Transcriber's Note:

This paper is a part of the Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1883-1884, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1887, pages 3-120. The index has been extracted from the volume index.

Minor printing errors have been corrected in this version and are listed below.

[p72]: Inserted the first word of the sentence beginning "A section of this bed...."
[p73]: "thichness" changed to "thickness"
[p78]: "victoms" changed to "victims"
[p88]: "throughot" changed to "throughout"
[p114]: "quelqu'vn" changed to "quelqu'un"
[Footnote [29]: "Smithonian" changed to "Smithsonian"
[Footnote [45]: "Vol," changed to "Vol."

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION—BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY.

BURIAL MOUNDS
OF THE
NORTHERN SECTIONS OF THE UNITED STATES.

BY

PROF. CYRUS THOMAS.

CONTENTS.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

BURIAL MOUNDS OF THE NORTHERN SECTIONS OF THE UNITED STATES.

By Cyrus Thomas, Ph.D.

INTRODUCTORY.

All the works of the mound-builders of our country are exceedingly interesting to the antiquarian and are valuable as illustrating the habits, customs, and condition of the people by whom they were formed, but the sepulchral tumuli surpass all others in importance in this respect. Although usually simple in form and conveying thereby no indications of the characteristics of the people by whom they were erected, yet when explored they reveal to us, by their internal structure and contents, more in regard to the habits, beliefs, and art of their authors than can be learned from all their other works combined. From them we are enabled to learn some traits of ethnical character. The gifts to, or property of, their dead deposited in these sepulchers illustrate their arts and customs and cast some rays of light into their homes and daily life, and the regard for their dead indicated by the remaining evidences of their modes of burial and sepulchral rites affords some glimpses of their religious beliefs and superstitions. The larger and more imposing works, as the pyramidal mounds, the enclosures, canals, etc., furnish indications of their character, condition, strength, and culture-status as a people or tribe, but the burial mounds and their contents, besides the evidences they furnish in regard to the religious belief and art of the builders, tell us something of individual traits, something of their social life, their tastes, their personal regard for each other, and even something of the diseases to which they were subject. What is still more important, the modes of burial and vestiges of art found with the dead furnish us undoubted evidences of tribal distinctions among the authors of these works, and, together with the differences in external form, enable us to determine in a general way the respective areas occupied by the different tribes or peoples during the mound-building age.

Judging by all the data so far obtained relating to the form, internal structure, and contents of these works, much of which has not yet been published, we are perhaps warranted in concluding that the following districts or areas were occupied by different peoples or tribes. As a matter of course we can only designate these areas in general terms.

(1) The Wisconsin district, or area of the emblematic or effigy mounds. This embraces the southern half of Wisconsin, a small portion of the northern part of Illinois, and the extreme northeast corner of Iowa. The effigy or animal mounds form the distinguishing feature of the works of this district, but aside from these there are other features sufficient to separate the works of this section from those further south.

(2) The Illinois or Upper Mississippi district, embracing eastern Iowa, northeastern Missouri, and northern and central Illinois, as far south as the mouth of the Illinois River.

In this region the works are mostly simple conical tumuli of small or moderate size, found on the uplands, ridges, and bluffs as well as on the bottoms, and were evidently intended chiefly as depositories of the dead. They are further characterized by internal rude stone and wooden vaults or layers; by the scarcity of pottery vessels, the frequent occurrence of pipes, the presence of copper axes, and often a hard, mortar-like layer over the primary or original burial. The skeletons found are usually extended, though frequently in a sitting or squatting posture.

Walls and enclosures are of rare occurrence in this region.

(3) The Ohio district, including the State of Ohio, the western part of West Virginia, and the eastern portion of Indiana. Although the works of this region present some features which are common to those of the Gulf section, there are several peculiar characteristics which warrant us in designating it as a distinct district. Among other of these peculiar features we notice the great circles and squares of the enclosures, the long parallel lines of earthen walls, the so-called "altar mounds," or mounds containing structures chiefly of clay to which the name "altar" has been applied; the numerous carved stone pipes; the character of the pottery and the methods of burial.

(4) The New York district, confined chiefly to the northern and western parts of the State of New York, but including also the lake region of the central portion.

As the antiquities of this district have been shown by Squier to be chiefly due to the Indian tribes occupying that section at the time of its discovery by the Europeans, it is unnecessary to note the distinguishing characteristics. The works are chiefly enclosing walls, remains of palisades, and burial mounds.

(5) The Appalachian district, including western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, southwestern Virginia, and part of southeastern Kentucky.

The characteristics which appear to warrant us in concluding that the works of this region pertain to a different people from those in the other districts, at the same time seem to show some relation to those of the Ohio district. Such are the numerous stone pipes, the altar-like structures found in some of the mounds, and the presence of mica plates with the skeletons. But the peculiar features are the mode of burial, the absence of pottery, and the numerous polished celts and engraved shells found in the mounds.

Although it is probable that there are at least three districts in the southern portion of the United States, they appear to pass from one into the other by such slight changes in the character of the works as to render it exceedingly difficult to fix the boundaries between them. I therefore mention the following, provisionally, as being those indicated by the data so far obtained.

(6) The Middle Mississippi area or Tennessee district, including southeast Missouri, northern Arkansas, middle and western Tennessee, southern and western Kentucky, and southern Illinois. The works of the Wabash valley possibly belong also to this district, but the data obtained in regard to them are not sufficient to decide this point satisfactorily. This district, like the others of the south, is distinguished from the northern section by its larger mounds, many of which are pyramidal and truncated and often terraced, and which were, beyond question, used as domiciliary mounds. Here we also meet with repeated examples of enclosures though essentially different from those of Ohio; also ditches and canals. From the Lower Mississippi and Gulf districts, with which, as we have said, it is closely allied, it is distinguished chiefly by the presence of the box-shaped stone cists or coffins, by the small circular house-sites or hut-rings, and by the character of the pottery. This is pre-eminently the pottery region, the typical forms being the long-necked, gourd-shaped vase and the image-vessels. In this district the carved stone pipes are much less common than in the Illinois, Ohio, and Appalachian districts.

(7) The Lower Mississippi district, including the southern half of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. There are no marked characteristics by which to distinguish it from the Middle district; in fact as we move southward along the Mississippi from the mouth of the Illinois river, the works and their contents indicate a succession of tribes differing but slightly in habits, customs, and modes of life, the river generally forming one natural boundary between them, but the other boundaries being arbitrary. For example, the Cahokia region appears to have been the home of a tribe from which at one time a colony pushed northward and settled for a while in Brown and Pike Counties, Illinois. The extreme southeastern counties of Missouri were probably the seat of another populous tribe which extended its borders into the western part of southern Illinois and slightly into northeast Arkansas, and closely resembled in customs and art the ancient people who occupied that part of the Cumberland valley in middle Tennessee. This subsection is principally distinguished by the presence of the small circular house-sites, which are slightly basin-shaped, with a low ring of earth around them. As we move farther southward into Arkansas the house-sites change into low circular mounds, usually from 1 to 3 feet in height, and in nearly every instance containing a layer of clay (often burned) and ashes.

These small mounds, which are clearly shown to have been house-sites, were also burial places. It appears to have been a very common custom in this section to bury the dead in the floor, burn the dwelling over them, and cover the whole with dirt, the last operation often taking place while the embers were yet smouldering. Burial in graves was also practiced to a considerable extent. As we approach the Arkansas River, moving southward and from thence into Louisiana, the pottery shows a decided improvement in character and ornamentation.

(8) The Gulf district, including the Gulf States east of the Mississippi. The works of this section appear to be closely allied to those of the Lower Mississippi district, as here we also find the large flat-topped pyramidal mounds, enclosing walls, and surrounding ditches and canals.

The chief differences are to be found in the forms and ornamentation of the pottery and modes of burial.

As we approach the Mississippi River the distinguishing features gradually disappear, although there appears to be a distinct subdistrict in the northern part of Mississippi, and as we enter the Florida peninsula a change is observed which appears to indicate a different people, but the data so far obtained are not sufficient to enable us to outline the subdistricts.

This districting is to be regarded as a working hypothesis rather than as a settled conclusion which will stand the test of future investigations. It is more than likely that other subdivisions will be found necessary, and that the boundaries of some of the districts given will have to be more or less modified; still, I believe the arrangement will be found substantially correct.

