CHAPTER XIII.WORKS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

Cave-Dwelling on the McElmo.

ABORIGINAL TRADITION

The tradition relating to the whole, and particularly to this locality, obtained by Capt. Moss from one of the old men among the Moquis, is rendered by Mr Ingersoll as follows:—"Formerly the aborigines inhabited all this country we had been over as far west as the head waters of the San Juan, as far north as the Rio Dolores, west some distance into Utah, and south and south-west throughout Arizona, and on down into Mexico. They had lived there from time immemorial—since the earth was a small island, which augmented as its inhabitants multiplied. They cultivated the valley, fashioned whatever utensils and tools they needed, very neatly and handsomely out of clay and wood and stone, not knowing any of the useful metals, built their homes and kept their flocks and herds in the fertile river bottoms, and worshiped the sun. They were an eminently peaceful and prosperous people, living by agriculture rather than by the chase. About a thousand years ago, however, they were visited by savage strangers from the North, whom they treated hospitably. Soon these visits became more frequent and annoying. Then their troublesome neighbors—ancestors of the present Utes—began to forage upon them, and at last to massacre them and devastate their farms; so, to save their lives at least, they built houses high upon the cliffs, where they could storefood and hide away till the raiders left. But one Summer the invaders did not go back to their mountains as the people expected, but brought their families with them and settled down. So driven from their homes and lands, starving in their little niches on the high cliffs, they could only steal away during the night, and wander across the cheerless uplands. To one who has traveled these steppes, such a flight seems terrible, and the mind hesitates to picture the suffering of the sad fugitives.

"At the christone they halted and probably found friends, for the rocks and caves are full of the nests of these human wrens and swallows. Here they collected, erected stone fortifications and watch-towers, dug reservoirs in the rocks to hold a supply of water, which in all cases is precarious in this latitude, and once more stood at bay. Their foes came, and for one long month fought and were beaten back, and returned day after day to the attack as merciless and inevitable as the tide. Meanwhile the families of the defenders were evacuating and moving south, and bravely did their protectors shield them till they were all safely a hundred miles away. The besiegers were beaten back and went away. But the narrative tells us that the hollows of the rocks were filled to the brim with the mingled blood of conquerors and conquered, and red veins of it ran down into the cañon. It was such a victory as they could not afford to gain again, and they were glad when the long fight was over to follow their wives and little ones to the South. There in the deserts of Arizona, on well-nigh unapproachable isolated bluffs, they built new towns, and their few descendants—the Moquis—live in them to this day, preserving more carefully and purely the history and veneration of their forefathers, than their skill or wisdom." One watch-tower in this region was built on a block of sandstone that had rolled down and lodged on the very brink of a precipice overlooking the whole valley.

Ruined Pueblo on the Hovenweep.—Utah.

HOVENWEEP RUINS.

From the McElmo Mr Jackson and his party struck off westward to a small stream called the Hovenweep, eight or ten miles distant. Here they found a ruined town, of which a general view is given in the cut. Mr Jackson's description is as follows: "The stream referred to sweeps the foot of a rocky sandstone ledge, some forty or fifty feet in height, upon which is built the highest and better-preserved portions of the settlement. Its semicircular sweep conforms to the ledge; each little house of the outer circle being built close upon its edge. Below the level of these upper houses, some ten or twelve feet, and within the semicircular sweep, were seven distinctly-marked depressions, each separated from the other by rocky débris, the lower or first series probably of a small community-house. Upon either flank, and founded upon rocks, were buildings similar in size and in other respects to the large ones on the line above. As paced off, the upper or convex surface measured one hundred yards in length. Each little apartment was small and narrow, averaging six feet in width and eight feet in length, the walls being eighteen inches in thickness. The stones of which the entire group was built were dressed to nearly uniform size and laid in mortar. A peculiar feature here was in the round corners, one at least appearing upon nearly every little house. Theywere turned with considerable care and skill; being two curves, all the corners were solidly bound together and resisted the destroying influences the longest." The following cut presents a ground plan of this Hovenweep Pueblo town, and terminates the account of one of the most interesting antiquarian explorations of modern times.

