena Mound 174 14— Cahokia Mound Restored 176 15 — Boat-Shaped Gorget and Amulets 178 16 — Copper Bracelet from the Adena Mound 179 17 — Piece of Cloth from the Adena Mound 180 18 — Racoon Amulet from the Adena Mound 180 19— StiMie Mace from the Stone Graves 181 20 — Sculptured Head from the Ohio Mounds 182 21— Pottery Portrait from the Stone Graves 182 22— Pottery Pipe from the Gulf States 182 23 — Inscribed Tablet from an Ohio Mound 183 CHAPTER XI. Fij^ure I— Hill Fort near Chillicothe. Ohio 188 2— Map of Forts on Miami River 189 3— Stockade Fort at Newburgh, Ohio 193 4— Fort at Colerain, Ohio 198 5— Fort near Hamilton, Ohio 199 6— Fort Ancient .' 203 7 — FarmersvHle Fort, on Big Twin River 207 8 — Carlisle Fort, Ohio 209 9 — Stone Fort on Massie's Creek 211 10— Mandan Fort on the: Missouri River 215 1 1 — Walled Town on Big Harpeth, Tennessee 216 1 2 — Stone F'ort 217 13— Swamp Village With Defences and Lodge- Circles 219 CHAPTER XII. Figuie I — Chambered Mound on Iowa River 223 2— Chambered Mound near East Dubuque 224 3 — Chambered Mound in Crawford County, Wisconsin 225 ILLUSTRATIONS. xiii FAGB. Figure 4 — Circle of Skeletons at East Dubuque 226 5 — Chambered Mound in Missouri 226 6 — Animal Totems in Wisconsin 237 7 — Turtle Totems in Wisconsin 228 8 — Myth Bearer of the Dakotas 22q 9 — Myth Bearer from a Cave in Wisconsin 229 10 — Alligator Mound and Altar in Ohio 230 II — Copper Axes and Pottery Vessels from Toolsboro, Iowa. . 234 12 — Skeletons in Mound near Davenport 235 13 — Crescent and Circle 236 14 — Copper Mace from Etowah Mound 237 15 — Fire Bed in the Shape of a Crescent and Circle 239 CHAPTER XIII. Figure i — Horseshoe Enclosures at Portsmouth, Ohio 249 2^Effigy of Elephant m a Circle, on the Scioto River, Ohio. 250 3 — Concentric Sun Circles and Terraced Mound 251 4 — Terraced Mound opposite Portsmouth, Ohio 252 5 — Enclosure and Covered Way, Portsmouth, Ohio 253 6 — Circle and Square on Paint Creek 20 7 — Sacred Enclosure near Anderson, Indiana 257 8 — Sun Circle on White River, Indiana 258 9 — Circle and Ellipse near Anderson, Indiaria 258 10 — Sun Circle and Graded Way in West Virginia 259 II — Plan of Altar Mound 260 12 — Altar in Shape of Circle 20 13 — Altar Mound 271 14 — Altar in Relief 261 15— Crescent Pavement 262 16^ — Works at Alexandersville, Ohio 264 17 — Works at Worthington, Ohio 265 18 — Spool Ornament and Cioss from Stone Grave 266 19 — Pipe from Etowah Mound 267 20 — Circle and Crescent Pavement at Circleville, Ohio 269 CHAPTER XIV. Figure i — Maces and Badges from Ohio 275 2 — Arrow-Heads from Wisconsin 283 3 — Chunky Stones from Tennessee 286 4 — Pottery Bowl from Tennessee 287 CHAPTER XV. Figure i — Symbols found m Copper Relics from Hopewell Mound.. 296 2 — Symbols found in the Effigy Mounds 297 CHAPTER XVI. Figure i — Works at St. Louis 310 2 — Pyramids at Walnut Bayou 311 3 — Pyramid Mounds at Prairie Jefferson 312 4 — Village on Ocmulgee River 313. xiv ILLUSTRATIONS. PACE. Figure 5— The Etowah Mound 314 6 — Stone Cist in the Shape of a Hut 317 7 — Mound-Bnilders' House Wall 317 8 — Head Vase from Tennessee 318 9— Pottery from Ash-Pits in Ohio 3ig 10 — Pottery from Ash-Pits in Ohio 319 1 1 — Pottery from the Stone Graves 320 12— Vase With Three Heads 324 13 — Florida Pottery 325 14 — Copper Relics from Iowa Mound 326 15 — Copper Plate from Mound in Wisconsin 327 16 — Shell Gorget from Etowah Mound 328 17— Copper Relics from Florida 32g 19 — Sun Symbol on Shell Gorget 331 20 — Birds' Heads and Looped Square 332 21 — Spider Gorget from Missouri 332 22— Fighting Figures Irom Stone Graves 333 23— P'Rhting Figures from Mexico 333 24 — Suastikft on Shell Gorget 334 25 — Idol from Knox County, Tennessee. 336 26 — ^Idol from Tennessee 339 27 — Idol from Georgia 339 LIST OF PLATES AND MAPS. Frontispiece— Ancient Earthworks at Marietta. Earthworks at Marietta, page i. Conical Mound at Marietta, p. 2. Map of Burial Mounds near Mus- catine, page 17. Map of Works on the Scioto River, page 18. Village Enclosure on the Scioto, page 48. Indian Encampment at Detroit, page 4Q. Map of Burial Mounds in Min- nesota, page 58. Burial Mounds at Detroit, page 59 Burial Mounds in Ohio, page 74. Burial Mound at Chillicothe, p. 74. The Adena Mound, near Chilli- cothe, page 75. Mound Containing Stone Graves, page 79. Stone Mound Containing Succes- sion of Burials, page 80. Circles and Squares in Ohio, p. 88. Crescents and Circles in Oblong Enclosure, page 89. Map of Village in Marietta, p. 132. Village Enclosures at Newark, 133. Village Enclosures and Dance Circles, page 144. Village Enclosures and Covered Way, page 145. Pyramid Mounds in Illinois, p. 158. Pyramid Mounds in Missiisippi, page 159. Pyramid Mound at Etowah, p. 160. Copper Eagle from Etowah Mound, page 171. Eagle Man from Etowah Mound, page 172. Pyramid at Pine Bluff, Arkansas, page 176. The Knapp Mound, page 177. Map of the Works of the Mound- Builders, page 182. Map of the Indian Tribes, p. 183. Earth Fort in Highland County, Ohio, page 200. Stone Fort in Ross County, Ohio. page 201. Stockade and Stone Forts in Ohio, page 216 Stockade Forts in Northern Ohio, page 217, Stockade Forts in Southern Ohio, page 218. Fort and Village Sites in North Carolina, page 219. Fort and Bastion in Tennessee, 220 Works in Portsmouth, page 262. Works in Newark, page 263. Temple Platform at Cedar Bank, page 264. Shell Gorgets, page 265. Relics from Tennessee, page 2S4. Implements and Ornaments from Tennessee, page 301. Inscribed Shells from Tennessee, page 301. Inscribed Shells and Suastikas from Tennessee, page 301, Cahokia Tablet, page 303. Inscribed Shells from Tennessee, page 304. Pottery Kettles and Bowls from Tennessee, page 315. Pottery Bowls from Stone Graves, page 316. Pottery Portraits from the Stone Graves, page 321. Pottery Bottles from Arkansas, 322 Wooden Tablets from the Florida Keyes, page 338. Idol Pipe from the Adena Mound. page 338. o c z c z C C n; c in C H C c c c 5: > H c 2 z o o z o s n THE MOUND BUILDERS. CHAPTER I. THE DISTRIBUTION OF MOUNDS. The world is full of monuments. Some of them are made of earth; others of stone, and others of bronze. Each in their turn indicate a new age and the progress of civilization. The history of the past is made known by these mute witnesses. There is scarcely any land which has not its records kept by these monuments in one form or another, but the earliest of alj is that contained in the mounds. The first striking event in the history of any community, is the first birth or first death, and so it is with the history of the human race. We go back to the earliest record and find the story of the first pair, and soon after the story of the first death. It is conceded that the earliest monuments were placed over the bodies of some distinguished dead. So the earth mounds of every land may be regarded as mementos of tribes and peoples that have passed away. Nothing is more sacred to the human heart than the meniory of the dead. It is a sentiment which is as strong among wild Indians as among civilized people. The earth mound was to them a memento of the past. To us the dearest associations are those which unite the visible with the invisible, the past with the present. And so it has been with others. As generation after generation was gathered to its fathers, the growing mound would increase the sacred- ness of the spot. It is thus that we arrive at a motive sufficient for the- great pyramidal structures. Human nature, true to its original in- stincts, thus hallowed its inmost feelings by the great mound. Such is the reason for supposing the pyramids to precede every form of religious edifice. The highest thought of im- mortality is aided by these monuments of the departed. His- tory and' architecture agree in this: that the pyramids arc the oldest monuments, but there are tumuli found everywhere in the habitable globe which are much older. The universality of mounds throughout a large portion of the world, only shows that man everywhere possesses the same religious instincts and uses the same method for honor- 2 PREHISTORIC MONlJ^EhTt^. ing the divinities, and shows regard for ancestors in about the same way. It is by following the course of architectural de- velopment in the Old World that we. find the law which pre- vailed in the New. The remote period in which the great number ot monuments v/ere erected, leads us to pay a regard to the monuments of our own land. It may be that if we bet- ter appreciated the feelings which exist in all hearrs and homes, we would look upon the mounds that surround us, with a greater sense of their sacredness. The record con- tained in them is not so important as that contained in the monuments of the East, yet the consecutiveness of architect- ure in both hemispheres, and the singular parallelism seen in l:)oth worlds, makes the study of mounds and monuments very important. In every land we meet with tokens of respect for the dead. We cannot expect to find in the mounds of this country any such record as is contained in those mounds in which many of the ancient cities lie buried: but we may at least ascertain what kind of structures were erected in prehistoric times, and by this means gain a view of the beginnings of architecture even better than in the Old World. The same is true of the beginnings of art, for while certain tokens of the Stone Age have been discovered in the historic lands, yet if we are to learn about the art of the Stone Age we need to examine the relics which are hidden beneath the mounds of the Mississippi valley. The work of mound exploration has fallen into discredit, because of the motives which have ruled with many; yet there are lessons to be learned even here. It will be remembered that these silent mounds were the result of religious ceremonies, which followed one anoiher through many centuries, and were practiced by many tribes. The many generations have left their record in them, which makes them like the leaves of a book which may well be compared to the " Book of the Dead." Among the people situated as we suppose the earh inhabi- tants of this country to have been, these contain the only records. The continuity of the same race in the same country, and uninfluenced by any foreign element, continued until the time of the Discovery. There may have been many tribes, but they were all aboriginal. What length of time was required for these successive manifestations we cannot say. We know there were many ages through which architecture struggled in the Old World, and we may expect to find traces of many generations in the New. From the pyramid to the temple, in Egypt, was a far cry which extended through 1,500 years, and it may be that the same length of time elapsed between the beginning and ending of the mound-building period. The interval between the earliest grave in Egypt and the building of the pyramid at Ghizeh may have been very long, but It is unknown how long a time elapsed between the first ap- TriE DISTRIBUTION OF MOUMDS. ^ pearance of man here on this continent and the beginning of the mound-building period. There were various and succeeding phases of society m the Eastern World before history began to be written. In the Western World no history was really written until the advent of the white man; and \'et there are many evidences that a rude civilization had prex'ailed here long before that time. It is from the careful study of archeology that we are to carry the records back, and learn about the changes and events which occurred. These massive monuments arc before us as the memorials of the past, and we nre not to destroy them until we have found the record. The history of mound-building will, then, be ap- propriate here. There is a description in Homer of the process of mound- building, which was common in his day, for it was over the MOUND AT .MARATHON, GREECE. grave of Patroclus that a sacrifice or hecatomb of oxen was made, and that a mound was erected. Xenophon also has made a record of the manner in which those slain in battle were buried, so that we know that the habit of mound-building was common then and had probably survived from the pre- historic into the historic period. It is by this means that we have been able to identify and to know that the site of the battle of Marathon, which was one of the most memorable events in the history of Greece, is the monument of those who fell in that battle. There is also a mound on the coast of Asia Minor, which is a monument of the Siege of Troy, described by Homer. Schliemann discovered it, and identified it as the one in which was buried the hero. Protesilaus, who led the warriors of Thessaly against Troy, and was the first Greek who jumped on shore. The tradition of antiquity attributed it to him. This tumulus and the gardens around are strewn with fragments of thick black pottery, which are very ancient, and similar to that 4 PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS. found in the first city at Troy. There are other mounds scat^ tered over the globe, which are monuments of events of nearly equal importance, but are not so well known because no Homer or Schliemann has arisen to make known the event, or identify the mound with it. The large majority of mounds and monuments of the East were erected as places where the remains of the deceased could be buried, and where the personal possessions, especially those which were the most treasured, could be deposited. It is very singular how wide-spread was this custom of depositing the treasures of the deceased along with the body. We speak of the habit of the North American Indian, of depositing the relics with the body of the dead, the most of which were made of stone or copper or shell, and have been preserved, so that through them we can learn about the art of the Stone Age. But the same custom prevailed among the nations of the East, long after the Stone Age had passed away, so that one of the means by which we may learn about the art and social condi- tion which prevailed in the Bronze Age up to the beginning of the Iron Age. is to enter the tombs and draw from them the treasures wliich they contain. This practice of burying treasures with the dead prevailed • in Egypt as well as Greece. The view of immortality led the Egyptians to make the tomb in the shape of a house and to place a statue in the tomb, but to bury the body below the tomb, and treasures with the body. Even pyramids were built in this wa)'. There was a chamber in the pyramid, but the body was below it. The mound-building habit of the Egyptians reached its highest point in the pyramids. With the Babylonians the case was different. Many houses and palaces, temples, libraries, and statues have been found buried in the great mounds; no such burials as have been pre- sented by the tomb of Mycenae, nor such mummies, as are num- erous in Egypt. The tombs are built in the form of houses; many of which were conical in shape, and resembled the early houses, rather than those which were occupied by kings; so that there is a double advantage in opening the tombs. We learn about the ancient architecture as well as the early art, and find a record which is as useful as if there had been a written account of the scenes and circumstance of the times. It was on this account that the explorations by Schliemann in Greece are so valuable. It was his acquaintance with the Greek language and his ad- miration for Homer that led him to dig into the great hill at Hissarlik, and as a result he was able to identify, not only the site of ancient Troy, but to discover the traces of sixteen cities which had arisen upon the spot and gone to ruin, making successive layers, by which the age of the cities could be identi- fied. The relics which were discovered show the progress of civilization, as well as of art and architecture. It was also his THE DISTRIBUTION OF MOUNDS. 5 familiarity with classic writers that led him to undertake his expeditions at Tiryns, Mycen;e, and Athens, which resulted in such wonderful discoveries. The tombs of the ancient kings contained treasures of great value; but a benefit came to the world from his discovery, which cannot be measured in dollars and cents, tor the relics of art which were exhumed, have thrown light upon the period which has not ceased to astonish even the best of scholars. They have not only become familiar with the magnificence which prevailed in the palaces of the kings, but have learned much concerning- the common things in use among the people. We may say then, that mound exploration in America has received a new dignity, and the relics which are exhumed from them have an additional value from the fact that they can be compared with the treasures taken from the tombs of the East, and so the different stages of progress may be learned. N* i33.^Tua)iUu* of froiCMUua oa the ThraciAn Cbcnoocaiu oppowte itic Plua of Troy- BURIAL MOUND OF PROTESILAUS, THESSALY. Nor does ihe value of mound exploration cease with' the knowl- edge of classic history, for the Bible itself has received a new light as a result of mound explorations. There are very few burial mounds in the Holy Lands, and the relics of extreme antiquity are lacking; but there are mounds and monuments even theie, which carjy us back to the days of Abraham, or even earlier. In fact, the Stone Age antedated the Bronze Age and the Iron Age in all parts of the world, and we have a much clearer idea as to the social conditions which prevailed in Egypt, Syria, Babylonia and other parts of the world, after studying the relics and remains of the prehistoric peoples buried in these mounds, than we would have without them. They belonged to a race totally unlike those whose monu- ments are discovered in the East, yet the supposition is that they originated in the Old World, and represent the races which once existed there. 6 PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS. Great efforts are being made to learn about the relics of the Stone Age in the Old World, for from them we learn the beginnings of art and architecture, and even of religious sym- bols, and the efforts which have been so successful here in bringing out the peculiarities of that age, may be of great assistance to the archaeologists elsewhere. The scarcity of the relics of the Stone Age in Greece and Babylonia and Egypt seems to be lamented, yet enough have been discovered to show that that age did really exist in those lands. Perrot and Chipiez say : When we attempted to draw up the balance sheet of the Grecian Stone Age, we are not beset with an embracing mass of material, such as is seen in Mexiro, Scandinavia and other lands. The paucity of objects of this nature standout all the more clearly from the contrasts. We cannot de- mand of this country megalithic monuments, menhirs, cromlechs, or dol- mens, for the simple reason that none are found in Greece or on the coast of Asia Minor. The pile villages that were broui^ht to light in Thessaly and Macedonia, have turned out to be quite modern, and have no connec- tion whatever with the palaffittes mentioned by Herodotus, In them, more- over, no objects dating back to antiquity have been discovered. Tht re is little reason for seriously examining the stone (jr flint yard in Accadia or Orchomenus, or the kitchen middens wh.ch have been pointed out in Salamis. Still, on the other hand, researches are tncoura>;td by the knnv\ I- edge that towns that played so brilliant a part in history were oten built on much older settlements, so that when sub-structures or foundations w. re laid bare, instead of the looked-for classical buildings, they frequently present remains of villages in which had lived the earliest inhabitants of the country. Of the different pieces representing the Stone Age. fragments of obsidian and flint cut to a point are numerous and widei> distributed. Schliemann's excavations alone have yielded thousands. Ihe larj^est crop comes from Hi^sarlik. but Mycence and Tiryns furnish fine specimens also. Pieces of obsidian fall under two different htads: sltnder cones fitted to wood, or bone handled, to be used as a javelin; or thin triant^iilar blades, intended to go through the air and hit the mark at a distance (arrow-hea !s).' Long fine blades, whether as knives or saws are not common here. There is yet another class of instruments winch a widespread super- stition has done much to popularize. The Greeks designated them "Astral Stones." The French and Turks call them "Thunder Stones." We al.ude to polished stone axes, which are sn largely represented in our co lertunis. They represent the first efforts of a primitive people to emerge from bar- barism, a status which was not bO apparent in the several popul.ttcd centres, as in the clans that were scattered about. Still the employment of stone implements did rot cease when metal tubes made their first apiearance. for stone was discarded slowly and by degrees. The finest sp. cimens of stone relics have come from Trov, Tiryns, and Mvcena>. towns where metal wsa applied to all the usages of life. The passage from a semi savage state to a settled condition among the Greeks, was effected in their countless migrations to and fro, finally estab- lishing themselves in positions in which they became the Greek nation. Their efforts are visible in scenes far apart fiom one another, and yet not too dis- taiit to preclude their entering into relations of intimacy with tach other, and to have bestowed upon their handiwork a general lainily resemblance. The Hellenic tribes were separated by mountain or sea from one another, and did not owe allegiance t > a supreme head. Each obeyed its o n chitf and lived its own individual and independent life, but the State that had Mycens for its capital, appears to have been the most intlu< ntial among all. It constituted continental Greece, during the four or five centuries that pre- ceded the Doric invasion. The discoveries made during the last thirty years have disclosed to us at Greece totally forgotten, and older than Homeric Greece, but none THE DISTRIBUTION OF MOUNDS. 