As a very general and almost universal rule, mounds of the class under consideration are more or less conical in form, and are common to all sections where earthworks are known to exist, in fact they form almost the only ancient remains of some localities. Often they are isolated, with no other monuments near them, but more frequently they occur in groups or are associated with other works. Squier and Davis say "they are generally of considerable size, varying from 6 to 80 feet in height, but having an average of from 15 to 25 feet."[1]

This is probably true in regard to the mounds explored by these archaeologists in Ohio, but is erroneous if applied generally; as very many, evidently used and intended as burying places only, are but two or three feet high, and so far as the more recent examinations made in other sections—especially the explorations carried on under the Bureau of Ethnology—have shown, tumuli of this character are usually from 3 to 10 feet high, though some, it is true, are of much larger dimensions; but these are the exceptions and not the rule.[2]

As the authors just alluded to are so frequently referred to by writers, and their statements in reference to the works explored by them are taken as of general application, I will venture to correct another statement made by them in regard to mounds of this character. They assert that "these mounds invariably cover a single skeleton (in very rare instances more than one, as in the case of the Grave Creek mound), which, at the time of its interment, was enveloped in bark or coarse matting or enclosed in a rude sarcophagus of timber, the traces, 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."[3]

I have investigated but few of the ancient works of Ohio personally, or through the assistants of the Bureau, hence I can only speak in regard to them from what has been published and from communications received, but judging from these, Messrs. Squier and Davis, while no doubt correctly describing the mounds explored by them, have been too hasty in drawing general conclusions.

That burial mounds in the northern sections very frequently cover but a single skeleton is true, but that this, even in this section, is universally true or that it is the general rule is a mistake, as will appear from what is shown hereafter. Nor will it apply as a rule to those of the southern sections.

To illustrate the character and construction of these mounds, and modes of burial in them, I will introduce here brief descriptions of the leading types found in the different northern districts heretofore mentioned, confining myself chiefly to the explorations made by the Bureau assistants.

BURIAL MOUNDS OF THE WISCONSIN DISTRICT.

Following the order of the geographical districts heretofore given, we commence with the Wisconsin section, or region of the effigy mounds.

As a general rule the burial mounds in this area are comparatively small, seldom exceeding 10 feet in height and generally ranging from 3 to 6 feet. In all cases these belong to that class of works usually denominated "simple conical tumuli."

Of the methods of construction and modes of burial there appear to be some two or three types, though not so different as necessarily to indicate different tribes or peoples. One of these is well represented in the following extract from Dr. I. A. Lapham's work describing some mounds opened by Dr. Hoy, near Racine:

We excavated fourteen of the mounds, some with the greatest possible care. They are all sepulchral, of a uniform construction as represented in Fig. 1 [our [Fig. 1].] Most of them contained more than one skeleton; in one instance we found no less than seven. We could detect no appearance of stratification, each mound having been built at one time and not by successive additions. During the investigations we obtained sufficient evidence to warrant me in the following conclusions. The bodies were regularly buried in a sitting or partly kneeling posture facing the east, with the legs placed under them. They were covered with a bark or log roofing over which the mound was built.[4]

In these a basin-shaped excavation some 2 or 3 feet deep was first made in the soil in which the bodies were deposited, as shown in [Fig. 1].

Mr. Middleton, one of the Bureau assistants, in 1883, opened quite a number of small burial mounds in Crawford and Vernon counties, belonging to the same type as those just described; some with the excavation in the original soil in which the skeletons were deposited, though in others there were no such excavations, the skeletons being deposited on the original surface or at various depths in the mounds. I give here descriptions of a few of them from his notes:

The one numbered 16, of the Courtois group, is about 20 feet in diameter, and at present scarcely more than 1 foot high, the ground having been in cultivation for several years and the mound considerably lowered by the plow. A vertical section is given in [Fig. 2], a a, indicating the natural surface of the ground, b the part of the mound removed, and c the original circular excavation in the natural soil to the depth of 2 feet.

Four skeletons were found in this excavation, two side by side near the center, with heads south, faces up, one near the north margin with head west, and the other on the south side with head east, all stretched at full length.

In another mound of the same group with a similar excavation nothing save a single skull was found. In another of exactly the same kind some of the skeletons were folded, while others were extended at full length.

In all these cases, and in a majority of the small burial mounds opened in this western part of the State, there was no stratification; still there were found some exceptions to this rule.

Vestiges of art were comparatively rare in them, yet here and there were found an arrow-point, a chipped flint scraper or celt—in some instances remarkably fine specimens—a few large copper gorgets, evidently hammered from native copper, copper beads, etc. Very few vessels of pottery were obtained from them, but one was discovered, shown in [Fig. 3], which I believe is of the finest quality of this ware so far obtained from the mounds of the United States. There were intrusive burials in a few of these mounds, but these have been wholly omitted from consideration in the descriptions given.

In a few instances the mounds seem to have been built solely for the purpose of covering a confused mass of human bones gathered together after the flesh had disappeared or had been removed. Similar mounds are described by Mr. Thomas Armstrong as found near Ripon, Fond du Lac County. Speaking of these, Mr. Armstrong says:

As to how these bones came to be placed in these mounds, we can of course only conjecture; but from their want of arrangement, from the lack of ornaments and implements, and from their having been placed on the original surface, we are inclined to believe that the dry bones were gathered together—those in the large mounds first and those in the smaller ones afterwards—and placed in loose piles on the ground and the earth heaped over them until the mounds were formed.[5]

There can be no doubt that the bones in this case were gathered up from other temporary burial places or depositories, as was the custom of several tribes of Indians.

A number of burial mounds opened by Mr. W. G. Anderson, near Madison, were found to be of the same general type as those mentioned by Mr. Middleton. These he describes as being very low and poorly made. Eight were opened, all having been built in the same way, with only one layer of black earth, so hard as to make the work of excavation exceedingly laborious. These were circular, and about 4 feet high. Skeletons were found as near as 12 or 13 inches to the surface, but badly decayed. There were no sarcophagi or coffins, and in all cases the heads pointed towards the west.[6]

In some instances the mound contained a circular stone wall, within which a pit had been dug to the depth of 2 or 3 feet in the original soil, as, for example, the one near Waukesha, described by Dr. Lapham.[7]

A mound in Crawford County, opened by Colonel Norris, one of the Bureau assistants, in 1882, shows a similar vault or pit, but differs from the preceding in being distinctly stratified and wanting the stone wall. The construction of this tumulus and the mode of burial in it were as follows:

Proceeding from the top downwards, there was first a layer of soil and sand about 1 foot thick; next, nearly 2 feet in depth of calcined human bones, without order, mingled with which were charcoal, ashes, and a reddish-brown mortar-like substance, burned as hard as pavement brick. This layer is numbered 4 in the annexed cut ([Fig. 4]), which represents a vertical section of the mound. Immediately below this was a layer about 1 foot thick (No. 3) of clay or mortar mixed with sand, burned to a brick-red color. Below this, in the space marked 2 in the cut, were found the bones of fifteen or twenty individuals, in a confused heap, without order or arrangement. Mingled with these were firebrands, charcoal, and ashes. The bones were charred, some of them to charcoal, and some were glazed with melted sand. The mass appears to have been first covered with soft clay-mortar, which ran into and filled the spaces, and the burning to have been done afterwards by means of brush or wood heaped on the top, as among the bones were lumps of hard burned clay.

The bottom of this layer corresponded with the original surface of the ground, but the excavation being continued, a circular vault or pit, 6 feet in diameter, was found extending downwards, with perpendicular sides, to the depth of nearly 3 feet. The bottom of this pit was covered to the depth of an inch with fine chocolate-colored dust. Although the filling of this pit was chiefly sand, there was a cavity at the bottom a foot high in the center, over which the sand filling was arched as shown in the figure.

It is evident that the skeletons in this mound were buried after the flesh had been removed, as we can on no other supposition explain the fact that the clay or mortar had filled the interstices between the bones, and that in some cases it had even penetrated into the skulls.

Another mound, opened by Colonel Norris in the same neighborhood, presented some peculiarities worthy of notice, although not sufficient to mark it as belonging to a distinct type.

According to his report, the southern portion had previously been explored by Judge Branson, who found at the base some six or eight skeletons lying stretched out horizontally, and covered by a dry, light-colored mortar which must have been spread over them while in a soft condition, as it had run between the bones and encased them, and in some cases, as in the mound just described, filled the skulls. As only the southern portion had been opened he removed the remainder. The dried mortar-like substance was very hard and difficult to dig through, but the pick soon struck some rough, flat limestone rocks which proved to be parts of a rude wall about 3 feet high and 8 feet long, built on the natural surface of the ground. In the opposite side of the mound, 12 feet distant from and parallel with it, was another similar wall. Between them and on the natural surface of the ground, side by side, were a number of skeletons lying flat and lengthwise and parallel with the walls. A vertical section of this mound is shown in [Fig. 5]. The little circles at the bottom between the walls indicate the heads of the skeletons; No. 4, the layer of mortar over the bones; 3, a layer of hard clay mixed with ashes; 2, a layer of clay; and 1, the top covering of sand and soil about 18 inches thick. Before being disturbed this mound was 35 feet in diameter and 6 feet high.

As it is evident that the burials in this case were made at one time, and as the mortar-like substance had run into the interstices, it is more than probable that the skeletons were deposited after the flesh had been removed.

