An ancient and unknown people left remains of settled life, and of a
certain degree of civilization, in the valleys of the Mississippi and
its tributaries. We have no authentic name for them either as a nation
or a race; therefore they are called "Mound-Builders," this name
having been suggested by an important class of their works.
[Illustration: Fig. 2.--The Great Mound, near Miamisburg.]
Prominent among the remains by which we know that such a people once
inhabited that region are artificial mounds constructed with
intelligence and great labor. Most of them are terraced and truncated
pyramids. In shape they are usually square or rectangular, but sometimes
hexagonal or octagonal, and the higher mounds appear to have been
constructed with winding stairways on the outside leading to their
summits. Many of these structures have a close resemblance to the
_teocallis_ of Mexico. They differ considerably in size. The great mound
at Grave Creek, West Virginia, is 70 feet high and 1000 feet in
circumference at the base. A mound in Miamisburg, Ohio, is 68 feet high
and 852 feet in circumference. The great truncated pyramid at Cahokia,
Illinois, is 700 feet long, 500 wide, and 90 in height. Generally,
however, these mounds range from 6 to 30 feet high. In the lower valley
of the Mississippi they are usually larger in horizontal extent, with
less elevation.
Figure 2 represents the great mound near Miamisburg, Ohio, which may be
compared with a similar structure at Mayapan, Yucatan (Fig. 34). Figure
3 shows a square mound near Marietta, Ohio.
[Illustration: Fig. 3.--Square Mound, near Marietta.]
There have been a great many conjectures in regard to the purposes for
which these mounds were built, some of them rather fanciful. I find it
most reasonable to believe that the mounds in this part of the continent
were used precisely as similar structures were used in Mexico and
Central America. The lower mounds, or most of them, must have been
constructed as foundations of the more important edifices of the
mound-building people. Many of the great buildings erected on such
pyramidal foundations, at Palenque, Uxmal, and elsewhere in that region,
have not disappeared, because they were built of hewn stone laid in
mortar. For reasons not difficult to understand, the Mound-Builders,
beginning their works on the lower Mississippi, constructed such
edifices of wood or some other perishable material; therefore not a
trace of them remains. The higher mounds, with broad, flat summits,
reached by flights of steps on the outside, are like the Mexican
_teocallis_, or temples. In Mexico and Central America these structures
were very numerous. They are described as solid pyramidal masses of
earth, cased with brick or stone, level at the top, and furnished with
ascending ranges of steps on the outside. The resemblance is striking,
and the most reasonable explanation seems to be that in both regions
mounds of this class were intended for the same uses. Figure 4 shows the
works at Cedar Bank, Ohio, inclosing a mound. The mound within the
inclosure is 245 feet long by 150 broad. Figure 5 shows a group of
mounds in Washington County, Mississippi, some of which are connected by
means of causeways.
[Illustration: Fig. 4--Works at Cedar Bank, Ohio.]
[Illustration: Fig. 5.--Works in Washington County, Mississippi.]
Another class of these antiquities consists of inclosures formed by
heavy embankments of earth and stone. There is nothing to explain these
constructions so clearly as to leave no room for conjecture and
speculation. It has been suggested that some of them may have been
intended for defense, others for religious purposes. A portion of them,
it may be, encircled villages or towns. In some cases the ditches or
fosses were on the inside, in others on the outside. But no one can
fully explain why they were made. We know only that they were
prepared intelligently, with great labor, for human uses. "Lines of
embankment varying from 5 to 30 feet in height, and inclosing from 1 to
50 acres, are very common, while inclosures containing from 100 to 200
acres are not infrequent, and occasional works are found inclosing as
many as 400 acres." Figures 6 and 7 give views of the Hopeton works,
four miles north of Chillicothe, Ohio. Combinations of the square and
circle are common in these ancient works, and the figures are always
perfect. This perfection of the figures proves, as Squier and Davis
remark, that "the builders possessed a standard of measurement, and had
a means of determining angles."
[Illustration: Fig. 6.--Works at Hopeton, Ohio.]
[Illustration: Fig. 7.--Principal Figures of the Hopeton Works.]
About 100 inclosures and 500 mounds have been examined in Ross County,
Ohio. The number of mounds in the whole state is estimated at over
10,000, and the number of inclosures at more than 1500. The great number
of these ancient remains in the regions occupied by the Mound-Builders
is really surprising. They are more numerous in the regions on the lower
Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico than any where else; and here, in
some cases, sun-dried brick was used in the embankments.