7 created so deep an impresbion as those in the Mycenjen metropohs. These lar better tlian any other, show us the means of defining the civilization wliich was the earliest. The thought expressed above in reference to the isolated tribes having developed in the course of time into a nation, is important, for it shows that it always takes time for any people to grow into the condition of a nation; and, unless the tribes are surrounded by physical barriers, and protected from incur- sions, they may never reach this position. This point is im- portant in connection with the Mound-Builder's history. Schliemann thought he recognized seven periods at Troy, but these were reduced to four superimposed cities. Resting on the rock itself, was the first settlement. In the second period the gate was furnished with a lintel and wooden jambs, and opened into a narrow sloping corridor, Percy Gardener says : It is supposed by many archaeologists that the graves which were dug in the rocks, just within the lion's gate at Mycenae, were earlier or older than the beehive tombs, the rich spoil of which dazzled Europe a few years ago. It is not unusual to recognize in the graves of prehistoric Greece, two periods, the older marked by rock cut tombs, and the later by beehive tombs. This would indicate that tomb building began in the Stone Age, though this has been obscured by the accumula- tions of more recent times. The same tact is true of the Holy Land. There was a mound situated in the south of Palestine, which was supposed to mark the site of the ancient Lachish, but it was a silent heap of earth. No one had undertaken to draw out its secrets until Mr, F. J. Bliss, the son of a mission- ary, was induced by Prof Petne to enter into the work of ex- ploration, He found that it contained the records of many ages, and it is now called the " Mound of Many Cities." Its history does not go back to the Stone Age, but leads us to an acquaintance with a condition of the country while the Egypt- ians were in power, and when a correspondence was carried on between Ramses, the great king of Egypt, and an officer who was stationed at this very city; and a series of letters were dis- covered, both in Egypt and in Syria, which carries back the history of writing to a much earlier period than had before been known. The exploration by Mr. Arthur J, Evans has also shown that prehistoric civilization appeared not only in Greece and Asia Minor and P.gypt, but extended from Cyprus and Pales- tine .to Sicily and Southern Italy and the coasts of Spain. The colonial and industrial enterprises of the Phoenicians have left their mark throughout the Mediterranean Basin. In all these excavations and researches, the land to which ancient tradition pointed as the cradle of Greek civilization, had been left out of account. Crete was the central island, a half-way house between three continents. Prof. Flinders J. Petrie says: 8 PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS. Here in his royal citv, Knossos, Minos ruled and founded the first sea empire of Greece, extending his dominion far over the ^gean isles and coastlands. It was as the first law-giver ot Greece that he achieved his greatest renown. He was the Cretan Moses, who every nine years repaired to the cave of Zeus and received from the god of the mountain the laws for his people, Like Abraham, he is described as the friend of the gods. His symbol was the double axe; his animal figure totem was the bull. The great cave of Mount Ida, whose inmost shrine was adorned with natural pillars of gleaming stalactite, leads deep down to the waters of an unnavi- gated pool. On the conical height immediately above the site and sur- rounded by a Cyclopean enclosure, his tomb was pointed out. The palace had a long antecedent history, and there are frequent traces of its remodelling. Its earliest elements may go back a thousand years before its final overthrow, approximately to 2,000 B. C, but below the foundations of the later building and covering the whole hill, are the remains of a primitive settlement of still greater antiquity, belonging to the Stone Age. In parts this Neolithic deposit was over 24 feet thick, and everywhere full of stone axes, knives of volcanic glass, dark-polished and incised pottery, and primitive images, such as those found by Schliemann in the lowest strata of Troy. The wonderful construction of the tombs which have been built in Greece, shows how sacred was the memory of the dead, and how valuable the knowledge of the Stone Age is, and how numerous were the survivals of that age in the speci- mens of art and architecture of the East, for the very tombs in which the royal treasures were buried, bore the shape of the conical huts which had prevailed in that age. The same is true in Egypt, Babylonia and other cities of the East. It is well known that the mastabah m which the mummies of royal persons were preserved, represented the huts which had pre- vailed in the Stone Age, and as a proof of it, the piece of pot- tery which represents a primeval house may be cited. The same is true of Rome, for here the beginning was a hut, for a piece of pottery representing the hut m which the shepherd gave shelter to the two brothers, Romulus and Remus, has been found. It is a hut-urn which resembles that belonging to the Lake-Dwellers of Switzerland during the Stone Age. The evidences of the Stone Age in Babylonia are lacking, but the explorers are approaching that age. The mounds in the plaza of Babylonia remind us of the Stone Age. It was in a mound at Nippur that a party of American ex- plorers began their work, and which has not ceased to throw light upon the records of the past. Through their presever- ence the date of history has been carried back at least 5,000 years, and it has been discovered that writing was known 2,500 years before the days of Abraham. Great libraries have been disclosed filled with tablets written in the cuneiform language, from which we have learned about kings and empires which had remained unknown for thousands of years. The Bible student who has not become familiar with the result of these explorations, which have continued up to the present time, is certainly deficient in many things, for these have given new settings for all the characters whose portraits are portrayed, and they assume far more importance than they THE DISTRIBUTION OF MOUNDS 9 ever did before. It was not in the infancy of the world that the Patriarchs lived, nor was it among a rude and barbarous people that the migrations took place, for there have been found beneath the great heaps of earth that stand by the Euphrates and Tigris, the remains of palaces which astonish us in their magnificence and size. Still, the fact that the stone knife was used in the rite of circumcision, and even human sacrifices had survived in Abraham's day, proves that the influence of the Stone Age was felt even by the Patriarchs as well as by the kings of Moab The writing dates back to 5000 B. C. B}' means of inscrip- tions we have been able to trace history back to this time, but the first construction of which we have evidence, is that of Ur Gur, about 2SC0 B. C. It was one of the most renowned and revered seats throughout the whole Babylonian and Assyrian period. Dr. Peters says: There were mounds which covered the site of an ancient city called Sirpurla, a tributary of Ur. An immense depo^it of inscribed clay tablets has been found ht-re. Several low mounds at Tello have also yie'ded a large number of relics which are important. These differ from those of the Stone Age, in that they show that writmg was common, and architecture was in a fair state of advancement. The court of columns discovered at Nippur, also shows that the archittctui e had passed beyond the Stone Age. Doorsockcts were also discovered here, and the oldest t»=niple in the world, the arch made out of crude bricks, designed to protect or cover a drain; also pavements and buttresses, causeways, gateways, towers, a ziggurat of several stages, and brick wails of thrt e different periods, pottery of various kinds, clav tablets, brick stamps, tablets that show a series of astrological records, shrines, a mysterious dwelling of the unsetn g d, emblem of the tabernacle above the clouds, a Babylonian palace of great extent and some architectural pretentions. Ur was not only the seat of the first temple, but was a great city of the first political importance, dominating Southern Babylonia about 4000 B. C. Eridu, which was at least as old as Ur, is represented by the ruined mounds of Nowawis on the edge of the Arabian Plateau. South of Eridu mav be mentioned but one city — Sippara, the ship citv, where the records were buried during the flood. Both Urand Eridu seem to have been at one time located near the sea, but they are at the present time 120 miles from it. From the later deposit we find that the cities would have stood on the shores of the sea about 7,000 B. C, but back of this we must conclude there was the Stone Age, the date of whose begining is unknown. All of these discoveries convince us that civ.lization had existed here many thousands of years before history began to be written elsewhere, showing that in this particular locality there was a progress which was equal to the Bronze Age and, perhaps, the Iron Age, as it first began to be knowu in other parts of the world, though the use of iron had not been discovered. The mounds of Babylonia were, as everybody knows, very different from those of America, for they contained the "ruins of lost empires," and were formed by the gradual accumula- tions of ruins, and were not made intentionally to cover up the remains of those who had died, or to preserve the relics of those who have lived; but the result is about the same. The distribution of the mounds and monuments brings us into other parts of the world. It is a remarkable fact that in China we find that the forms of the tents which constituted the 10 PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS. homes ot the Chinese while they were in their nomadic state, are still preserved in the shapes of their temples and towers. This has been spoken of by many travellers and scholars. It is even maintained that the method of building the houses is, at the present day, the same as that which prevailed when tents were the only houses. There are mounds in China which reveal to as the earliest form of civilization which prevailed there. There are, to be sure, other signs which show that the Chinese came up from the Stone Age, and that they resembled the wandering tribes *vhich formerly existed on this continent, and dwelt in tents or huts as they did. There are mounds in China which remind us of those on our own continent. These mounds preserve the remains of the dead, and are very sacred because of the love of ancestors which is so strong. Confucius, the great philosopher and founder of the Chinese Empire, was buried in a mound, which still stands. It is probable that mound-building in China began when the people lived in tents, and that the mound in which Con- fucius was buried was a survival of the custom which had pre- vailed for many thousands of years, at least there are many mounds in Mongolia which resemble those which are common in America. This does not prove that the Mound-l^uilders, so called, came from China, though they may have sprung from the Mongolian race; yet it renders it probable that the races of America were descendents from the Mongolians. There are also mounds in Russia. They are called "Kurgans," but they are filled with the relics of the Stone Age. They show that the mound-building custom prevailed not only among the Slavonic tribes, but also among the Manchurians. Arctic regions seem to have been possessed by a Mongolian race. Dr. Pickering includes the American Indians among the Mon- golians. By most writers, however, the American Indians are held to be a distinct race, which from recent discoveries is supposed to have dwelt on either side of Behring Sea, and is called the "Behring Race"; while the Mongolians are re- stricted to the Tartar tribes, and the Mantchoos, Koreans, Chinese, Thibetans, Siamese, Finns, Laplanders, and Samoy- edes; all these tribes nations are supposed once to have been nomads, and many of them were mound-builders. The Japanese were accustomed to erect mounds over their dead, and these still remain as the monuments of the past, and are very instructive in reference to the history of that people. It appears that there were three different periods in Japan, the nrst of which was marked by cave-dwelling savages, who have been called "earth-spiders" or " earth-hiders." Ancient records contain many allusion to them. Mr. Romyn Hitch- cock has compared them to the pit-dwellers, who were older than the Ainus, as the pottery found in the Pit-dwellings was THE DISTRIBUTION OF MOUNDS. 11 not made by the Japanese. It is older even than the tradition of the Japanese, and may be older than the Ainu occupancy. These "earth-dwellers" or "earth-spiders" were migratory, and may have been the same people who left the kitchen- middens in Japan, or they may have belonged to the so-called "ground race," which has been identified as distinct from the Mongolians, but similar to a race which occupied the north- west coast of America, who here built their houses over the excavations in the earth, and covered them with a pile of sods, making them resemble earth-mounds. Mr. W. H. Govvland, of the Imperial Mint at Osaka, has spent several years in the study of the Japanese mounds. He has divided the burial into three or four classes: First, in uiider- BURIAL MOUNDS IN CHINA. ground burrows; second, simple mounds of earth; third, mounds with rock chambers, or dolmens; fourth, double mounds, or imperial tumuli. The common mounds, or circu- lar heaps, are frequently found among cultivated fields and covered with trees. Those which contained rock chambers are usually built of rough unhewn stones, some of them of immense size. Long entrance passages are seen, through which one may walk upright for thirty or forty feet or more, some- times lead to the chambers, in which there may or may not be one, rarely two, stone coffins. When the covering of earth is removed from the burial chambers, it is found that they open through the passages, usually to the south; a fact which conveys the idea that the tomb was built in the form of a house, and that the houses especially those of the early inhabitants, ope leJ to the south 12 PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS. The introduction of stone coffins occurred, according^ to Von Siebold, as early as 85 B. C, and continued until a late date. One stone coffin seems to be in the shape of a house. The upper part is in the form of a sloping roof, of the mansard style. The mounds 'vhich were the imperial burial places, are in- teresting because of their history. The plate represents a double mound at Osaka. The length is 485 feet along the top, the width is 78 feet. In the year 646, the size of the tombs which persons of different ranks might build, was specifically stated. A prince might be buried in a vault 9 feet long, 5 feet wide, covered with a mound 75 feet square and 40 feet high. A common functionary could have a mound only 56 feet square and 22 feet high. The custom of erecting a terraced mound began about the seventh century. These mounds are built up in three terraces. On the top of each was a fence formed of terra cotta pipes about two feet high, connected by wooden poles, which pass through holes about half way from the base. The cylinders were introduced to prevent washing down of the terraces. They were in use till the year 940 A. D., at which time clay coffins became common, which were afterwards changed to stone coffins. The mounds have yielded a great variety of articles which were buried with the dead, such as iron arrow-heads, iron ring? covered with bronze, silver swords, chains, glass beads, mirrors, and other relics. It was an ancient custom among the Japanese to bury the retainers and members of the family of a prince around his grave, a custom which was introduced from China, In the time of an Emperor of Japan, in 30 B. C, his brother died, and they buried all who had been in his immediate ser- vice, around his grave alive; but for many days they wept and cried aloud. The Emperor then said: " It is not good to bury living men standing at the sepulchre of a prince," and he pro- posed making clay figures of men and horses as substitvites. Mounds are very common in Europe, but are found mainly in the northern parts, along the coast of Brittany, in various parts of Great Britain, and in Denmark and Sweden. These exhibit to us the customs which prevailed in prehistoric times. We find from them that there was a Stone Age in Europe as well as in America, but it gave place to the Bronze Age, which was brought in by immigrants from the Old World, from East- ern Asia, and from the provinces about the Mediterranean, The mounds of Europe exhibit not only the change which occurred when the Bronze Age was introduced, but they show also the different stages of progress which appeared in the Stone Age. The people who dwelt in Brittany, in Great Britain, in Den- mark, in Norway and Sweden were also reached by immigrants from the south of Europe, and the Stone Age in ?ill those 14 t^REHtSTORlC MONUMENtS. countries gave place to the Bronze Age. Still, there was a survival of the relics and structures of prehistoric times even into historic times. The standing stones of Carnac in France, are near ancient mounds, underneath which are dolmens. There are barrows in Denmark which contain funeral chambers. These were designed mainly to preserve the bodies of the dead. The progressive steps appear to be as follows: i. To cover the body with earth and heap stones over the top, to prevent its being devoured by wild beasts. 2. To enclose the body within slabs of stone. 3. To set up over the body a pillar of unhewn stone, or a table of rock on two or more uprights. 4. To build a stone chamber in the shape of a house and cover the body with this. 5. To make the mound in the shape of a boat, to represent the sea-faring habits of the people. 6. To m BURIAL MOUND OF A NORSE SEA KING. bury the boat with its equipments, with the body of the com- mander or seafarer in the boat. 7. To make the house itself into a tomb, and cover the tomb with a great mound; the possessions or furnishings of the house being buried with the owner. By this means we learn the different habits and employ- ments of the people, as well as the different stages through which they passed. It is worthy of notice that in Scandanavia mounds have been discovered that belong to the Iron Age, some of which were the burial places of the Norse Sea Kings. One such mound was found in the parish of Tune over a century ago. It was (1865) about 13 feet high with a circum- ference of from 450 to 550 feet. In the mound was a vessel tHE DISTRIBUTION OF MOUNDS. 16 which stood on a level with the surrounding surface. Its posi- tion relative to the sea suggested that it was ready to be launched upon the element which had been its home, and was still under the command of its master. The articles found near the vessel showed that it was a ship tomb which belong- ed to the early Iron Age. The ship was carefully drawn out of the river to a place which could be seen at a great distance, ami commanded a iine view of the country, as well as the sea. After the space under the ship had been filled with earth, the body of the deceased was placed in the stern where, as captain lie had sat when alive. The beads and pieces of cloth indicate that the body was buried with the clothes on. By its side a horse and saddle and harness and snow skates were laid. Thus he had ship, horse saddle, and snow skates with him in the sepulchral tomb, so that he might chose whether he would ride or drive to Valhalla. Mounds have been discovered on the Northwest Coast, in BURIAL MOUND OF AN ANCIENT BRITON. California, and \arious localities on the western part of the continent, which greatly resemble those found in China, giving the idea that the custom may have been introduced from that direction. No other line has been traced along the Atlantic Coast further north than the St. Lawrence River, though the mounds of the Mississippi Valley greatly resemble those found in Great Britain, as can be seen from examining the cut which represents a burial mound in the Parish of Herefordshire, England. Now, this review of the mounds and their distsibution throughout the Old World is not intended to furnish a clue to the origin or age of the Mound-Builders of the New World; still, there are some useful hints which are worth considering before the subject is closed: ^g PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS. T Tt has been shown that the mounds of many cities are hint of much greater anuqmty ^^^^^^ ^^ ^j_^ gr [ls^^:^l>oT,:iartr ra-efwiict w^:: Vur.e^a .neath the silent heaps ^^ Europe and Asia. were P''^. "'Thrtacrthat the earth mounds both in Europe and been solved^ and until it has been, we cannot expect to dec de about the r;ce connection and history, or wandermgs of the one phase of the Stone Age begms to be learned. r^ Fic;.L .V Mound — eCt — PAPYS BAYOU Xofe. TAe Shaded portions inrlicafe explorations. ^llfiiliitiiiiffe ^^^ C^ '^f' ''7, 'Mm J^icf.3. immMllm^^ ^^ Wimm < if li# ••-JiauiSf), > V // FIG. 1. PLAN OF "Mbuad. ab DUNE DIN" Binsboro Coi FIG. 2. THE HABITAT OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS. 15 CHAPTER II. THE MOUND-BUILDERS AND THEIR WORKS. We now come to the INIound-builders. It is well known that a people called Mound-builders once inhabited the interior of North America. Who this people were, whence they came, whither they went, are among the unsolved problems. An im- penetrable mystery hangs over their history. All that we know of them is learned from their structures, works and relics. To these mute witnesses we must resort if we are to learn anything of the character of this people. The first inquiry is, Who were the Mound-builders? This question will probably be answered in different ways, but before answering it we shall lefer to the points involved and leave it for our readers to draw their own conclusions. We take up the division of the Mound-builders as the especial subject of this chapter. Let us first consider the name, however. The name "mound-builder" is a general one, indicating that there was once a people who were accustomed to build mounds. In this general sense there is much significance to the name, in that it suggests one characteristic or custom of the people. There is, however, a sense in which the word is used, which makes it very expressive, for it furnishes to us not only a picture of the mounds and earth-works, but also indicates much in ref- erence to the people. We may say in this connection that there are several such words in the archaeological vocabulary which have proved equally significant. To illustrate: We use the words " cave-dweller." "cliff-dweller," "lake-dweller," signifying by these terms not merely the fact that those people once lived in caves or cliffs or above lakes, but implying also that they had a mode of life, style of abode, stages of progress, which were peculiar and distinct. We infer from this, that the prehistoric age was divided into different epochs, and that each epoch was distinguished by a different class of structures. This interpre- tation may need to be modified, for there are certain indications that several representatives of the stone age may have been con- 16 MOUND-BUILDERS AND THEIR WORKS. temporaneous. Still, the modes of life, occupations and hab- itations were the result of location and of physical surroundings rather than of "age" or stages of progress. While the stone age may be recognized among the Mound-builders, yet a subdivision of that age into epochs may be a safeguard against premature conclusions and unsafe theories, keeping us from extreme opin- ions. Our readers are aware that the Mound-builders were once supposed to have been a remarkable people, and allied with the historic and civilized races, but that latterly the opinion has gone to the other extreme, the low grade and rude civilization of the wild hunter Indians being frequently ascribed to the entire peo- ple, no distinction or limitation being drawn between them. We maintain, however, that the Mound-builders' problem has not been fully solved, and that, therefore, it is premature to take any decided position as to the actual character and condition of this mysterious people. All that we can do is to set forth the points which we suppose have been established and leave other conclu- sions for the future. I. The place where the works of the Mound-builders are most numerous is the Mississippi Valley. In a general way their habitat may be bounded by the great geographical features of this valley; the chain of great lakes tp the north, the Alleghany mountains on the east, the Gulf of Mexico on the south, and the Great Desert on the west. Within these bounds, mainly, do we find the structures which have given name to this strange people; and we may describe them as the ancient inhabitants of the Mississippi Valley who built mounds. There are barrows or mounds in Europe and in Asia. There are mounds or earth- works in Honduras, Yucatan and Central America, as well as in Oregon and on the northwest coast, but the structures in this region are distinctive, and peculiar to the inhabitants who dwelt he're. Nowhere else on the continent are they found in such great numbers. Nowhere else are they found so exclusively free from the presence of other structures. Nowhere else is such a variety of earthworks. To the eastward, along the coast of the Atlantic, there are earth-works, such as stockades, fortifications and village enclosures. To the westward, beyond the Rocky mountains, there are pueblos, rock fortresses and stone structures. To the northward, beyond the lakes, there are occasionally found walls and earth-works; but in the valley of the Mississippi those structures are discovered which may be regarded as distinctive. The peculiarities which distinguish these from others, aside from their being exclusively earthworks, are, first, their solidity; sec- ond, their massiveness, and, third, their peculiar forms. By these means the works of the Mound-builders are identified, and in their own territory, wherever a structure may have been erected by a later race, it may be known by the absence of these quali- ties. There are occasionally earth-works in the valley of the THE HABITAT OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS. MAP OF BUKIAL MOUNDS NEAR MUSCATINE. 