feet in height, a skeleton, apparently an intrusive burial, was found at
the depth of 2 feet immediately below the apex. Near the original
surface of the ground, several feet north of the center, were the
much-decayed skeletons of some six or eight individuals of every size
from the infant to the adult. They were placed horizontally at full
length with the heads toward the south. A few perforated _Unio_ shells
and some rude stone skinners and scrapers were found with them. Near the
original surface, some 10 or 12 feet from the center, on the lower side,
was discovered, lying at full length on its back, an unusually large
skeleton, the length being something over 7 feet. It was all distinctly
traceable though it crumbled to pieces immediately after removal from
the hard earth in which it was encased. With it were three thin,
crescent-shaped pieces of roughly-hammered native copper, respectively
6, 8, and 10 inches in length, with some small holes along the convex
margin; also a number of elongate copper beads, made by rolling together
thin sheets, and a chert lance-head 11 inches long; the latter was
placed near the left thigh. Around the neck were the remains of a
necklace of bears' teeth. Lying across the thighs were dozens of small
copper beads, evidently formed by rolling slender wire-like strips into
small rings. The assistant who opened this mound, and who is personally
well acquainted with Indian habits and customs, suggests that these
beads once formed the ornamentation of the fringe of a hunting shirt.
As No. 4 of this group presents some peculiarities, I take the
description from Colonel Norris's notes:
During a visit to this locality in 1857, he partially opened this mound,
finding masses of burned earth and charred human bones mingled with
charcoal and ashes. At his visit in 1882, on behalf of the Bureau, a
further examination revealed, on the lower side, the end of a double
line of flat stones set on edge, about a foot apart at the bottom and
leaned so as to meet at the top and form a roof-shaped flue or drain.
Following this up, he found that it extended inward nearly on a level,
almost to the center of the mound, at which point it was nearly 3 feet
below the original surface of the ground. Here a skeleton was discovered
stretched horizontally in a vault or grave which had been dug in the
ground before the mound was cast up. Over that portion below the waist
(including the right arm) were placed flat stones so arranged as to
support one another and prevent pressure on the body, but no traces of
fire were on them; yet, when the upper portions of the body were
reached, they were found so burned and charred as to be scarcely
traceable amid the charcoal and ashes that surrounded them.
It was apparent that a grave had first been dug, then the right arm had
been dislocated and placed by the side of the skeleton below the waist,
and this part covered with stones as described, and then the remainder
burned by a fire kindled over it.
A section of the mound showing the grave and stone drain is given in
Fig. 10, in which 1 is the outline of the mound on the hill slope; 2,
the pit; and 3, the stones of the drain.
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--Section of mound 4, East Dubuque, Illinois.]
No. 13 was found to contain a circle or enclosure, 10 feet in diameter,
of stone slabs set on edge at the natural surface of the ground. Within
this circle, but some 2 feet below the surface, were five skeletons: two
adults, two children, and one infant. They were all lying horizontally,
side by side, with heads south, the adults at the outside and the
children between them.
We are reminded by the mode of burial in this case of that in the mound
opened by Dr. Lapham at Waukesha, Wisconsin, before referred to. In that
the remains of a single individual were discovered, but in this it would
seem that the skeletons of an entire family, gathered from their
temporary resting places, had been carefully buried side by side, a
silent testimonial to parental love and affection of friends among the
mound-builders.
No. 1, 6 feet high and 45 feet in diameter, was found to be an ossuary.
Beneath the top layer was an arched stratum of clay and ashes mixed, so
firm and hard as to retain its form unsupported over a space of several
feet. This covered a confused heap of human bones, many of which were
badly decayed.
The marked feature of the group was found in No. 16, a remarkably
symmetrical mound 65 feet in diameter and 10 feet high. After passing
downward 6 feet, mostly through a hard gray layer, a vault partly of
timber and partly of stone was reached. A vertical section of the mound
and vault is shown in Fig. 11, and the ground plan of the vault in Fig.
12.
This vault or crypt was found to be rectangular in form, inside
measurements showing it to be 13 feet long and 7 feet wide, surrounded
by a sandstone wall 3 feet high. Three feet from each end was a
crosswall or partition of like character, thus forming a main central
chamber 7 feet square, and a narrow chamber or cell at each end
something over 2 feet wide and 7 feet long. The whole had been
completely covered with a layer of logs from 6 to 12 inches in diameter,
their ends reaching slightly beyond the side walls in the manner shown
in Fig. 12.