The following description of a mound with a single original and several intrusive burials is also taken from Colonel Norris' notes of work in Crawford County:

One large mound of this group, 70 feet in diameter and 10 feet high, still unexplored, was opened. It had been considerably defaced, especially on the west side. According to tradition it was a noted burial place with the Indians, which was certainly confirmed by the result. The surface or top layer was composed of sand and alluvial earth to the depth of some 3 or 4 feet. Scattered through this in almost every part of the mound were human skeletons in various stages of decay and in different positions, but mostly stretched horizontally on the back. Scattered among the remains were numerous fragments of blankets, clothing and human hair, 1 copper kettle of modern pattern, 3 copper bracelets (hammered from native copper), 1 silver locket, 10 silver bracelets (one having the name "Montreal," and another the letters "A B" stamped on it), 2 silver earrings, 6 silver brooches, 1 copper finger-ring, 1 double silver cross, 1 knife-handle, and 1 battered bullet. In fact the top layer to the depth of 3 or 4 feet seemed to be packed as full of skeletons and relics as possible.

Carrying the trench down to the original surface of the ground, he found at the bottom, near the center, a single skeleton of an adult in the last stages of decay. With it were the following articles: 2 stone scrapers, a small stone drill, fragments of river shells, and pieces of a mammoth tusk. The earth below the upper layer was mixed with clay and ashes, evidently different from the surrounding soil.

Several mounds opened by him in Grant County contained charred human bones, and one or two covered confused masses of bones, being similar in this respect to some of those heretofore mentioned.

A mound which he opened in Sheboygan County, containing a single skeleton, is described as about 50 feet in diameter and 5 feet high. After passing through 18 inches of surface soil, the central mass, composed of earth mingled with charcoal, ashes, and loose stones, was reached. Near the center of this mass, and at the bottom of the mound, a large human skeleton was discovered, apparently holding between the hands and knees a large clay vase. Immediately over this skeleton was an irregular layer of flat bowlders.

Another mound of this group, about the same size as the preceding, was found literally filled with skeletons to the depth of 2½ feet, evidently intrusive burials, as they were accompanied with iron implements, silver ornaments, etc. Beneath these was a layer of rounded drift bowlders aggregating several wagon loads. Below these and in a shallow excavation in the natural surface of the ground were some forty or more skeletons in a sitting or squatting posture, disposed in circles around and facing the central space, which was occupied by an unusually large shell (Busycon perversum).

It is worthy of notice in this connection that there are no effigy mounds, so far as known, in the immediate section where the two works just mentioned are situated, but there is near by, one small oval enclosure about 50 feet in diameter.

In studying the burial mounds of the district now under consideration, of which the foregoing may be considered as types, there appears to be no marked distinction between the intrusive burials of modern Indians and the original burials for which the mounds were constructed. In both we observe from one to many skeletons in a place; in both we find them stretched out horizontally and also folded; in both we sometimes notice evidences of fire and partially-consumed bones; in both we find instances where the mortar-like covering has been used, and in both we meet occasionally with those confused masses of bones which seem to have been gathered from graves or other temporary burial places into these mounds as common depositories. Moreover the transition from one to the other is so gradual as to leave us nothing save the position in the mound and the presence of vestiges of civilized art to distinguish the former from the latter.

A large portion of these mounds, as has already been stated, are unstratified, and each was probably thrown up and completed at one time; yet skeletons are found at various depths in some of these, as, for example, one opened by Mr. Middleton, in Vernon County, a vertical section of which is shown in [Fig. 6], a a indicating the original surface of the ground and the stars the positions of the skeletons, some of which were stretched out at full length while others were folded. The heads were towards different points of the compass and the bones of all were so much decayed that none could be preserved. Several instances of this kind were observed, in some cases those skeletons near the surface or top of the mound indicating burial after contact with the whites.

It is apparent, therefore, that although some of the burial mounds of this district must be attributed to the so-called mound-builders, others were certainly built by the Indians found inhabiting it at the advent of the whites. There can scarcely be a doubt that some of the small unstratified tumuli described are the work of the Indians. If this is conceded there would seem to be no halting place short of attributing all of this class in this district to the same race.

Dr. Hoy's statement that in some cases there was evidence that the bodies had been "covered with a bark or log roofing," is in exact accord with a well-known burial custom of some of the tribes of the Northwest.

According to Mr. M. B. Kent, the Sacs and Foxes, who formerly resided in the region now under consideration, buried the body "in a grave made about 2½ feet deep, which was laid always with the head towards the east, the burial taking place as soon after death as possible. The grave was prepared by putting bark in the bottom of it before the corpse was deposited, a plank covering made and secured some distance above the body."

Another method followed by the same people, according to Mr. J. W. Spencer[8], was to make a shallow hole in the ground, setting the body in it up to the waist, so that most of the body was above the ground. A trench was then dug about the grave, in which pickets were planted. But the usual method was to place split pieces of wood about three feet long over the body, meeting at the top in the form of a roof, on which dirt was thrown to keep them in place.

According to Potherie[9], the Iroquois were accustomed to cover the bodies, after being deposited in the "fosse," with bark of trees, on which they cast earth and stones.

According to Schoolcraft[10], the Mohawks of New York—

make a large round hole in which the body can be placed upright or upon its haunches: which after the body is placed in it is covered with timber to support the earth which they lay over, and thereby keep the body from being pressed. They then raise the earth in a round hill over it.[11]

The burial customs of northern tribes, known to have occupied portions of the effigy mound district, agree so exactly with what we see in the sepulchral tumuli of this district as to justify the conclusion reached by Dr. Lapham, after a long and careful personal study of them, that they are to be attributed to Indians. Some he was rather inclined to ascribe to tribes which had migrated, had been driven off by other tribes, or been incorporated into them previous to the advent of the white race. But he maintained that the subsequent tribes or those found occupying the country "continued the practice of mound-building so far as to erect a circular or conical tumulus over their dead." And he adds significantly, "This practice appears to be a remnant of ancient customs that connects the mound-builders with the present tribes."[12]

The evidence in regard to these unstratified mounds appears to lead directly to the conclusion that they are all the work of the Indians found occupying the country at the time it was first visited by whites or of their ancestors. If it is conceded that the small unstratified tumuli are in part the work of these aborigines, there would seem to be no escape from the conclusion that all the burial mounds of this district are to be ascribed to them; for, although there are some two or three types of burial and burial mounds, the gradation from one to the other is so complete as to leave no marked line of distinction, and Dr. Lapham is fully justified in asserting that the evidence connects the mound-builders with the modern Indians. The stratified mounds in which the hard clay or mortar covering over the remains is found, and which we shall again meet with in the adjoining district, may be the work of different tribes from those which constructed the small unstratified tumuli, but the distinctions between the two classes are not such as to justify the belief that they are to be attributed to a different race or to a people occupying a higher or widely different culture-status.

Having reached this conclusion it is impossible for us to halt here; we are compelled to take one step farther in the same direction and ascribe the singular structures known as "effigy mounds" to the same people. The two classes of work are too intimately connected to admit of the supposition that the effigy mounds were built by one race or people, and the conical tumuli by another. We might as well assume that the enclosures of Ohio were the work of one people, but the mounds accompanying them of another.

That works of different tribes or nations may frequently be found intermingled on areas over which successive waves of population have passed is admitted, but that one part of what is clearly a system is to be attributed to one people and the other part to another people is a hypothesis unworthy of serious consideration. The only possible explanations of the origin, object, or meaning of these singular structures are based, whether confessedly so or not, on the theory that they are of Indian origin. Remove the Indian element from the problem and we are left without even the shadow of an hypothesis.

The fact that the effigy mounds were not used as places of sepulture, and that no cemeteries save the burial mounds are found in connection with them, is almost conclusive proof that the two, as a rule, must be attributed to the same people, that they belong to one system. If this conclusion is considered legitimate, it will lend much aid to the study of these works. It is true it is not new, but it has been generally ignored, and hence could not aid in working out results.

The following extract from Dr. Lapham's "Antiquities of Wisconsin" will not be considered inappropriate at this point:[13]

The ancient works in Wisconsin are mostly at the very places selected by the present Indians for their abodes, thus indicating that the habits, wants, modes of subsistence, &c., of their builders were essentially the same.

If the present tribes have no traditions running back as far as the time of Allouez and Marquette, or even to the more recent time of Jonathan Carver, it is not strange that none should exist in regard to the mounds, which must be of much earlier date.

It is by considerations of this nature that we are led to the conclusion that the mound-builders of Wisconsin were none others than the ancestors of the present tribes of Indians.

There is some evidence of a greater prevalence than at present of prairie or cultivated land in this State at no very remote age. The largest trees are probably not more than five hundred years old, and large tracts of land are now covered with forests of young trees where there are no traces of an antecedent growth. Every year the high winds prostrate great numbers of trees and frequent storms pass through the forest, throwing down nearly everything before them. Trees are left with a portion of the roots still in the ground, so as to keep them alive for several years after their prostration. These "wind-falls" are of frequent occurrence in the depths of the forests and occasion much difficulty in making the public surveys. The straight lines of the sections frequently encounter them.