Ground Plan—Town on the Hovenweep.

I append a few brief quotations from the diary of Padres Dominguez and Escalante, who penetrated probably as far as Utah Lake in early times, referring to three places where ruins were seen, two of which cannot readily be located. On the Dolores River "on the southern bank of the river, on a height, there was anciently a small settlement of the same plan as those of the Indians of New Mexico, as is shown by the ruins which we examined." A ruin is also located on this river at the southern bend, on the U. S. map of 1868. On the Rio de San Cosme, "we saw near by a ruin of a very ancient town, in which were fragments of metates, and pottery. The form of the town was circular as shown by the ruins now almost entirely leveled to the ground." In the cañon of Santa Delfina "towards the south, there is quite a high cliff, on which we saw rudely painted three shields, and a spear-head. Lower down on the north side we saw another painting which represented in aconfused manner two men fighting, for which reason we named it the Cañon Pintado."[XII-44]

In Idaho and Montana I have no record of ancient remains, save a cliff at Pend d'Oreille Lake, on which are painted in bright colors, images of men, beasts, and pictures of unknown import. The natives are said to regard the painted rock with feelings of great superstition and dread, regarding the figures as the work of a race that preceded their own in the country.[XII-45]

Rock-Carvings—Columbia River.

In Oregon aboriginal remains, so far as reported, are hardly more abundant. The artist of the U. S. Exploring Expedition sketched three specimens of cliff-inscriptions on the Columbia River, which are shown in the cut. Mr Pickering thinks that the figures present some analogies to the sculptures reported by Humboldt on the Orinoco.[XII-46]Mr Abbot noted "a few rude pictures of men and animals scratched on the rocks" of Mptolyas cañon.[XII-47]Lord speaks of little piles of stones about natural pillars of conglomerate, on Wychus Creek, but these were doubtless the work of modern Snake Indians, who left the heaps in honor of the spirits represented by the pillars.[XII-48]A gigantic human jaw is reported to have been dug up near Jacksonville in 1862;[XII-49]and finally Lewis andClarke found a village of the Echeloots built "near a mound about thirty feet above the common level, which has some remains of houses on it, and bears every appearance of being artificial."[XII-50]

ANTIQUITIES OF WASHINGTON.

In Washington, besides some shell ornaments and arrow-heads of flint and other hard stone dug by Mr Lord from a gravel bank near the old Fort Walla Walla, and some rude figures mostly representing men carved and afterwards painted on a perpendicular rock between the Yakima and Pisquouse, pointed out by a native to Mr Gibbs,[XII-51]there seem to be remains of antiquity in only two localities. The first are the mounds on Bute Prairie, south of Olympia. They were first found, or mentioned, by Wilkes in the U. S. Exploring Expedition, in 1841, who describes them as thousands in number arranged in fives like the 'five spots' on a playing card, formed by scraping together the surface earth, about thirty feet in diameter and six or seven feet high. Three of them were opened, but proved to contain nothing but a pavement of round stones in the centre and at the bottom, resting on the subsoil of red gravel. The natives said that the medicine men in later times were wont to gather herbs from their surface, as being more potent to work their cures than those growing elsewhere. Since Wilkes' visit the newspapers have reported the discovery of a large mound at the south end of the prairie, twenty-five miles from Olympia, which is three hundred feet high and nine hundred feet in diameter at the base. These later reports state also that all the small mounds opened in recent times have been found to contain remains of pottery and "other curious relics, evidently the work of human hands."[XII-52]

The second locality where remains are found is on the lower Yakima River, where Mr Stephens saw an earth-work consisting of two concentric circles of earth about three feet high with a ditch between them. The outer circle is eighty yards in diameter, and within the inner one are about twenty cellars, or excavations, thirty feet across and three feet deep, like the cellars of modern native houses scattered over the country without, however, any enclosing circles. These works are located on a terrace about fifteen feet high, bounded on either side by a gulley.[XII-53]

In British Columbia, some sculptured stones are reported to have been found at Nootka Sound, in which a fancied resemblance to the Aztec Calendar-Stone was noticed; also during the voyage of the 'Sutil y Mexicana,' a wooden plank was found on the coast bearing painted figures, which I have copied in the cut, although I do not know that the plank has any claims to be considered a relic of antiquity.[XII-54]

Painted Board—British Columbia.

