CHAPTER XIII.

WORKS OF THE MOUND -BUILDERS.

AMERICAN MONUMENTS BEYOND THE LIMITS OF THE PACIFIC STATES

EASTERN ATLANTIC STATES REMAINS IN THE MISSISSIPPI VAL
LEY THREE GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS CLASSIFICATION OF MON
UMENTS EMBANKMENTS AND DITCHES FORTIFICATIONS SACRED
ENCLOSURES MOUNDS TEMPLE-MOUNDS, ANIMAL-MOUNDS, AND
CONICAL MOUNDS ALTAR-MOUNDS, BURIAL MOUNDS, AND ANOM
ALOUS MOUNDS CONTENTS OF THE MOUNDS HUMAN REMAINS
RELICS OF ABORIGINAL ART IMPLEMENTS AND ORNAMENTS OF
METAL, STONE, BONE, AND SHELL ANCIENT COPPER MINES
ROCK -INSCRIPTIONS ANTIQUITY OF THE MISSISSIPPI REMAINS-
COMPARISONS CONCLUSIONS.

I announced in an introductory chapter my inten

tion to go in this volume beyond the geographical
limits of my field of labor proper, the Pacific States,
and to include a sketch of eastern and southern an
tiquities. I arn not sure that this departure from my
territory is
strictly more necessary
or appropriate in
this than in the other departments of this work;
that is, that the material relics of the Mississippi
Valley and South America have a more direct bear
ing on the institutions and history of the Native
Races of the Pacific, than do the manners and cus
toms, mythology, and language of the South Amer
ican and eastern tribes. Yet there is this difference,
that to have included the whole American continent
in the preceding volumes would have required a new
(744)
 TREATMENT OF FOREIGN REMAINS. 745

collection of material, additional time and research,

and an increase of bulk in printed pages, each equal
at least to what has been done; and I believe that the
original scope of work, and the bulk of that part
my
of it devoted to the Native Races, is already suffi
ciently extensive. But in the department of antiqui
ties, making the present volume of uniform size with
others of the work, I have, I think, sufficient space
and material to justify me in extending my researches
beyond the Pacific States; and this seems to me es
pecially desirable by reason of the fact that all the
important archaeological remains outside of what I
term the Pacific States, may be included in the two
groups to which my closing chapters are devoted, and
the present volume may consequently present some
claim to be considered a comprehensive work on Amer
ican Antiquities.

My treatment of the subject in this and the follow

ing chapter will, differ considerably from
however,
that in those preceding. I have hitherto proceeded

geographically from south to north, placing before the

reader all the information extant, be it more or less
complete, respecting every relic in each locality, and
giving besides in every case the source whence the
information was obtained. In this manner the notes
become a complete bibliographical index to the whole
subject, not an unimportant feature, I believe, of this
work. In the broad eastern region bordering on the
Mississippi and its tributaries, a region thickly inhab
ited,and thoroughly explored by antiquarians, or at
least comparatively so, sonumerous are the relics and
the localities \vhere they have been found, that to
take them up one after another for detailed descrip
tion would require at least a volume; and these relics,
although of great importance, present so little variety
in the absence of all architectural monuments, that
such a detailed account could hardly fail to become
monotonous to a degree unparalleled even in the pages
746 WORKS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.
of the present volume. Moreover, the books and
other material in my possession, while amply suffi
cient, I think, to furnish a clear idea of the Missis
sippi and South American monuments, are of course
inadequte to a continuation of the bibliographical
feature referred to. For these reasons I deem it best
to abandon the elaborate note-system hitherto fol
lowed, and shall present a general rather than a de
tailed view of material relics outside the Pacific
States, formed from a careful study of what I believe
to be the best authorities, and illustrated by the cuts
given in Mr Baldwin s work.
1

Material the aboriginal tribes are found in

relics of

greater abundance throughout the Eastern

or less
United States and the Canadas. But those found in
New England
Z5
and the region
O east of the Alleghanies*
O
extending southward to the Carolinas, may be dis
missed in an account so general as the present with
the remark that all are evidently the work of the In
dian tribes found in possession of the country, many
of them evidently and others probably having orig
inated at a time subsequent to the coming of Eu-
1 The chief authorities consulted for this
chapter on the remains of the
Mississippi Valley, are the following:
Squier and Davis, Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Vullcj/. Wash
ington, 1848. Squier s Antiquities of the State of New York. Id., Ob
servations on Aboriginal Monuments of the Mississippi Valley. New
York, 1847. Id.
Serpent Symbol.
,

Atwater s Antiquities of Ohio, and other accounts in the Amcr. Antiq.

Soc.Transactions.
,

Schoolcraffs Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge.

Warden, Reclicrches sur les Antiquit.es de VAmerique du Nord.
Jones Antiquities of the Southern Indians.
Pidgeorfs Traditions of Decoodah.
Laphani s Antiquities of Wisconsin. Washington, 1853.
sAncient Mining on the Shores of Lake Superior.
Wnittlesey
Bradford s American Antiquities.
Foster s Prc- Historic Races.
Id., Mississippi Valley.
Smithsonian Institution, Reports.
Tylor s Researches.
A merican Ethnological Soc. ,
Transactions.
Dickeson s Amer. Numismatic Manual.
Bancroft, A. A., Antiquities of Licking County, Ohio. MS. The writer
of this manuscript, my father, was for fifty years a resident of Licking
County, where he has examined more or less carefully about forty en
closures and two hundred mounds.
 THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 747

ropeans. But whatever may be decided respecting

their antiquity, it may be regarded as absolutely cer
tain that none of them point to the existence of any
people of more advanced culture than the red race
that came in contact with Europeans. They consist
for the most part of traces of Indian villages or
camps, burial grounds, small stone-heaps, scattered
arrow-heads, and some other rude stone implements.

The great Mississippi Valley system of ancient works,

consisting of mounds and embankments of earth and
stone, erected by the race known as the Mound-build
ers, extends over a territory bounded in general terms
as follows: on the north by the great lakes; on the
east by western New York, Pennsylvania, and Vir
ginia in the north, but farther south extending to the
Atlantic coast and including Florida, Georgia, and part
of South Carolina ; on the south by the Gulf of Mexico,
including Texas according to the general statements
of most writers, although I find no definite account of
any remains in that state; on the west by an indefinite
line extending from the head of Lake Superior through
the states of Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, and In
dian Territory, although there are reported some re
mains farther west, particularly on the upper Mis
souri, which have not been thoroughly explored. The
map in the accompanying cut is intended only to show
the reader at a glance the relative position of the
states in the territory of the Mound-builders.
Throughout this broad extent of territory, but
chiefly on the fertile river-terraces of the Mississippi
and its tributaries, the works of the ancient inhabit
ants are found in great abundance, and may be classi
fied for convenience in description as follows: I.
Embankments of earth or stone, and ditches, often
forming enclosures, which are subdivided by their
location into, 1st, fortifications, and 2d, sacred en
closures, or such as are supposed to have been con
nected with religious rites.
748 WORKS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

CANADA

MINN,

Map of Territory of the Mound-Builders.