[Illustration: PL. III. GROUP OF MOUNDS AND VERTICAL SECTION OF BLUFF,
EAST DUBUQUE, ILL.]
In the center chamber were found eleven skeletons: six adults and five
children of different ages, including one infant, the latter evidently
buried in the arms of one of the adults, possibly its mother. Apparently
they had all been buried at one time, arranged in a circle, in a
squatting or sitting posture, against the walls. In the center of the
space around which they were grouped was a fine specimen of _Busycon
perversum_, which had been converted into a drinking-cup by removing the
columella. Here were also numerous fragments of pottery.
[Illustration: FIG. 11.--Section of mound 16 (Pl. III) showing vault.]
[Illustration: FIG. 12.--Plan of vault, mound 16 (Pl. III).]
The end cells, walled off from the main portion, as heretofore stated,
were found nearly filled with a very fine chocolate-colored dust, which
gave out such a sickening odor that the workmen were compelled to stop
operations for the day in order to allow it to escape.
The covering of the vault was of oak logs, most of which had been peeled
and some of the larger ones somewhat squared by slabbing off the sides;
and the slabs and bark thus removed, together with reeds or large grass
stems, had been laid over them. Over the whole was spread layer after
layer of mortar containing lime, each succeeding layer harder and
thicker than that which preceded it, a foot or so of ordinary soil
completing the mound.
As there can be scarcely a doubt that the mounds of this group were
built by one tribe, we have here additional evidence that the same
people were accustomed to bury their dead in various ways. Some of the
skeletons are found lying horizontally side by side, others are placed
in a circle in a sitting or squatting posture, while in another mound we
find the dismembered bones heaped in a confused mass. In one place is a
single huge frame decked with the ornaments of savage life, while in
other places we see the members of a family lying side by side, and in
others the bones, possibly of the ordinary people, heaped together in a
common ossuary.
The timber-covered vault in mound No. 16 calls to mind very vividly the
similar vaults mentioned by Squier and Davis,[20] found in the valley of
the Scioto in Ohio. In the latter the walls as well as the covering were
of logs, instead of stone, but the adaptation to circumstances may,
perhaps, form a sufficient explanation of this difference. While there
are several very marked distinctions between the Ohio works and those of
the district now under consideration, there are also some resemblances,
as we shall see as we proceed, which cannot be overlooked, and which
seem to indicate relationship, contact, or intercourse between the
people who were the authors of these different structures.
[Illustration: FIG. 13.--Pipe from Illinois mound. (After Smithsonian
Report.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 14.--Pipe from Illinois mound, 1/2. (After
Smithsonian Report.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 15.--Pipe from Illinois mound, 1/2. (After
Smithsonian Report.)]
In additional support of this view, I call attention to the carved pipes
found by members of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences, in the
mounds near Davenport, Iowa, already referred to, which are represented
on Plates IV and XXXIV of Vol. I of the Proceedings of that society,
and to others obtained by Judge J. G. Henderson from some mounds near
Naples, Illinois, and described in the Smithsonian Report for 1882. The
latter are shown in Figs. 13, 14, and 15. The relation of these to the
pipes found in the Ohio works by Squier and Davis is too apparent to be
attributed to accident, and forces us to the conclusion that there was
intercourse of some kind between the two peoples, and hence that the
works of the two localities are relatively of the same age.
The mode of burial in one of the mounds near Naples is so suggestive in
this connection that I quote here Judge Henderson's description:
The oval mound No. 1 was explored in April, 1881, by beginning
a trench at the north end and carrying it to the original
surface and through to the south end. Lateral trenches were
opened at intervals, and from these and the main one a complete
exploration was made by tunneling.
Near the center of the mound a single skeleton was found in a
sitting position, and no objects were about it except a single
sea-shell resting on the earth _just over the head_, and a
number of the bone awls, already described, _sticking in the
sand around the skeleton_. The individual had been seated upon
the sand, these awls stuck around him in a circle 4 or 5 inches
in the sand, and the work of carrying dirt begun.
