It is usual to rank the civilized life of the Mound-Builders much below
that of the ancient people of Mexico and Central America. This may be
correct, for the remains as they now exist appear to justify it. But if
all the ancient stone-work in Central America, with its finely-carved
inscriptions and wonderful decorations, had disappeared in the ages
before Europeans visited this continent, the difference might not appear
to be so great; for then the Central American remains, consisting only
of earth-works, truncated pyramids, pyramidal foundations, and their
connected works made of earth, would have a closer resemblance to works
of the Mound-Builders, to those especially found on the lower
Mississippi. On the other hand, if we now had in the Ohio and
Mississippi Valleys remains of the more important edifices anciently
constructed there, the Mound-Builders might be placed considerably
higher in the scale of civilization than it has been customary to allow.
It can be seen, without long study of their works as we know them, that
the Mound-Builders had a certain degree of civilization which raised
them far above the condition of savages. To make such works possible
under any circumstances, there must be settled life, with its
accumulations and intelligently organized industry. Fixed habits of
useful work, directed by intelligence, are what barbarous tribes lack
most of all. A profound change in this respect is indispensable to the
beginning of civilization in such tribes.
No savage tribe found here by Europeans could have undertaken such
constructions as those of the Mound-Builders. The wild Indians found in
North America lived rudely in tribes. They had only such organization as
was required by their nomadic habits, and their methods of hunting and
fighting. These barbarous Indians gave no sign of being capable of the
systematic application to useful industry which promotes intelligence,
elevates the condition of life, accumulates wealth, and undertakes great
works. This condition of industry, of which the worn and decayed works
of the Mound-Builders are unmistakable monuments, means civilization.
Albert Gallatin, who gave considerable attention to their remains,
thought their works indicated not only "a dense agricultural
population," but also a state of society essentially different from that
of the Iroquois and Algonquin Indians. He was sure that the people who
established such settlements and built such works must have been
"eminently agricultural." No trace of their ordinary dwellings is left.
These must have been constructed of perishable materials, which went to
dust long before great forests had again covered most of the regions
through which they were scattered. Doubtless their dwellings and other
edifices were made of wood, and they must have been numerous. It is
abundantly evident that there were large towns at such places as Newark,
Circleville, and Marietta, in Ohio. Figures 11 and 12 give views of
works on Paint Creek, Ohio.
[Illustration: Fig. 11.--Stone-work in Paint Creek Valley, Ohio.]
Their agricultural products may have been similar to many of those found
in Mexico; and it is not improbable that the barbarous Indians, who
afterward occupied the country, learned from them the cultivation of
maize. Their unity as a people, which is every where so manifest, must
have been expressed in political organization, else it could not have
been maintained.
[Illustration: Fig. 12.--Work on North Fork of Paint Creek.]
[Illustration: Fig. 13.--Ancient Work, Pike County, Ohio.]
[Illustration: Fig. 14.--Elliptical Work near Brownsville, Ohio.]
[Illustration: Fig. 15.--Works near Liberty, Ohio.]
In the details of their works, and in manufactured articles taken from
the mounds, there is evidence of considerable civilization. For
instance, it has been ascertained that the circular inclosures are
perfect circles, and the square inclosures perfect squares. They were
constructed with a geometrical precision which implies a kind of
knowledge in the builders that may be called scientific. Figures 13, 14,
15, 16 show some of the more important works of the Mound-Builders,
chiefly in Ohio. Relics of art have been dug from some of the mounds,
consisting of a considerable variety of ornaments and implements, made
of copper, silver, obsidian, porphyry, and greenstone, finely wrought.
There are axes, single and double; adzes, chisels, drills or gravers,
lance-heads, knives, bracelets, pendants, beads, and the like, made of
copper. There are articles of pottery, elegantly designed and finished;
ornaments made of silver, bone, mica from the Alleghanies, and shells
from the Gulf of Mexico.
[Illustration: Fig. 16.--Rectangular Work, Randolph County, Indiana.]
The articles made of stone show fine workmanship; some of them are
elaborately carved. Tools of some very hard material must have been
required to work the porphyry in this manner. Obsidian is a volcanic
product largely used by the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians for arms and
cutting instruments. It is found in its natural state nowhere nearer the
Mississippi Valley than the Mexican mountains of Cerro Gordo.
There appears to be evidence that the Mound-Builders had the art of
spinning and weaving, for cloth has been found among their remains. At
the meeting of the International Congress of Pre-Historic Archaeology
held at Norwich, England, in 1868, one of the speakers stated this fact
as follows: "Fragments of charred cloth made of spun fibres have been
found in the mounds. A specimen of such cloth, taken from a mound in
Butler County, Ohio, is in Blackmore Museum, Salisbury. In the same
collection are several lumps of burnt clay which formed part of the
'altar,' so called, in a mound in Ross County, Ohio: to this clay a few
charred threads are still attached." Figures 17 and 18 represent
specimens of vases taken from the mounds.
[Illustration: Figs. 17, 18.--Vases from the Mounds.]
Mr. Schoolcraft gives this account of a discovery made in West Virginia:
"_Antique tube: telescopic device._ In the course of excavations made in
1842 in the easternmost of the three mounds of the Elizabethtown group,
several tubes of stone were disclosed, the precise object of which has
been the subject of various opinions. The longest measured twelve
inches, the shortest eight. Three of them were carved out of steatite,
being skillfully cut and polished. The diameter of the tube externally
was one inch and four tenths; the bore, eight tenths of an inch. This
calibre was continued till within three eighths of an inch of the sight
end, when it diminishes to two tenths of an inch. By placing the eye at
the diminished end, the extraneous light is shut from the pupil, and
distant objects are more clearly discerned."
He points out that the carving and workmanship generally are very
superior to Indian pipe carvings, and adds, if this article was a work
of the Mound-Builders "intended for a telescopic tube, it is a most
interesting relic." An ancient Peruvian relic, found a few years since,
shows the figure of a man wrought in silver, in the act of studying the
heavens through such a tube. Similar tubes have been found among relics
of the Mound-Builders in Ohio and elsewhere. In Mexico, Captain Dupaix
saw sculptured on a peculiar stone structure the figure of a man making
use of one. Astronomical devices were sculptured below the figure. This
structure he supposed to have been used for observation of the stars.
His account of it will be given in the chapter on Mexican and Central
American ruins.
The Mound-Builders used large quantities of copper such as that taken
from the copper beds on Lake Superior, where the extensive mines yield
copper, not in the ore, but as pure metal. It exists in those beds in
immense masses, in small veins, and in separated lumps of various sizes.
The Mound-Builders worked this copper without smelting it. Spots of pure
silver are frequently found studding the surface of Lake Superior
copper, and appearing as if welded to it, but not alloyed with it. No
other copper has this peculiarity; but copper with similar blotches of
silver has been dug from the mounds. It was naturally inferred from this
fact that the ancient people represented by these antiquities had some
knowledge of the art of mining copper which had been used in the copper
region of Lake Superior. This inference finally became an ascertained
fact.