Mounds of earth or stone, of varying location,

II.
size,form, material, and contents; divided by their
form into, 1st, temple mounds, of regular outline
and large dimensions, having flat summit platforms,
and often terraced sides with graded ascents; 2d,
animal-mounds, or those resembling in their ground
plan the forms of animals, birds, or even human
beings; and 3d, conical mounds, which are again
subdivided acccording to their contents into altar-
 CLASSIFICATION OF REMAINS. 749

mounds or sacrificial mounds, burial mounds, and

anomalous mounds/ or such as are of mixed or un
determined character.
III. Minor relics of aboriginal art, for the most

part taken from the mounds, including implements

and ornaments of metal, stone, shell, and bone.
IV. Ancient mines, and perhaps a few salt- wells
which bear marks of having been worked by the
aborigines.
V. Rock-inscriptions.
These different classes of remains, although suffi

ciently uniform in their general character to indicate

that the Mound-builders w^ere of one race, living
under one grand system of institutions, still show
certain variations in the relative predominance of
each class in different sections of the territory. The
Ohio River and its tributaries would seem to have
been in a certain sense the centre of the Mound-
builders power, for here the various forms of en
closures and mounds are most abundant and exten
sive, and their contents show the highest advance
ment of aboriginal art. This section, including
chiefly the state of Ohio, but also parts of Ken

tucky, Indiana, Tennessee, Illinois, and Missouri,

was the ground embraced in the explorations of
Squier and Davis, by far the best authorities on east
ern antiquities. In the northern region, on the great
lakes, on which Lapliam and Pidgeon are the promi
nent authorities, chiefly in Wisconsin, but also in
Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota,
animal-mounds are the prominent feature, the other
classes of mounds, and the enclosures, being of
comparatively rare occurrence. The animal-mounds
occur in the central Ohio region only in a very few
and never, so far as is known, in the south.
instances,
In the southern or gulf states the temple-mounds
are more numerous in proportion to other classes
than in the north, and enclosures disappear almost
altogether. The southern antiquities have, however,
750 WORKS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.
been comparatively little explored, Mr Jones late
work referring for the most part only to the state of
Georgia.
Throughout the whole region traces of the tribes
found by Europeans in possession of the country are
found; and besides the three territorial divisions
already indicated, it is noted that in the north-east,
in western New York and Pennsylvania, the works
of the Mound-builders merge so gradually into those
of the later tribes, the only relics farther east, that it
becomes well-nigh impossible to fix accurately the

dividing line.

In many parts of western New York traces are

found of Indian fortified camps, surrounded by rows
of holes in the ground, which once supported pali
sades, and in all respects similar to those in use

among the Indians of the state in their wars against

the whites. There are also found low embankments
of earth, or very rarely of small stones, which form
enclosures or cut off the approach to the weaker side
of some naturally strong position. Such embankments
are always on hills, lake or river terraces, or other high
places, and are often protected on one or more sides by
morasses or by streams with steep banks. Their
strong natural position, with due regard to the water
supply, carefully planned means of exit, and in many
instances graded roads to the water, leaves no doubt of
their original design as fortifications, places of refuge
and of protection against enemies. The slight height
of the embankments would surest OG that they were
/

thrown up to support palisades; indeed, traces of

these palisades have been found in some cases. The
practice of throwing up an embankment at the foot of
palisades, although seemingly a very natural one, does
not, however, seem to have been noticed among the
Indian tribes of New York. In nearly all the en
closures remains of the typical Indian caches are
found, with carbonized maize, and traces of wood and
 REMAINS IX NEW YORK. 751

Lark; and in and around them the sites of Indian

lodges or towns are seen, indicated by the presence of
decomposed and carbonaceous matter, together with
burned stones, charcoal, ashes, bones, pottery, and In
dian implements. These circumstances go far to
prove that all the New York works, if not built by
the Indians, were at least occupied by them after
their abandonment by the Mound-builders, from some
of whose works they do not differ much except in di
mensions and regularity of form.
The enclosures vary in extent from three to four
acres, the largest being sixteen acres. The embank
ments are from one to four feet high, generally accom
panied by an exterior ditch; the highest is seven or
eight feet from bottom of ditch to top of embank
ment. Many such works in a country so long under
cultivation have of course disappeared. Mr Squier
ascertained the locality of one hundred of them in
New York, and estimates the original number at not
less than two hundred and fifty.

The works of the Mound-builders are almost ex

clusively confined to the fertile valleys still best fitted
to support a dense population. The Mississippi and
its tributaries have during the progress of the centu
ries worn down their valleys in three or four succes
sive terraces, which, except the lowest, or latest
formed, the ancient peoples chose as the site of their
structures, giving the preference in rearing their
grandest cities for cities there must have been to
the terrace plains near the junction of the larger
streams. On these plains and their surrounding
heights, are found the ancient monuments, generally in
groups which include all or many of the classes named
above; for it is only for convenience in description
that the classification is made; that is, the classifica
tion is by no means to any great extent a geographi
cal one. I have already said that Ohio was the
centre, apparently, of the Mound-builders power.
752 WORKS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

Northward, eastward, and perhaps westward from

this centre, the works diminish in extent, fortifica
tions become a more prominent feature, and the re
maining monuments approximate perceptibly to those
of the more barbarous and later peoples. In fact, we
find the modifications that might naturally be ex
pected in a frontier country. Southward from the
Ohio region down the Mississippi Valley, it is a com
mon remark in the various writings on the subject,
that the monuments increase gradually in magnitude
and numbers. This statement seems to have orig
inated, partially at least, in the old attempt to trace
the path of Aztec migration southward. The only
foundation for it is the fact that the class of mounds
called temple-mounds are in the south more numerous
in proportion to those of the other classes. The
largest mound and the most extensive groups are
in
the north; while the complicated arrangement of sa
cred enclosures appears but rarely if at all towards
the gulf. It is not impossible that more extensive
explorations may show that the comparative numbers
and size of the large temple-mounds have been some
what exaggerated. Yet the claims in behalf of Nahua
traces in the Mississippi region are much better
founded than those that have been urged in other
parts of the country although we have seen that
;
the
chain is interrupted in the New Mexican country,
and I can find no definite record of temple-mounds in
Texas. The total number of mounds in the state of
Ohio is estimated by the best authority at ten thou
sand, while the enclosures were at least fifteen hun
dred.

begin with the embankments and enclosures.

I
They are found, almost always in connection with
mounds of some class, on the hills overlooking the
valleys, and on the ravine-bounded terraces
left by
the current of rapid streams. The first, or oldest,
terraces, with bold banks from fifty to a hundred feet
 FORTIFICATIONS. 753

high, furnish the sites of most of the works; on the

lower intermediate terraces, whose banks rano-e from
^>

ten to thirty feet in height, they are also found,

though less frequently than above while on the last-
;

formed terrace below no monuments whatever have

ever been discovered.
The embankments are simply earth, stones, or a
mixture of the two, in their natural condition, thrown
up from the material which is nearest at hand.
There is no instance of walls built of stone that has
been hewn or otherwise artificially prepared, of the
use of mortar, of even rough stones laid with regu
larity, of adobes or earth otherwise prepared, or of
material brought from any great distance. The ma
terial was taken from a ditch that often accompanies
the embankment, from excavations or pits in the
immediate vicinity, or is scraped up from the surface
of the surrounding soil. There is nothing in the
present appearance of these works to indicate any
difference in their original form from that naturally
given to earth-works thrown up from a ditch, with
sides as nearly perpendicular as the nature of the
material will permit. Of course, any attempt on the
part of the builders to give a symmetrical superficial
contour to the works would have been long since
obliterated by the action of the elements; but noth
ing now remains to show that they attached any
importance whatever to either material or contour.
Stone embankments are rarely found, and only in
localities where the abundance of the material would

naturally suggest its use. In a few instances clay

has been obtained at a little distance, or dug from
beneath the surface.
Accordingly as they are found on the level plain,
or on hill- tops or other strong positions, enclosures
are divided into fortifications and sacred enclosures.
Of the design of the first class there can be no doubt,
and very little respecting many of the second class,
although it is very probable that some of the latter
VOL. IV. 48
754 WORKS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

had a different purpose, not now understood. Nat

urally some works occur which have some of the
features of both classes. The fortifications are al
ways of irregular form as determined by the nature
of the ground.
A fortification at Butler Hill, near Hamilton,
Ohio, is shown in the cut. The summit of the hill

Fortification Butler Hill.

is two hundred and fifty feet above the river, the en

closing wall is of earth and stones, five feet high,
thirty-five feet thick at the base, and unaccompanied
by a ditch, although there are some pits which
 FORTIFIED HILLS. 755

furnished the material of the wall. Two mounds or

heaps of rough stones are seen within the enclosure
and one without, the stones of all showing marks of
fire.