The amount of earth adhering to the roots of a tree when prostrated by the wind is, under favorable circumstances, very considerable, and upon their decay forms an oblong mound of greater or less magnitude, and a slight depression is left where the tree stood. These little hillocks are often by the inexperienced mistaken for Indian graves. From the paucity of these little "tree-mounds" we infer that no very great antiquity can be assigned to the dense forests of Wisconsin; for, during a long period of time, with no material change of climate, we would expect to find great numbers of these little monuments of ancient storms scattered everywhere over the ground.

Whether the greater extent of treeless country in former times was owing to natural or artificial causes it is now difficult to determine, but the great extent of ancient works within the depths of the present forests would seem to indicate that the country was at least kept free from trees by the agency of man.

Many of these tree-mounds were observed on and about the ancient works.

Another curious circumstance that may be noticed by inspection of the figures of mounds accompanying this work is the gradual transition, as it were, or change of one form into another. Examples can be found of all forms, from a true circle through the oval and elongated oval to the oblong mounds and long ridges. Again, there is a succession of mounds, from the simple ridge of considerable size at one end and gradually diminishing to a point at the other, through the intermediate forms, having one, two, three, or four projections to the "turtle-form." In this way, also, we may trace a gradual development (so to speak) of nearly all the more complicated forms.

It is not pretended to assert that this was the order in which the mounds were erected; or that the aborigines gradually acquired the art by successive essays or lessons. Indeed, we are led to believe that the more complicated forms are the most ancient.

The relative ages of the different works in Wisconsin, so far as they can be ascertained from the facts now before us, are probably about as follows:

First and oldest. The animal forms, and the great works at Aztalan.

Second. The conical mounds built for sepulchral purposes, which come down to a very recent period.

Third. The indications of garden-beds planted in regular geometrical figures or straight lines.

Fourth. The plantations of the present tribes, who plant without system or regularity.

Thus the taste for regular forms and arrangements, and the habits of construction with earthy materials seems to have been gradually lost, until all traces of them disappear in our modern degenerate red men.

The animal-shaped mounds and accompanying oblongs and ridges, constituting the first of the above series, are composed of whitish clay or of the subsoil of the country.

The mounds of the second series, or burial mounds, are usually composed of black mould or loam, promiscuously intermixed with the lighter-colored subsoil.

BURIAL MOUNDS OF THE ILLINOIS OR UPPER MISSISSIPPI DISTRICT.

This district, as heretofore stated, includes eastern Iowa, northeastern Missouri, and northern and central Illinois as far south as the mouth of the Illinois River.

Although we are justified in concluding that this area was occupied during the mound-building age by tribes different from those residing in the Wisconsin district, yet the distinguishing characteristics are more apparent in the forms of the works than in the modes of burial and internal construction of the burial mounds. We shall see by the illustrations hereafter given that at least one of the types found in one district is common in the other. But this is to be expected and is readily explained by the supposition that the tribes which have occupied these regions moved back and forth, thus one after another coming upon the same area. The absence of evidence of such movements would indicate that the mound-building period was of comparatively short duration, a theory which I believe has not been adopted by any authority, but to which I shall have occasion again to refer. One class of the burial mounds of this district is well represented in a group, explored by the members of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences, on the Cook farm, near Davenport, Iowa. The mounds of this group are situated on the immediate bank of the Mississippi at a height not exceeding 8 to 12 feet above high-water mark; they are conical in form and of comparatively small size, varying in height from 3 to 8 feet. Nine of them were opened, of which we notice the following:

In No. 1 the layers from above down were, first, a foot of earth; then a layer of stones 1½ feet thick; then a layer of shells 2 inches thick; next a foot of earth, and lastly a second layer of shells 4 inches thick. Immediately under this, at the depth of 5 feet, were found five skeletons stretched horizontally on the original surface of the ground, parallel to each other, three with heads toward the east and two with heads west. With them were found one sea-shell (Busycon perversum), two copper axes, to which fragments of cloth were attached, one copper awl, an arrow-head, and two stone pipes, one representing a frog.

Mound No. 2, though similar in form and external appearance to the preceding, presented a quite different arrangement internally, as is evident from the vertical section shown in [Fig. 7]. Here there were no layers of shells, but two distinct layers of stones. At the depth of 5 feet eight skulls (five only are shown in the figure), with some fragments of bones were unearthed; these were lying in a semicircle of 5 feet diameter, each surrounded by a circle of small stones (shown at a in the figure). From the position of the skulls and bones it was evident these bodies had been buried in a sitting posture. The articles found accompanying the skeletons were two copper axes, two small hemispheres of copper and one of silver, a bear's tooth, and an arrow-head.

No. 3, though the largest of the group, was apparently unstratified, the original burial consisting of the bones of two adults and one infant, at the original surface of the ground, under a thin layer of ashes, and surrounded by a single circle of small red stones. With these were found copper axes, copper beads, two carved stone pipes (one in the form of a ground-hog), animal teeth, etc. Near the surface of the mound were two well-preserved skeletons, with evidences of an "oakwood" covering over them and accompanied by glass beads, a fire steel, clay pipe, and silver ear-ring—evidently an intrusive burial.

No. 4 was found similar in construction and in all other respects to No. 3, except that at the feet of the skeletons was a round heap of stones, 3 feet high, neatly laid up, and that in the earth where the skeletons lay could be distinctly seen traces of cloth or some woven material, in which they had probably been enveloped.

No. 5 was similar to No. 2, except in the following respects: The skeletons (probably two) were in a confused heap at the bottom under a 6-inch layer of hard clay (probably similar to what Colonel Norris calls "mortar"). Near these, but outside of the clay layer, was a stone heap similar to that in No. 4. "On this lay two very strong thigh bones and three ribs placed diagonally across each other. There were also a few bones leaning against the heap at one side. The stones were partly burned to lime, and all of them showed more or less marks of fire, while the bones in the mound showed not the slightest trace of it."

Four or five feet south of the stone heap was a large quantity of human bones in complete confusion. The relics were broken pots, arrow-heads, a stone pipe, etc.

Nos. 7, 8, and 9 were similar to No. 1, varying only in minor details.[14]

My object in noticing the construction of so many mounds in a single group and the modes of burial in them, is to call attention to the differences in detail where there can be no doubt that they were built by one tribe and probably by one clan, as the size of the group indicates a comparatively limited population. In these nine mounds we notice the following differences: some are stratified, others not; in some the skeletons are placed horizontally on the ground, in others they are in a sitting posture, while in others they are dismembered and in confused heaps; in some there are altar-like[15] structures of stone which are wanting in others; in some the skeletons are covered with a hard clay or mortar coating which is wanting in most of them, and lastly, we see in one or two, evidences of the use of fire in the burial ceremonies, though not found in the others.

In some respects these mounds remind us of some of the stratified tumuli of Wisconsin, especially those opened by Colonel Norris in Sheboygan County, to which they bear a strong resemblance.

In the latter part of 1882 Colonel Norris examined a group of works in Allamakee County, Iowa, which presents some peculiarities worthy of notice in this connection.

This group, which is represented in [Plate I], consisting of enclosures, lines of small mounds, and excavations, is situated on the farm of Mr. H. P. Lane, about 7 miles above New Albin. It is on a bluff in one of the numerous bends of the Little Iowa River, the character of the locality indicating that it was selected as one easily defended. I shall at present only notice those particulars which seem to have some bearing on the character of the burial mounds and mode of interment.

Although there are no effigy mounds in the group, the relative positions and forms of the tumuli, as shown in the figure, and other particulars to be noticed, leave no doubt in my mind that the works, in part, are to be attributed to the people who built the figure mounds of Wisconsin. But, as will be seen from the particulars mentioned, there is conclusive evidence that the locality has been occupied at different times by at least two distinct tribes or peoples, differing widely in habits and customs.

The largest work is an enclosure marked A in [Plate I], and shown on an enlarged scale in [Plate II]. It is situated on the margin of a bluff overlooking the Little Iowa and an intervening bog-bayou, probably the former channel of the river. It is almost exactly circular, the curve being broken on the east side, where it touches the brink of the bluff, being here made to conform to the line of the latter, though probably never thrown up to the same height as the other portion. The ends at the southeast overlap each other for a short distance, leaving at this point an entrance way, the only one to the enclosure. A ditch runs round on the inside from the entrance on the south to where the wall strikes the bluff on the north, but is wanting along the bluff and overlapping portion. The north and south diameter, measuring from outside to outside, is 277 feet; from east to west, 235 feet; the entire outer circumference is 807 feet, the length of the portion along the bluff 100 feet, and of the overlapping portion at the entrance 45 feet. The wall is quite uniform in size, about 4 feet high and from 25 to 27 in width, except along the bluff, where it is scarcely apparent; the entrance is 16 feet wide, and the ditch 5 to 6 feet wide and 3 feet deep. On the north, adjoining the wall on the outside and extending along it for about 100 feet, is an excavation (c, [Plate II]) 35 feet wide at the widest point and 3 feet deep.