18 MOUND-BUILDERS AND THEIR WORKS. .MM.!? OE A acTION OF TWELVE MILES Of THE SCIPTO VALLEf mrft ITS ANCIENT MONUMEMIS -I— ra/lSlruc^e<^l'J E.G. Sgiiler.lSAl. MAP OF THE WORKS OF THE SCIOTO VALLEY. THE HABITAT OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS. 19 Mississippi, especially through the northern part, bordering on the lakes, which were evidently built by the later Indians. Their resemblance, however, to the fortifications east of the Allegha- nies, and the evident design for which they were erected, as defensive or village enclosures, the unfailing spring attending them, the absence of any religious significance, and their want of solidity and massiveness, help to distinguish them from the works of the Mound-builders. We take the picture presented by this valley and find it strik- ingly adapted to the use of a class of people who were partially civilized. On either side are the high mountains, constituting barriers to their great domain. At the foot of the western mountains are the plateaus or table-lands, which have formed from time immemorial the feeding places for the great herds of buffaloes. In the northern portion of the valley, bordering upon the chain of the great lakes, are great forests abounding with wild animals of all kinds, which must have been the hunting- grounds of this obscure people. The center was traversed by the Appalachian range, which was the fit abode for a military class of people. Along the lines of the great streams were the many terraces, forming sites upon which the people could build their villages, and yet have access to the waters which flowed at their base. Many of these terraces were formed by the gravel beds left by the great glacial sea which once rested upon the northern portion of the valley Below the terraces, and all along the borders of the rivers, were the rich alluvial bottom lands which so favored the cultivation of maize and yielded rich return to a slight amount of labor. Broad prairies interspersed with forests and groves, and traversed by numberless streams gave variety to the scene. It was a region built on a grand scale and was capable of supporting a numerous and industrious popula- tion. We may suppose that the Mound-builders, when they entered it, were influenced by their surroundings, and that they soon learned its resources. We can not look upon them as merely hunters or wild savages, but a people who were capable of filling this broad domain with a life peculiar to themselves, and yet were correlated to the scene in which they were placed. Here, with a diversity of climate an abundance of products, the people led a varied life. They were to gain their subsistence from the great forests and from the wide prairies, and were to fill them with their activities. A river system which, for thou- sands of miles, drained the interior, furnished the channels for communication, and was evidently well understood by this peo- ple. A vast sedimentary basin, through which the rivers have Worn deep channels, leaving table-lands, cut by a thousand ravines, and presenting bluffs, head-lands, high hills, narrow isthmuses, detached island-like clifis, in some cases precipitous and difficult of access, furnished many places on which this peo- 20 MOUND-BUILDERS AND THEIR WORKS. pie could build their defenses, covering them with complicated works resembling the citadels of the Old World, beneath which they could place their villages and dwell in safety. The number of these ancient villages is well calculated to ex- cite surprise. Ten thousand burial mounds or tombs were found in the single State of Ohio, and also a thousand or fifteen hun- dred enclosures in the same state. Nor is their magnitude less a matter of surprise than their number. Twenty miles ot em- bankment constitute one series of works. Walls sometimes thirty feet in height, and enclosing from fifty to four hundred acres, surround their fortifications. Pyramids one hundred feet in height, covering sixteen acres of ground, divided into wide terraces, three hundred feet long and fifty feet wide, vying with the pyramids of Egypt, formed the foundations for their great houses. Mounds formed their lookout stations, sixty and ninety feet in height. The variety of their works was great, and their distribution widespread. In one part of this wide domain there were game-drives, in which the animals hunted were erected in effigy. In another part were garden beds, covering hundreds of acres, and presenting many curious patterns ; in another, large groups and lines of burial mounds ; in another, many circles and fort-rings; in another, lodge circles and hut-rings; in another, village circles and dance-rings, interspersed with temple plat- forms ; in another, extensive enclosures, with domiciliary plat- forms; in another, groups of py'ramids, interspersed with fish ponds, surrounded by earth-walls. Everywhere was manifest a wonderful adaptation of the works to the soil and scenery and physical surroundings. Different grades of advancement were exhibited, but at the same time great activity and great skill in gaining subsistence. Every spot was well chosen and the works placed upon it were best adapted to the locality. II. A distinction between the races of the Mississippi Valley according to geographical lines is to be noticed, those north of the great lakes being generally identified with later tribes of wild hunter Indians; those which adjoin the lakes, and which extend from New York State through Northern Ohio to Michi- gan, also being ascribed to a military people resembling the Iroquois; those on the Ohio to a class of villagers who were more advanced than any ordinary Indians, and those of the Southern States to a class of pyramid-builders, who were the most advanced of all. The distinction is, however, not only geographical, but chronological, for there are relics which are as strictly military among the villages or sacred enclosures as among those in the homes of the warlike Indians, and there are tokens in the midst of the pyramids which indicate that modern hunters have roamed among the agricultural works, and that sun-worshipers and animal-worshipers have traversed the same regions. THE HABITAT OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS. 21 A simple earth-wall, running around the brow of some gentle declivity, or the top of some precipice, or on the edge of some isolated island, presents a very different aspect from those struc- tures which are found oftentimes in the midst of large and fertile valleys, or upon many of the plats of ground where now stand some of the largest cities of modern days, and which, for mas- siveness and extent, surprise even those who behold them in the midst ot the works of civilized man. These earth-walls, or so- called stockades, we maintain, were the works of the later Indians, and can be easily distinguished from the earlier Mound- builders by certain unmistakable evidences. The same may be said also of the relics and other tokens. They may be found in the Mound-builders' territory, but were, many of them, of a later date and of a ruder character, and should be ascribed to a differ- ent people and not be confined to one date or race, much less to the so-called modern Indians known to history. In reference to this point we may say that the evidences are numerous that the people who built the mounds in the Missis- sippi Valley belonged to different races and occupied the country at different periods and may have come from different sources. (i.) The traditions of the Indians prove that the lands have been inhabited by different races and at different periods. These traditions prevail not only among the northern Indians, such as the Delawares, the Iroquois and the Algonkins, but also among the southern tribes, such as the Cherokees, the Creeks, Choc- taws and Muskogees, all of them indicating that there were later migrations and that other races were in the valley before these tribes reached it. The traditions of some of the Indians, espe- cially those of the south, point back to a period when their ancestors began the process of mound-building; with others the traditions point to a time when they began to occupy the mounds which had been built by another and a preceding people. No- where, however, is it claimed that the Indians were the first peo- ple who occupied the country or that their ancestors were the first race who built mounds. The evidence is clear that among the various tribes some of them, in the course of their migrations, had been led to abandon their particular mode of building mounds and had adopted the mode of the people whose territory they invaded, and thus the same class of structures continued under the successive races; but the beginning of the mound-building period is always carried back indefinitely, and is generally as- cribed to some preceding people. (2.) The relics and remains prove also a succession of races. This is an important point. A discussion has arisen among archaeologists as to who the Mound-builders were, and the idea has been conveyed by some that the Mound-builders were to be identified with this or that tribe which occupied the region at the opening of history. This, however, is misleading. It limits us 22 MOUND-BUILDERS AND THEIR WORKS. to a very modern period and serves to cut off investigation into the more remote ages ol the mound-building period. Our position is that many of the mounds contain a record of successive periods of occupation, some of the burial mounds having been built by several different and successive tribes, and the layers in the mounds being really the work of different tribes. The prehistoric record is plain. The skulls and skeletons found near the surface we may regard as the latest tokens, some of them being quite modern, and the rude relics found in the gravel beds being regarded as the earliest tokens; but the mound-build- ing tokens extended through a long period of time. On these points we give the testimony of the various gentlemen who have explored these mounds. Prof Putnam says: " In the great Ohio Valley we have found places of contact and mixture of two Fig. IJ4. — AiiimaL Effigies. races and have made out much of interest, telling of conflict and defeat, of the conquered and the conquerors. The long, narrow- headed people from the north, who can be traced from the Pacific to the Atlantic, extending down both coasts, and extending their branches towards the interior, meeting the short-headed and southern race, here and there. Our explorations have brought to lieht considerable evidence to show that after the rivers cut their way through the glacial gravels and formed their present channels, leaving great alluvial plains upon their borders, a race of men, with short, broad heads, reached the valley from the southwest. Here they cultivated the land, raised crops of corn and veeretables, and became skilled artisans in stone and their native metals, in shell and terra-cotta, making weapons and or- naments and utensils of various kinds. Here were their places of worship. Here were their towns, often surrounded by earth embankments, their fixed places for burning their dead, their altars of clay, where cremation offerings, ornaments, by thou- sands were thrown upon the fire. Upon the hills near by were THE HABITAT OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS. 23 their places of refuge or fortified towns. Preceding these were the people of the glacial gravels. The implements which had been lost by preglacial men have been found in the Miami Valley, as in the Delaware Valley. This would seem to give a minimum antiquity of man's existence in the Ohio Valley from eight to ten thousand years. From the time when man was the con- temporary of the mastodon and mammoth to the settlement of the region by our own race, successive peoples have inhabited this valley."* III. We turn to the division of the Mound-builders' territory. This illustrates several things. It proves that the Mound- builders were, as we have said, greatly influenced by their envi- ronments and that their works were correlated to the geographical district. It proves also that there was, in a general way, a cor- respondence between the Mound-builder and the Indian, as differ- ent classes of earth-works and different tribes of Indians have been found in locations or in districts whose boundaries were Fig. 15. — Burial Mounds. remarkably similar. This, to some minds, would prove that the Mound-builders and Indians were the same people; but if we take mto account that there was a succession of races, and that each race was equally influenced by its environment, we may conclude that the effort to identify the later with the earlier peo- ple will require something more than mere geographical division. Let us now examine the earth-works of the different districts. (i.)The first system which we shall mention is that found in the State of Wisconsin, a State abounding with emblematic mounds. These mounds are confined almost exclusively to the small ter- ritory west of Lake Michigan, east of the Mississippi, south of the Fox River and north of the mouth of the Rock River, though a few have been found in Eastern Iowa and Southern Minnesota, on the land immediately adjoining the Mississippi River. The peculiarity of the mounds is that they so strangely resemble the forms of the wild animals formerly abounding in the territory. Very few, if any, extralimital animals are repre- sented in them. The position of these effigies is also noticeable. They are generally located on hill-tops overlooking the beautiful streams and lakes so numerous here. The attitudes of the animals •Twenty-second Report Peabody Museum, page 53. 24 MOUND-BUILDERS AND THEIR WORKS. if- :lf.e.*"5: are represented by the effigies and the habits are portrayed by the shapes and associations of these earth-works. See Fig. 14. We enter this district and find a remarkable picture of animal life as it existed in the mound-building period. Elk and moose and the large grazing animals are portrayed as feeding; panthers and wolves are represented as fighting; wild geese, wild duck, eagles, swallows and hawks and pigeons as flying ; squirrels, foxes, coons, as playing and running; lizards, tadpoles, snakes and eels as crawling; fish and turtles as swimming, and yet all seem to have an indescribable charm about them, as if they had been portrayed by the hand of a superstitious people. The effigies may have been used as totems by the people, and thus show to us the animal divinities which were worshiped and the animal names given to the clans; but the clans and the ani- "TTf ._r.r^ •i..-;..:--^^-.-.^-?*-iv mals are remarkably correlated, the names of the very animals which prevailed here having been borne by the clans. More than this, the use of the effigies as protectors to villages, as aids to the hunters, and as guardians to graves, furnish an additional picture of the real life of the peo- ple. The attitudes of the ani- mals are always natural, portray- ing habits and even motions, but a condition is recognized beyond mere animal condition. In this same State we find the h'lu. m~Foriai conneaut. copper mincs, which have been worked, and the tools which were used, by the ancient miners. They were rude contrivances, and yet show the skill of the natives in overcoming obstacles. Without knowledge of the mechanical inventions of the wheel and pulley, without the art of smelting, or even of molding the precious metals, the Mound-builders of this region succeeded in manufacturing all the metal tools which were necessary for their purpose, being mostly tools used by hunters, such as knives, spear-heads, axes, chisels, awls, needles and a few ornamental pieces. It is a remarkable fact that imi- tative art was expended upon the effigies, which elsewhere em- bodied itself in stone relics or in metal ornaments. (2.) The second district is the one characterized by bui-ial mounds or ordinary tumuli. See Fig. 15. This is an interesting class of earth-works and may be designated as "prairie mounds." They are situated, to be sure, on the banks of streams, rivers, lakes, marshes, but they are in the midst ot the broad prairie region stretching across the north half of the States of Indiana, Illinois, all of Iowa, Minnesota, Dakota, part of Kansas and THE HABITAT OF THE MOUND BUILDERS. 25 Missouri. This broad expanse of territory seemed to have been occupied by tribes of Mound-builders who merely erected burial mounds, but who, owing to their unsettled, migratory habits, did not even stop to build walled defenses for themselves ; their works consist mainly in tumuli, vast numbers of which are found scattered over this entire region. We do not say that they were entirely destitute of defense, for there are occsaional earth walls which show that there were permanent villages, but, in the main, defense must have been secured by stockades rather than by earth walls. Occasionally there are ridges or converging walls which resemble the game-drives of Wisconsin, and these furnish additional proof that the people were hunters.* The mounds occasionally present relics reminding us of the hunting habits of the people who erected them. Pipes in the shape of raccoons, prairie-dogs, beavers, turtles, liz- ards, eagles, hawks, otters, wild cats, panthers, prairie-chickens, ducks, and frogs, show that they were familiar with wild ani- mals. The relics which are most numerous are spear-heads, ar- row-heads, knives, axes and such other implements as would be used by wild hunters, with a very considerable number of copper implements — axes or celts, awls, knives, needles, and occasionally specimens of woven fiber, which Fig. 17.— Fort at wcymouin, o. might have formed the clothing for a rude people, and a few specimens of the higher works of art, but there is an entire absence of the symbols found in the mounds of the south. (3.) The third district is the one belonging to the military class of Mound-builders. This district formerly abounded in forests, and was especially adapted to warlike races. It embraces the region situated in the hill country of New York.f Pennsyl- vania and West Virginia, and extends along the banks of Lake Erie into the State of Michigan, See Figs. 16 and 17. The mode of life in these reg^ions was military. It was a necessity of their very situation. Here was the effect of nature upon the state of society which was inevitable. These works were military and defensive, as from the nature of their surround- ings they must be. The forests gave too much opportunity for e.-'S' ■'l^^^'r .-•.H-j-'af:''- '^»- - *They are generally built at leading points along the .«hore of the lakes or on the banks of the principal streams, and are found as far apart as Manitoba Lake and the Illinois River. We call them buffalo game-drives, and conclude that the Mound- builders of this district were buffalo hunters. See Archaeological .Journal for 1887, page 72; Smithsonian Report for 1870; also our book on Emblematic Mounds. t^^ee Aboriginal Monuments of Western New York, by E. G. Squier; also Cheney and Whittlesey's pamphlets. 26 MOUND-BUILDERS AND THEIR WORKS. treachery to avoid it. Human nature, when dwelHng in such circumstances, would develop in this way. It made no difference what tribe dwelt there, there was a necessity for military habits. We can picture to ourselves exactly the condition of society. Whether the same or different tribes of people inhabited these regions, their mode of life was certainly dictated by circumstances. There were no means by which the people could overrule the forces of nature and gain control of her elements It was one of the peculiarities of prehistoric society that it was conformed altogether to nature. Civilization alone overrides the difficulties and makes the forces of nature obedient to her wants. We call these military structures comparatively modern, but we do not know how long they continued as a class. If there were those who led a different life : they were probably located in the valleys or on the borders of the streams,just where we find a few agri- cultural works. But the vast majority of works, whether very ancient or more mod- ern, are of the same class, military and de- fensive. Over 300 mil- itary structures are found in the single State of New York; and scattered over the mountains of Virginia and Eastern Tennessee and Kentucky, and everywhere where the hunting life and the warlike and predatory state would be most likely to prevail, there these military and defensive structures are found. The Iroquois, the Wyandots and the Eries were warlike peo- ple. The Cherokees were also warriors, and may be regarded as the mountain tribes of the east; while the Delawares and some of the tribes of the Algonkins inhabiting New England and the northeastern States led a mingled life, partly agricultural and partly hunting. Thus we have in these localities, at least, a cor- respondence between the state of the population and the physical surroundings. (4.) The fourth district is the one most worthy of notice. It is situated in the valley of the Ohio, and is characterized by what have been called " sacred enclosures." We have given them the name of " village enclosures." The characteristic works of the district are composed of the square and two circles adjoined. See Fig. 18. These were evidently the village sites of the peo- ple who dwelt here and who practiced agriculture. The locations of the works show this. Most of them are situated on the sec- Fig. 18.