The next cut shows a work at Fort Hill, Ohio,

SCALE:
QOOfl-lollie Inch

Fort Hill, Ohio.

which seems to unite the characters of the two

classes of measures twenty-eight
enclosures. It
hundred by eighteen hundred feet, and is on the
second terrace. The wall alonof
o the creek side is of
stones and clay, four feet high; the other main walls
are six feet high and thirty-five feet thick, with an
exterior ditch. The walls of the square enclosure at
the side are of clay, present some marks of fire, and
have no ditch. Mr Squier concludes that this was a
fortified town rather than a fort like many others.
The walls of the enclosure shown in the following cut,
on Paint Creek, Ohio, are of stone, thirteen hundred
756 WORKS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

Port near Bourneville.

feet circumference, and have no ditch.

in The
heaps of stones connected with this work have been
exposed to excessive heat, either perhaps by being
used as fire signals, or by the burning of wooden
structures which they supported. In the works at
Fort Ancient, on a mesa two hundred and thirty feet
above the Miami River, the embankment is four
miles long in an irregular line round the circumfer
ence,and in some parts eighteen or twenty feet high.
There are also some signs of artificial terraces on the
river side of the hill. A line of these defensive
works is found in northern Ohio, with which very
 SACRED ENCLOSURES. 757

few regular
Q mounds or sacred enclosures are con-
riected. Pidgeon states that a single line of embank
ment may be traced for seventeen miles, and that
there are three hundred and six miles of embank
ment fortifications in the state. It is
quite probable
that these embankments originally bore palisades.
They vary in height from three to thirty feet, reckon
ing from the bottom of the ditch; but this gives only
a very imperfect idea of their original dimensions,
since in some localities the height has been much
more reduced by time than in others, owing to the
nature of the material. In hill fortifications the
ditch is usually inside the wall, but when the de
fences guard the approach to a terrace-point, the
ditch always on the outside. The entrances to
is

this class of enclosures are governed by conveni

ence of exit, accessibility of water, and facilities for
defence. They are usually guarded by overlapping
Avails as shown in the cuts that have been presented.
Several of the larger fortifications, however, have a
large number of entrances, generally at regular in
tervals, which it is very difficult to account for.

Other enclosures are classed as sacred, or pertaining

in some way to religious rites, because no other equally
satisfactory explanation of their use can be given.
That they were in no sense works of defence is evi
dent from their position, almost invariably on the
most level spot that could be selected and often over
looked by neighboring elevations. Unlike the forti
fications they are regular in form, the square and
circle predominating and generally found in conjunc
tion, but the ellipse, rectangle, crescent, and a great
variety of other forms being frequent, and several
different forms usually occurring together. A
square
with one or more circles is a frequent combination.
The angles and curves are usually if not always per
fectly accurate, and the regular, or sacred, enclosures
probably outnumber by many the irregular ones, al-
758 WORKS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

though they are of lesser extent. Enclosed areas of

one to fifty acres are common. The groups are of
great extent; one at Newark, Ohio, covers an area
of nearly four square miles. A
remarkable coinci
dence was noticed by Mr Squier in the dimensions
of the square enclosures, five or six of these having
been found at long distances from each other, which
measured exactly ten hundred and eighty feet square.
Circles are, as a rule, smaller than the squares with
which they are connected, two hundred to two hun
dred and fifty feet being a common size. The
largest of the enclosures, with an area of some six
hundred acres, are those reported in the far west
and north-west by early travelers Avhose reports are
not confirmed.
The embankment itself differs from those already
described only in being, as a rule, somewhat lower
and narrower, although at Newark one is thirty
feet high, and in being constructed with less excep
tions without the use of stones. The material as
before was taken from the surface, ditches, or from
pits, which latter are often described as wells, and

may in some instances have served as such.

The following cut represents a group at Liberty,
Ohio, typical of a large class in the Scioto Valley.
The location is on the third terrace, the embankments
of earth are not over four feet high, there is no ditch,
and the earth seems to have been taken exclusively
from pits, which, contrary to the usual custom, are
within the enclosure. The square is one of those
already spoken of as agreeing exactly in dimensions
with others at a distance. Additional dimensions are
shown in the cut. The enclosures, both square and
round, usually include several mounds. One at
Mound City, square with rounded corners, covering
thirteen acres, has twenty-four sacrificial mounds
within its walls. At Portsmouth, there are four con
centric circles, cut by four broad avenues facing, with
slight variation, the cardinal points, and having a
 SACRED ENCLOSURES. 759

t-x,
^^^Zf^g& &S &LfiS&Z
a
^S^feir*^ftiiSfc.
^*^<?^ *<*

u
S*, *VfiS?^J<a^\ -u,vp, -^ ;
*;&>;>:$

llS^sf?SS^^ ?$$&$&&

Sacred Enclosures Liberty.

large terraced and truncated mound in the centre.

The banks of one enclosure near Newark measure thirty
feet in height from the bottom of the ditch the usual ;

height isfrom three to seven feet.

The circles often have an interior ditch; in some
cases, as at Circleville and Salem, there are two cir
cular embankments one within the other with a
ditch between them; but there is only one instance
of an exterior ditch, in the work at Bourneville,
Ohio, shown in the first cut. The wall is from eight
to ten feet high, and the ditch is shallow. The larger
760 WOKKS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

;:.>
"
... ,., ~v ^." hli\\

Enclosure at Bourneville.

SCAL ET
7oofl.lpJ.In.,
Works at Hopeton.
 SACRED ENCLOSURES. 761

circles have generally a single entrance, which is

usually, but not always, on the east. There are nu
merous small circles from thirty to fifty feet in diam
eter, found in connection with groups of large enclos
ures, which, have very light embankments and no
entrances. These may very likely be the remains of
lodges or camps. The larger circles are almost inva
riably connected with squares or rectangles, which
have similar embankments but no ditches. These
have very commonly an entrance at each angle and
one in the middle of each side, but the larger squares
have often many more entrances.
The second cut shows a group of sacred enclosures
at Hopeton, Ohio, located on the third terrace. The
walls of the rectangle are of a clayey loam, fifty feet
thick and twelve feet high, without a ditch. The
summit is wide enough for a wagon road. The walls
of the circle are somewhat lower and composed of
clay differing in color from that found in the vicinity.
The two smaller circles have interior ditches. The
cut gives a view of the same works as they appear
from the east. The parallel embankments in the

View of Earth-works at Hopeton.

7G2 WORKS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

south are one hundred and fifty feet apart and extend
half a mile to the bank of an old river bed. Two
hundred paces north of the large circle, and not
shown in the cuts, is another circle two hundred and
fifty feet in diameter.
The enclosure shown in the next cut is that at
Cedar Bank, near Chillicothe, Ohio, and seems to
partake somewhat of the nature of a fortification.

Cedar Bank Enclosures.

The west side is naturally protected by the river

bank, and the other sides are enclosed by a wall and
ditch, each forty feet wide and five to six feet high
or deep. The bed of a small stream forms a natural
ditch for one half of the eastern side. Within the
enclosure in a line with the entrances is a raised
platform four feet high, measuring one hundred and
fifty by two hundred and fifty feet, with graded ways
thirty feet wide, leading to the summit. The paral
lels outside the enclosure are three or four feet high.
The earth- work in Randolph County, Indiana, is
 EARTH-WORKS. 763

sufficiently explained by the cut. This work, like

Fortified Square Indiana.

the preceding, would seem to have been constructed

partially with a view to defence. The work shown
in the next cut is part of a group in Pike County,
Ohio. The circle is three hundred feet in diameter.

Earth- work in Pike County, Ohio.