As this ground, including the circle, has been under cultivation for fifteen years, it would be supposed the height of the wall is considerably less than it originally was, but this is probably a mistake. On the contrary, it was originally probably but 20 feet wide and not more than 3 feet high, composed mainly of yellowish brown clay obtained, in part at least, from the ditch, but during occupancy the accumulation of countless bones of animals used as food, stone chips, river shells, broken pottery, and dirt, and, since abandonment, the accumulation of sand drifted by the winds from the crumbling sandstone butte (C, [Plate I]) overlooking it, have not only filled the ditch but elevated the wall and whole interior area 2 feet or more. This accumulation of sand is so great and so uniform over the plateau that fifteen years of cultivation have not sufficed to reach the clay of the original surface nor to unearth or even penetrate to the bones, pottery fragments, and other refuse matter covering the original surface in the circle.

Trenches cut across the wall at various points indicate, first, a layer of sand about 1 foot thick; immediately below this an accumulation of refuse matter forming a layer from 1 to 2 feet thick; under which was the original clay embankment 2 feet thick, resting on the natural surface of the ground. A section of the ditch, embankment, and excavation is shown in [Plate II]. The dotted line a b indicates the natural surface; No. 1 the original clay layer of the wall; No. 2 the layer of earth and refuse material with which the ditch is filled; and No. 3 the top layer of sand.

In No. 2 were found charcoal, ashes, fragments of pottery, fractured bones, etc.

A broad belt of the inner area on the east side was explored, and the same conditions were found to exist here as were revealed by the trenches across the wall and ditch, except that here the shells were more abundant in layer No. 2, and there were many burnt stones.

On the southeastern portion of the plateau (B, [Plate I]) are six nearly parallel lines of mounds running northeast and southwest, mostly circular in form, varying from 15 to 40 feet in diameter, and from 2 to 6 feet in height; a few, as indicated in the figure, are oblong, varying in length from 50 to 100 feet. The number in the group exceeds one hundred.

While engaged in excavating these mounds Colonel Norris observed a number of patches of the level area quite destitute of vegetation. The owner of the land, who was present, could give no explanation of this phenomenon, simply remarking that they had always been so, never having produced a good crop of anything, although there was no apparent difference between the soil of these spots and the surface around them. As some of these extended across the area occupied by the mound group, he concluded to explore them, and was surprised to find them to be burying places, and scattered here and there among the graves, if such they could be called, were stone chips, shells, charcoal, and ashes. He was surprised at this, as he supposed the mounds alone were used as depositories of the dead, and was at first disposed to attribute these burials to a people who had occupied the ground long subsequent to the authors of the works. Possibly this may be the correct solution, but if so, they were certainly the same as those who buried in the mounds of this group, as no difference in the contents and internal arrangement could be observed. In both cases there was a compact layer of hard, light-colored earth, having the appearance of lime-mortar, possibly clay and ashes mixed together, which had been subject to the action of fire. As the burials in these sterile spots were seldom more than 18 inches deep, the only layer above them consisted of sand from the butte, while the mounds were uniformly covered with a layer of richer soil, although below this and covering the skeletons was a layer of hard, light-colored earth. Skeletons and bones were found in great abundance in the mounds and under the surface of the plateau, though none were discovered in the circle or nearer than 200 yards of it. They were sometimes mingled promiscuously with charcoal and ashes, but were usually in whole skeletons lying horizontally, though some were in a sitting posture; they were within from 1 to 3 feet of the surface, without any apparent system, except that they were always covered with a layer of hard earth.

A trench cut through the long mound of this group, No. 1, revealed near the center an oblong pile of sandstones, beneath which was found a rude stone coffin, formed by first placing flat sandstone slabs on the natural surface of the ground, then other slabs at the sides and ends, and a covering of similar stones, thus forming a cist or coffin about 6 feet long and 18 inches wide. Within this, extended at full length, with the head west, was the skeleton of an adult, but too much decayed for preservation. With it were some stone chips, rude stone scrapers, a Unio shell, and some fragments of pottery similar to those dug up in the circular enclosure.

The mounds on the sand butte marked C, [Plate I], which is something over 100 feet high, were opened and found to be in every respect similar to those already mentioned, showing them to be the work of the same people who built the others.

The three mounds in the square enclosures marked D, ([Plate I]), were also opened, with the following results: The largest, oval in form, 30 feet long, about 20 feet broad and 4 feet high, was found to consist of a top layer of loose sand 1 foot thick, the remainder of hard yellowish clay. In the latter were found several flat sandstone fragments, and beneath them, on the original surface of the ground, a much decayed skeleton, with which were a few stone chips, Unio shells, and fragments of pottery.

The second in size, 18 feet in diameter and 3 feet high, although covered with a layer of sand, was mainly a loose cairn of sandstones, covering traces of human bones, charcoal, and ashes. The third was found to be similar to the second, but in this case the pile of stones was heaped over a mass of charred human bones, mingled with which were charcoal, ashes, and fragments of pottery.

Fragments of pottery were found in abundance in the circle, in the mounds, in the washouts, and in fact at almost every point in the area covered by the group. Judging by the fragments, for not a single entire vessel was obtained, the prevailing forms were the ordinary earthen pot with ears, and a flask or gourd-shaped vase with a rather broad and short neck, often furnished with a lid. The paste with which this pottery was made had evidently been mixed with pounded shells. The only ornamentation observed consisted in the varied forms given the handles or ears and indentations and scratched lines.

Nearly all the implements found were of stone, exceedingly rude, being little else than stone flakes with one sharp edge; many of them having been resharpened and used as knives, scrapers, and skinners. Some had been worked into moderately fair perforators or drills for making holes in horn, bone, and shell—specimens of all these, with such holes, having been found here.

The immense quantity of charred and fractured bones, not only of fish, birds, and the smaller quadrupeds, such as the rabbit and the fox, but also of the bear, wolf, elk, deer, and buffalo, shows that the occupants of this place lived chiefly by the chase, and hence must have used the bow and arrow and spear; yet, strange to say, although careful search was made for them, less than a dozen arrow and spear heads were found, and these so rude as scarcely to deserve the name. A single true chipped celt, three sandstones with mortar-shaped cavities, and a few mullers or stones used for grinding were obtained; also, some fragments of deer-horn, evidently cut round by some rude implement and then broken off, and several horn and bone punches and awls, one barbed and another with a hole through the larger end.

The object in view in presenting these details is to give the reader an opportunity of judging for himself in reference to some inferences drawn from them.

The form of the circular enclosure reminds us at the first glance of the palisade enclosures figured by De Bry,[16] which, according to Lafitau,[17] was the form usually adopted by the Indian tribes who were accustomed to erect such structures. We have here the almost exact circle, save where interrupted by the margin of the bluff, the overlapping of the ends, and the narrow entrance-way. We have here also the clay with which it was the custom, at least in the southern section, to plaster the palisades or which was cast against their bases as a means of supporting or bracing them at the bottom, a custom not entirely unknown among the northern tribes in former times.

The indications are therefore very strong that this enclosing wall was originally a palisade which had been in part plastered with clay, or against which clay had been heaped to assist in rendering it firm and secure, and, if so, then it is probable it was built by Indians.

Be this supposition right or wrong the evidence is conclusive that the area on which this group is situated has been the abode of at least two tribes or peoples: first, it was occupied by the authors of the enclosures, whose stay was probably not very protracted, and after they had abandoned the locality or been driven from it by a second tribe, evidently comparatively numerous, that made it for a long time a dwelling place; a tribe differing in customs from its predecessor, and one that did not rely upon enclosures for protection. By no other supposition can we account for the fact that the refuse layer which covers the interior of the circle also spreads in equal depth over the ditch and clay remains of the enclosing wall, as those who left this refuse layer could have made no possible use of the wall as a defensive work, for which the position chosen and other particulars show it was designed.

The form of this enclosure, as we have before intimated, seems to connect it with some one of the Indian tribes; its age is uncertain but the accumulation of refuse matter and sand since the abandonment by the first occupants indicates considerable antiquity.

Although we cannot say positively that the second occupants were the builders of the mounds, as the investigation was not as thorough as it should have been, still I think we may assume, with almost absolute certainty, that such was the fact. The mounds in the square work marked D, in [Plate I], present considerable differences from those in the group, and are probably the work of those who built the enclosures.

The stone grave in the oblong mound indicates the presence of individuals of a more southern tribe[18] at this place, during its second occupancy. The position of the cist in the mound would seem to forbid the idea of an intrusive burial, otherwise I should certainly suppose such to be the fact. I cannot, in the present paper, enter into a discussion of the question "to what tribe or people are the box-form stone graves to be attributed," but will state my conviction to be, after a somewhat careful study of the question, that they are to be ascribed to the Shawnees, Delawares, and Kickapoos.