— Village Enclosure of Ohio. THE HABITAT OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS. 27 ond terrace, overlooking the rich bottom lands, but often sur- rounded by wide, level areas, on which forests trees grew to a great height. On the hills adjoining these village sites the conical mounds are numerous. These are regarded as lookout stations. There are also in the same region many ancient forts. Some of them are so situated as to give the idea that they were places of refuge for the villages. There are, in the same region, certain enclosures, which con- tain groups of burial mounds, and in these mounds altars have been discovered, on which have been deposited large quantities of costly relics, in the shape of pearl relics, carved pipes, mica plates, copper spools, arrow-heads and many personal ornaments. These are the "sacred enclosures" which have given name to the district. In this district there are several truncated pyramids or platforms, with graded ways to the summits. These platforms have been called " temple mounds". The idea of some is, that the enclosures were places of religious assembly, resembling in a rude way the ancient Egyptian temples. At Marietta the en- closures are double. Within one are three platforms, and from it to the water's edge, or to the bottom land, is an inclined or graded roadway, guarded by high banks or earth-works on either side. At the other end of the group is the high lookout mound, surrounded by a circle, and a ditch within the circle. The group may have been the site of an ancient village, or it may be called a sacred enclosure. See Frontispiece. (5.) The fifth district is situated along the Atlantic coast, and extends from the coast to the Appalachian range. It is the dis- trict through which various Indian tribes have migrated and left their varied tokens beneath the soil. Among these tribes may be mentioned the Powhattans, the Cherokees, the Catawbas, the Tuscaroras, and a stray tribe of the Dakotas. It is marked by no particular class of works which can be called distinctive. There are in it, however, various circular enclosures containing conical mounds, resembling those in the fourth district These are found in the Kenawha Valley. Besides these are the remark- able circular grave pits, containing bee-hive shaped cists made of stone found in North Carolina, There are conical mounds in the district which are supposed to have been the foundations of rotundas, as posts for the support of rotundas have been found on the summit. The southern portion of the district is filled with shell mounds and earth pyramids. Considerable discussion has been had as to whether the inhabitants of this region were the Mound-builders of the Ohio district, and a comparison has been drawn between the altar mounds and earth circles in this district and those in Ohio, both having been ascribed to the Cherokees. This is a point, however, which remains to be proved. The works of the district must be ascribed to the dif- ferent races. 28 MOUND-BUILDERS AND THEIR WORKS. (6.) We now come to the sixth district. This is situated south of the Ohio River, between this and the Cumberland and Ten- nessee. It is a mountamous and woody territory, and the people who formerly dwelt there may be called the mountain Alound- builders. The peculiarity of the works of this region is that they are mainly fortified villages. They are to be distinguished, how- ever, from the fortifications of the third district, and from the villages of the fourth district, by the fact that they combine the provisions for defense and for permanent residence in the same enclosure. The village enclosures in Ohio are double or triple, but those found in this district are always single. Their loca- tions show that they were chosen for defense, but their contents show that they were used for places of permanent abode. They consist largely of earth-walls surrounding enclosures, within Mg. 19. — Village of the Stone Grave People. which are pyramidal, domiciliary andburial mounds, all of which furnish proofs of long residence The custom of building stone graves and depositing relics with the dead was common here. Stone graves prevailed in many localities — in Illinois, Southern Indiana, Ohio and Northern Georgia — but were especially char- acteristic of this region. See Fig. 19. (7.) There is a district adjoining the one just described, which contains mounds and earth-works somewhat similar. The region is generally swampy, as the rivers here often overflow their banks and cover the whole country with floods. The Mound- builders dwelt here in great numbers, and built their villages on the sand ridges interspersed between the overflowed lands, and made their way out as best they could. Their villages, however, were large and numerous and showed permanent residence. The peculiarity of the earth-works was that the walls surrounded enclosures, within which were pyramids, conical mounds and many lodge circles. We may call it the district of lodge circles. In some of the conical mounds there have been found large THE HABITAT OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS. 29 quantities of pottery, and so the name of pottery-makers might be ascribed to the people. This pottery resembles that found in the stone graves and near the Cahokia mound, but is regarded as distinctive of this region. We may say that the district has been occupied by the Arkansas, the Kansas and Pani Indians, branches of the Dakotas, but it is unknown to what class the pottery-makers belonged. (8.) Intervening between these two district, and extending through the Gulf States, we find a series of large pyramidal mounds, of which Cahokia mound, near St. Louis, is a specimen. This region may have been occupied by the Natchez, a remark- able people who were known to have been sun- worshipers and pyr- amid-builders. Some of the largest groups of pyramids are located near the City of Natchez, the place which derived its name from the tribe. It is a region, however, where the Chickasaws and Choctaws, branches of the Muscogees, formerly dwe[t. This leaves the question as to who the builders of these pyramids were, still in uncertainty. The pyramids are supposed to have been occupied by the chiefs, and furnished foundations for the great houses or official residences. They are situated, however, in the midst of land subject to overflow, and have been explained by some as being places of refuge for the people in time of high water. In the eastern part of this dis- trict there is a class of works which differs from those in the western. Here we see the elevated platform, and along with it the circular mound for the temples, and between them oftentimes the chunky yard and public square, the usual accompaniments of a native village. See Fig. 20. The race distinction is manifest in this form of structure, and nowhere else do we find it. The tribes who dwelt in this region were the Creeks, a branch of the Muscogees. These works have been ascribed to the Cher- okees, who were located in the mountains. The Cherokees, however, maintain that they migrated to the region and took possession of the works which the Creeks and Muscogees had erected. They also maintain that their ancestors were Cave- dwellers, and describe the caves from which they issued. Dr. Cyrus Thomas holds that the Shawnees were in this regign in pre-Columbian times, and refers to the evidence furnished by FHg. CO.— Chunky Yard. 30 MOUND-BUILDERS AND THEIR WORKS. the relics found in the stone graves, and especially those found m the Etowah mound in Georgia, as proof The Shawnees were, however, late-comers, belonging to the Algonkin stock, a stock marked by narrow skulls. They were preceded by the Musco- gee stock — a people with broad skulls. It was a tradition among the Muscogees that they migrated from the west and found the country occupied before them, while their ancestors issued from a sloping hill at the command of their divinity, who stamped upon its summit, and erected the pole, which led them through their wanderings. In reference to the Gulf States Col. C. C. Jones, who has written a book upon the antiquity of the Southern Indians, says that the tribes were only occupying works which had been erected by a preceding and different class of people. " Even upon a cursory examination of the groups of mounds with their attendent ditches, earth walls, fish preserves, it is difficult to resist the impression that they are the remains of a people more patient of labor, and in some respects superior to the nomadic tribes who, within the memory ot the whites, cling around and devote to secondary uses these long-deserted monu- ments." This remark was made after diligent study of the writings left by the historian of De Soto's expedition and of Adair and Bartram and comparing them with the evidence given by the monuments themselves. THE MOUND-BUILDERS AND THE MASTODON. 31 CHAPTER III. THE MOUND-BUILDERS AND THE MASTODON. One of the first questions asked of the arohaeologists concern- ing the Mound-builders is, What was their probable age? The question is a very natural one, but, in the form generally given, exhibits a misunderstanding of the general subject. It implies that the Mound-builders were all one people, and that they spread over the continent at a particular and definite time. We have already shown that there were many classes of Mound- builders, and that there were different periods of time — a succes- sion of population being one of the plainest facts brought out by archaeological investigation. The answer to the question is to be secured by the study of the Mound-builders as they ap- peared at different dates in the mound-building period. The age of the Mound-builders includes not one specific date, but covers many epochs. ' We maintain that there was a Mound-builders' age in this country, and that it is as distinctive as was the neolithic age in Europe. The neolithic age was founded on the discovery of a certain class of relics, relics which had a certain degree of polish and finish about them; the material of the relics making the age distinctive. The bronze age was founded on the discov- ery of bronze relics in the midst of neolithic relics, the material and finish of the relics making them distinctive So the Mound- builders' age is based on the prevalence of the earth heaps which contain within them the relics of a prehistoric race. The character of the relics as well as the material of which the works were composed, makes the Mound-builders' age distinctive. I. As to the naming of these periods there is some uncertainty, but the following facts may help us to appreciate it. In Europe the paleolithic age continued after the close of the glacial period. It began with the gravel beds, and embraced all the relics found in those beds, extended through the period of the cave-dwelling, embraced nearly all the cave contents; it reached up to the time of the kitchen middens, and embraced the relics found in the lower layers. It is divided into various epochs, which are named differently. The English named them after the animals asso- ciated with the relics, into the epochs of the cave-bear, mammoth and reindeer. The French named them after the caves in which they were found, making the name of the caves descriptive of the relics. 32 PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS. The Chellean relics are more easily distinguished than others, and are recognized by some as belonging to a distinct period, a period when the mammoth, rhinoceros and cave-bear prevailed in Europe. These stand alone and belong to an earlier geolog- ical period than the rest of the Cave-dwellers' relics. A number of objects discovered at Moustier, at Solutre and at La Madeleine mark a second and a third period of the paleolithic age. In America the paleolithic age preceded the neolithic, as in Europe. It may be divided into three epochs : i . The pre-glacial, the epoch in which the relics were deposited in loess. 2. The 20 80 Feet Scale Si feet to the incli. . Mg. 1.— Elephant Mffiyy. glacial, an epoch in which the relics were deposited in gravel. 3. The Champlain, an epoch in which the relics were deposited upon the summit of the hills and above the glacial gravels. The American archaeologists name them after the character of the gravels in which they are found, as well as the character of the relics. It may be said that the subdivision of the paleolithic age in America has not been fully established. There seems to be some uncertainty as to the' French and English divisions. ♦Evidence is increasing to show that the paleolithic people continued after the glacial period, as flint relics which are chipped so as to make tools of various kinds, have been found in the beds of the water courses in Iowa and elsewhere. These per- haps should be assigned to the Champlain epoch. They were followed by the Cave- dwellers, who lett their relics and remains in the shelter caves of Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee, and other localities. Bone implements were common among this people, but not naany metal relics. The shell heaps of Florida and Maine may have Delonged to the people who followed the Cave-dwellers. The people who left the fire beds in the bottom lands of Ohio at various depths :below the surface followed the Cave-dwellers. The Mound-builders came in about this time. They were a neolithic people, and were probably immigrants from some other country. Four lines of mi- gration have been recognized among the Mound-builders: One from the northeast to the southwest; another from the northwest to the southeast; a third from the soutliwest to the northeast; a fourth Irom the southeast, north and west. THE MOUND-BUILDERS AND THE MASTODOX. 33 Naming the periods after the animals is suitable to America, though the animals would be different from those in Europe. In Europe the cave-bear, mastodon and the rein- deer made three epochs. In America the megathe- rium found in Brazil.jthe mastodon found in the gravel beds and peat- bogs, and the buffalo, now almost extinct, mark three different epochs. In Europe, the paleolithic age was contained within \Figs. 2 and S.— Obsidian Arrows from Idaho* .1 . • 1 ■' the quartenary period, and came to an end before the beginning of the present geologic period. It was followed by the neolithic age. The character- istic of this age was that polished stone relics, such as hatchets, Figs. 4, 5, 6 and 7. — Shell Beads from Mounds, celts and finely-chipped arrows, spear-heads and a fine class of pottery abounded. Another characteristic was that mounds were common. Shell heaps marked its beginning, chambered mounds its end. The bronze age followed the stone age. This began with the lake-dwellings and continued through the time of the rude stone monu- ments, and up to the historic age. Bronze was the material which characterized the age, a material which was not made in Europe, but was brought from Asia and was re-cast. No less than fifty-seven found- ries of bronze have been discovered in France and a large number in Italy; one at Bologna having no less than 14,000 pieces broken and ready for casting. The hatchets were cast in molds, with wings for holding the handle, and many of them with sockets and eyes by which they could be lashed to © cmnmnmi* Fiy. 8,— Bone Needles. *Prof. E L. Berthoud discovered a number of obsidian relics on the Upper Madison Fork in Idaho. He says : "I have gathered some very characteristic obsidian im- plements on Lake Henry and Snake River, which I transmit. 1 have always under- stood that the presence of obsidian relics in Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming and Utah was due to the probable intercourse of the Aztec races with the more northern tribes. I am now satisfied that they were derived from the Yellowstone and Snake Rivers, rather than from New and Old Mexico. In the National Park Prof. Hayden found a gorge in the mouutalns which was almost entirely formed of volcanic glass; they have aptly named it 'Obsidian Canon'." — Proceedings of Daven. port Academy, Vol. Ill, Part II. 34 PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS. the handle. The neolithic age in America began with the close of the paleolithic and ended with the historic period. The polished stone relics found in the auriferous gravels of California, such as steatite ollas, mortars and pestles, and those found under the lava beds, belong to this age. They constitute one class of neolithic relics, and may be assigned to one epoch of the neolithic age. We maintam that the Mound-builders in America represented one epoch, perhaps the earliest of the neolithic age. This age began some time after the glacial period and ended about the time of the advent of the white man, but embraced about all the time which the neolithic age occupied in Europe. Nearly all the relics found in the Mis- sissippi Valley, such as arrow- heads, spear-heads, knives, pol- ished stone axes, celts, carved stone pipes, many specimens of pottery, the shell gorgets and the drinking vessels, the pieces of copper, ornamented and unorna- mented, the mica plates, many of the bone implements, the needles and awls, the silver ornaments, and the few specimens of gold* and meteoric iron, belong to the Fig.9.-PoUery Vase. Mound-builderS. Neolithic rclicS are found in the mounds; though some of them, of the ruder class, are found in the fire beds and shelter-caves. Specimens of the neolithic age are picked up indiscriminately upon the surface. The aborigines of America were in this age. The cliff-dwellings and pueblos must be assigned to this age. They constitute a second division, the Mound-builders being assigned to the first. The relics of the Cliff-dwellers are not much in advance of those of the Mound-builders, but their houses show an advanced stage of architecture. A third division of the neolithic age may be recognized among the civilized races of Mexico and Central America, though these are by some archaeologists ascribed to the bronze age. It appears that the division of the neolithic age in America corresponded to that in Europe ; the Mound-builders, Cliff-dwellers and the civilized races constitute the three parts of that age, as the barrows, the lake-dwellings and the rude stone monuments did in Europe. It may be that two preceding periods should be assigned to the caves and fire beds, which corres- ponded to the caves and kitchen middens. f *Dr. Charles Rau describes a gold ornament found in a mound in Florida, repre- senting the bill of an ivory billed woodpecker, the material of which was made dur- ing the second period of Spanish supremacy. It was taken from the center of the mound, and furnishes evidence that Mouud-building was continued after the occu- pation by Europeans. Prol. Jeffries Wynian has, however, spoken of the remains of the great auk in the shell mounds of Maine and the absence of any article which was derived from the white man. See American Naturalist, Vol. I. tSome of the shelter caves and the terraces of Ohio seem to have been occupiedjby THE MOUND-BUILDERS AND THE MASTODON. 35 II. The part which the Mound-builders performed in connec- tion with the neoHthic age. The Mound-builders, in a technical sense, are to be confined to the Mississippi Valley, There are, to be sure, many mounds and earth-works on the northwest coast, others in Utah, and still others scattered among the civil- ized races in Mexico, but the Mound-builders as such were the inhabitants of this valley. We shall see the extent of their territory if we take the mounds of the Red River Valley as one stream and follow the line across the different districts until we reach the mounds of Florida. This is the length of their terri- tory north and south; the breadth could be indicated by the Allegheny mountains upon the east and the foot-hills of the Rocky mountains upon the west, for all this range ol territory tig. 10. — Hoes from Tennessee. belonged to the Mound-builders. Within this territory we have the copper mines of Lake Superior/ the salt mines of Illinois and Kentucky,^ the garden beds of Michigan/ the pipe-stone quarries of Minnesota,' the extensive potteries of Missouri," the stone graves of Illinois,*^ the work-shops, the stone cairns, the stone walls, the ancient roadways, and the old walled towns of Georgia," the hut rings of Arkansas,' the shelter-caves of Ten- nessee and Ohio,' the mica mines in South Carolina," the quar- ries in Flint Ridge in Ohio,^^ the ancient hearths ot Ohio,^" the bone beds^^ and alabaster caves in Indiana,^* the shell-heaps of Florida,^' oil wells and ancient mines, and the rock inscrip- tions" which are scattered over the territory everywhere. We ascribe all of these to the Mound-builders and conclude that they were worked by this people, for the relics from the a rude people, whose remains are buried in the debris, for layers ef ashes have been found having great depths. The fire beds and stone graves have been found at various depths beneath the river bottoms.— ,l/(a»u' GcizcUe, Jan. 20, 1S02. See Smith- sonian Report, 1874. R. 8. Robinson; Peabody Museum. 8lh Report, F. W. Putnam. The Mammoth cave and other deep caves have yielded mummiesand other remains which may have belonged to this antecedent period.— CV3?/(>i.s' History of Kevtitrky. The great auk, Prof. Wyman says, survived until after the arrival' of the Euro- peans. Pottery is poorly represented; ornamentation is of the rudest kind; the shell heaps yielded lew articles of stone; implements of stone are common in Flor- ida. A domesticated animal was found with eatables. 1 See Foster's Prehistoric Races, p. 265. 2 Ibid., p. 249. .3 See American Antiquar- ian, Vols I and VII 4 Geol. Rep. of Minnesota, Vol. I, pp. 151 and 555. 5 See Prof. Swallow's article, Peabody Mu.seum, Sth rep., and Arch, of Mo., 18S0. G See Sm. Rep. 1866. 7 See C. C, Jones and .lames Moonev's 9ih An. Rep. of Eth. Bu., also Am Anthro.. Vol. II, p. 241. See Am. Ant.. Vol. XIII No. 6., H. S. Halbert. S See Palmer in Eth. Bu.. 9th An. Rep. of A. A. .Vol. Ill, p. 271, in Iowa. 9 See Robinsin's article, Sm. Rep., 1874, p. 367; A. A., Vol. II,'p. 203. 10 See Report bv James Mooney, 9th An. Eth. Bu. Rep.; 12th Rep. Pea. Museum. 11 SeeAmerif-an Antiquarian, Vol. II, p. 95 12 Ibid., Vol VI, p. 101. 13 Ibid., Vol. VIII, p, 6J. 14 Ibid., Vol. III. 15 Ibid.. Vol II. p. 257. 16 Ibid., Vol. XI, J S. Newberry, p. 165. 36 PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS. mines and quarries are found in the mounds. Besides these relics we find others which were received by aboriginal trade ; obsidian knives and arrows (see Figs. 2 and 3) from Idaho; jade axes from an unknown source, carved specimens which seem to have come from Mexico; shells* and wampum (Figs. 4 to 7) from the gult of Mexico ; specimens of art which show connection with the northwest coast and carved pipes which show familiarity with animals and birds from the central provinces. The Mound- builders were the chief representatives of the neolithic age, vying with the Cliff-dwellers in a grade of civilization, but having a much more varied culture than they. Their territory extended over more land than any other class of people known to the pre- historic age, and their art presents more variety than any other class. The cuts represent the character of the relics taken from the mounds. The pottery vase (Fig. 9) is trom a mound in Michi- gan and shows the high stage of art reached there. The hoes and sickles (Figs. 10 and 1 1) are from mounds in Tennessee and show the agricultural character of the people. The banner stone and silver orna- ment (Figs. 12, 13 and 14) are from mounds in Florida. A. E. Doug- lass thinks the silver or- nament was modern. We place these cuts along- side of the elephant pipes and other relics to show Fig. ll.