764 WORKS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.
The different enclosures of a group are often con
nected by parallel embankments. Similar embank
ments protect tlis roads leading from fortified works
to the river bank or other source of water. Many
are not connected with any enclosures, though in
their vicinity; and in such cases they are very slight,
from seven hundred to eight hundred feet long, and
sixty to eighty feet apart. Some of these parallels
were very likely raised roads instead of enclosed ones,
as on the Little Miami River, where the embank
ments extend about a quarter of a mile from two
mounds, forming a semicircle round a third, being a
rod wide and only three feet high. At Madison,
Louisiana, there is a raised way three feet high,

seventy-five feet wide, and two thousand seven hun

dred feet long, with broad excavations three feet in
depth extending on both sides for about two thirds
its length. Two parallel banks at Piketon, Ohio, are
shown in the cut. They are ten hundred and eighty

Parallel Embankments Piketon.

feet long, two hundred and three feet apart at one

end, and two hundred and fifteen at the other; the
 DITCH KS AND MOUNDS. 7C5

height on the outside being from five to eleven feet,

but on the inside twenty-two feet at one end. A
modern carriage road now runs between the mounds.
From the end of one of them a slight embankment
extends twenty-five hundred and eighty feet to a
group of mounds.
In the north ditches seem never to occur, except
with embankments; but in the south, where embank
ments are rarely if ever found, ditches, or moats, are
sometimes employed to enclose other works, espe
cially in Georgia. Such a rnoat at Carterville com
municates with the river, extends to a pond perhaps
artificial, and has two reservoirs, each of an acre,
connected with it. The mounds and other monu
ments are located between the river and the moat.
I have already spoken of the pits which furnished
earth for the various works, sometimes called wells;
some wells of another class, found in the b.ed of
streams and supplied with round covers, were found
by Mr Squier to be the natural casts of septaria, or
imbedded nodules of hard clay.

The mound or heap form is the one most common

in American antiquities as in those of nearly
the
whole world. Mounds are found throughout the
Mississippi region as before bounded, and beyond its
limits in many directions they merge into the small
stone heaps which are known to have been thrown up
by the Indians at road-crossings and over graves.
They are most numerous in the upper Mississippi and
Ohio valleys, in the same region where the embank
ments also most abound. As I have said, the num
ber in Ohio alone is estimated at more than ten thou
sand. They are almost always found in connection
with embankments and other works of the different
classes described, but they are also very numerous in
regions where enclosures rarely or never occur, as in
Wisconsin and in the gulf states. From the central
region about the junction of the Mississippi, Missouri,
7C6 WORKS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

and Ohio, they gradually diminish in numbers in

every direction, and also in size except perhaps to
wards the south. They are found in valley and plain,
on hill-side and hill-top; isolated and in groups; within
and without enclosures; and at long distances from
other works. By their location alone no satisfactory
classification could possibly be made; still, when con
sidered in connection with their contents and other
circumstances, their location assumes importance. By
their forms the tumuli are classified as temple-mounds,
animal-mounds, and conical mounds.
Temple-mounds always have level summit plat
forms, and are supposed to have once supported
wooden structures, although no traces of such tem
ples remain. A
graded road straight or winding, of
gentler slope than the sides of the mound, often
leads to the top; and in many cases the sides have
one or more terraces. One in Tennessee, four
hundred and fifty feet in diameter and fifty feet
high, has ten clearly marked terraces, except on the
east. The bases assume a variety of forms, square,
rectangular, octagonal, round, oval, etc., but the
curves and angles are always extremely regular. In
the north they are usually within enclosures, but in
the south, where they are most numerous, they have
no embankments and are often arranged in groups,
the smaller about a larger central mound. In size
the temple-mounds vary from a height of five feet
and a diameter of forty feet to ninety feet in altitude
and a base-area of eight acres. In respect to form,
material, structure, contents, and probable use they
admit of no subdivision. Like the embankments
they are made of earth, or rarely of stones, simply
heaped up, with little care in the choice of material
and none at all in the order of deposit.
The largest mound of this, or in fact of any, class
is that at Cahokia, Illinois. Its base measures seven
hundred by five hundred feet. The height is ninety

feet. On one end above mid-height is a terrace plat-

 TEMPLE-MOUNDS. 767

form one hundred and sixty by three hundred and

fifty feet,
and the summit area is two hundred by four
hundred and fifty feet, or nearly two acres, the base
covering over eight acres. On the top a small con
ical mound was found, with some human bones, a

deposit of doubtful antiquity. A

mound is described
at Lovedale, Kentucky, as being of octagonal base,
five feet high, with sides of a hundred and fifty feet,
three graded ascents, and two conical mounds on its
summit. Mr Jones states that parapet embank
ments, round the edge of the summit, sometimes
occur on the southern temple-mounds.
At Marietta, Ohio, are four mounds like that
shown in the cut, within a square enclosure. The

Temple-Mound Marietta, Ohio.

height of this one is ten feet. The mound at Selt-

zerton, Mississippi, forty feet in height, covers nearly
six acres, and has a summit area of four acres, on
which are two conical mounds, also forty feet high
and thirty feet in diameter. The base is surrounded
with a ditch ten feet deep, an unusual feature. There
are said to be large adobe blocks in the northern
slope of this pyramid, and the same material is
reported in other southern structures. These reports
require additional confirmation.
The Messier Mound, in Early County, Georgia,
768 WORKS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

differs in its location from most temple-mounds,

standing on the summit of a natural hill which over
looks a broad extent of country. The artificial height
is fifty-five feet, and the summit area sixty-six by
one hundred and fifty-six feet. There are no traces
of any means of ascent, and the slopes are very steep.
A ditch extends in a semicircle from corner to corner
at the southern end, and thence down the slope of
the hill. An excavation of two acres, twenty-five
feet deep on an average, seems to have furnished
the earth for the mound. Around well, sixty feet
in diameter and forty feet deep is found at one end
of the excavation. Atemple-mound in the Na-
cooche Valley, Georgia, is elliptical in form, and has
a summit area of sixty by ninety feet.
An octagonal mound, forty-five feet high and one
hundred and eighty feet in diameter at the top, is
located on a hill-top opposite the city of Macon; it
was formed of earth carried from the valley below.
A temple-mound at Mason s Plantation, on the
Savannah River, has been partly washed away by the
water, which reveals along the natural surface of the
ground a stratum a foot thick of charcoal, baked earth,
ashes, broken pottery, shells, and bones of animals and
birds, with a few human bones. The mound, which
is of the
surrounding alluvial soil, would seem to have
been erected over a spot long occupied as an encamp
ment. This mound, and another near it, were origin
ally enclosed by a moat which communicated with
the river, and widened on one side into a broad lagoon.
On Plunkett Creek, Georgia, is a mound of stones
which has the appearance of a tempi e-mound, hav
ing a summit area forty feet in diameter. Stone is
rarely used in structures of this class; perhaps this
was originally a conical mound. There seem to be few
large mounds in the south unaccompanied by ditches,
which seem here to have been introduced where em
bankments would have been preferred in the north.
In a late number of the Cincinnati Quarterly
 TEMPLE-MOUNDS. 70 J

Journal of Science I find described, unfortunately

only on newspaper authority, a remarkable temple-
mound, near Springfield, Missouri, on a hill three
hundred feet high. It is of earth and stones, sixty
two feet high, five hundred feet in diameter at the
bas; and one hundred and
thirty at the summit. A
ditch, two hundred feet wide and five feet deep, sur
rounds the base, and is crossed by a causeway, oppo
site which a
stairway of roughly hewn stones leads
up the northern slope. The top is covered by a
platform of stone, in the centre of which lies a stone
ten by twelve feet, and eleven inches thick, hollowed
in the middle. This report without further confirma-,
tiori must be considered a hoax at least so far as the
stone steps, pavement, and altar are concerned.
The group of temple-mounds shown in the cut is

Mississippi Temple-Mounds.
VOL. IV. 49
770 WORKS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.
in Washington County, Mississippi. Others similar
in many respects to these are found at Madison,
Louisiana.
Temple-mounds are homogeneous and never strati
fied in their construction, and contain no relics; that
is, the object in their erection was simply to afford a
raised platform, with convenient means of ascent.