Without further discussion of this group, which, as before intimated, presents, so far as the mounds are concerned, some features which appear to ally the latter to one class of burial mounds found in Wisconsin, we will now refer to some other works of this district explored by the Bureau assistants.

On the land owned by Mr. Fish, in Iowa, near the Mississippi River, a short distance below where the Little Iowa joins it, is a group of mounds placed on the crest of a ridge running parallel with the former stream about one-fourth of a mile therefrom. There are in all about thirty of these mounds, circular in form, and varying from 20 to 40 feet in diameter. These are all burial mounds, but one singular feature observed is that those on the higher sandy ground, although about the same size and having cores of clay similar to those on the firm clay portion of the ridge, have a layer of sand, some two feet or more added to them, yet when opened the contents and mode of construction of the two classes were found to be the same, to wit, a layer of hard clay covering decaying human bones, fragments of pottery, and rude stone implements. There were generally two or more skeletons in a mound, which were placed horizontally side by side on the natural surface of the ground.

Upon the terrace below the group were found the remnants of a row of comparatively large burial mounds. A railroad line having been carried along here, the larger portion of these works were destroyed; still, enough remained to show that the height varied from 6 to 15 feet, that they were composed chiefly of sandy loam similar to that around them, and that each had a hard central core of clay mixed with ashes, usually covering but a single skeleton. The relics found in them when opened consisted chiefly of stone axes, arrow and spear heads, and a few copper celts. In one, which was 32 feet in diameter and 8 feet high and less injured than the others, was a circular vault, walled as represented in [Fig. 8]. This was built of flat, unworked stones, laid up without mortar, gradually lessening as it ascended, and covered at the top by a single flat stone. In it was a single skeleton in a squatting posture, with which was a small earthen vase of globular form.

A singular fact was observed in a group near the town of Peru, Dubuque County. This group is situated on a dry, sandy bench or terrace some 20 feet or more above a bayou which, makes out from the Mississippi. It consists chiefly of small circular tumuli, but at the north end are four oblong mounds varying in length from 40 to 110 feet and in height from 1½ to 4 feet; there is also an excavation about 30 feet in diameter and 6 feet deep, and scattered throughout the group are a number of circular earthen rings varying in diameter from 12 to 30 feet and from 1 to 2 feet in height.

Quite a number of the circular mounds were opened, but only detached portions of a skeleton were found in any one, as a skull in one, and a leg, arm, or other part in another, four or five adjacent ones apparently together containing the equivalents of an entire skeleton. Some of these bones were charred, and all were much decayed, indicating by their appearance great age. The inner portion of the mounds consisted of hard, compact earth, chiefly clay, resembling in this respect most of the burial mounds of this region.

Unfortunately the examination of this group was too partial and too hastily made to enable us to form any theory as to the meaning of this singular mode of burial, or even to be satisfied that the idea of our assistant in this regard is correct.

As possibly having some bearing upon the question, the following facts relating to another similar group at Eagle Point, three miles above Dubuque, are given.

This group, which is situated on a bluff about 50 feet above highwater mark, consists of about seventy mounds, all of which, except two oblong ones, are small and conical in form. Eleven of these circular tumuli were thoroughly explored, but nothing was found in them except some charcoal, stone chips, and fragments of pottery. But in an excavation made in the center of a long mound just west of the group were found two decayed skeletons. Near the breast of one of them were a blue stone gorget and five rude stone scrapers; with the other, thirty-one fresh-water pearls, perforated and used as beads. Excavations were made in an oblong and circular mound near the extreme point of the bluffs. Each was found to have a central core of very hard clay mixed with ashes, so hard in fact that it could only be broken up with the pick, when it crumbled like dry lime mortar, and was found to be traversed throughout with flattened horizontal cavities. These cavities were lined with a peculiar felt-like substance, which Colonel Norris, who opened the mounds, was satisfied from all the indications pertained to bodies which had been buried here, but from lapse of time had entirely crumbled to earth save these little fragments. We are therefore perhaps justified in concluding that a more thorough and careful examination of the mounds of the other group would have shown that the skeletons had so far decayed as to leave but a small part in a mound. Nevertheless it is proper to state that Colonel Norris does not coincide with this conclusion, but thinks that the dismembered skeletons were buried as found. Possibly he is correct.

In this connection, and before referring to the mounds of this district on the Illinois side of the Mississippi, I desire to call attention to some modern Indian burials in this region. As the statements here made are from one claiming to be an eye-witness, I give them as related to the Bureau assistant.

The locality is a level plat in a bend of the Des Moines River between Eldon and Iowaville, Wapello County. The plat of this area and the sites of the burial places, as shown in [Fig. 9], are based upon the statements of Mr. J. H. Jordan (the person referred to), who has resided here since the close of the Black Hawk war, and was the agent of the Sacs and Foxes from their removal hither after the war until Black Hawk's death, September 15, 1838.[19]

The extreme width of the area represented is about 2 miles. Close to the point of the bend formerly stood the agency building, near which is the present residence of Mr. Jordan. The triangle marks the position of Black Hawk's grave; the parallel lines, the race-tracks; the rings in the upper corner, the mounds of the Iowas; those in the lower corner, near Iowaville, the mounds of the Pottawattamies; and the open dots, near the same point, the place where the scaffolds for their dead stood.

Mr. Jordan says:

"This valley had long been a famous haunt for the warring Indians, but was, at the time of my first personal acquaintance with it, in possession of the Iowas, whose main village was around the point where my present residence now stands. The race-course consisted of three hard beaten parallel tracks nearly a mile in length, where the greater portion of the Iowa warriors were engaged in sport when Black Hawk surprised and slaughtered a great portion of them in 1830. After Black Hawk and his warriors had departed with their plunder, the remaining Iowas returned and buried their dead in little mounds of sod and earth, from 2 to 4 feet high, at the point indicated on the diagram.

"After the Black Hawk war was over, the remnant of the Iowas, by treaty, formally ceded their rights in this valley to the Sacs and Foxes. At this place this noted chief was buried, in accordance with his dying request, in a full military suit given him by President Jackson, together with the various memorials received by him from the whites and the trophies won from the Indians. He was placed on his back on a 'puncheon' [split slab of wood], slanting at a low angle to the ground, where his feet were sustained by another, and then covered with several inches of sod. Over this was placed a roof-shaped covering of slabs or 'puncheons,' one end being higher than the other; over this was thrown a covering of earth and sod to the depth of a foot or more, and the whole surrounded by a line of pickets some 8 or 10 feet high."

Here we have evidence that some at least of the Indians of this region were accustomed to bury their dead in mounds down to a recent date.

One of the most important burial mounds opened in this district by the employés of the Bureau is situated on the bluff which overhangs East Dubuque (formerly Dunleith), Jo Daviess County, Illinois. As I shall have occasion to refer to others than the one mentioned, I give in Fig. 15, [Plate III], a plan of the group, and in Fig. 16, same plate, a vertical section of the bluff along the line of mounds numbered 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17, in which is seen the general slope of the upper area.

The mounds of this group are conical in form, varying from 12 to 70 feet in diameter and from 3 to 12 in height. All appear to have been built for burial purposes.

In No. 5, the largest of the group, measuring 70 feet in diameter and 12 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.

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].

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 2½ 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:

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.

Some rather singular burial mounds have been described as found in different parts of this State, but unfortunately the descriptions are based largely on memory and second-hand statements and hence do not have that stamp of accuracy and authenticity that is desirable. For example, a large stone mound, which formerly stood a short distance from Newark, is described[27] as conical in form, 182 feet in diameter, and from 40 to 50 feet high, composed of stones in their natural shape. This, upon removal, was found to cover some fifteen or sixteen small earth mounds. In one of these were found human bones and river shells. In another was encountered a layer of hard white fire-clay. Two or three feet below this was a wooden trough. This was overlaid by small logs of wood to serve as a cover, and in it was found a skeleton, around which appeared the impression of a coarse cloth. With it were fifteen copper rings and a "breastplate" of the same metal. The wood of the trough and covering was in a good state of preservation. The clay which covered it was impervious both to air and water. The logs which overlaid the wooden sarcophagus "were so well preserved that the ends showed the axe marks, and the steepness of the kerf seemed to indicate that some instrument sharper than the stone axe found throughout the West had been employed to cut them."

"In another of these mounds a large number of human bones, but no other relics worthy of note, were found."[28]

In a mound situated in Clear Creek Township, Ashland County, a stone coffin or cist was discovered, constructed of flat stones set up edgewise. It contained six or eight skeletons, "neatly cleaned and packed, in a good state of preservation."[29]

A statement worthy of notice in this connection is made by Mr. H. B. Case in the Smithsonian Report for 1881.[30] The Delaware Indians formerly had a village in the northern part of Green Township, Ashland County, which was still occupied by them when the white settlers reached there in 1809. An examination of their graves in 1876 brought to light the fact that in some cases the dead were buried in stone cists; in others small, round, drift bowlders were placed around the skeletons.