-Sickles from Tennessee. ^^^ j^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^ of the Mound-builders. Some of them were evidently quite ancient and others were very modern. III. As to the antiquity of the Mound-builders, we may say that dates are always difficult to fix. We can not give them definitely. We imagine that the Mound-builders were the first people who occupied the territory after the close of the glacial period, that they followed hard on to the paleolithic people, that no other race intervened. This is, however, a matter of conjec- ture. Our reasons for holding this are as follows: i. The appearance of the mastodon and mammoth. We contend that *W. H. Pratt has described worked shells from Calhoun County, Illinois, also shell beads from mounds at Albany (Figs. 4, 5 and 6), and wampum from mounds in Florida (Fig. 7), which he thinks were used as currency, giving the idea that wam- pum existed in the Mound-builders' time; others think wampum was introduced by the white man. The value of the beads was owing more to the work placed upon them than to the rarity of the shells. Copper beads found in the mounds at Daven- port contained the cord upon which they were strung. This would indicate that the beads were somewhat recent. THE MOUND-BUILDERS AND THE MASTODON. 37 these animals and the Mound-builders were contemporaneous. The only age which intervened between the glacial period and the Mound-builder's period is to be called the mastodon's age. We are ready to acknowledge that a long time must have elapsed between the glacial age and the Mound-builders, but in the ab- sence of proof that any other inhabitants occupied the territory we ascribe the time or period to the mastodon and mammoth. The paleolithic people may indeed have survived the glacial period and been also contemporaneous with the mastodon, the real age of the mammoth and mastodon covering the whole of the paleolithic age and overlapping the Mound-builders, the first being the age in which tne mastodon was numerous. Certain writers have denied this, and have argued that so ^ long an interval of time elapsed between the Mound-builders ^^/ and the close of the glacial age .^ -^ that the mastodon disappeared altogether, that the buffalo was the animal which was distinctive of the Mound- builder's age, and the masto- don was the animal distinctive i \ of the paleolithic age. Their arguments are as follows: The forests which have spread over the northern half of the /i i>\ Mound-builders' territory are in places very dense. During , _^«--^ the glacial period this region 11 r • i-u F^V- 12.— Banner Stoue from Florida. was covered by a sea ol ice, the ground must needs settle and be covered with alluvial before the forests would grow. The forests could only gradually appear, the distribution of seeds and the springing up of the saplings being a slow process. Another argument is taken from analogy. In Europe the period of the gravel beds was supposed to be the same as the glacial period and marked the beginning of the pale- olithic age. There were, however, between the gravel beds and the age of the barrows three or four different epochs — the cave- dwellers, the people of the kitchen middens and the lake-dwellers — the progress having been gradual between the periods.* In *Col. Whittlesey speak of three periods: The early drift period which belonged to primitive man; the period of the Mound-builders, whose antijjuity is from four to five thousand years, with slight evidence of an intervening race between the Monnd- builders and primitive man; and the period of the red man. The evidence of man more ancient than the Mound-builders he finds in the fluviatile deposits, which were above the fire beds on the Ohio river, to the depth of twelve or fifteen feet. The same evidence is given by Prof. Vv\ti\?im.~ Article read before the American Association in Chicago, 1S6S. 38 PREHISTOBIC MONUMENTS. <#^_ America the change was more sudden, for the tokens which are found in the auriferous gravels are much more advanced than any found in the gravel beds of Europe. They correspond to the relics of the lake- dwellers and the barrows. The Mound- builders' relics are also much more advanced than those of the gravel beds in the same territory, and the supposition is that there must have been either an intervening period in which mound-building was not prac- ticed, or that there was an immigration of the Mound-builders into this territory from some other part. We acknowledge that there are some facts which favor this sup- position or idea that there were inhabitants intervening between the rude paleolithic people and advanced Mound-builders who corresponded to the people of the kitchen middens and to the earlv lake-dwellers. Mff. is.-siiver Ornament.* p^ggibly we shall find that the fire beds of the interior and the kitchen middens of the sea coast were deposited during this period, and the divisions of time may be identified by these tokens. We maintain that the close of the glacial period was not so sudden as some imagine. There may have been a littoral class of fishermen who were the occupants before the close of this period. They followed aftertheiceas it disappeared, leaving their shell heaps on the coast and their fire beds in the interior. In favor of this we may mention the fact that the tooth of a polar bear and the bones of the auk, both of which are animals that occupy the arctic regions and inhabit the ice fields, have been found in a shell heap on the coast of Maine, thus proving that there were inhabitants when the ice reached as far south as that point. The mastodon evi- dently inhabited the country long before the glacial period. It survived that period and ^'^- ^''-'^•'"'"- omament. may have existed during the time the land was becoming settled *Mr. {Jeo. F. Kiinz has described a sold object resembling a shield, talrti VILLAGE ENCLOSURE ON THE SCIOTO. 5f O « Eh n < D IZi H n !2i THE MOUXD-BUILDERS AND THE INDIANS. 49 CHAPTER IV. THE MOUND-BUILDERS AND THE INDIANS. We now come to the question of the relation of the Mound- builders to the modern Indians. There has been a great difference of opinion on this subject, but it would seem as if archaeologists were coming nearer to one another and agreeing that the Indians at one time built mounds, but most of them acknowledging that there was a difference between the two classes. I. The appearance ol the buffalo within the bounds of the Mound-builders' territory is the first point which we are to con- sider. The buffalo seems to have extended its range beyond the Mississippi River. The nomadic savages had a habit of setting fire to the prairies. The flame swept into the eastern forests, bringing the open prairie into the midst of the Mound- builders' works, and reaching almost to the Ohio and the Alle- gheny Rivers. The hunters followed the buffalo to the eastern ranges. This will account for the disappearance of the JMound- builders. Still, we are to bear in mind that the earlier Mound- builders, those who dwelt jl^^!:t^ \'^^'^ia,i^.\\^W^\-' in the fortified villages and who were the sun worship- ers, were not acquainted with the buffalo; at least they had no buffalo pipes. There was, however, a race of mound-building Indians subsequent to them, who were hunters and effigy- builders, and were acquaint- ed with the buffalo. Our proof of this is as follows: ^'ff-l-SujiraloandBearnearI>rairieduChien. I. The effigies of the buffalo are found in Wisconsin. This will be seen from reference to the cut See Fig. i. The effigy of the buffalo has been seen in many places — at Beloit, Madison, and at Green Lake. Inscriptions of the buffalo are found in the picture cave at West Salem. 2. Shoulder bones of the buffalo, according to Squier and Davis, were found in Ohio, but at the summit ot the mound and associated with modern Indian relics. 3. The bones of the buffalo, according to Mr. McAdanis. were found in the depths of the pyramid mounds not far from Alton, Illinois. 4. The bones of the buffalo were found among the ash 50 PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS. heaps near Madisonville, Ohio. 5. Efifigies of the buffalo, ac- cording to T. H. Lewis, have been recognized in the standing stones of Dakota.* 6. Traditions of the buffalo were prevalent amono- the Chickasaws and the Choctaws of the Gulf States. Traditions of an animal with an arm extending from the fore- shoulder, according to Charlevoix, were prevalent among the Indians of Canada. These discoveries and traditions are im- portant, for they show that the mastodon and buffalo were con- temporaneous with the Mound-builders, though the mastodon may have been known to one class and the buffalo to another. It is very uncertain just how early these Mound-builders lived. There are some indications that they were quite ancient. 7. When Ferdinand De Soto and his party landed in Florida they were surprised by the sight of the horns and head of a buffalo, an animal they had never seen before. This was in the hands of the Florida Indians. They afterwards became familiar with the buffalo robes or skins used by the Southern Indians. It appears, then, that at least 350 years ago the buffalo was known as far east as Florida. 8. According to Marquette, the buffalo roamed as iar east as the prairies of Illinois in the year 1680, but we can not fix upon the date when the buffalo effigies were erected. Buffalo bones were found at the bottom of the mounds on the Great American bottom, south of the locality where the masto- don pipes were discovered. This would indicate that the buffalo and mastodon were contemporaneous and that the Mound-builders were acquainted with both animals, and that the Mound-builders' acre extended from the time of the mastodon to that of the buffalo. II. We would next refer to the evidence as to the succession of races. The works on the North Fork of Paint Creek, on the Hopewell farm, illustrate this. Here is a group of mounds, which has been explored by Warren K. Moorehead, under the auspices of the World's Fair. Some remarkable relics have been taken out. One mound was very large, 500 feet long, 190 feet broad, 24 feet high. Near the top of this mound were stone effigies, resembling those in Dakota. At the bottom of the mound were a number of skeletons, lying upon the base line. The ground had been burned hard, and the earth above this was interstratified with sand and gravel. The skeletons were found in dome-shaped cavities, four or five feet in height. One skeleton was called the king; there were wooden horns at his head, in imitation of antlers; thin sheets of copper covered the wood. *The standing stones and the bone paths may have been the work of the Dakota Indians. Mr. MeAdams lias placed a plaster cast of a buffalo pipe in the museum at Springfield, 111. It is uncertain whether the cast is of a genuine pipe. If so, it would prove that the pipe-makers with both animals, the mastodon and the bufl'alo. See Discovery of Mastodon Bones, American Antiquarian, Vol. I, p. 5-1. First Discovery of Pipe, Ibid., Vol. II, p. 68 Inscriptions in Cave, Ibid., Vol. VI, p. 16 and 122. Bone Paths, Ibid., Vol. VIII, p. 153. Animals Known, Ibid., Vol. IX, pp. 153 and 57. See Emblematic Mounds, pp. 274,9, 163, 217. The following are the localities: Beloit, Rock County; Blue Mounds, Grant County; Butler's Quarries. Green Lake County; Buffa- lo Lake, Adams County; Prairie du Chien, Crawford County; Madison, Dane Co. THE MOUND-BUILDERS AND THE INDIANS. 51 The horns were attached to a helmet-shaped head-dress or mask, which reached from the upper jaw to the occupit ol the skull. Pearl beads, shell beads, bear teeth, bear and eagle claws, copper spools, copper discs, covered the chest and abdomen. A large platform pipe, an agate spear-head, four copper plates, canes from the south covered with copper were at the sides and back. In the same mound were several skeletons, covered with a large quantity of copper, and adorned with most intricate and beautiful designs. These are classified into anklets, bracelets and wristlets, and ornaments for various parts of the body. The bracelets were solid throughout, and formed by bending a tapering bar of copper into a circle. There were four circular Fig. t.— Works at Hopeton. discs, joined in pairs by a thick stem of copper, and four other discs, joined by pivots, and richly ornamented with repousse work. There were thin plates, cut in the form of fishes; others into diamond forms, with geometrical figures inside the rings. Most curious of the whole collection are two pieces of copper representing the Suasttka, — the only one that has been found north of the Ohio River. Beside these, was a flat piece of copper that had thin pieces of cane inside, evidently intended to be worn on the wrist as a protection from the bow. Many of the pieces have attached to them a curious texture, resembling matting, made out of wood fibre; while several were plated with silver, gold and meteoric iron. One piece was evidently a cap for the crown of the head, and had an aperture through which the scalp-lock could protrude, or to which feathers could be attached. There were also with them pieces representing birds and animals, and 52 PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS. Others, curiously pronged, which were evidently used for combs. The five skeletons were also found lying side by side, — two of which were covered with a layer of copper, six by eight feet. The copper had been worked into many forms. There were sixty-six copper belts, ranging in size from one and one half inches to twenty-two and one half inches in length. A large thick copper ax weighed forty-one pounds. This exceeds any specimen ever found in the United States. There were traces of gold on it. The cutting edge is seven inches broad and is very sharp. A number of smaller copper axes attended this. Thirty copper plates, with Mound-builders' cloth on them, overlapped the axes. The average size of the plates was ten by six inches. A great copper eagle, twenty inches in diameter, wings out- spread, beak open, tail and wing feathers neatly stamped upon the copper surface, etc., covered the knees of one of the skele- tons. This is one of the most artistic designs ever found in cop- per. Remains of a copper stool, about a foot in length and several inches in height, lay near one of the skeletons. The stool was made out of wood, and had been covered with sheet copper. Here, then, we have the late tribes in their rudeness, but preceding these tribes we find a certain barbaric magnificence that might be compared to that of the early in habitants of Great Britain, — the symbols of sun-worship wrought into copper and placed upon the bodies. We have no doubt that the persons who were buried here, and who carried such massive axes and wore such heavy helmets and elaborate coats of mail, were an- cient sun-worshipers, differing entirely from the later Indians. The evidence of a succession of races 'is given elsewhere. The writer has explored the mounds scattered along the Mis- sissippi River from the state line on the north to Alton on the south, and has found several classes of works in this district. They are as follows: i. In the north, the effigies of Wisconsin passed over the borders, makmg one class. 2. Below these ate the burial mounds at Albany, Moline and Rock Island, which were explored by the members of the Davenport Academy. These were mainly unstratified, some of which contained relics, such as carved pipes, red ochre, lumps of galena, sheets of mica and fragments of pottery. 3. Farther south, near Quincy, the Mound-builders buried their dead without depositing relics. The mounds are not stratified; neither do they contain relics. 4. The fourth class is that which has been very frequently described, consisting of the pyramids, of which Cahokia is a good speci- men. 5. The fifth class is that marked by the stone graves. These extend from the mouth of the Illinois River to the state line at Cairo. What is remarkable about the Illinois mounds is that in every locality there seems to have been a large number of tribes, some of which were earlier and some later. The relics which are in the Davenport Academy are for the THE MOUND-BUILDERS AND THE INDIANS. 53 most part from the Iowa side, and are unlike the majority of those from the Illinois side, though there are localities in Illinois where similar relics are discovered. The contrast between the mounds at Davenport and others is seen in the cut Fig. 3 The lower part represents a mound in Illinois, the upper a mound in Iowa. These mounds are stratified, have layers of stones at intervals, the altars are pillars or piles of stones and have the bodies by the side. No such altars are found in any other mounds. The symbolism, however, is similar to that found in Ohio. It was the symbolism of the sun-worshipers, and it contained the crescent and circle. Fig. 3, r=a S^^ii^^i^ SJuHt Atltt .^ oga No. 9. This shows that the Davenport Mound -builders should be classed with the sun-worshipers of Ohio, that the pipe-makers of this re- gion were the same people as the pipe-makers of that State, and were older than the other Mound-builders. III. The difference appar- ent in the antiquity of the mounds is the chief evidence. It was noticed by Messrs. Squier and Davis that many ot the earth-works when first discovered were dilapidated, especially those upon the sum- mits of the hills and the banks of the rivers. The streams had encroached upon the ter- races and had broken down the walls of the villages. In one case, at the crossings of Paint Creek, the stream had overflowed the terrace and had made a passage-way for itself through a village enclosure, leaving part of the wall upon one side and part on the other. In another case 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. See Fig. 4. The same is true of the circle upon the North Fork. See Fig. 5. The en- closure near Dayton also illustrates this. This was situated in the valley of the Miami on land which is even now at times over- flowed. It was overlooked by the great mound at Miamisburg and had evidently been occupied. Some maintain that the works had never been finished, but their condition is owing to I'ig. 3.— Stratified Mounds near Davenport. 54 PREHISTOBIC MONUMENTS. the wear of the stream. The works at Portsmouth had suffered the same destruction. The Scioto had changed its channel, had encroached upon the eastern terrace and had destroyed a portion of the covered way. 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, but is now flowing in a new channel half a mile from the covered way. The graded way which ended with the terrace was 1050 feet long and 215 feet wide. It may, at one time, have been used as a canoe landing or levee, for the village was on the summit of the terrace; but the villao-e is gone and many of the works have disappeared. The enclosures at Hopeton are better preserved, but the walls of the covered way, which are nearly half a mile in length, ter- minate 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 fer- tile bottom now inter- venes This covered way may have been de- signed as a passage-way to Monnd City, on the opposite side of the river. See map. 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 antiquity in the works of Southern Ohio. The same is true of the southern works. There are old river beds near the pyramids of Georgia, according to Professor Eugene Smith. This is true also of the mounds at Mason's plantation. The Savannah River has encroached upon the largest tumulus and " performed what it would have taken long days to accomplish." The layer of charcoal, ashes, shells, fragments of pottery and bones, can be traced along the water front of the mounds, showing its construction. These are two feet below the surface ; the superincumbent mass seems to have been heaped up to the height of thirty-seven feet above the plain and forty-seven feet above the water line. The age of the trees growing upon the earth-works is to be noticed here. The forts of Southern Ohio when discovered were generally covered with forests, and trees of large size were found upon the very summits of the walls. Some of them when cut *This Is situated on the Scioto River, one mile south of Chillicothe. A portion of the square has been spoiled by the Invasion of the river. The large circle has also been encroached upon. The low bottom at the base of the terrace was evident- ly at one time the bed of Paint Creek, but has since changed its channel. lOOO Fi to Inch Fig. U.— Circle and Square near Chillicothe* THE MOUND-BUILDERS AND THE INDIANS. 55 down showed four or five hundred rings, thus indicating that at least five hundred years had elapsed since the fort had been abandoned. Such was the case with the old fort at Newark. Mr. Isaac Smucker says the trees were growing upon its banks all around the circle, some of them ten feet in circumference. In 1815 a tree was cut down which showed that it had attained the age of 550 years. Squier and Davis speak of the fort in High- land County. They say that "the area was covered with a heavy primitive forest of gigantic trees. An oak stood on the wall, now fallen and much decayed, which measured twenty-three feet in circumference. All around are scattered the trunks 01 immense trees in every stage of decay. The en- tire fort presented the appearance oi the great- est antiquity." IV. The contents of the mounds are instructive. It is remarkable that no buffalo pipes have so far been found in the mounds, though ele- phant pipes have been. We imagine the pipe- makers were earlier than the effigy-builders, for the pipes are found in are seldom found upon Fig. 5 —Circle and Square near ChilUcothe.* the lowest strata of the mounds and the surface; while the buffalo bones are often found near the summits of the mounds, and were very common upon the surface. Parhs were made of the shoulder bones of bufifalos in Dakota. Agricultural tools made from the bones of the buffalo were found in Ohio. These facts show that the range of the buffalo was formerly farther east. The indica- tions are that the mastodon was known to the earlier Mound- builders and the buffalo to the later, and that the Mound-builders' age extended from the time of the mastodon to the time of the buffalo, and was prolonged through many centuries. The mounds of habitation are found in the north and south- east part of Vincennes. The north mound has a height of 36 feet, "a circumference of 847 feet, and is attended by another 25 *This work is situatfid on the left bank of the north fork of Paint Creek, 10 miles from ChilUcothe. A portion of the large circle has been encroached upon and de- stroyed by the creek, which has since receeded something over a fifth of a mile. There was formerly a Shawnee town near this work. Indian graves are marked on the plan. From these relics have been taken— gun-barrels, copper kettles, silver cross and brooches, and many other ornaments which the Indians were accustomed to burv with the dead. The ancient works at Piketon, at Cedar Banks, and at High Banks have also been encroached upon by the river. See section map of twelve miles ot the Scioto Valley. The works at Piketon illustiates the same fact. The works are destroyed by the wasting of the bank. The river now runs at a dis- tance Its ancient bed is distinctly to be seen at the base of the terrace. See maps on pp. 17, 18, 115 and 189; also cuts on pp. 94, 154, 240 and 264. 