When the mound had been elevated about 6 inches above the head
the shell was laid on and the work continued.
The shell alluded to is a fine specimen of _Busycon perversum_, with the
columella removed in order to form a drinking cup.
The particular point to which I call attention is this: In Plate XI,
Part II of De Bry,[21] which is reproduced in the annexed Plate IV, is
represented a very small mound, on the top of which is a large shell,
and about the base a circle of arrows sticking in the ground. The
artist, Le Moyne de Morgues, remarks, in reference to it, "Sometimes the
deceased king of this province is buried with great solemnity, and his
great cup from which he was accustomed to drink is placed on a tumulus
with many arrows set about it." The tumulus in this case is evidently
very small, and, as remarked by Dr. Brinton,[22] "scarcely rises to the
dignity of a mound." Yet it will correspond in size with what the Naples
mound was when the shell was placed upon it; nevertheless the latter,
when completed, formed an oval tumulus 132 feet long, 98 feet wide, and
10 feet high.
It is therefore quite probable that Le Moyne figures the mound at the
time it reached the point where the shell cup was to be deposited, when,
in all likelihood, certain ceremonies were to be observed and a pause in
the work occurred. Whether this suggestion be correct or not, the cut
and the statement of Judge Henderson furnish some evidence in regard to
the presence of these articles in the mounds, and point to the people by
whom they were placed there.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--Group of mounds and hut-rings, Brown County,
Illinois.]
[Illustration: PL. IV. A MOUND, FROM DE BRY.]
Colonel Norris opened a number of the ordinary small burial mounds found
on the bluffs and higher grounds of Pike and Brown Counties, Illinois,
which were found to be constructed in the usual method of this district;
that is, with a layer of hard, mortar-like substance, or clay and ashes
mixed, covering the skeletons. The positions of the skeletons varied, as
we have seen is the case in other localities. The number of intrusive
burials was unusually large here. In a number of cases where there were
intrusive burials near the surface, no bones, or but the slightest
fragments of the bones of the original burial, could be found, although
there were sure indications that the mounds were built and had
apparently been used for this purpose. These mounds also present
evidence of the intrusion of an element from one people into the country
of another. On the farm of Mr. Edward Welch, Brown County, Illinois, is
the group of mounds shown in Fig. 16. This consists of conical and
pyramidal mounds, and the small earthen rings designated house sites.
The form of the larger mounds is shown in Fig. 17. Although standing on
a bluff some 200 feet above the river bottom, it is evident at the first
glance that these works belong to the southern type and were built by
the people who erected those of the Cahokia group or farther south. No
opportunity was allowed to investigate the burial mounds or house sites,
but slight explorations made in the larger mounds sufficed to reveal the
fire-beds so common in southern mounds, thus confirming the impression
given by their form. It is probable that these mark the point of the
extreme northern extension of the southern mound-building tribes. A
colony, probably from the numerous and strong tribe located on Cahokia
Creek around the giant Monk's mound, pushed its way thus far and formed
a settlement, but, after contending for a time with the hostile tribes
which pressed upon it from the north, was compelled to return towards
the south.
[Illustration: FIG. 17.--Forms of larger mounds of the group shown in
Fig. 16.]
Passing to the northeastern portion of Missouri, which, as heretofore
stated, we include in the North Mississippi or Illinois district, we
find a material change in the character of the burial mounds, so marked,
in fact, that it is very doubtful whether they should be embraced in the
district named. Although differing in minor particulars, the custom of
inclosing the remains of the dead in some kind of a receptacle of stone,
over which was heaped the earth forming the mound, appears to have
prevailed very generally.
The region has been but partially explored, yet it is probable the
following examples will furnish illustrations of most of the types to be
found in it.