One of the most satisfactory and most important accounts of Ohio burial mounds will be found in a "Report of Explorations of Mounds in Southern Ohio," by Prof. E. B. Andrews, published in the Tenth Annual Report of the Peabody Museum. Speaking of the George Connet mound, in Athens County, he says:

This is a low mound about 6 feet high with a broad base perhaps 40 feet in diameter. It has for years been plowed over and its original height has been considerably reduced. My attention was drawn to this mound by the burnt clay on its top. A trench 5 feet wide was dug through the center. On the east side much burnt yellow clay was found, while on the west end of the trench considerable black earth appeared, which I took to be kitchen refuse.

About 5 feet below the top we came upon large quantities of charcoal, especially on the western side. Underneath the charcoal was found a skeleton with the head to the east. The body had evidently been enclosed in some wooden structure. First there was a platform of wood placed upon the ground, on the original level of the plain. On this wooden floor timbers or logs were placed longitudinally, and over these timbers there were laid other pieces of wood, forming an enclosed box or coffin. A part of this wood was only charred, the rest was burnt to ashes. The middle part of the body was in the hottest fire and many of the vertebræ, ribs, and other bones were burnt to a black cinder, and at this point the enclosing timbers were burnt to ashes. The timbers enclosing the lower extremities were only charred.

I am led to think that before any fire was kindled a layer of dirt was thrown over the wooden structure, making a sort of burial. On this dirt a fire was built, but by some misplacement of the dirt the fire reached the timbers below, and at such points as the air could penetrate there was an active combustion, but at others, where the dirt still remained, there was only a smothered fire, like that in a charcoal pit. It is difficult to explain the existence of the charred timbers in any other way. There must have been other fires than that immediately around and above the body, and many of them, because on one side of the mound the clay is burned even to the top of the mound. In one place, 3 feet above the body, the clay is vitrified.

It is possible that fires were built at different levels, open fires, and that most of the ashes were blown away by the winds which often sweep over the plain. I have stated that there was first laid down a sort of floor of wood, on which the body was placed. On the same floor were placed about 500 copper beads, forming a line almost around the body.

In addition to these copper beads a number of shell beads, and also a hollow copper implement in the shape of a caulker's chisel, were found. The copper implement and beads were made of thin sheet-copper which, Professor Andrews says, had been "hammered out into so smooth and even a sheet that no traces of the hammer were visible. It would be taken indeed for rolled sheet copper." Some of the bones were pretty well preserved.

The professor closes his description with the remark: "The skeleton undoubtedly belonged to a veritable mound-builder." In this he is certainly correct, as the mode of burial in this case agrees so exactly with that observed by Squier and Davis in the larger mounds opened by them as to leave no doubt that both are to be attributed to one people, although the mound described by Professor Andrews is probably of much more recent date than those mentioned by Squier and Davis.

What explanation shall we give of the presence in this work of thin sheet-copper "hammered out into so smooth and even a sheet that no traces of the hammer were visible," and that "would be taken for rolled copper"?

The simple and most natural explanation would be that it was derived from European traders and early adventurers; and such, I am disposed to believe, is the correct one. The distinction between the sheets and ornaments hammered from native copper with the rude implements of the aborigines, and many specimens made of this smooth sheet-copper found in mounds, is too apparent to be overlooked. But of this more hereafter, as I shall have occasion again to refer to the subject.

In another mound, 8 or 9 feet high, in the same county, he found near the top a considerable bed of kitchen refuse; at the bottom, on the original surface, ashes and burnt human bones. "These bones," he remarks, "had evidently been burned before burial, and had been gathered in miscellaneous confusion and placed in a narrow space 5 or 6 inches wide and from 2 to 3 feet long. The ashes were doubtless brought with them, at least there appeared to be no evidences of a local fire in the reddening or hardening of the clay or in remnants of charcoal."

As bearing upon a suggestion made by Colonel Norris, and previously referred to,[31] in regard to the probable use of copper beads found across the limbs of a skeleton, I call attention to another statement of Professor Andrews. Speaking of the School-house mound he says:

At a point near the northwestern corner of the school-house and perhaps 15 feet from the center of the mound, there was plowed up, in extremely hard and dry dirt, a large piece of what I suppose to have been an ornamented dress. It was covered with copper beads, which were strung on a buckskin string and placed on four layers of the same skin. It was found 8 feet below the original surface of the mound and in extremely hard, dry dirt which had never been disturbed.

From the figure and the description we can have but little doubt that this was a buckskin hunting-shirt, which gives support to Colonel Norris's suggestion.

Recently some interesting burial mounds near Madisonville have been carefully explored by Dr. C. L. Metz in the interest of the Peabody Museum. Only partial notices of these explorations, which are not yet completed, have been published, but we deem these of sufficient importance in this connection to quote freely from them,[32] so far as they serve to illustrate the modes of burial and construction of burial mounds of this region.

Speaking of one of the mounds of a group situated in Anderson Township, Professor Putnam remarks:

Mound 21 of Group C was about 4 feet high and 50 in diameter. It proved to be made entirely of the sandy loam of the immediate vicinity. The remains of five skeletons were discovered at different points in the lower portion of the mound. The bones were nearly all reduced to dust, and only a fragment here and there could be saved. There was not a single relic found with the skeletons, and a few flint chips and a broken arrow-head were the only artificial objects found in the earth composing the mound. The condition of the bones showed considerable antiquity, but their advanced decay and friability were probably largely due to the character of the soil in which they were enclosed. The position of the skeletons rather goes to show that the several bodies were buried at different times, and that the mound was gradually constructed as the burials took place. For the present we are inclined to consider this mound, with some others in the valley, as a place of sepulcher by tribes of a more recent time than the builders of the earthworks of the Turner group.

Mound No. 22 proved to be of a more interesting character than the last. This mound was 14 feet high and about 100 in diameter. It was composed of pure clay, except in the central portion. Five feet from the top there was found a hard mass of burnt earth and ashes, 7 feet deep and a little over 9 feet in width and length. Resting on top of this, about in the center, and covered in part by the overlying clay, lay a large stone celt. A foot below this, in the burnt material, was a stone implement perforated at its upper end. Below this, at points several feet apart, in the burnt mass, were three holes or pockets, each of which contained the remains of portions of human skeletons, surrounded by a thin layer of clay. Near the bones in the lowest pocket were three spear-heads or chipped points. A few potsherds and several flint chips were found throughout the burnt mass. Under it was a circular bed of black soil and ashes, 13 inches thick in the center and 14 feet in diameter, beneath which was a layer of fine sand and gravel, 3 inches thick, which covered another circular bed of black soil and ashes, 14 inches thick in the center and 15 feet in diameter. Directly under the center of this lower layer was a pit 4 feet deep and 10 feet 4 inches long, 4 feet wide at the ends and 3 feet 5 inches wide at the center. This pit probably had contained a wooden structure, as its sides showed rough striations, as if large logs had once rested against them. The pit had been dug in the drift gravel upon which the mound was built, and was nearly filled with soft, spongy ashes mixed with a reddish substance. Extended at full length at the bottom of the pit was a human skeleton, with the head to the west. Among the bones of the neck a single shell bead was found; at the feet were ten stones or small bowlders, such as are common in the drift gravel. It is evident that this interesting tumulus was erected over the grave which was dug in the underlying gravel, and that the human bones placed in the burnt mass above the grave, with the few stone implements found in or on the mass, had some connection with the funeral ceremonies which took place in connection with the burial of the body in the pit below. The regularity of the deposits over the pit, which was under the center of the mound, seems to be sufficient proof of this.