DEANS' EXPLORATIONS.

Other British Columbian antiquities consist of shell mounds, burial mounds, and earth-works, chieflyconfined to Vancouver Island, and known to me through the investigations and writings of Mr James Deans. Mr Deans has lived long in the country, is perfectly familiar with it and its natives, and has given particular attention to the subject of antiquities. He makes no great pretensions as a writer, but has made notes of his discoveries from time to time, and has furnished his manuscripts for my use under the title ofAncient Remains in Vancouver Island and British Columbia. Like other explorers, he has not been able to resist the temptation to theorize without sufficient data on questions of ethnology and the origin of the American aborigines, but his speculations do not diminish the value of his explorations, and are far from being as absurd as those of many authors who are much better known.

VANCOUVER ISLAND.

Burial mounds on Vancouver Island are of two classes, according as they are constructed chiefly of sand and gravel or of stones. One of the first class opened by Mr Deans in 1871, will illustrate the construction of all. It was located on the second terrace from the sea, the terraces having nearly perpendicular banks of fifty and sixty feet respectively. By a carefully cut drift through the centre, it was ascertained to have been made in the following manner. First, a circle sixteen feet in diameter was marked out, and the top soil cleared off within the circle; then a basin-shaped hole, six feet in diameter, smaller at the bottom than at the top, was dug in the centre, in which the skull, face down, and the larger unburned bones were placed and covered with six inches of earth. On the layer of earth rested a large flat stone, on which were heaped up loose stones, the heap extending about a foot beyond the circumference of the central hole. Outside of this heap, on the surface, a space two feet wide extending round the whole circumference was sprinkled with ashes, and contained a few bones also. Outside ofthis space again, large stones two or three feet long were set up in the ground like pillars, five feet apart, round the circumference; and finally the earth dug from the central hole, or receptacle for the bones, was thrown into the outer circle, and gravel and sand added to the whole until the mound was five feet high, having a rounded form. Four smaller mounds, six and ten feet in diameter, were opened in the same group, showing the same mode of construction, but somewhat less order.

The second class, or stone mounds, which are much more numerous than those of earth, differ but little from the others in their construction, except that the final additions to the mound were of stones instead of earth, and the stones about the circumference were flat and set up close together. A piece of quartz sometimes accompanies the bones, but no other relics are found. When the skeleton is deposited face down, as is usually the case, the skull is placed toward the south, or when in a sitting position, it faces the south, seeming in some cases to have been burned where it sat. In a few instances the skeleton, when it was but little burned, was lying on the left side. The human bones invariably crumbled at a touch, and the author states that this method of burial is altogether unknown to the present inhabitants, who say their ancestors found them as they are.

The mounds are often overgrown with large pine, arbutus, or oak trees; in one case an oak had forced its way up through the stones in its growth, reached its full size, decayed, and the stones had fallen back over the stump. They are often in groups, and in such cases the central one is always most carefully constructed, and a remarkable circumstance is that sometimes the surrounding heaps contain only children's bones. Of course this suggests a sacrifice of children or slaves at a chief's funeral, although there may be some other explanation. Some stones weighinga ton are found over the human remains. Traces of cedar bark or boards are found in some of the cairns, in which the bones were apparently enclosed; and in a few others a small empty chamber was formed over the flat covering stone.