56 PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS. feet high and 40 feet in circumference. Prof. Collett speaks of one mound which he calls a temple mound, and says that the temple had two stories. In other words, it was a terraced mound. We have elsewhere expressed the opmion that this group at Vincennes, as well as that near Evansville, belongs to the same class with the Cahokia mounds and may well be called terraced pyramids or terraced platform mounds. They constitute temple mounds of a peculiar type. They are generally grouped in such a way that the terraced mound is in the center. These pyra- mid mounds were evidently devoted to sun worship, though it is uncertain whether their summits were occupied by temples or by houses of the chiefs. If we take the descriptions given by the early explorers, we should say that the terraced pyramids were perhaps the residences of the chiefs and that they were guarded by warriors who were stationed upon the terraces, the conical mounds in the vicinity being the place where the temple was located. This, however, takes us into a new field. A de- scription of the pyramids has been given elsewhere. We only refer to them here as exhibiting a race of sun worshipers, who were followed by a race of hunters. The mounds in the State of Illinois were built by a different class of people ; many of them contained in the stratification the records of different periods. This was especially the case with the burial mounds. There are many burial mounds which have bodies at different depths; some of the bodies having been deposited by later tribes and some by earlier. Those at the bot- tom of the mounds are generally badly decayed and show signs of age. We find an illustration among the burial mounds. The pyramid at Beardstown, Illinois, is to be noticed. This seems to have been a very old structure, but was occupied at recent date. It was 30 feet high, 150 feet in diameter, and stood immediately upon the bank of the river on land which was surrounded by a slough and which was in reality an island. This island, on ac- count of its favorable position, had been for centuries a camping ground of the aborigines. It was excavated by the city author- ities and found to. contain upon its summit shallow graves with skeletons of recent Indians, buried with implements of iron and stone and ornaments of glass and brass. A little deeper remains of Europeans, perhaps followers of La Salle and Tonty; a silver cross was grasped by the skeleton hand and Venetian beads en- circled the skeleton waist of a former missionary, a disciple of Loyola, v/ho had probably made his grave in this distant wilder- ness. These were intrusive burials. At the bottonof this mound, on the original sand surface, there was found a series of stone graves or crypts, formed by planting flat stones in the sand and covering them with other flat stones. These tombs or rude cists were empty. So great was the lapse of time that the bodies had entirely decayed, not a vestige remained. The mound when fin- THE MOUND-BUILDERS AND THE INDIANS. 57 ished formed an elevated platform, from whose summit was an uninterrupted view of the distant bluffs on both sides of the river for two or three miles above and below. A nest of broad horn stone discs was discovered buried in the sand a short distance above this mound. The nest was composed of five layers of flints, about looo in all. They were embedded in the bank of the river, but above the reach of the highest water, four feet be- low the surface. They had been placed in an ovoid heap or altar, overlapped each other as shingles on a roof. The length of the ovoid was six feet and the width four feet. The relics had an average length of six inches, width four inches; their shape was also ovoid. They were discolored with a concretion which showed undisturbed repose in the clay, enveloped for a great period of time. It is supposed that they were originally brought from. Flint Ridge. They resembled the flint discs found in the Clark's works of Ohio; similar nests have been found near St. Louis, Cassville, on the Illinois river; several places on the Scioto river. The most rational theory in reference to the discs, is that they were deposited in obedience to a superstition or religious idea, which was perhaps related to a water cult. Dr. Snyder mentions a deposit of 3500, near Frederickss^fe, in Schuyler County, also on the Illinois river. Dr. Charles Rau described a deposit of horn stone discs, circular in shape, near Kaskaskia river, and another deposit of agricultural flint imple- ments near East St. Louis. W. K. Morehead mentions a de- posit of 7300 discs discovered in a mound near Clark's works in Ohio. These discs seem to connect the Mound-builders of the Illinois river with those of the Scioto, and convey the idea that the pyramids and the sacred enclosures were built at the same time. Another mound of this class was found at Mitchell's Station, on the Chicago and Alton Railroad, The mound was 300 feet long and 30 or 40 feet high, and contained near the base of it a skeleton in a wrapping of matting, a large number of copper im- plem.ents and ornaments, and a portion of the head of a buffalo. It is to be noticed here that the pottery of this region resem- bles that found in West Tennessee and in Southeastern Missouri — a pottery mady of very fine material and very highly glazed. The animals imitated by the pottery are very m.uch the same, but the pottery pipes and portrait vases are lacking. There are many human skeletons lying underneath the soil in the vicinity of these platform mounds. In some places layers of them to the depth of eight or nine feet are found. Relic-hunters also find many burials along the sides of the bluffs. Large quantities of agricultural tools are taken out from these burial places. These cemeteries on the bottom lands and on the bluffs indicate that there was an extensive population for a long period of time. We classify the works and relics with those of the Southern Mound- 58 PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS. builders, and imagine that they were older than the Northern Mound-builders. We here refer to the mounds of Kentucky. Sidney Lyons, in speaking of the mounds opposite the mouth of the Wabash, says that they contain three different kinds of burials: i. Those without works of art near the summit. 2. Those with works of art, the bodies having been laid on the surface. 3. Deep excava- tions containing badly preserved bones. One mound contained different burials, the urn burial in the middle. With the urns were deposited parcels of paint and iron ore. Another mound contained several copper awls and iron ore ; another mound con- tained the following relics : several copper awls, five inches long, a disc of copper covered with woven fabric, three circular stones with the margin groved like a pulley, with five small perforations in the margin; in another mound was a layer of clay, beneath the clay a pavement of limestone. The burials above the clay were peculiar: the bodies were placed in circles, lying on the left side, heads inward; the burials below the pavement six feet be- low the clay ; but no relics or works of art were connected with the deep burials. Some of the bodies were covered with slabs of stone, set slanting like a roof, but those below the pavement were merely covered with sandy soil. Another was to dig a deep vault in the form of a circle, placing the bodies against the side of the wall, in a sitting posture, faces inward. These different burials show that there was a succession of races in this region, some of them quite modern, others very early. Mr. Lyons seems to have come upon burial mounds in which there were successions of races buried, three or four different peri- ods of time being represented, The relics and bones in the deep burials were generally decayed. The relics in the middle series were of a primitive kind and seem to have been made by an un- warlike people. There were extensive cemeteries in Tennessee and Missouri, and grand depositories of bones in the caves of Kentucky and Ohio. These cemeteries and ossuaries may have been earlier or later than the regular Mound-builders; they at least show that there was a succession of races and that all parts of the country were occupied for a longtime. . lllll'^h!l 5 ^:^^mMm^mmsm ^.0 E-i M o P5 Eh P &H n o M M & W BURIAL MOUNDS VIEWED AS I^IONUMENTS. 59 CHAPTER V. BURIAL MOUNDS VIEWED AS MONUMENTS. DIFEEREXT MODES OF BURIAL ASCRIBED TO DIFFERENT TRIBES OR RACES. We propose in this chapter to take up the burial mounds in the United States and study them as monuments. The term is very appropriate, since they, in common with all other funereal struc- tures, were evidently erected as monuments, which were sacred to the memory of the dead. Whatever we may say about them as works of architecture, they are certainly monumental in de- sign. It is a singular fact that mounds have everywhere been erected for this purpose. We read in Homer that a mound was built over the grave of Patroclus, and that the memorial of this friend of /Eneas was only a heap of earth. The name of Buddha, the great Egyptian divinity, has also been perpetuated in the same way. There are great topes, conical structures, in various parts of Asia, which contain nothing more than a fabled tooth of the great incarnate divinity of the East, but the outer surface of these topes is very imposing. The pyramids of Egypt were erected for the same purpose. Some of them contain the mummies of the kings by whose orders they were erected. Some of them have empty tombs, and yet they are all monuments to the dead. It was a universal custom among the primitive races to erect such memorials to the dead. The custom continued, even when the races had passed out from their primitive condi- tion, but was modified. The earth heaps gave place to stone structures, cither menhirs or standing stones, cairns, cromlechs, dolmens, triliths. stone circles, and various other rude stone monuments, though all of these may have been more the tokens of the bronze age than of the stone age. We make this distinc- tion between the ages: during the paleolithic age there were no burial heaps ; the bodies were placed in graves, or perished without burial. During the neolithic age the custom of burying in earth heaps was the most common, though it varied according to circumstances. During the bronze age stone monuments were the most numerous. When the iron age was introduced the the modern custom of erecting definite architectural structures appeared. The prevalence of the earthworks in the United States as burial places shows that the races were here tn the stone age, but the difference between these will illustrate the different conditions through which the people passed during that age. 60 PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS. There is one point to be considered here. It has been main- tained that the stone age has existed in all parts of the globe. The prevalence of burial mounds proves this. It is wonderful that they are so widely distributed. Sir John Lubbock says: " In our own island the smaller tumuli may be seen in almost every down ; in the Orkeys 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 Jellabad, says Masson, is literally covered with tumuli and mounds. In America they are to be numbered by thousands and tens of thousands ; nor are they wanting in Africa, where the pyramids exhibit the most magnificent development of the same idea; indeed, the whole world is studded with the burial places of the dead. Many of them, indeed, are small, but some are very large. The mound on Silbury hill is the highest in Great Britain ; it has a height of 187 feet. Though it is evidently artificial, there is some doubt whether it is sepulchral."* Another fact is to be noticed. The custom of erecting tumuli, or earth heaps, has survived late into history. This is the point which Dr. Cyrus Thomas has sought to establish. It will be readily granted, for the intelligent reader will notice that there are such tumuli not only in America, but also in various parts of Europe. The tumuli in Russia will serve as an exam- ple. These are called "kurgans." and are said to have belonged to historic times, some of them having been erected as late as the eleventh century, A. D. Two kinds of graves are found in them, one kind belonging to the bronze age, the other to the iron age, the burning of the dead having been practiced in the bronze age, but the extended corpse being characteristic of the iron age. Another remarkable proof of this is furnished by the discovery of the burial place of one of the Norse sea-kings. It was on the shores of Norway, near Gokstad, and contained a Viking ship, with oars, shields, benches, and other equipments. In the ship was a sepulchral chamber which contained the body of a Viking chief, and about it were the remains of horses which were buried with him. Here, then, we have a case similar to those found in Russia, burial mounds having been erected as late as the tenth century. Great changes had taken place in the sur- roundings since that time, for the mound was some distance from the shore, showing that the sea had receded from the land since the burial. The most important point is that there is the perpetuity of the custom of mound building through all the "ages". Here ♦Lubbock's Prehistoric Times, pp. Ill and 112. BURIAL MOUNDS VIEWED AS MONUMENTS. Gl we have the Viking sea-king, with a boat fastened together with iron nails. In the same region we have kitchen middens with the remains of extinct animals in them. Between the two we havethe whole history of the stone age, the different monuments showing the succession of races. If this is the case in Scandi- navia, it is also the case in America. The burial mounds are not all, by any means, of modern date. Perhaps none of them can be traced back to as early a date as the kitchen middens and the cave contents of Europe indicate, )'et many of them are, we believe, quite ancient ; in fact, so ancient that everything that was perishable has passed away, and only the imperishable has been preserved. The mounds are valuable as records, since they show' a succession of races. There may be, even in the same group, different mounds which have been erected in different ages, so that the records may go over several hundred years, even when the appearance externally is the same. With these remarks we propose to consider the burial mounds of the United States, especially those found in the Mississippi valley. We would say. however, before beginning, that there are mounds outside this valley, in fact many of them. They have been discovered on the northwest coast, in British Colum- bia, in Washington Territory, and in Oregon. Mr. James Deans claims that he has discovered a certain embankment near Vic- toria, B. C, with a ditch six feet deep; also low mounds, the remnants of ancient dwellings, and burial caves of the usual type. Mr. Forbes maintains that the works of this region resem- ble the stone circles which are found in Devonshire, Kniiland. The dimensions of the mounds are from three to eighteen feet in diameter, and they are found in groups of from three to fifty. It is probable that these earthworks are fortifications, and that the stone circles within them are the remains of huts, which have fallen and been destroyed. The burial mounds of this region have not been explored. There are graves near Santa Barbara, and on Santa Rosa island, in Southern California, which have yielded large quantities of stone relics. These have been de- scribed by Rev. Stephen Bowers, Drs. C. C. Abbott, H. W. Hen- shaw, Lucien Carr, and others.* There are also shell heaps or kitchen middens in the same region. These, however, dilTer from the burial mounds, which are really rare along the Pacific coast. Dr. Hudson has discov- ered a tumulus of the regular type, and has described it in The American AxTiguARiAX.t It is situated near Oakland, Cal. "It is imposing in form, interesting in feature, locality and composition." It measures three hundred feet in diameter at the base, and twenty-five feet in height. It is circular in form, with a flat summit, is one hundred and fifty feet across the truncated *See Wheeler's Geographical Survey, Vol. VII, Smithsonian Report, 1877. tSee American Antiquarian, Vol. VII, No. 3. 62 PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS. top. A relic exhumed from a mound in the vicinity is also de- scribed by Dr. Hudson. It is a crescent carved in stone, two inches wide and eight inches from point to point, and is supposed to indicate the prevalence of sun worship in the vicinity. We now come to the burial mounds of the Mississippi valley. These are to be 0assifiecl and described. We shall describe them, both according to their architectural character and their geographical location, as well as their contents, since this is the light in which we are to study them. The architectural char- acter embraces, I, the question of size and shape; 2, the material of which they are composed; 3, the method of construction, whether stratified or solid; 4, the character of interior, whether a chamber, an altar, a fire-bed or other structure. The study of geographical location will embrace two or three points : i, The question whether some of them were not used as signal stations; 2, whether some of them were not built in con- connection with villages ; 3, whether their contents do not reveal the social status, the relics of one district being very different from those of another district, but the burial mounds being quite similar in character throughout the same districts; 4, whether their association with other earth works would indicate that all were built by the same clan or tribe. In treating of the burial mounds of the Mississippi valley, we shall keep the division which we have adopted with reference to the other earth-works, but shall modify it to suit the circum- stances. The division is as follows: I. The Upper Mississippi district, including the mounds in Minnesota and Dakota, and extending north as far as Lake Winnipeg, south as far as the Des Moines river. II. The Wisconsin district, the area of the emblematic or effigy mounds. III. The district about the Great Likes, including Michigan and New York. IV. The Middle Mississippi district, including Illinois, Iowa and Missouri. V. The district on the Ohio river. VI. The Appalachian district, includ- ing Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee. \TI. The Lower Mississippi district, and Texas. VIII. The Gulf district, including the Gulf States east of the Mississippi. Here we find large, flat-topped, pyramidal mounds, enclosed by walls and sur- rounded by ditches and canals. This division is the one given by Dr. Cyrus Thomas, though it is based upon a division previously laid down by the writer, but with two districts added, the middle district having been divided into two, and another on the eastern coast, in North Carolina, having been discovered by Dr. Thomas himself The division is based upon the characteristics of the relics which are found in the districts, rather than upon the burial cus- toms, and therefore indicate nothing concerning these customs. Still it is well to state that there is a correlation between the BURIAL MOUNDS VIEWED AS MONUMENTS. 63 burial customs and the districts, so that we may recognize the social status of the mounds, as well as of the general structures. I. We take first the district which is embraced within the Upper Mississippi valley, which may be called the Northern dis- trict. There are many burial mounds in this district. There are, to be sure, a few other earth-wotks. such as fortifications, lodge circles, lookout mounds, and domiciliary mounds, but the large majority were evidently erected for burial purposes. These are found in Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, all of which may be called prairie States. The district might also be said to embrace the valley of the Red river and the States of Dakota, for the mounds found in these regions are mainly burial mounds. It is a very extensive district, and yet one that is homogeneous in character. It is uncertain whether the mounds were the work of Indians known to history, but they were evidently built by people of the hunter class, all of whom were nomadic in their habits. It is one of the peculiarities of nomads that they rarely provide for permanent habitations, but they do provide for the burial of the dead. It is strange that throughout the region which we have mentioned there are so few fortifications but so many burial mounds. It is probable that the people who dwelt on the prairies had from time immem- orial been in the habit of placing their villages near the water courses, and then building signal mounds at various points on either side of the villages. B\- this means they could become aware of the approach of an enemy, and then find safety by taking flight, leaving their villages to be destroyed by the enemy. It is noticeable that most of the signal stations were burial mounds, or, in other words, burial mounds were used as signal stations, the location of these mounds on the high points being not only favorable for burials, but also useful for the purposes of defense, as they furnish fine views of the surround- ing country. It is possible that there was a religious sentiment embodied in them — the spirits of the dead watching over the abodes of the living, but the living taking the abodes of the dead as their watch towers, and so the living and the dead were com- bined together to secure safety. They may have been used also by hunters as lookout stations, from which the presence of game could be discovered, as many of them command views of the prairie upon one side and the bottom lands upon the other, being so placed that large animals might be seen grazing on one side and birds and water fowl feeding upon the other, the lakes, streams and open countr}- being brought to view by the elevated position, and at the same time signals in the shape of fires or clouds of smoke could be sent to more distant points. It is a region which favored this method of defense and this kind of hunting, since it was a prairie region through which large streams and rivers flowed, the rivers furnishing an abundance of 64 PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS, fish and water fowl, but the prairies game of a larger sort. It is very interesting to pass over the country and study the location of the burial mounds with these points in view, for there is scarcely a mound whose location is not significant. The burial mounds form cordons of lookout stations, and taken together they make a net-work which covers the whole map. The writer has discovered three lines of lookout stations along the Mississ- ippi river, one of them on the bottom lands near the bank of the river, another on the bluffs which overlook the river, another several miles back overlooking the prairies, which are situated on either side of the river valley. It was also noticed that within the lines of lookout stations the villages were built, some of them being on the bottom land, others on the bluffs, others on the edge of the prairies, the burial mounds being placed near the villages, but lookout mounds at a distance. Others have also noticed the same system of signal stations on the Missouri river.