Animal-mounds, the second class, are those that

assume in their ground plan various irregular forms,
sometimes those of living creatures, including quadru
peds, birds, reptiles, fishes, and in a few cases men.
Mounds of this class are very numerous in the north
west, particularly in Wisconsin, and rarely occur
further south, although there are a few excellent
specimens in Ohio. They are most abundant in fer
tile valleys and rarely occur on the lake shore. Nine
them are simple straight, curved, or crooked
tenths of
embankments of irregular form, slightly raised above
the surface, bearing no likeness to any natural object.
In many, fancied to be like certain animals, the re
semblance is imaginary. Those shaped like a taper
ing club, with two knobs on one side near the larger
end a very common figure are called lizard -
mounds; add two other protuberances on the oppo
site side and we have the Hurtle-mounds. Yet a
few bear a clear resemblance to quadrupeds, birds,
and serpents, and all evidently belong to the same
class and were connected with the religious ideas of
the builders. They are not burial mounds, contain no
relics, are but a few feet at the most above the ground,
and are always composed of whitish clay, or the sub
soil of the country. Their dimensions on the ground
are considerable rude effigies of human form are in
;

some cases over one hundred feet long; quadrupeds

have bodies and tails each from fifty to two hundred
feet long; birds have wings of a hundred feet; liz
ard-mounds are two and even four hundred feet in
length; straight and curved lines of embankment
 CONICAL .\mr\DS. 771

reach over a thousand feet: and serpents are equally

extensive. They are grouped without any apparent
order together with conical mounds, occasional em
bankments, and few enclosures. They often form a
line extending over a large tract. In some cases the
animal form is an excavation instead of a mound, the
earth being thrown up on the banks. An embank
ment in Adams County. Ohio, on the summit of a
hill much like those often occupied by fortifications, is

thought to resemble a monster serpent with curved

body and coiled tail, five feet high, thirty feet wide in
the middle, and over one thousand feet long if un
coiled. The jaws are wide open and apparently in
the act of swallowing an oval mound measuring one
hundred and sixty by eighty feet. On a hill over
is a mound six feet
looking Granville, Ohio, high and
a hundred and fifty feet long, thought to resemble the
form of an alligator. Stones are rarely used with
the earth in the construction of animal-mounds, and
only in a few cases has the presence of ashes or other
traces of fire been reported.

The third class of tumult includes the conical

mounds, niera heaps of earth and stones, so far as out
ward appearance is concerned, generally round, often
oval, sometimes square with rounded corners, or even
hexagonal and triangular, in their base-forms, and
varying in height from a few inches to seventy feet,
in diameter from three or four to three hundred feet.
A height of from six to thirty feet and a diameter of
forty to one hundred feet would probably include a
larger part of them. Of course the height has been
reduced and the base increased by the action of rains
more or less in different
localities according to the
material employed. Mounds of this class never have
summit platforms or any means of ascent. They are
here as elsewhere in America much more numerous
than other mounds. Although so like one to another
;
in form, they (3 fFer widelv in location and contents.
772 WORKS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

They are found on hill-tops and in the level plain. In

the former case they are either isolated, grouped
round fortifications, or extend in long lines at irreg
ular intervals for many miles, suggesting boundary
lines or fire signals. In the valleys they stand alone,
in groups, or in connection with sacred enclosures.
The groups are sometimes symmetrical, as when a
number of mounds are regularly arranged about a
larger central one, or are so placed as to form squares,
circles, and other regular figures; but often no sys
tematic plan is observable. Also in connection with
the enclosures part of them are symmetrically located
with respect to entrances, angles, or temple-mounds;
while others are scattered apparently without fixed
order. There are few enclosures that do not have a
mound opposite each entrance on the inside. com A
plete survey and restoration would probably show
many mounds to belong to some regular system, that
now appear isolated.
The material of the mounds requires no remark
in addition to what has been said of other works. A
large majority are simply heaps of the earth nearest
at hand. Stone mounds, or those of mixed materials,
are rare, and are chiefly confined to the hill-top struc
tures. of the earth mounds are homogeneous
Most
in structure, but some are regularly and doubtless
intentionally stratified. Some of them in the gulf
states are composed of shells, in addition to the shell-
mounds proper formed by the gradual deposit of
refuse shells, the contents of which served as food.

The contents of the mounds should be divided into

two great classes; those deposited by the Mound-
builders, and those of modern Indian or European
origin. The distinction is important, but difficult;
and in to be found the origin of
this difficulty is

many of the extraordinary reports and theories. The

Indians have always felt a kind of veneration for the
mounds as for something of mysterious origin and
 CONTENTS OF THE MOUNDS. 773

purpose, and have used them as burial places. The

Indian habit of burying with their dead such articles
as were prized by them when living, is well known; as
is also the value attached
by them to trinkets ob
tained by purchase or theft from Europeans. Con
sequently articles of European manufacture, such as
must have been obtained long before the country was
to any great extent occupied by the whites, are often
dug from the mounds and found elsewhere. The dis
covery of silver crosses, gun-barrels, and French dials,
does not, however, as Mr Squier remarks, justify the
conclusion that the Mound-builders "were Catholics,
used fire-arms, or spoke French." The mounds are
usually opened by injudicious explorers or by treas
ure-seekers, who have paid little attention to the
location of the relics found or the condition of the
surrounding soil. Museums and private collections
are full of spurious relics thus obtained. It is cer
tain in some cases, and probable in many more, that
the mounds have been salted with specimens with a
view to their early investigation. Yet many mounds
have been opened by scientific men, who have brought
to light curious relics, surely the work of the Mound -
builders. Such relics are found in the centre of the
mounds, on or near the original surface of the ground,
with the surrounding
O material undisturbed.
*
In the
stratified mounds any disturbance in the soil is easily
detected, but with difficulty in the others. Reports
of unusual relics should be regarded as not authentic
unless accompanied by most positive proof.

Neither the embankments of sacred enclosures, tho

temple-mounds, nor the animal-mounds, have been
proved to contain any relics that may be attributed
to the original builders. Many of the conical mounds
do contain such relics, and by their contents or tho
lack of them, are divided into altar-mounds, burial
mounds, and anomalous mounds.
Altar-mounds are always found within or near
774 WORKS OF Till*. \l< M ND-BUILDERS.

enclosures, and each our is found to contain some

thing like an altar, made of burned clay or stone.
The altars are generally of fine clay brought from
some distance, burned hard sometimes to a depth of
twenty inches. They were not burned before being
put in place, but by the action of fires built upon or
round them. Such as were very slightly burned
had no relics. The stone altars are very rare, and
are formed of rouo-li
O slabs, and not hewn from a
single block. They are
square, rectangular, round,
and oval; vary in sizefrom two feet in diameter to
fifteen by fifty feet, but are generally from five to

eight feet; are rarely over twenty inches high; rest

on or near the surface of the ground, in the centre of
the mound; and have a basin-shaped concavity on
the top. The basin is almost always filled with
ashes, in which are the relies deposited by the Mound-
builders. Relics are much more numerous in the
altar than in the burial mounds, but as they are of
the same class, both may best be spoken of together.
These altars are probably the structures spoken of by

early explorers and writers as hearths; there are

reports that some of them wei^e made of burnt bricks.
A peculiarity of the altar-mounds is that they are
formed of regular strata of earth, gravel, sand, clay,
etc., which are not horizontal, but follow the curve of
the surface. The outer layer is commonly of gravel.
This stratification renders it easy to detect any mod
ern disturbance of the mounds, and makes the altar
relics especially interesting and valuable for scientific

purposes. Over the ashes in one altar-mound, were

found plates of mica and some human bones. Skele
tons are often found near the surface of these mounds,
the strata above them being disturbed; in one case
the Indians had penetrated to the centre and de
posited a body on the altar itself. Sir John Lubbock
inclines to the opinion that these were really sepul
chral rather than sacrificial mounds, although he had
not personally examined them. Whatever their use,
 BURIAL MOUNDS. 775

they certainly constitute a clearly defined class dis

tinctfrom all others, and the name altar-mounds is
as appropriate as any other.