Near Comox, one hundred and thirty miles north-west of Victoria, a group of mounds were examined in 1872-3, and found to be built of sea sand and black mold, mixed with some shells. They were from five to fifty yards in circumference. In one by the side of a very large skull was deposited a piece of coal; and in another with a very peculiar flattened skull was a child's tooth. Both these skulls are said to have been covered with baked clay, and are now in the collection of the Society of Natural History in Montreal. One mound in this vicinity is fifty feet high and of oval shape. In its centre only a few feet below the surface were found burnt skeletons of children not over twelve years old, which seemed to have been enclosed in a box of cedar—of which only a brown dust remains—and covered with two feet of stones and one foot of shells. There is a spring of fine water some fifty yards from this mound, of which, from superstitious motives no Indian will drink. One rectangular cairn, ten by twelve feet, was found, but even in this the central receptacle was circular. The body in this mound showed no signs of burning, the head pointed northward, and a pencil-shaped stone sharp at both ends was deposited with the human remains.

Shell mounds are described as very abundant throughout Vancouver Island, and also on the mainland, and all are composed of species of shells still common in the coast waters. One at Comox covers three acres, and is from two to fourteen feet deep. The relics discovered in mounds of this class include stone hammers; arrow-points of flint, slate, and of a hard green stone; spear-heads, knives, needles, andawls, of stone and bone, one of the knives being sixteen inches long and of whale-bone; bone wedges, sometimes grooved; and finally stone mortars, comparatively few in number, since acorns and seeds were not apparently a favorite article of food. Human skeletons also occur in the shell mounds. At Comox a skeleton is said to have been found with a bone knife broken off in one of the bones. A shell bracelet was taken from a mound at Esquimalt; and from another was dug a stone dish or paint-pot, carved to represent a man holding a mountain sheep. The man was the handle on one side, the sheep's head on the other, and the cup was hollowed out in the sheep's back. Mr Deans believes he can distinguish two distinct types of skulls in Vancouver Island—the 'long-headed' in the older cairns, and the 'broad-headed' in the shell mounds and modern graves: and this distinction is independent of artificial flattening, which it seems was practiced in a majority of cases on skulls of both types.

EARTH-WORKS.

In addition to the mounds, Mr Deans states that earth-works very similar to those found in the eastern states are found at many localities in British Columbia. Indeed, he has sent me several plans, cut from Squier's work on the antiquities of New York, which by a simple change in the names of creeks and in the scale would represent equally well the north-western works. At Beacon Hill, near Victoria, a point one hundred feet high extends three hundred feet into the sea; an embankment with a ditch still six feet deep, stretches across on the land side and protects the approach; there are low mounds on the enclosed area, the remnants of ancient dwellings, and down the steep banks are heaps of shells, with ashes, bones of sea-fowl, deer, elk, and bears, among which are some spear and arrow points, needles, etc. On the summit of Beacon Hill, near by, are burial cairns of the usual type.

Another earth-work was examined by Mr Deans at Baines Sound and Deep Bay. This was an oval embankment surrounded at the base by a ditch, close to the water on the bay side, but now seventy yards from high-water mark on the side next the sound, although originally at the water edge. From the bottom of the ditch to the top of the embankment or mound is forty feet, and at the summit a parapet bank now four feet high encloses an area of over an acre. On the sound side is an opening from which a road runs down the slope of the mound and across the ditch by a kind of earthen bridge. Excavation showed a depth of nine feet of shells, ashes, and black loam. Many burial mounds are scattered about which have not been opened.

I am inclined to regard Mr Deans' reports as trustworthy, although of course additional authorities are required before the accuracy of his observations respecting the burial mounds, and the existence of earthworks bearing a strong resemblance, as he claims, to those of the eastern states can be fully accepted. Respecting the mounds I quote in a note from Mr Forbes, the only other authority I have been able to find on the subject.[XII-55]

In Alaska I find no record of any antiquities whatever, although many curious specimens of aboriginal art, made by the natives still inhabiting the country since the coming of Europeans, have been brought away by travelers. Cook saw in the country several artificial stone hillocks, which seemed to him of great antiquity, but he also noted that each native added a stone to burial heaps on passing; and Schewyrin and Durnew found on one of the Aleutian Islands three round copper plates bearing letters and leaf-work, said to have been thrown up by the sea; but I suppose there is no evidence that they were of aboriginal origin.[XII-56]

CONCLUSION.