* As to the character of the mounds within the district, we would say that they are ordinary conical or hemispherical tumuli, built solidly throughout, very few of them having cists within them, though some of them contain layers of stone, which alter- nate with the layers of earth, the bodies being below the strata. Perhaps the district may be subdivided according to the relics contained in the mounds, but not according to the modes of burial, though different modes of burial were practiced by the different tribes which traversed the district. Some of the bodies are recumbent, others in sitting posture, others lying upon the side, perhaps buried in the attitude in which they died ; others present promiscuous heaps of bfnes — " bone burials" ; others have the bodies arranged in a circle, teet out and heads toward the center ; others have the bodies arranged in lines placed parallel with one another. A few have bodies in tiers, as if piled upon one another. All, however, are buried in a compact manner, chambers being exceptions. The solid type of burial mound we ascribe to the hunter races. This may seem conjectural, and yet we think the conclusion is proven by the facts. If we take the range of this class of tumuli and compare it with the habitat of the hunter tribes known to history, we shall find a very close correspondence. In this dis- trict we find the Algonquins and Dacotahs, who were strictly hunters, and the Chippewas, who were both hunters and fisher- men. They occupied all of the region between the great lakes and the Ohio river, extending west as far as the Missouri river. They would be called savages, though according to Mr. Morgan's classification, they would occupy the upper status of savagery and the lower status of barbarism. They were partially village *S. V. Proudfit, in American Antiquarian, Vol. VI, No. 5. BURIAL MOUNDS VIEWED AS MONUMENTS. (56 Indians, were acquainted with pottery, they used the bow and arrow, occasionally used metals such as copper, galena, brown hematite and mica. They subsisted upon wild animals, but also gathered wild rice, and some of them cultivated maize and had patches of squashes, melons and other garden products. The chief tokens of this class of people are found in the burial mounds. They consist of arrows and spears, axes and hammers, shell beads, copper needles, knives, pipes, badges or maces, spool ornaments, and occasionally specimens of cloth. Modern relics are frequently found in the mounds, showing that the hunter races of this district did not abandon the mound building until after the advent of the white man. The relics, however, prove that in the prehistoric times the people of this entire dis- trict were in a much lower condition than those in the Southern States. There are no burial urns, no painted pottery, no elabor- ate symbols, very few idols or human images, and but few inscribed tablets. There are traces of extensive aboriginal trade, copper from Lake Superior, shells from the sea coast and the gulf of Mexico, obsidian cores from the Rocky mountains, mica from North Carolina, flint from Ohio, and galena from Wiscon- sin. This \ariety of relics proves not only that there was an aboriginal trade, but that the tribes were wanderers and had not reached the sedentary condition which is peculiar to agricultural races. This confirms what we have said, There may have been a great variety of races, and it is very likelj' that there were many periods of occupation, a succession of races. Still, the region was so favorable to hunting that it seemed to have been occupied by hunters from time immemorial. We have discovered signs of different periods of occupation in many of the burial mounds of this region. In one group we found three mounds. One of them contained the body of a medicine man, with a modern looking-glass in one hand and a bridle-bit in the other, with frag- ments of cotton cloth, pieces of tin, coils of brass wire and other relics about his person, showing that he was buried after the advent of white men, probably within fifty years. Another mound contained several bodies, but with no relics except a single chipped flint arrow-head, though a child seemed to have had a wristlet of bone beads around its hand, and a pottery vase filled with svveatmeats which had been placed near its head. This mound had trees growing upon its summit which were at least three hundred years old. The third mound contained three bodies lying upon the side, with face in the hand.* We discovered also in the same recrion mounds built with stonewalls in the form of a circle, filled with bodies laid in tiers, but with stone slabs lying between the tiers, the whole solid throughout, and a quasi ♦There are evidences that this mode of burial was practiced by one of the later tribes, possibly Sacs and Foxes, but the other burials were by the earlier tribes, some of them by Stiawnees, and some of them by tribes preceding even the Illinois. 66 PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS. roof of slabs covering the whole structure. The evidence was that a number of tribes had occupied the region. Each tribe had practiced a different mode of burial, but that, with all their changes, no tribe passed beyond the hunter state. We give a series of cuts* to illustrate the character of the mounds of this region. One of these represents a group near Excelsicr, Minn. See Plate I. It is in a forest which borders on Lake Minnetonka. It will be noticed that there is a circle of mounds surrounding a low place or natural meadow, and a wall extending along the lake shore. The group contains sixty-nme mounds, most of them burial mounds. One of the mounds was opened, and thirty-five skulls were found within it, arranged in a circle, covered with ^.Mi'ji/yv, ^. \>.\iJ;,.'/;/ --T^''VT7— \tui////f Mi;/«'/-. oilii*/'.< \\J///^u \ ^U///////, v^iHI/'/'" ^^\l//i/n <-"'' i//// v>J'/"' \\\i//t/ \\i/i//y \\\"/' .IU„, MW »»//..• -t^/, .--•-, «"/'//. ,>.. ..""" •^<"J"' -""*' •'"■"" """" .„ >^^'I/W 'j.-v ..i'." '^^''- ii'.W-*- ^»w«'' W/ yHi//". «!*//• >.W«'/. ' S% ^i^'^'"'''\\L ■'"■•^'^'-' -"""■■■ «'""" ^'"■' UJ/^U •^^,t/// ^^\UA/// vl////^A j^/^. i—Qroitp of Mounds Ticelve Miles from Gideon's Bay. sand. The location of the group and the arrangement of the mounds would indicate that it was the site of an ancient village. The writer has discovered other village sites with the same or similar arrangements of burial mounds — one of them on the Crawfish, near Mud Lake, in Wisconsin, and another at the Cor- liss Bayou, near Prairie du Chien. The placing of the burial mounds around the edge of a village site may have been owing to superstition, the same superstition as that which led to the use of a burial mound as a signal station, the spirits of the dead being regarded as a protection to the village, since they were supposed to remain near the place where the body was laid. It may, however, have been owing to the custom, which prevailed in certain tribes, of burying the dead in the very spot where the *See Smithsonian Report, 1879, p. 422. BURIAL MOUNDS VIEWED AS MONUMENTS. 67 lodge stood, and then moving the lodge to another place. A group of mounds one mile northeast o( this is shown on the upper left-hand corner of the cut. Plate 1. They are on a spot of ground four hundred and iifty feet above the level of the lake, and were probably used as signal stations. A group twelve miles southeast is represented in the next cut. Fig. i. Here are thirteen mounds situated on a high bluff, showing that these were used as signal stations as well as burial mounds. There is another group, two miles southwest, which contains forty or fifty mounds, and still another, seven miles northwest, which is called ]\Iound City. Here the writer has discovered a game drive. Takingthe region together, we should say thatthe burial mounds were closely connected with the village life, but such a kind o life as hunters would follow, the very position of the tumuli being such as would be favorite spots with hunters. There are not many large m.ounds in the northern district. The only one which has been discovered is the one called the hay- stack mound. It is situated in Lincoln County, Dakota, eighty- five miles northwest of Sioux City. It is on a fine bottom, and is three hundred and twenty-seven feet in length at the base at the northwest side and two hundred and ninety feet on the southeast side, and one hundred and twenty feet wide. Its sides slope at an angle of about fifty degrees; it is from thirty-four to forty-one feet in height, the northeast end being the higher. The most interesting mounds of this district are the lookout mounds, to which we have already referred. Some of these arc quite large, being situated upon sightly places, they are prominent lankmarks, and are now becoming interesting objects for tourists to visit. One such lookout mound is situated near St. Paul ; others at Winona, at Red Wing, at Dubuque, at Dunleith, at Rock Island and Davenport, at New Albany, Keokuk, Quincy, and other places. One of the mounds south of Quincy was used by the coast survey as a place to erect a tower upon, thus showing that it occupied a very prominent position. We give here a map of the mounds situated along the banks of the Mississippi river, near Muscatine. The map will show the number and location of the tumuli. They are perhaps more numerous in this vicinity than elsewhere, but they are generally placed on the highest points or bluffs, as they are here. This particular region has been explored by gentlemen from Musca- tine and from Davenport. The letters will indicate the points. It has been found that they were nearly all burial mounds, though they did not all contain relics, other than the bones of the dead. See map. There are shell heaps in this vicinity, located in the neighbor- hood of these mounds, " which extend for miles without inter- ruption." They are composed of recent shells and contain few implements. The mounds occupy the most beautiful prospect 68 PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS. in the country. One large mound five miles east of Moline was opened and disclosed the following structure: Three feet of soil (a), twenty-two inches of ashes and bones (b), and twelve inches of charcoal and bones (c). See Fig. 2. In seven mounds the bodies were fc/und lying upon the side, the knees drawn up to the chin.* Two other groups in this vicinity are represented in the cuts. Figs. 3 and 4. One of them, the one on Tohead Island, has a shell heap near it, and the other containing ten mounds, is located on an isolated hill or ridge. In the vicinity is found a cemetery containing two or three hundred graves. The graves are upon low ground, and the mounds upon high ground. We give also another cut (see Fig. 5t) to show the relative group- ing of the burial mounds. The group has been explored by parties from the Davenport Academy, and ,„,,,,,, ,,, .,,^a^ Fig. 2— Mound near Moline. some interesting relics have been taken from them, Moline being but a few miles east of Davenport. The group contains thirty- three mounds, some of them made ot lime-stone slabs. The burial mounds of this vicinity — Muscatine. Rock Island, Moline and Davenport — show how extensive the population was. They con- tain many relics which show that the people were quite advanced in some of the arts, the scul ptu red pipes which have been taken out from the mounds being very re- - /oo ft ■ - — f * -jaoft-st Fig. 3— Mound on Tohead Island. markable. There is not a better col- lection of the pipes of the Mound-builders' in the United States than the one contained in the museum of the Davenport Academy of Science. These pipes were taken from the mounds in the vicinity, those from the Cooke farm, three miles south of Davenport, being the most interesting. From this same group *See description of same mode of burial in mounds near Quincy, 111. +See Am. Antiquarian, Vol. II, No. 2. Taken from Smithsonian Report, 1879, p. 060 BURIAL MOUNDS VIEWED AS MONUMENTS. 69 on the Cooke farm the so-called Davenport tablets were taken. These are anomalous in character, totally unlike the other speci- mens in the cabinet. ^Members of the Academy maintain that they are genuine, but one may recognize upon them so many Roman and Arabic numerals, and so many alphabetic letters, as to conclude at once that they were made by some one acquainted ■with these modern characters. The relics contained in the cab- Fig. U — Group of Ten Monuds on a High Ridge. inet, aside from these tablets, are very valuable. We find here many interesting specimens of copper axes and pieces of cloth, as well as pipes and pottery. There are also relics in the cabinet from the districts farther south, from Missouri and Arkansas, and these being placed side by side, show the differences between the districts in grade of culture and art products. II. We come now to the second district. This is the district occupied by the effigy mounds. It is a very interesting region. I Y? i I i i° — ^L — ijf — ti^f- ; 1 seal? J ' Tlail HoadL. ^ulllMHl^rrm^r , ^T^mTTTm-nlymrm-' , Tm:r■^r^-^Tf 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 n ii n i n li n Mn i i i ii iii n ' rt-t-i-mtt Fig. 5.— Burial Mounds near Moline, III. Here the effigies are numerous and have a great variety of shapes. We have in them complete imitations of the animals which once abounded, but which have become for the most part extinct. There are many effigies of panthers, wolves, foxes, bear, wild cat and other beasts of prey. Besides them we have moose, elk, deer, buffalo, antelope and other grazing animals There are also many birds; eagles, hawks, wild geese, pigeons swans, cranes, herons, ducks of various sorts, swallows, night 70 PREHIJ^TORIC MONUMENTS. •"! »> • ■^v, ^w- hawks. The amphibious creatures are also represented; turtles, lizards, muskrats, otter, fish and frogs. Also fur-bearing animals, such as beaver, badger, squirrels, skunks, mink and weasels; raccoons and martens. Many of these v«» |-^«| 3''^ imitations of the animals, but many of ^\^^^ them are also totems or emblems of the tribe who formerly dwelt here. The effigies have enabled us to identify the affinity of the tribe as well as its division into clans. Some eight or nine clans have been identified. The burial mounds are scattered among the effigies in such a way as to show that the clans were accustomed to deposit their dead in conical tumuli,though they occasion- ally erected an effigy over the prominent members ofthe •m .o->©t'''be. Not all k'^^.I' of the conical tumuli were erected by the effigy builders. There was a succession of races or tribes which occu- pied this region, some of which built only conical monnds, but the effigy build- ers were the first of all. /Jf The tumuli of the /F^ effigy builders can be distinguished from those of the later tribes both by the proximity to effigies, and by their location upon the high ground, as well as by the contents. They are ordina'ry conical tumuli, solidly built throughout. They contain burials which resemble those of the first district, though there are very few pipes or carved stone relics found within them. Some of these burial mounds are surrounded by effigies, as if the purpose was to guard them. Others, however, are arranged in lines with the effigies, forming parts of the groups. Still others are placed on the summits of hills, with _.0-^C 4 BURIAL MOUNDS VIEWED AS MONUMENTS. 71 effii^ies arranged in line in front of them, others in clusters with effigies at various distances from them.* In one case a row of burial mounds was found located on a ridec or hieh cliff- the Fi(j. ,' — Effirjiex and Burial Mounds near BeloiU ridge having the shape of an immense serpent, and the mounds being arranged so as to show the form of the serpent, the summit of the ridge and the line of the mounds both convey- ing the same idea. This was near Cassville, in Grant Count}% Wisconsin. 2' if/. >— J/(>((/((/.v on the East Side of Lake Koahkonong. We give a series of cuts to illustrate the burial mounds of this district. The first group is situated in the vicinity of the so-called elephant effigy, on the same bottom land, but about a mile to the north. See Fig. 6. It was described by Mr. Moses Strong.t *See book on "Emblematic Mounds," by the author. fSmithsonian Report, 1875, 72 PREHISTORIC MOXUMENTS. SECTION or THE MOUN D AT A £1IL LIMEST rONE GRAVEU^ L"**?! C.R d-jGravclIy so.l o[ hiil. The group was excavated and found to contain intruded burials, skeletons very fresh in appearance, but no other relics. This group may have been erected by a tribe which followed the effigy builders. Another cut, however, represents a group near Aztlan (see Fig. 13), the celebrated ancient city, which may have been the capital of the effigy builders. The next represents a group near Beloit. See Fig. 8. Here effigies and tumuli are associated. Another cut (see Fig. 9) represents a group on the east side of Lake Mff. 9-Mound at Waukesha j^Q^l^]^^^^^^^ ^^^^ burial mounds are guarded by eagles. Another group on the west side of Lake Koshkonong repre- sents burial mounds guarded by tortoises. Burial mounds have been explored by va- rious parties, Dr. L A. Lapham, Dr. J. E. Hoy, R. B. Arm- strong W H Ander- Fig. 10— Mound at Indian Ford. son, Wm. F. Clarke, Dr. Cyrus Thomas, Col. J. G. Heg and others. The mound explored by Dr. Lapham was at Waukesha. This group was found on the college campus. A circular wall about nme feet in diameter was discovered. This Fig. 11— Mounds on Rock River. extended about tWO feet above the original surface. An excavation within this wall was filled with black earth to the depth of about two feet. At the bottom of this was a skeleton lying on its back. It was sur- rounded by a circular heap of stone,thestone also being placed over the body so as to form a sort of rude stone coffin. See Fig. 9. In the left hand of the skeleton was a pottery bowl, in the right hand a small pipe. At the head were fragments of two pottery vessels. The mound ^s- 12-Mound at Newton. opened by Dr. J. E. Hoy was at Racine. This contained a body CroiiSetti'ori of fAounA 'A sKUnono LaKe - l?it of WKsd clou conta'tn'ing ' i sRcliHinSi Scale- i2fV. tufheinih. GftTSECflON OF THE CENTEH OF MOUNl'l"/!! KOTOF KJSHIUNIlNt lAKE A- Stiajt sunK at ctnftr of mQwid ' a-SKeleTun /ohtsmnglciluiithtnc bones. t-Laytr olborK. C- Booulder d Ocpo&it ofcishes 3iain inicJ\ne£j. a O Ob o O O « I BURIAL MOUNDS VIEWED AS MONUMENTS, 73 in a sitting posture, but there were no cist or wall or relics near it. The mounds explored by Mr. Clarke were near Indian Ford, on Rock river. One of these contained two burials (5ee Fig. lo); with three skeletons at the top and seven skeletons at the bottom. Another large mound (see F"ig. 12), 75 feet in diameter, 13 feet high, contained ashes three inches thick (d); below the ashes a flat stone (c); below the stone decayed wood and bark (b), and below these a human skeleton (a). Thus we see that there was no uniformity in the structure of the burial mounds of the district. Some of them 3eem to have been solid, ot^hers stratified. The bodies in some were found in sitting posture, in others recumbent; some of them contained rude stone walls; others contained altars; there is also evidence of cremation in some of them; in others, evidence of bone burial. The probability is that there was a succession of races here, and that some of the races or tribes continued to bury in mounds until after the settlement of the - w--,.v-. ' r^-;r-?rr^^ country by the whites, as modern ^ - . m, . ^ :- . , . relics are sometimes found in them. The state abounds witli copper relics, but it is uncertain ^^^0°'?^^ **** \^f^ooQ6a9 i whether these were left by effig\ * \ \_ builders, or by subsequent tribes probably, however, by the late tribes, since most of them ai' surface finds. The effigies do not often con- tain burials. One group, how- ever, has been explored near Beloit. Two of the efifigies in the group contained bodies which had been laid in rows, side by side, eight in number, on the surface of the ground, and then the effigy mound was erected over them. It is supposed that the effigy indicates the clan to which the persons belonged, but it is probable that the honor was bestowed upon some chief, and his family, or upon some band of warriors, but that it was not common to bury in this way. Dr. Cyrus Thomas has described several burial mounds which were excavated by his assistants near Prarie du Chien, in Crawford and Vernon Counties, Wis. One of these was stratified, first a layer of sand, next calcined bones, charcoal and ashes, burned hard, next clay burned to a brick, next a heap of bones, with charcoal and ashes. At the bottom was a pit, filled with chocolate colored dust. Another contained two rude walls, three feet high and eight feet long, be- tween them a number of skeletons, lying flat, the skeleton being covered with a layer of mortar, this by a layer of clay and ashes, this again by a layer of clay, and then the top covering of sand and soil. Dr. J. E. Hoy has described a mound at Racine which contained a single skeleton in sitting posture. Dr. J. N. De- Fig. l.>— Mounds near Aztlan. 74 iPREHISTORIC MONUMENTS. Harte* describes one at Madison as containing several bodies, one above the other, all of them in sitting posture, and still an- other containing an altar at the base, but with no bodies. III. The third district embraces the region abcut the great lakes, from Detroit on through Northern Ohio into New York State. This district was occupied by the military or warlike races, and the mounds have been called military works. The distinguishing peculiarity of the district is that there are so many remains of old stockades in it. These stockades are found in great numbers in the State of New York, but they are also seen on the south shore of Lake Erie, as at Conneaut, at Ashta- bula, at Painesville, at Weymouth, south of Cleveland, at Detroit and many other points. The burial mounds of the district are for the most part simple conical tumuli, some of which may have been used as lookout stations as well as for burials. There are, however, a few large mounds, and these we shall speak of especially. There is at Detroit a massive burial mound, seven hundred feet long, four hundred feet wide, and not less than forty feet high. It is situated near the river Rouge, three miles below the city. Mr. Bela Hubbard says of it: "From the' immense number of skeletons found in it and the mode of their occurrence, there can be but little doubt that it is one of those national sepulchres of the Huron and Algonquin tribes, where were deposited the remains of their dead. It affords certain evidence that cremation was practiced. Much charcoal and ashes were found, mingled with burned bones. With these were many pieces of large pots, but all broken. The mound contained so-called 'cellars' or 'altars'." Here were also the celebrated perforated skulls, which have been so fully described by Mr. Henry Gillman, skulls which evidently belonged to a rude hunter or military race. The situ- ation is such as would be chosen by the mound builders overall others. For a m.onument to their dead it is most picturesque. It was visible from a great distance in every direction and at the same time commanded a view of both the water and the land for many miles. f The burial mounds in this region have a general resemblance. They are terrace-like embankments twenty or twenty-five feet in height, which run parallel with the river or lake shore. They are partly natural and partly artificial. They contain relics, the debris of camps, as well as burials. The bones taken from them are marked with platyc nemism. showing that the people who dwelt here were hunters, since narrow, sharp shin bones are characteristic of hunters. The burial mounds of New York State differ from those of Michigan, in that they are conical tumuli, and are Vv'holly artificial. Some of them contain modern * American Antiquarian, Vol. I, Page 200. tMemorials of Haifa Century, by Bela Hubbard, p. 229. ^fec?;' >; -i^?rf' --^^^^i^/^i--*- Svt. otp ». <«t"»«.* BURIAL MOUNDS IN OHIO, BURIAL MONUNDS VIEWED AS MONUMENTS. 