Unstratified mounds, never within enclosures and

generally at some little distance from them, contain
ing human remains in their centres and undoubtedly
erected as places of sepulture, constitute the second
class, and are called burial mounds. The custom of
heaping up a mound over the dead was probably imi
tated for a long time by the tribes that followed the
Mound-builders, so that the relics from these mounds
are less satisfactory than those found on the altars.
In the burial mounds that may be most confidently
ascribed to the Mound-builders, the human remains
are found in a situation corresponding to that of the
altars. They are usually enclosed in a frame-work of
logs, a covering of bark or coarse matting, or a com
bination of these, which have left only faint traces.
Of the skeleton only small fragments remain, which
crumble on exposure to the air. In some cases there
are indications that the body was burned before burial.
Each mound contains, as a rule, a single skeleton,
generally but not always placed east and west. Where
several skeletons are found together, they are some
times placed in a circle with the heads towards the
centre. The mounds never contain large numbers of
skeletons, and cannot be regarded as cemeteries, but
only as monuments reared over the remains of person
ages high in rank. Very few skulls or bones are
recovered sufficiently entire to give any idea of the
Mound-builders physique, and these few show no
clearly defined differences from the modern Indian
tribes. Four or five burial mounds are often found in
a group, the smaller ones in such cases being grouped
round a larger central one, generally in contact with
its base. Mr Lapham sketched mounds in Wiscon
sin where the body is deposited in a central basin-
776 WORKS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

shaped excavation in the ground very much like those

in Vancouver Island already described.
Of the eastern burial deposits not connected with
the mounds I shall say very little. It has already
been stated that the mounds were in no sense ceme
teries. Only a favored few of what must have been
a dense population were honored by these sepulchral
monuments. Obliged to seek elsewhere the general
depositories of the dead, we find them of various
classes in large numbers; but as yet very little has
been done towards identifying any of them as the
resting-places of the Mound-builders. There are
many bone-pits, or trenches filled with human bones,
in the mound region; but some of the modern In
dians are well known to have periodically collected
and deposited in pits the bones of their dead. Large
numbers of bodies have been found in the caves of
Kentucky and Tennessee, well preserved by the nat
ural deposits of saltpetre, and wrapped in skins, bark,
or feather-cloth but the fact that such cloths were
;

made and used by the southern tribes, renders the

origin of these bodies uncertain. Besides the caves
and trenches there are regular cemeteries, some of
them very extensive. Seven of these are reported
about Nashville, Tennessee, within a radius of ten
miles, each being about a mile in extent. The graves
are of flat stones, lie in ranges, and contain skeletons
much decayed, with some relics. The coffins, or
graves, vary from two to six feet in length, and the
smallest have sometimes been mentioned as indicating
a race of pigmies; it is evident, however, that in such
graves bones were not deposited until the flesh had
been removed. Sometimes there are traces of wooden
coffins, in other cases there are only stones at the head
and feet, and often there is no trace of any coffin. A
few graves contain relics similar to those in the altar-
mounds, and were covered with large forest trees
when first seen by Europeans. Yet the comparatively
well-preserved skeletons, and the presence in many
 ANOMALOUS MOUNDS. 777

fcasesof iron and relics clearly modern, render it well-

nigh impossible to decide which, if any, of these cem
eteries contain the remains of the Mound-builders.
Mounds of the third class are called anomalous,
and include all that are not evidently either altar or
burialmounds, or which have some of the pecul
both classes; for instance, in an elliptical
iarities of
mound an altar was found in one centre, and a skele
ton in the other. Most prominent among them are
the hill -top heaps of earth, or -oftener than in the
plains below of stone. These have as a rule few
original burial deposits, and no relics; are often near
fortifications; and in many cases bear the marks of
fire. Their use cannot be accurately determined, but
they are generally regarded as watch-towers and fire
signal stations. Of course, comparatively few of the
whole number of conical mounds have been explored,
but so far as examined they seem to be about equally
divided between the three classes. The mound
shown in the cut is at Miamisburg, Ohio, and its class

Mound at Miamisburg.
778 WORKS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.
is not stated. Itsixty-eight feet high and eight
is

hundred and fifty in circumference.

feet Shell-
mounds abounding in relics of aboriginal work are
very numerous in the gulf states.

I shall pass briefly over the minor relics of abo

riginal art since it is impossible in this volume to

present illustrative cuts of the thousands of objects
that have been found, or even of typical specimens.
Such relics as are incontestably the work of the
Mound - builders include articles of metal, stone,
earthen ware, bone, and shell. They include imple
ments and ornaments, besides which many are of
unknown use. Most of the smaller specimens, whose
use is unknown, are called by Mr Dickeson and
others aboriginal coins; perhaps some of them did
serve such a purpose.
The only metals found in the mounds are copper
and silver, the latter only in very small quantities.
A few gold trinkets have been reported, but the evi
dence is not conclusive that such were deposited by
the Mound-builders. Iron ore and galena occur, but
no iron or lead.

Copper is found in native masses, and also ham

mered into implements and ornaments. There is no
evidence that this metal was ever obtained from ore
by smelting; it was all doubtless worked cold from
native masses by hammering. Concerning the lo
cality where it was procured, there is little or no
uncertainty. The abundant deposits of native cop
per about Lake Superior naturally suggest that
region as the source of the copper supply; the dis
covery of anciently worked mines strengthens the
supposition; and the finding among the mounds of
copper mixed with silver in a manner only found at
Lake Superior, makes the matter a certainty. The
modern tribes also obtained some copper from the
same localities. The Mound-builders were ignorant
of the arts of casting, welding, and alloying. They
 ABORIGINAL POTTERY. 779

had no means of hardening their copper tools, being

in this respect less advanced than the Nahuas and

Mayas. In fact copper implements are much more

rare than ornaments of the same metal. The imple
ments include axes, hatchets, adzes, knives, spear
heads, chisels, drills, etc. Ornaments are in the form
of rings, gorgets, medals, bracelets, and beads, with u
large variety of small articles of unknown use, sonic
of them probably used as money. Very small
models of larger implements like axes are often
found, and were doubtless worn as ornaments.
Silver is of much rarer occurrence than copper, was
obtained probably from the same region, and is almost
invariably found in the form of sheets hammered out
very thin and closely wrapped about small ornaments
of copper or shell. So nicely is the wrapping done
that it often resembles plating. The gold whose dis
covery has been reported has been in the form of
beads and so-called coins. Mr Dickeson speaks con
fidently of gold, silver, copper, and galena money left
by the Mound-builders. There is no evidence that
the use of iron was known, except the extreme diffi
culty of clearing forests and carving stone with im
plements of stone and soft copper.