One peculiarity at the South is, that while the inclosures are generally
smaller and comparatively less numerous, there is a greater proportion
of low mounds, and these are often larger in extent. Harrison Mound, in
South Carolina, is 480 feet in circumference and 15 feet high. Another
is described as 500 feet in circumference at the base, 225 at the
summit, and 34 feet high. In a small mound near this, which was opened,
there was found "an urn holding 46 quarts," and also a considerable
deposit of beads and shell ornaments very much decomposed. Broad
terraces of various heights, mounds with several stages, elevated
passages, and long avenues, and aguadas or artificial ponds, are common
at the South. Figure 8 shows the remains of a graded way of this ancient
people near Piketon, Ohio.
[Illustration: Fig. 8.--Graded Way near Piketon, Ohio.]
At Seltzertown, Mississippi, there is a mound 600 feet long, 400 wide,
and 40 feet high. The area of its level summit measures 4 acres. There
was a ditch around it, and near it are smaller mounds. Mr. J. R.
Bartlett says, on the authority of Dr. M. W. Dickeson, "The north side
of this mound is supported by a wall of sun-dried brick two feet thick,
filled with grass, rushes, and leaves." Dr. Dickeson mentions angular
tumuli, with corners "still quite perfect," and "formed of large bricks
bearing the impression of human hands." In Louisiana, near the Trinity,
there is a great inclosure partially faced with sun-dried bricks of
large size; and in this neighborhood ditches and artificial ponds have
been examined. In the Southern States these works appear to assume a
closer resemblance to the mound work of Central America.
The result of intelligent exploration and study of these antiquities is
stated as follows: "Although possessing throughout certain general
points of resemblance going to establish a kindred origin, these works
nevertheless resolve themselves into three grand geographical divisions,
which present in many respects striking contrasts, yet so gradually
merge into each other that it is impossible to determine where one
series terminates and another begins." On the upper lakes, and to a
certain extent in Michigan, Iowa, and Missouri, but particularly in
Wisconsin, the outlines of the inclosures (elsewhere more regular in
form) were designed in the forms of animals, birds, serpents, and even
men, appearing on the surface of the country like huge _relievos_. The
embankment of an irregular inclosure in Adams County, Ohio, is
described as follows by Squier and Davis, Mr. Squier having made the
drawing of it for the work published by the Smithsonian Institution:
"It is in the form of a serpent, upward of 1000 feet in length, extended
in graceful curves, and terminating in a triple coil at the tail. The
embankment constituting this figure is more than 5 feet high, with a
base 30 feet wide at the centre of the body, diminishing somewhat toward
the head and tail. The neck of the figure is stretched out and slightly
curved. The mouth is wide open, and seems in the act of swallowing or
ejecting an oval figure which rests partly within the distended jaws.
This oval is formed by an embankment 4 feet high, and is perfectly
regular in outline, its transverse and conjugate diameters being
respectively 160 and 80 feet. The combined figure has been regarded as a
symbolical illustration of the Oriental cosmological idea of the serpent
and the egg; but, however this may be, little doubt can exist of the
symbolical character of the monument."
Figure 9 gives a view of this work.
No symbolic device is more common among the antiquities of Mexico and
Central America than the form of the serpent, and it was sometimes
reproduced in part in architectural constructions. One of the old books,
giving account of a temple dedicated to Quetzalcohuatl, says, "It was
circular in form, and the entrance represented the mouth of a serpent,
opened in a frightful manner, and extremely terrifying to those who
approached it for the first time."
[Illustration: Fig. 9.--Great Serpent, Adams County, Ohio.]
On the Ohio and its tributaries, and farther south, where the mounds are
numerous, the inclosures have more regular forms; and in the Ohio Valley
very often their great extent has incited speculation. At Newark, Ohio,
when first discovered, they were spread over an area more than two miles
square, and still showed more than twelve miles of embankment from two to
twenty feet high. Farther south, as already stated, the inclosures are
fewer and smaller, or, to speak more exactly, the great inclosures and
high mounds are much less common than low truncated pyramids, and
pyramidal platforms or foundations with dependent works. Passing up the
valley, it is found that Marietta, Newark, Portsmouth, Chillicothe,
Circleville, Ohio; St. Louis, Missouri, and Frankfort, Kentucky, were
favorite seats of the Mound-Builders. This leads one of the most
intelligent investigators to remark that "the centres of population are
now where they were when the mysterious race of Mound-Builders existed."
There is, however, this difference: the remains indicate that their most
populous and advanced communities were at the South. Figure 10 shows a
fortified hill in Butler County, Ohio.
[Illustration: Fig. 10.--Fortified Hill, Butler County, Ohio.]
Among those who have examined and described remains of the
Mound-Builders, Messrs. Squier and Davis rank first in importance,
because they have done most to give a particular and comprehensive
account of them. Their great work, published by the Smithsonian
Institution, must be regarded as the highest authority, and those who
desire to study the whole subject more in detail will find that work
indispensable.