75 relics, but the majority of the relics are those which belong to the Iroquois, and consist of spear-heads, arrow-heads, stone pestles of varying length, clay pipes having a great variety of patterns, also a few copper relics; but no tablets, no shell gor- gets, and nothing that suggests either picture-writing or sym- bolism. There are burial mounds in Northern Ohio, associated with old stockade forts, which were probably erected by the Eries, who belong to the same stock as the Iroquois. Con- firmatory of this, is the fact that many pipes and other relics, resembling those used by the Eries and the Iroquois, have recently been found at Willoughby, west of Cleveland. IV The district embraced by Southern Ohio and adjoining states presents the greatest number of burial mounds, and furnishes the best field for the study of the Mound-Builders' habits and customs. The burial mounds here, are frequently Stone Graves in Ohio. arranged in groups, some of them very large. They have been described by different authors, though Squier and Davis are still the best authorities on the subject. These mounds are generally situated upon the hill tops, from which extensive views may be gained. The majority of them, however, are situated not far from the village enclosures, and were evidently erected by the people, who dwelt in the villages. Many of these mounds are stratified, and contain a succession of burials. The most interesting of these have altars at the base, which present evidence that many of the bodies were cremated. There are a few mounds which contain stone graves, or graves made by a cist of flat limestone slabs, set on edge and overlapping each other, making a rectangular cist resembl- ing a flat box in shape, but with the bodies in recumbent attitudes. Many conical stone heaps, resembling huts, are found in West Virginia, but they belong to a people who 76 PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS. practised different modes of burial and lived in a very different way from the Mound-Builders of Ohio. The burial mounds were frequently used as signal stations, and whole lines of them have been traced from valley to val- ley, giving the idea that there was here a confederacy of tribes, and that the same people built the hill forts, village enclosures, signal stations and look-out mounds, as well as the burial mounds. They were given to agriculture and dwelt in perma- nent villages, but were surrounded by warlike tribes, against whom they needed to protect tnemselves. There is no part of the country where burial mounds are more numerous and more symmetrical in shape. The contents of these mounds have been studied with great interest. Some of them contain skeletons, with spool ornaments and tablets and copper relics; others contain altars on which relics have been offered and burned. A few contain deposits of copper and other relics. In one case, viz.: in the Hopewell Mound, were 235 pieces of Altar Burial in Hopewell Mound. copper, carved into squares and semi-circles, suastikas, and birds and fishes. A copper celt, which weighed thirty-eight pounds; anklets, bracelets, combs and pendants, carved bones covered with traceries, which show a high degree of manual skill, were found in this mound. A copper mask, eighteen inches long and five wide, covered the forehead of a skeleton, from which were branching horns, made out of copper. These mounds were contained in what is called the Hopewell Group, on the north fork of Paint Creek. Occasionally mounds are found in Ohio, which are covered with stone slabs, as if the design was to protect the bodies from the attack of wild animals. Others are made altogether of loose stones. Still others are built so high, as to give the idea that they were mainly designed for "look-out stations." One such mound is found on the Miami River, and commands a view not only of the valley of the river, with its forks, but also of the valley of the river to the west of it, and at the same time was connected, by a cordon of mounds, with Fort Ancient on the Miami to the east. There are also large burial THE ADENA MOUND NEAR CHILLICOTHE, OHIO. THE ADENA MOUND — PARTLY EXCAVATED. MOUND CONTAINING STONE GRAVES. STONE MOUNDS CONTAINING A SUCCESSION OF BURIALS. BURIAL MOUNDS VIEWED AS MONUMENTS. 79 mounds at Vincennes, on the Wabash River, which resemble those in Ohio, both in size and appearance, and other mounds at Grave Greek in West Virginia. The fair supposition is that these groups of mounds in the two states adjoming, formed a part of the same general sys- tem which prevailed in Southern Ohio, and that they belonged to a confederacy, which had its chief scat in Ohio. The elaborate system of works at Portsmouth forming a central group in which religious ceremonies were observed. In favor of this supposition, is the fact that the burial mounds, forts and village sites, are found scattered along the valleys of the different rivers, giving the idea that the tribes belonging to the confederacy dwelling on the rivers, were divided into clans, each clan ha\ing its own village and, perhaps, its own burial place; but all the tribes being connected with one another by the signal stations, which consisted of mounds placed along the summit of the hills. The burial mounds were attractive Body Showing Copper Mask and Copper Horns. externally, as they were gathered in groups and were beauti- fully rounded, and still formed attiactive objects in the land- scape; but internally they often presented a ghastly appear- ance. There are a few stone mounds in Ohio, some of which are covered with earth and can hardly be distinguished from the earth mounds. The plates will show their character. Sqiiier and Davis were the first to describe them. V>u\. Mr. Girard Fowke has discovered others, two of which are shown in the plate. These are quite different from the stone graves in Tennessee, and are called cairns. The shingle-like arrange- ment of the limestone distinguishes them from the stone graves. There are double mounds found in Ohio, which are worthy of notice, since they show the succession of the Mound-Build- ing people. One of these has been described by Mr. W. C. Mills and is illustrated by a cut. It is called the Adena Mound; it is within sight of the mound city near Chillicothe, and near an artificial lake, from which the earth composing it was taken. 80 PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS. It was in two parts, the relics being the same in both, but the lower |)art had chambers, or wooded rooms, which were prob- ably the houses and were on the death of the occupants made use of as a burying place and covered with the mound. V. The burial mounds which have been discovered in Nortli Carolina, West Virginia and Tehnessec are worthy of notice. They are not so much burial mounds, as they are burial pits. They have no attractiveness in themselves, and the chief interest in them is found in the relics which they contain. !<"irst, let us consider the B(;ehive Tombs in North Carolina. These have been described by Prof. Cyrus Thomas. They contained what are called tombs, made in a conical sha[)e, just large enough to contain a single body; ten or twelve such tombs in a single pit. These tombs did not contain many relics, as there were a number of iron celts among them, but along with them were discoidal stones, cop- per arrow points, copper arrows, pieces of mica, lumps of paint, black lead, and stone })ipcs. Under the heads of two of the skeletons were engraved shells, which resembled those found in the stone graves of Tennessee, as they had a coiled serpent engraved u])on them, showing that these shell gorgets were regarded i)y the Indian tribes as very sacred, and were kept from generntion to generation. The resemblance between the burial mounds in Southern Ohio and those in the north of China will be seen by examina- tion of the cuts, 'ii'he mounds are arranged in groups and arc generally beside the streams. An explanation of this cluster- ing of mounds, especially in America, is found in the clan sy.s- tem formerly prevailing. There is this difference between the Chinese burial mounds and the American, viz.: that they contain niegalithic structures, but the American contained burial stone cists made of stone slabs. The only structures which contain chambers, are those made of wood, though occasionally conical cists are found with a single skeleton enclosed, though stone mounds are somewhat common in Ohio, as can be seen from the cuts contained in the plate. > V. o X a: H O > H H O X < H H U s < < U OS D to O u z Cd THE SACRED ENCLOSURES OF OHIO. 81 CHAPTER VI. THE "SACRED ENCLOSURES" OF OHIO. SUN WORSHIP AND SEPRENT WORSHIP EMBODIED IN THEM. In treating of the Mound-builders' works heretofore we ha\c divided them into several classes, and have stated that the differ- ent classes were found in different districts, the effigy mounds in one, the burial mounds in another, the stockades in another, the so-called "sacred enclosures" in another, and the pyramid mounds in still another, the whole habitat being filled with works which were distinctive and peculiar, but which were al- ways correlated to their surroundings. It may seem singular to some that we should thus divide the earth-works into these different classes, and should confine each class to a limited district, making them so distinct from one an- other, but this only proves that the people who once inhabited the Mississippi valley, and whom we call Mound-builders, were far from being one people, but were very diverse in their char- acter, and that their diversity expressed itself in their works, their religious belief, their tribal organization, their social customs, their domestic habits, their ethnic taste-", their modes of life, all having been embodied in the tokens which we are now studying. We are to bear this thought in mind while we proceed to con- sider the works which are said to belong to the fourth class, and which we have named " sacred enclosures". The region where these enclosures are most numerous is that which is situated on the Ohio River and more specifically in the southern part of the State of Ohio. We shall therefore confine ourselves to this dis- trict, but would at the same time have it understood that it is because the works are here so typical that we treat them so ex- clusively. We propose in this chapter to consider the works of this district with the especial view of enquiring about their character and their uses. I. Let us first enquire about the symbolism which is repre- sented in them. The works of Southern Ohio have been regarded by many as symbolic, and the symbolism in them is said by some to be that expressive of sun worship. What is more, the sun worship which appeared here seems to have embodied itself in those works which were most common and which were also very useful, the enclosures which are so numerous here having been symbolic. I. This, then, is our first enquiry. Is there anything in the shape 82 PRIMITIVE ARCHITECTURE. of the enclosures which should lead us to think that they were distinctive!? There are many kinds of earth-works in Southern Ohio, many of which are of the same character as those found elsewhere, but the most of them are works which might be called enclosures. These enclosures have a great variety of shapes, and were undoubtedly used for different purposes, though the purposes are now somewhat difficult to determine. The typical shape is perhaps that of the square and circle, though there are many circles without squares and squares without circles, the variation passing from one figure to the other. Many of the enclosures are irregular, with no definite shape; others, however, have shapes which are so definite and regular as to give the idea that they were symbolic — the crescent, the circle, the horse-shoe, the ellipse, the cross, and many other symbols being embodied in them. Some of the enclosures are very large, the walls about them being several miles iu length, giving the idea that ihey were used for defensive purposes ; others are very small, the dis- tance across them being only a few feet, giving the idea that they were lodge circles. Some of the enclosures are full of burial mounds; others contain no mounds whatever, but are mere open areas, areas which may have been used for village residence^^. Some of the enclosures are made up by single walls, walls on which possible stockades may have been erected ; others have double walls, a ditch being between them. Some oi them are isolated circles, enclosures separated from all others ; others pre- sent circles in clusters, the clusters arranged in circles, so making an enclosure within an enclosure. It is remarkable that there should have been so many different shapes to the earth-works in this region. These shapes vary from the circle to the ellipse, from the ellipse to the oblong, from the oblong to the square, from the square to the large, irregular enclosure. A map ot the region looks like a chart which contains all the geometric figures, and astonishes one when he thinks that these are earth-works containing areas, all of which were once used for practical pur- poses, and embodied the life of the people. See map of works in the Scioto valley. The uses to which these enclosures were subject are unknown ; it is supposed that some of them were for defenses ; others for villages; some of them were undoubtedly used for burial places; others for sacrificial purposes; some of them were the sites of houses, mere lodge circles; others were enclosures in which temples were undoubtedly erected; some of them were used as places of amusement, dance circles and race courses , others were probably used as places of religious assembly, estufas or sacred houses; some of them contain effigies, the effigies giving to them a religious significance. 2. The symbolic character of the enclosures is the next point of enquiry. This has impressed many writers; for this reason they have been called sacred enclosures. The term has been criticised THE SACRED ENCLOSURES OF OHIO. 83 and rejected by some, but it seems to us appropriate, and we shall use it as being expressive of the real character of the works of the region. We take up the enclosures of this district with the idea that many of them were used for sacred purposes, and that a peculiar superstition was embodied in the most of them. What that superstition was we are not quite prepared to say, but the conjecture is that sun worship here obtained in great force. It sometimes seems as if the sun worship was joined with ser- pent worship, and that the phallic symbol was given by some of the earth -works. Whether these works were all used by one people, a people who were acquainted with all of the symbols spoken of, or were erected by successive races, one using one symbol and the other another, is a question. Be that as it may, we conclude that the district is full of earth-works which were symbolic in their char- acter, and which are properly called sacred enclosures. We give a series of cuts to illustrate these points. These are actual earth-works. One is the temple platform, found at Marietta (Fig. i); the sec- ond is a platform with the ad- joining circular enclosure, found at Highbank (Fig, 2); the third is the small circle with the small enclosure within it, found opposite Portsmouth (Fig. 3). These earth-works are all small,^ranging from 50 to 150 feet in diameter. The fourth is the large double enclosure consisting of the square and circle, found at Circleville (Fig. 4); the fifth is the large octagon and circle, found at Newark (Fig. 5). The last two enclosures might be measured b\- rods, as there are about as many rods in them as there are feet in the former works. The map of the works at Portsmouth (Fig. 6) contains many other figures, viz : Four concentric circles at one end, two horse-shoe enclosures and circles in the center, a large square enclosure at the west end, the whole making a very elaborate and complicatd system of symbolic works, the religious element being every- where manifest in the locality. 3. Let us next consider the symbols which we may regard as typical and peculiar to the district. We have said that there are different kinds of enclosures in this region, but the enclosure which is the most striking is the one composed of two figures — the circle and the square and combination. This is not only common in the district, but is peculiar to it, as it is very seldom seen elsewhere. The reasons for this particular type of earth- work being found in Southern Ohio are unknown. It would Fif/. 1. — Platform at Marietta. 84 PRIMITIVJ: ARCHITECTURE. seem, however, as if the people which formerly dwelt here had reached a particular stage of progress, had adopted a particular social organization, had practiced a particular set of customs, and had made these earth-works to be expressive of them. It some- times seems also as if a peculiar religious cult had been adopted and that this was embodied and symbolized in the earth-works. The figures ot the square and circle were probably symbolic, and the religion which was embodied in them was probably sun worship. How sun worship came to be adopted by the people is a mystery. It may have arisen in connection with serpent worship, the two having been the outgrowth of the natural super- stition, and so might be pronounced to be indigenous in this region, or they may have been introduced from other and distant localities, either from Great Britain, by way of the Atlantic Ocean, or from the Asiatic continent, by way of the Pacific — Mexico and Central America having been the original starting point on this continent, and the cult having spread from the central place over the ^^^b^ continent eastward. Prof F. W. Putnam in his article on the great serpent takes the latter position, and says, "To this south- western region, with its many Asiatic fea- tures of art and faith, we are constantly Mg. 2— Platform and Circle at Highbank. forced by OUr investi- gations as we look for the source of the builders of the older works of the Ohio Valley." He refers, however, to the com- bination of natural features with artificial forms contained in the great serpent, and says this probably could not be found again in any part of the great route along which the people must have journeyed. He refers to the remarkable discovery by Dr. Phene of an interesting mound in Argyleshire, in Scotland, as contain- ing the same elements, the natural hill and the artificial shape giving evidence of serpent worship in the serpent form, the altar or burial place at one end forming the head, and the standing stones along the ridge marking the serpent's spine. These facts would indicate that serpent worship in Ohio had come from Great Britain and had been first introduced by the mound-build- ers here. Possibly the serpent worship in Mexico may have been introduced from the other side by way of Polynesia. 4. The inquiry which we are to institute next is whether serpent worship and sun worship in Ohio were not prac- ticed by two classes of people, the one the successors to the other. This inquiry will be borne in mind as we proceed to the ^W^if'^^^^mM^^S'^^^^ff'^' THE SACRED ENCLOSURES OF OHIO. 85 description ot the enclosures. The Natchez were sun worship- ers. There is a tradition that the Natchez once inhabited Southern Ohio. The Dakotas had the serpent symbol among them. There is a tradition that the Dakotas once dwelt in Ohio. This would show that the two cults were successive rather than contempor- aneous. It must be remembered that the symbolism of the early races of mound-builders was frequently combined with practical uses. The religion or superstition of the people required that defensive enclosures, as well as village sites, should embody the symbols as thoroughly as did the places of sacrifice or the burial places. The earth-works of Southern Ohio have been called sacred enclosures. If our supposition is true the term is a cor- rect one. They were village enclosures, but were at the same time sacred to the sun. We shall take the enclosures which are typical and ask the question whether these were not the villages of sun worshippers. 5. Let us examine the district, and compare it with other districts where sun worship _^^ .; ^se;^=. ..^s, =. -_ =_- ^ ^^..„ has existed. We learn about -^^^^^Wi/"y^4¥^^Si^-^^ the district and its limits from the character of the earth-works. This partic- ular class of earth-works which we are describing is only found in a limited dis- trict. vVe begin at the mouth of the Muskingum River, where are the inter- esting works of Marietta. This river has a number of ^ enclosures upon it. We pass ' "' next to the Hocking Fig.S.-drcle at Pf Aosf't^ mtt -f «iCSi» ...y'-'-, < — „ ^ ,./r,-. I FORTIFIED ENCLOSURES IN SOUTHERN OHIO. „ ..... > -i^r-'-- ,^\ll?.l -.■.,■., ,« .,,.'1',! ,.,:.'. .V, rv..^!'-' .'■vV.'H^*r ,-^x^•,•■ ^■.' ' ■',•' .I^■J■■' ■■.'.••:■• feci J lraj%'»' '^^s <; '!' I ij la r J ^^^iU£?>>M-'. ■~i o o a THE SACRED ENCLOSURES UF OHIO. 8!> Mr. Atvvater thinks that the large circles were used* for re- ligious as well as for practical purposes. He speaks of the circle at Circleville. This was sixty-nine rods in diameter, the walls were twenty feet high, measuring from the bottom of the ditch, there being two walls, one inside of the other, with a ditch between. Within the circle there was a round mound, ten feet high, thirty feet in diameter at the top, and around the mound a crescent-shaped pavement made of pebbles, about sixty feet in diameter. This mound contained two bodies and a number of relics A large burial mound ninety feet high stood outside of the circle. The contrast between the circle and the square atrrac ted the attention of Mr. Atwater. The circle had two high walTsTthe square only one. The circle had a ditch be- tween the walls, the square had no ditch. The circle had only one gateway, the square had eight gateways The circle was picketed, "half way up the inner walls was a place where a row of pickets stood, pickets which were used for the defense of the circle." These facts are significant. They seem to indicate that the villages were surrounded by walls which secured them from attack; but that there was a symbolism in the shape of the walls as well as in the shape of the mounds and pavements and con- tents of the mounds. In these respects the villages would be called sacred enclosures. 8. Still another argument is derived from the variation in the typical torm. At Marietta we have two squares and no circle'except as a circle surrounds the conical mound or lookout -Station. At Highbank and Hopeton we have the circle and the square, and several other small circles adjoining. At Liberty Township we have the square, three circles and a crescent. At Cedarbank we have a square with a platform inside of it, but no circle. At Newark we have the octagon instead of the square. At Clark's Works we have the square, a large irregular inclosure and the circle inside. At Seal Township we have the square and circle and several elliptical works. At Dunlap's Work.s we have the rhomboidal figure and a small circle adjoining. Still, the typical shape is the same throughout the entire region. II. We now turn to-a new point. The inquiry is whether the enclosures which we have seen to be so symbolic were not the village sites of a class of sun worshipers. This inquiry v/ill be conducted in an entirely different way from the former. We are now to look not so much for the symbolic shapes as for the practical uses. We maintain that whether they were symbolic or not the majority of the enclosures were used for villages. We shall first consider the characteristics of village enclosures gen- erally, show what a village was supposed to contain, and then compare these in Ohio with others to show that they were also village enclosures. I. We turn to the Ohio villages, and are to ask what their 90 PRIMITIVE ARCHITECTURK. characteristics are. These were composed of the foUowin^ elements: First, the circumvallation, includin(( the jjatevvays; second, the contents, includin