Specimens of aboriginal pottery are very abundant,

O much less so within the mounds than else-
although
where near the surface. Mr Squier says, various "

though not abundant specimens of their skill have

been recorded, which in elegance of model, delicacy,
and finish, as also in fineness of material, come fully
up to the best Peruvian specimens, to which they
bear, in many respects, a close resemblance. They
far exceed anything of which the existing tribes of
Indians are known to have been capable." The speci
mens in the mound- deposits are, with very few ex
ceptions, broken. The material is usually a pure
clay, sometimes with a slight admixture of pulverized
quartz or colored flakes of mica, but such admixtures
780 WORKS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

are much rarer than in modern specimens. Notwith

standing their great regularity of form and beauty of
finish, none bear signs that the potter s wheel was
used in their construction, and no vessels are glazed
by vitrification. They are decorated with various
graceful figures, including those of living animals, cut
in with sharp instruments. A few crucibles, capa
ble of withstanding intense heat, have been found,
also terra-cotta images of animals and men, and or
naments or coins in small quantities. Pottery-kilns
are found in the south, but that they were the work
of the Mound-builders has not been satisfactorily
proven. Specimens of the finer class of vases are
shown in the cut. The first is of pure clay with a

Earthen Vases from the Mounds

slight silicious mixture. It is five and a half inches

high and six and a half in diameter, not over one
sixth of an inch in uniform thickness, pierced with
four holes in the line round the rim, dark brown or
umber in color, and highly polished. The decorative
lines are cut in with a sharp instrument which left no

ragged edges. The second vase is of somewhat

smaller size and coarser material; but more elaborately
ornamented and only one eighth of an inch in thick
ness.
 STONE IMPLEMENTS. 781

Stone implements are more abundant than those

of any other material in the altar-mounds and else
where. They include arrow and spear heads, knives,
axes, hatchets, chisels, and other variously formed cut
ting instruments, witli hammers and pestles. These
are made of quartz and other hard varieties of stone,
all belonging to the mound region except the obsid
ian. There is no doubt that obsidian implements
were used by the Mound-builders, and as this mate
rial is said not to be found nearer than Mexico and

California, it is perhaps as likely that the imple

ments were obtained bv trade as that they were
manufactured in the country. Neither the obsidian
knives, nor other stone weapons, show any marked
differences from those found in Mexico, Central
America, and most other parts of the world. Lance
and arrow heads, finished and in the rough, entire or
more frequently broken by the action of fire, are
taken by hundreds and thousands from the altar-
mounds; several bushels of lance-heads of milky
quartz were found in one mound. It is a remarkable
fact, however, that no Aveapons whatever are found
in burial mounds. Beads, rings, and ether orna
ments of stone are often found, with a variety of
anomalous articles whose use is more or less im
perfectly understood. Besides weapons and knives,
pipes are the articles most abundant, and on which
the Mound- builders expended most lavishly their
skill, carving the bowls into a great variety of beau
tiful forms, at what must have been an immense

outlay of labor. A remarkable peculiarity of their

pipe-carvings is that accurate representations are
given of different natural objects instead of the rude
caricatures and monstrosities in which savage O art
usually delights. Nearly every beast, bird, and rep
tile indigenous to the country is truthfully repre
sented, together with some creatures now only found
in tropical climates, such as the lamantin and toucan.
The pipes generally consist of a bowl rising from the
782 WORKS OF THE MOUXD-BUILDERS.
centre of the convex side of a curved base, one end
of which serves as a handle and the other is pierced
for a stem. They are always cut from a single piece,
the material being generally a hard porphyry, often -

est red, and strongly resembling in some cases the

red pipe-stone of the Coteau des Prairies. The lo
cality where this pipe material was obtained is un
known. Many of the sculptured figures show skillful
workmanship and a high polish; I think that many
of them are not inferior to the products of Nahua
and Maya skill. Some rude stone images of un
known use have been found at various points, but I
am not aware that any relics have been authentically
reported from the altar-mounds which indicate that
the ancient people were worshipers of idols. Mica is
the mineral most common in both altar and burial
mounds, where it occurs in plates cut into a great
variety of forms. Some of them have been con
jectured to have served as mirrors. Bushels are
sometimes deposited in a single mound. Pieces of
coal artificially formed are included by Dickeson
among
o his aboriginal
o coins.

Bones of indigenous animals are found worked

into daggers, awls, and similar implements; or as
ornaments in the form of beads. Similar use was
made of the teeth and talons of beasts and birds.
Teeth of the bear, wolf, panther, alligator, and shark,
have been found, some of the latter being fossils,
together with large quantities of teeth resembling
those of the whale, but not fully identified.
Five varieties of marine shells, all from the gulf
shores, have been examined, with pearls whose size
and numbers prove that they are not of fresh-water
origin. Both are used for ornaments, chiefly in the
ibnn of beads. Pearls are also found in a few in
stances serving
o as eves for animal and bird sculptures.
*/

Some articles of bone and shell have been mistaken

for ivory and accredited with an Asiatic origin,
 ANCIENT MINES. 783

through
O ignorance
O that their material isfound on the
shores of the gulf. Many articles found in the
mounds, and not perhaps included in the preceding-

general description, are interesting, but could only

be described in a detailed account, for which I have
no space; but most relics not thus included are of
doubtful authenticity, and a doubtful monument of
antiquity should always be attributed to modern
times.

The ancient miners have left numerous traces of

their work in the region of Lake Superior. At one
place a piece of pure copper weighing over five tons
was found fifteen feet below the surface, under trees
at least four hundred years old. It had been raised
on skids, bore marks of fire, and some stone imple
ments were scattered about. There is no evidence
that the tribes found in possession of the country by
the first French missionaries ever worked these mines,
or had any tradition of a people that had worked
them, although both they and their ancestors had
copper knives hammered from lumps of the metal,
which are very commonly found on the surface. All
the traditions and Indian stories of mines may most
consistently be referred to these natural superficial de
posits. The ancient mines were for the most part in
the same localities where the best modern mines are
worked. Most of them have left as traces only slight
depressions in the surface, the finding of which is
regarded by prospectors as a tolerably sure indication
of a rich vein of copper. The cut represents a sec
tion of one of the veins of copper-bearing rock
worked by the ancient miners. The mass of copper
at a weighed about six tons. Atthe top a portion of
the stone had been left across the vein as a support.
Copper implements, including wedges used in mining
a 3 gads/ are found in and about the old mines; with
hammers of stone, mostly grooved for withe handles.
Some weigh from thirty to forty pounds and have two
784 WORKS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

Section of an old Copper Mine.

grooves; others again are not grooved at all. In OIH?

case remains of a handle of twisted cedar-roots were
found, and much-worn wooden shovels often occur.
There are no enclosures, mounds, or other traces of a
permanent settlement of the Mound-builders in the
mining region. It is probable that the miners came
each, summer from the south; in fact, it would have
been impossible to work the mines in winter by their
methods.

Nearly all the coins, medals, stone tablets, etc., that

have been discovered within the region occupied by
the Mound-builders, bearing inscriptions in regular
apparently alphabetic characters, may be proved to be
of European origin; and the few specimens that do
not admit of such proof should of course be attributed
to such an origin in the absence of conclusive evidence
to the contrary. Rude delineations of men, animals,
and other recognizable objects, together with many
arbitrary, perhaps conventional, characters, are of
fre-
 ROCK-INSCRIPTIONS. 783

quent occurrence on the walls of caves, on perpen

dicular river-cliffs, and on detached stones. They are
sometimes incised, but usually painted. Most bear a
strong resemblance to the artistic efforts of modern
tribes; and those which seem to bear marks of a
greater antiquity, have by no means been identified
as the work of the Mound-builders. These eastern
rock-inscriptions do not call for additional remarks,
after what has been said of similar carvings O in other
regions. Many of the figures have a meaning to
those who make them, but that meaning, as in all
writings of this class, perishes with the artist and his
immediate times. Attempts by zealous antiquaries
to penetrate the signification of particular inscriptions
as that on Dighton Hock, Massachusetts, and other
well-known examples have failed to convince any
but the determined advocate of such theories as seem
to derive support from the so-called translation. My
father saw a stone tablet taken from a stone mound
near Newark, covered with carved characters, which
the clergyman of the town pronounced to be the ten
commandments in ancient Hebrew. I have no doubt
that the figures did closely resemble tile ancient He
brew in one respect at least that is, in being equally
unfamiliar to the clergyman.