From an article by Messrs. Hardy and Scheetz in the Smithsonian Report
for 1881,[23] we learn the following particulars regarding the burial
mounds of Ralls County:
Occasionally an isolated one is found, but almost invariably they are in
groups of three to ten or more. They are usually placed along the crest
of a ridge, but when in the bottoms or on a level bluff they are in
direct lines or gentle curves. They are very numerous, being found in
almost every bottom and on nearly every bluff. They are usually circular
and from 2 to 12 feet high, and are composed wholly of earth, wholly of
stone, or of the two combined. Where stone was used the plan seems to
have been first to pave the natural surface with flat stones, in one or
two thicknesses, for a foundation. In one case the stones were thrown
together indiscriminately. Human remains are almost invariably found in
them. The bones are generally very much decayed, though each bone is
found almost entire except those of the head. This seems to have always
rested on a stone, and to have been covered by one or more stones, so
that it is always found in a crushed condition. In rare instances stone
implements, pipes, etc., are found in the mounds. The remains found in
tumuli wholly of stone are much more decayed than in those of mixed
material.
One opened by the writers of the article is described by them as
follows:
On the south side of it the bed stone had been formed into a
shallow trough. On removing the flat stones which covered this,
and which showed no action of fire, we found a bed of charcoal
several inches thick, both animal and vegetable, and the
limestone which composed it was burned completely through. Some
fragments of a human femur were found in a calcined state.
There were no indications of fire elsewhere in the mound, but
there were the partial remains of several skeletons, lying in
two layers, with stone and earth between them.
In another, examined by them, fragments of human bones were found so
near the surface as to be reached by the plow; but deeper, on the north
sides, were single skeletons laid at length east and west, and between
them a mass of bones confused as though thrown in indiscriminately. The
diameter of this mound was about 30 feet, height 2-1/2 feet.
In section 24, township 55, range 7, is a small hill, known as "Wilson's
Knob." Its crest, which is about 120 feet long, is completely covered
with stone to the depth of several feet, the pile being about 20 feet
wide. Examination brought to light the fact that this was originally a
row of stone mounds or burial vaults, nine in number, circular in form,
each from eight to nine feet in diameter (inner measure), and contiguous
to one another. Judging from appearances it would seem that each had
been of a conical or dome-like form. They were composed wholly of stone,
and the remains found in them were almost wholly decomposed.
On another ridge the same parties found another row with four stone
mounds similar to those described, except that the cists were square
instead of circular, the sides of the latter being equal to the diameter
of the former. In these only small fragments of bone could be found.
Although Messrs. Hardy and Scheetz evidently considered these stone
structures as receptacles for the dead, and as erected for this purpose,
yet it is possible they may have been intended for some other use.
The mounds of Pike County are chiefly of mixed material similar to those
mentioned,[24] though some of them contain rectangular stone vaults. One
of these vaults, measuring 4 by 5 feet, was found to contain the remains
of eight skeletons. Another, a regular box-shaped cist of stone slabs,
contained nothing save a few cranial bones very much decayed. Another of
large size contained human remains with which were some arrow-heads, a
vessel of clay, and a carved steatite pipe, having upon its front a
figure-head.
I have given these particulars in order to show how closely they agree
with the discoveries made by the Bureau assistant in this region, from
whose notes I take the following description:
[Illustration: FIG. 18.--Group of mounds, Clarke County, Missouri.]
Between Fox River and Sugar Creek, in Clarke County, a sharp dividing
ridge about 100 feet high extends in a northerly direction for nearly
two miles from where these streams enter upon the open bottom of the
Mississippi. Scattered irregularly along the crest of this ridge is a
line of circular mounds shown in Fig. 18. These range in size from 15 to
50 feet in diameter and from 2 to 6 feet high, and are circular in form.
In No. 3,[25] diameter 35 feet and height 5 feet, situated in the
central portion, was found a stone coffin or cist 7 feet long and 2 feet
wide, formed of slabs of sandstone in the usual manner. This was covered
first with similar slabs and then the whole incased in a layer of
rougher stones. Over this was a layer of hard earth, which was evidently
in a plastic state when placed there, as it had run into and filled up
the interstices. Above this was a foot or more of yellowish earth,
similar to that forming the ridge. In the coffin was the skeleton of an
adult, lying horizontally on the back, but too far gone to decay to
admit of removal. No specimens of art of any kind were found with it.