Thus have I gone over the whole extent of the Pacific States from the southern isthmus to Bering Strait, carefully examining, so far as written records could enable me to do so, every foot of this broad territory, in search for the handiwork of its aboriginal inhabitants. Practically I have given in the preceding pages all that has been written on the subject. Before a perfect account of all that the Native Races have left can be written, before material relics can reveal all they have to tell about the peoples whose work they are, a long and patient work of exploration and study must be performed—a work hardly commenced yet even in the thickly populated centres of old world learning, and still less advanced naturally in the broad new fields and forests of the Far West. In this volume the general reader may find an accurate and comprehensive if not a very fascinating picture of all that aboriginal art has produced; the student of ethnological topics mayfound his theories on all that is known respecting any particular monument here spread before him, rather than on a partial knowledge derived by long study from the accounts in works to which he has access, contradicted very likely in other works not consulted,—and many a writer has subjected himself to ridicule by resting an important part of his favorite theory on a discovery by Smith, which has been proved an error or a hoax by Jones and Brown; the antiquarian student may save himself some years of hard labor in searching between five hundred and a thousand volumes for information to which he is here guided directly, even if he be unwilling to take his information at second hand; and finally, the explorer who proposes to examine a certain section of the country, may acquaint himself by a few hours' reading with all that previous explorers have done or failed to do, and by having his attention specially called to their work will be able to correct their errors and supply what they have neglected.

If the work in this volume shall prove to have been sufficiently well done to serve, in the manner indicated above, as a safe foundation for systematic antiquarian research in the future, the author's aim will be realized and his labor amply repaid.

American Monuments beyond the Limits of the Pacific States—Eastern Atlantic States—Remains in the Mississippi Valley—Three Geographical Divisions—Classification of Monuments—Embankments and Ditches—Fortifications—Sacred Enclosures—Mounds—Temple-Mounds, Animal-Mounds, and Conical Mounds—Altar-Mounds, Burial Mounds, and Anomalous 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.

TREATMENT OF FOREIGN REMAINS.

I announced in an introductory chapter my intention 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 antiquities. I am 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 bearing on the institutions and history of the Native Races of the Pacific, than do the manners and customs, mythology, and language of the South American and eastern tribes. Yet there is this difference, that to have included the whole American continent in the preceding volumes would have required a newcollection 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 my work, and the bulk of that part of it devoted to the Native Races, is already sufficiently extensive. But in the department of antiquities, 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 especially desirable by reason of the fact that all the important archæological 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 American Antiquities.

My treatment of the subject in this and the following chapter will, however, differ considerably from 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 inhabited, and thoroughly explored by antiquarians, or at least comparatively so, so numerous are the relics and the localities where they have been found, that to take them up one after another for detailed description 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 pagesof the present volume. Moreover, the books and other material in my possession, while amply sufficient, I think, to furnish a clear idea of the Mississippi and South American monuments, are of course inadequate to a continuation of the bibliographical feature referred to. For these reasons I deem it best to abandon the elaborate note-system hitherto followed, and shall present a general rather than a detailed 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.[XIII-1]

THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.

Material relics of the aboriginal tribes are found in greater or less abundance throughout the Eastern United States and the Canadas. But those found in New England and the region east of the Alleghanies, extending southward to the Carolinas, may be dismissed in an account so general as the present with the remark that all are evidently the work of the Indian tribes found in possession of the country, many of them evidently and others probably having originated at a time subsequent to the coming of Europeans.But whatever may be decided respecting their antiquity, it may be regarded as absolutely certain 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.

CLASSIFICATION OF REMAINS.

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-builders, 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 Virginia 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 Indian Territory, although there are reported some remains farther west, particularly on the upper Missouri, 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.

Map of 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 inhabitants are found in great abundance, and may be classified 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 enclosures, or such as are supposed to have been connected with religious rites.