Without taking up here the various theories re

specting the origin, history, and disappearance of the
Mound-builders, it
may be well to express in a few
brief conclusions what may be learned of this people
by an examination of the monuments which they
have left.
They were a numerous people, as is sufficiently
proved by the magnitude and geographical extent of
their works. They were probably one people, that is,
composed of tribes living under similar laws, religion,
and other institutions. Such variations as are ob
served in the monuments are only those that would
naturally occur between central and frontier regions,
VOL. IV. 50
780 WORKS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

although
o the animals -mounds of the north-west
present some The Mound-builders were
difficulties.
an agricultural people. Tribes that live by hunting
never build extensive public works, neither would
the chase support a sufficiently large population for
the erection of such works. Moreover, the location
of the monuments in the most fertile sections goes
far to confirm this conclusion. Some of the larger
O
enclosures have been supposed, only by reason of
their size, however, to have been cultivated fields;
and evident traces of an ancient cultivation are found,
although not clearly referable to the Mound-builders,
There is nothing to show an advanced civilization
in the modern sense of the word, but they were civ
ilized in comparison with the roving hunter- tribes of
later times. They knew nothing of the use of metals
beyond the mere hammering of native masses of
copper and silver; they built no stone structures;
they had seemingly made no approach to the higher
grades of hieroglyphic writing. Their civilization as
recorded by its material relics consisted of a knowl
edge of agriculture; considerable skill in the art of
fortification; muchgreater skill than that of the
Indians in the manufacture of pottery and the carv
ing of stone pipes; the mathematical knowledge dis
played in the laying-out of perfect circles and ac
curate angles, and in the correspondence in size
between different works. Their earth-works show
more perseverance than skill no one of them neces
;

sarily implies the use of mechanical aids to labor;

there is none that a large number of men might not
construct by carrying earth in simple baskets.
All traces of their architecture have disappeared.
It has been suggested that were the temples yet
standing on their pyramidal foundations, they might
compare favorably with those of Central America
and Mexico. But the construction of wooden edifices
with any pretensions to grandeur and symmetry, by
means of stone and soft copper tools, seems abso-
 CONCLUSIONS. 787

lately impossible; at least such structures would

require infinitely greater skill than that displayed by
the Nahuas and Mayas, and it is more reasonable to
suppose that the temples of the Mound-builders were
rude wooden buildings.
The monuments imply a wide-spread religious sys
tem under a powerful priesthood; private devotion
manifests itself on a scale less magnificent, and one
involving less hard work. Of their rites we know
nothing. The altar-mounds suggest sacrifice; burned
human bones, human sacrifice. Gateways on the
east, and the east and west direction of embankments
and skeletons may connect worship with the sun; but
all is conjecture. No idols, known to be such, have
been found; the cemeteries, if any of them belong to
the Mound-builders, show no uniform usage in burial.
The ancient people lived under a system of govern
ment considerably advanced, more than likely in the
hands of the priesthood, but of its details we know
nothing. A social condition involving some form of

slavery would be most favorable for the construction

of such works.
The monuments described are not the work of the
Indian tribes found in the country, nor of any tribes
resembling them in institutions. Those tribes had no
definite tradition even of past contact with a superior
people, and it is only in the south among the little-
known Natchez, that slight traces of a descent from,
or imitation of, the Mound-builders appear. Most
and the best authorities deem it impossible that the
Mound-builders were even the remote ancestors of the
Indian tribes; and while inclined to be less positive
than most who have written on the subject respecting
the possible changes that may have been effected by
a long course of centuries, I think that the evidence
of a race locally extinct is much stronger here than
in any other part of the continent.
The monuments are not sufficient in themselves to
absolutely prove or disprove the truth of any one of
788 WORKS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

the following theories: 1st. An indigenous culture

springing up among the Misssissippi tribes, founded
on agriculture, fostered by climate and other unknown
circumstances, constantly growing through long ages,
driving back the surrounding walls of savagism, but
afterwards weakened by unknown causes, yielding
gradually to savage hordes, and finally annihilated or
driven in remnants from their homes southward. 2d.
A colony from the southern peoples already started in
the path of civilization, growing as before in power,
but at last forced to yield their homes into the pos
session of savages. 3d. A
migrating colony from the
north, dwelling long in the land, gradually increasing
in power and culture, constantly extending their do
minion southward, and finally abandoning voluntarily
or against their will, the north for the more favored
south, where they modified or originated the southern
civilization.
The long a very popular one, is in it
last theory,
and receives less support from the
self less consistent
relics than the others. The second, which has some
points in common with the first, is most reasonable
and best supported by monumental and traditional
evidence. The temple-mounds strongly resemble in
their principal features the southern pyramids; at
least they imply a likeness of religious ideas in the
builders. The use of obsidian implements shows a
connection, either through origin, war, or commerce,
with the Mexican nations, or at least with nations
who came in contact with the Nahuas. There are,
moreover, several Nahua traditions respecting the
arrival on their coasts from the north-east, of civilized
strangers. There is very little evidence that the
Mound-builders introduced in the south the Nahua
civilization, and none whatever that the Aztec migra
tion started from the Mississippi Valley, but I am
inclined to believe that there was actually a connec
tion between the two peoples; that the Mound-build
ers, or those that introduced their culture, were
 ANTIQUITY OF THE MONUMENTS. 789

originally a Nahua colony, and that these people may

be referred to in some of the traditions mentioned.
Without claiming to be able to determine exactly the
relation between the Mound-builders and Nahuas,
I shall have something further to say on this subject
in another volume.
The works were not built by a migrating people,
but by a race that lived long in the land. It seems
unlikely that the results attained could have been
accomplished in less than four or live centuries. Noth
ing indicates that the time did not extend to thou
sands of years, but it is only respecting the minimum
time that there can be any grounds for reasonable
conjecture. If we suppose the civilization indigenous,
of course a much longer period must be assigned to
its development than if it was introduced by a migra
tion or rather a colonization, for civilized and semi-
civilized peoples do not migrate en masse. Moreover a
northern origin would imply a longer duration of time
than one from the south, where a degree of civiliza
tion is known to have existed.
How long a time has elapsed since the Mound-
builders abandoned their works? Here again a mini
mum estimate only can be sought. No work is more
enduring than an embankment of earth. There is no
positive internal proof that they were not standing
one, five, or ten thousand years ago. The evidences
of an ancient abandonment of the works, or serious
decline of the builders power, are as follows: 1st,
the fact that none of them stand on the last-formed
terrace of the rivers, most on the oldest terrace, and
that those on the second bear in some cases marks of
having been invaded by water. The rate of terrace-
forming varies on different streams, and there are no
sufficient data for estimating in years the time re

quired for the formation of any one of the terraces,

men are careful not to give a defin
at least scientific
iteopinion in the matter; but it is evident that each
required a very long period, and the last one a much
790 WORKS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

longer time than any of the others, on account of the

gradual longitudinal leveling of the river-beds. 2d.
The complete disappearance of all wooden structures,
which must have been of great solidity. 3d. The
advanced state of decomposition of human bones in a
soil well calculated for their preservation. Skeletons
are found in Europe well preserved at a known age
of eighteen hundred years. 4th. The absence of the
Mound-builders from the traditions of modern tribes.
^Nothing would seem more likely to be preserved in
mythic or historic traditions than contact with a
superior people, and the mounds would serve to keep
the traditions alive. 5th. The fact that the monu
ments were covered in the seventeenth century with
primitive forests, uniform with those which covered
the other parts of the country. In this latitude the
age of a forest tree may be much more accurately
determined than in tropical climates; and trees from
four to five hundred years old have been examined in
many well-authenticated cases over mounds and em
bankments. Equally large trees in all stages of
decomposition were found at their feet on and under
the ground, so that the abandonment of the works
must be dated back at least twice the actual age of
the standing O trees. It is a fact well known to
woodsmen that when cultivated land is abandoned
the first growth is very unlike the original forest,
both in the species and size of the trees, and that
several generations would be required to restore the
primitive timber. Consequently a thousand years
must have passed since some of the works were
abandoned. The monuments of the Mississippi pre
sent stronger internal evidence of great antiquity
than any others in America, although it by no means
follows that they are older than Palenque and Copan.
The height of the Mound-builders power should not,
without very positive external evidence, be placed at
a later date than the fifth or sixth century of our era.