No. 4, a trifle smaller than No. 3, was opened by running a trench from
the eastern margin. For a distance of 15 or 16 feet nothing was
encountered except the earth, with which it appeared to be covered to
the depth of 2 feet. Here was found a layer of rough stones covering a
mass of charcoal and ashes with bones intermixed. In fact the
indications leave the impression that one or more persons (or their
bones) had been burned in a fire on the natural surface of the earth
near the center of the mound, the coals and brands of which were then
covered with rough stones thrown in, without any system, to the depth of
3 feet, over a space 10 or 12 feet in diameter, and then covered with
earth. Only fragments of charred human bones, pieces of rude pottery,
and stone chips were found commingled with the charcoal and ashes.
Another group on the farm of Mr. J. N. Boulware, near the line between
Clarke and Lewis counties, was examined by the same party. This group,
which is situated on a bench or terrace from 20 to 40 feet above the
Mississippi bottoms, consists of some 55 or 60 ordinary circular mounds
of comparatively small size.
In one of these, 45 feet in diameter and 5 feet high, were found, near
the top, the fragments of a human skeleton much decayed, and broken
pottery, encircled by a row of flat stones set up edgewise and covered
with others of a similar character. Below these was a layer of very
hard light-colored earth, mixed throughout with fragments of charred
human bones and pottery, charcoal and stone chips.
Another, about 60 feet in diameter, was found to consist (except the top
layer of soil, about 1 foot thick) of hard, dried "mortar" (apparently
clay and ashes mixed), in which fragments of charred human bones, small
rounded pieces of pottery, and stone scrapers were mingled with charcoal
and ashes.
"As all the mounds opened here," remarks the assistant, "presented this
somewhat singular feature, I made a very careful examination of this
mortar-like substance. I found that there were differences between
different portions of the same mound sufficiently marked to trace the
separate masses. This would indicate that the mounds were built by
successive deposits of mortar thus mixed with charred bones, and not in
strata but in masses."
THE OHIO DISTRICT.
This, as before stated, includes Ohio, a portion of eastern Indiana, and
the western part of West Virginia.
As only very limited explorations have been made in the Ohio portion of
this district by the Bureau of Ethnology, I will content myself with a
brief allusion to the observations of others.
The descriptions given by Squier and Davis of the few burial mounds they
explored are too well known to require repeating here. Their conclusion
in regard to them, which has already been alluded to, is stated in
general terms as follows:
Mounds of this class are very numerous. They are generally of
considerable size, varying from 6 to 80 feet in height, but
having an average altitude of from 15 to 20 or 25 feet. They
stand without the walls of enclosures at a distance more or
less remote from them.
Many are isolated, with no other monuments near them; but they
frequently occur in groups, sometimes in close connection with
each other, and exhibiting a dependence which was not without
its meaning. They are destitute of altars, nor do they possess
the regularity which characterizes the "temple mounds." The
usual form is that of a simple cone; sometimes they are
elliptical or pear-shaped. These mounds invariably cover a
skeleton (in very rare instances more than one, as in the case
of the Grave Creek mound), which at the time of interment was
enveloped in bark or coarse matting, or inclosed in a rude
sarcophagus of timber, the traces and in some instances the
very casts of which remain. Occasionally the chamber of the
dead is built of stone, rudely laid up, without cement of any
kind. Burial by fire seems to have been frequently practiced by
the mound-builders. Urn burial also appears to have prevailed
to a considerable extent in the Southern States. With the
skeletons in these mounds are found various remains of art,
comprising ornaments, utensils, and weapons.[26]
For the purpose of conveying to the mind a clear idea of the character
of these mounds, I give here a copy of their figure of one of them (Fig.
19), and also of the wooden vault found in it (Fig. 20). This mound, as
was the case with most of the burial mounds opened by them, although
comparatively large, is without any distinct stratification.
In some cases (see Ancient Monuments, Figs. 52 and 53, p. 164) a layer
of bark was first spread on the natural surface of the ground after it
had been cleared, leveled, and packed; on this the body was laid at full
length. It was then covered with another layer of bark and the mound was
heaped over this.
Although no mounds containing stone sepulchers fell under their notice
during their explorations, they obtained satisfactory evidence that one
within the limits of Chillicothe had been removed, in which a stone
coffin, "corresponding very nearly with the _kistvaen_ of English
antiquarians" was discovered.
[Illustration: FIG. 19.--Ohio burial mound (after Squier and Davis).]
[Illustration: FIG. 20.--Wooden vault (after Squier and Davis).]