II. Mounds of earth or stone, of varying location, 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 according to their contents into 'altar-mounds'or 'sacrificial mounds,' 'burial mounds,' and 'anomalous mounds,' or such as are of mixed or undetermined 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 sufficiently uniform in their general character to indicate that the Mound-builders were 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 enclosures and mounds are most abundant and extensive, and their contents show the highest advancement of aboriginal art. This section, including chiefly the state of Ohio, but also parts of Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, Illinois, and Missouri, was the ground embraced in the explorations of Squier and Davis, by far the best authorities on eastern antiquities. In the northern region, on the great lakes, on which Lapham and Pidgeon are the prominent 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 instances, and never, so far as is known, in the south. 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,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.

REMAINS IN NEW YORK.

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 palisades, 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 suggest 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 enclosures remains of the typical Indiancachesare found, with carbonized maize, and traces of wood andbark; 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 Indian 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 dimensions and regularity of form.

The enclosures vary in extent from three to four acres, the largest being sixteen acres. The embankments are from one to four feet high, generally accompanied by an exterior ditch;—the highest is seven or eight feet from bottom of ditch to top of embankment. 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 exclusively confined to the fertile valleys still best fitted to support a dense population. The Mississippi and its tributaries have during the progress of the centuries worn down their valleys in three or four successive 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 classification is by no means to any great extent a geographical one. I have already said that Ohio was the centre, apparently, of the Mound-builders' power.Northward, eastward, and perhaps westward from this centre, the works diminish in extent, fortifications become a more prominent feature, and the remaining monuments approximate perceptibly to those of the more barbarous and later peoples. In fact, we find the modifications that might naturally be expected in a frontier country. Southward from the Ohio region down the Mississippi Valley, it is a common remark in the various writings on the subject, that the monuments increase gradually in magnitude and numbers. This statement seems to have originated, 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 sacred 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 somewhat 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 thousand, while the enclosures were at least fifteen hundred.

FORTIFICATIONS.

I begin with the embankments and enclosures. 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 feethigh, furnish the sites of most of the works; on the lower intermediate terraces, whose banks range 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 regularity, of adobes or earth otherwise prepared, or of material brought from any great distance. The material 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 nothing 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.

FORTIFIED HILLS.

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 latterhad a different purpose, not now understood. Naturally some works occur which have some of the features of both classes. The fortifications are always of irregular form as determined by the nature of the ground.

Fortification—Butler Hill.

A fortification at Butler Hill, near Hamilton, Ohio, is shown in the cut. The summit of the hill is two hundred and fifty feet above the river, the enclosing 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 whichfurnished 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.

Fort Hill, Ohio.

The next cut shows a work at Fort Hill, Ohio, which seems to unite the characters of the two classes of enclosures. It measures twenty-eight hundred by eighteen hundred feet, and is on the second terrace. The wall along 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 hundredfeet in circumference, and have no ditch. 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 circumference, 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 veryfew regular mounds or sacred enclosures are connected. Pidgeon states that a single line of embankment may be traced for seventeen miles, and that there are three hundred and six miles of embankment fortifications in the state. It is quite probable that these embankments originally bore palisades. They vary in height from three to thirty feet, reckoning 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 defences guard the approach to a terrace-point, the ditch is always on the outside. The entrances to this class of enclosures are governed by convenience of exit, accessibility of water, and facilities for defence. They are usually guarded by overlapping walls as shown in the cuts that have been presented. Several of the larger fortifications, however, have a large number of entrances, generally at regular intervals, which it is very difficult to account for.

Fort near Bourneville.

SACRED ENCLOSURES.

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 evident from their position, almost invariably on the most level spot that could be selected and often overlooked by neighboring elevations. Unlike the fortifications they are regular in form, the square and circle predominating and generally found in conjunction, 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 perfectly accurate, and the regular, or sacred, enclosures probably outnumber by many the irregular ones, althoughthey 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 coincidence 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 hundred 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 whose 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 exceptions 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 concentric circles, cut by four broad avenues facing, with slight variation, the cardinal points, and having alarge 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 is from three to seven feet.

Back to Index Next