Another mound, nearer the river, situated on an elevated portion of bottom land, was found to differ in construction from any of the others explored in this vicinity. This is described as follows:[33]

According to Mr. William Edwards, sixty years ago it was about 9 feet high, and covered by a heavy forest growth, which also extended over the region about. Over fifty years ago the land was cleared and the mound scraped down by Mr. Edwards, who, after removing about 4 feet of earth from its summit, came to a large quantity of stones, with which were many human bones. Since that time the mound has been plowed over and stones have been taken from it until it has been so nearly leveled as hardly to be noticed. Thus only the base of the mound could be explored; but that has proved of great interest in connection with the other works of the valley. On removing the earth around the base it was found that stones, many of considerable size, had been so arranged as to form a mound about 5 feet high in the center and 90 feet in diameter, over which the earth had been placed to the height of about 4 feet, as stated by Mr. Edwards. In height about one-half of the stone portion of the mound was undisturbed. On removing the outer covering of stones it was found that many burials, probably at least one hundred, had been made in the mound. The remains of seventy-one skeletons were obtained. These skeletons were all more or less crushed by the stones which surrounded them, as, in addition to the outer stones of the mound, each body had been surrounded with stones at the time of its burial. In many instances large slabs of limestone had been used, and in a few cases they were set on edge around the body. In other cases small stones had been piled around and over the bodies, which had been placed in various positions, some extended and others flexed in various ways. With many of the skeletons were stone implements and ornaments, among which were several of the flat stones with two or more perforations, generally known as gorgets. There were also many bone implements, shell and bone ornaments, and cut teeth of bears. Several small copper awls in bone handles, and the shells of box-turtles, were also found with the skeletons. Many fragments of pottery and broken bones of animals were scattered through the mass of stones and human bones. At the feet of the skeleton, in the center of the mound, there was an upright slab of limestone 2 feet long by 20 inches wide, and with this skeleton were the following objects: Resting on the chest was a large ornament made from the apex of a conch shell, with a hole at one edge for suspension; below this, on the ribs, was a spear-shaped gorget, with one hole, and by its side were several shell ornaments, also perforated. Lying near the right femur and parallel with it was a carved bone, grooved on the under side and having two holes; between this and the leg bone were four small pieces of carved bone about an inch in length. In the bones of the right hand was a small awl made of native copper and inserted in a little round handle made of bone, similar to others found with other skeletons in the mound. At the south side of the mound, on the original surface, was a burnt space, on which was a large quantity, several bushels, of broken bones of animals, clam shells, and fragments of pottery mixed with ashes. This mass seems to have existed before the mound was made, or at all events completed, as five of the burials had taken place above it. On the plain about the mound are evidences of the site of a former village, and the annual plowing brings to light many animal remains, fragments of pottery, and stone implements of the same character as those from, the mound. From this fact, and from the character of the burials in the mound, as well as that of the objects found with the skeletons, and from the absence of the characteristic ornaments found with so many of the human remains in the Turner group and other ancient mounds of the Ohio Valley, we are led to look upon this stone mound as the burial place of a tribe of Indians living in the region subsequent to the builders of the Turner mounds. The remains found in this stone mound, as a whole, indicate that the people here buried were closely connected with those who made the singular ash-pits in the ancient cemetery near Madisonville.[34]

Passing into West Virginia we notice first the celebrated Grave Greek mound. This has been described and figured so often that it is unnecessary for me to do more than call attention to certain particulars in regard to it to which I may desire hereafter to refer by way of comparison. It is in the form of a regular cone, about 70 feet high and nearly 300 feet in diameter at the base. A shaft sunk from the apex to the base disclosed two wooden vaults, the first about half way down and the other at the bottom. In the first or upper one was a single skeleton, decorated with a profusion of shell beads, copper bracelets, and plates of mica. The lower vault, which was partly in an excavation made in the natural ground, was found to be rectangular, 12 by 8 feet and 7 feet high. Along each side and across the ends upright timbers had been placed, which supported other timbers thrown across the vault as a covering. These were covered with a layer of rough stones. In this vault were two human skeletons, one of which had no ornaments, while the other was surrounded with hundreds of shell beads. In attempting to enlarge this vault the workmen discovered around it ten other skeletons. While carrying the horizontal tunnel, several masses of charcoal and burnt bones were encountered after a distance of 12 or 15 feet had been reached.

Before making any comments on the construction of this noted work and the mode of burial in it, I will present some facts recently brought to light in regard to the burial mounds of the Kanawha Valley by the assistants of the Bureau.

A large mound situated on the farm of Col. B. H. Smith, near Charleston, is conical in form, about 175 feet in diameter at the base and 35 feet high. It appears to be double; that is to say, it consists of two mounds, one built on the other, the lower or original one 20 feet and the upper 15 feet high.

The exploration was made by sinking a shaft, 12 feet square at the top and narrowing gradually to 6 feet square at the bottom, down through the center of the structure to the original surface of the ground and a short distance below it. After removing a slight covering of earth, an irregular mass of large, rough, flat sandstones, evidently brought from the bluffs half a mile distant, was encountered. Some of these sandstones were a good load for two ordinary men.

The removal of a wagon load or so of these stones brought to light a stone vault 7 feet long and 4 feet deep, in the bottom of which was found a large and much decayed human skeleton, but wanting the head, which the most careful examination failed to discover. A single rough spearhead was the only accompanying article found in this vault. At the depth of 6 feet, in earth similar to that around the base of the mound, was found a second skeleton, also much decayed, of an adult of ordinary size. At 9 feet a third skeleton was encountered, in a mass of loose, dry earth, surrounded by the remains of a bark coffin. This was in a much, better state of preservation than the other two. The skull, which was preserved, is of the compressed or "flat-head" type.

For some 3 or 4 feet below this the earth was found to be mixed with ashes. At this depth in his downward progress Colonel Norris began to encounter the remains of what further excavation showed to have been a timber vault, about 12 feet square and 7 or 8 feet high. From the condition in which the remains of the cover were found, he concludes that this must have been roof-shaped, and, having become decayed, was crushed in by the weight of the addition made to the mound. Some of the walnut timbers of this vault were as much as 12 inches in diameter.

In this vault were found five skeletons, one lying prostrate on the floor at the depth of 19 feet from the top of the mound, and four others, which, from the positions in which they were found, were supposed to have been placed standing in the four corners. The first of these was discovered at the depth of 14 feet, amid a commingled mass of earth and decaying bark and timbers, nearly erect, leaning against the wall, and surrounded by the remains of a bark coffin. All the bones except those of the left forearm were too far decayed to be saved; these were preserved by two heavy copper bracelets which yet surrounded them.

The skeleton found lying in the middle of the floor of the vault was of unusually large size, "measuring 7 feet 6 inches in length and 19 inches between the shoulder sockets." It had also been inclosed in a wrapping or coffin of bark, remains of which were still distinctly visible. It lay upon the back, head east, legs together, and arms by the sides. There were six heavy bracelets on each wrist; four others were found under the head, which, together with a spear-point of black flint, were incased in a mass of mortar-like substance, which had evidently been wrapped in some textile fabric. On the breast was a copper gorget ([Fig. 21]). In each hand were three spear-heads of black flint, and others were about the head, knees, and feet. Near the right hand were two hematite celts, and on the shoulder were three large and thick plates of mica. About the shoulders, waist, and thighs were numerous minute perforated shells and shell beads.

While filling in the excavation, the pipe represented in [Fig. 22] was found in the dirt which had been removed from it. This pipe has been carved out of gray steatite and highly polished. It is worthy of note that it is precisely of the form described by Adair as made by the Cherokees, and also that it approaches very near to an Ohio type ([Fig. 23]).

Another mound of rather large size, in the same locality, was opened by the Bureau assistant.

In order that all the facts bearing on its uses may be understood it is necessary to notice its immediate surroundings.

[Plate V] is a map showing the ancient works in the valley of the Kanawha, from 3 to 5 miles below Charleston, and [Plate VI] is an enlarged plat of the area embracing those numbered I, II and 1, 3, and 4 on the map. As will be seen by an inspection of the latter plate, the works included are two circular enclosures, 1 and 2; one excavation; one included mound, 2; three mounds, 3, 1, and 4, outside of the enclosures; and a graded way. As our attention at present is directed only to the large mound, 1, it is unnecessary to notice the other works further than to add that each enclosure is about 220 feet in diameter, and consists of a circular wall and an inside ditch. The excavation is nearly circular and about 140 feet in diameter. The large mound is conical in form, 173 feet in diameter, and 33 feet high. It is slightly truncated, the top having been leveled off some forty years ago for the purpose of building a judge's stand in connection with a race-course that was laid out around the mound.

A shaft 12 feet square at the top and narrowing downward was sunk to the base. At the depth of 4 feet, in a very hard bed of earth and ashes mixed, were found two much decayed human skeletons, both stretched horizontally on their backs, heads south, and near their heads several stone implements. From this point until a depth of 24 feet was reached the shaft passed through very hard earth of a light-gray color, apparently clay and ashes mixed, in which nothing of consequence was found. When a depth of 24 feet was reached the material suddenly changed to a much softer and darker earth, disclosing the casts and some decayed fragments of timbers from 6 to 12 inches in diameter. Here were found fragments of bark, ashes, and also numerous fragments of animal bones, some of which had been split lengthwise. At the depth of 31 feet was a human skeleton, lying prostrate, head north, which had evidently been enclosed in a coffin or wrapping of elm bark. In contact with the head was a thin sheet of hammered native copper. By enlarging the base of the shaft until a space some 16 feet in diameter was opened, the character and the contents of the base of the mound were more fully ascertained. This brought to light the fact that the builders, after having first smoothed, leveled, and packed the natural surface, carefully spread upon the floor a layer of bark (chiefly elm), the inner side up, and upon this a layer of fine white ashes, clear of charcoal, to the depth, probably, of 5 or 6 inches, though pressed now to little more than 1 inch. On this the bodies were laid and presumably covered with bark.

The enlargement of the shaft also brought to view ten other skeletons, all apparently adults, five on one side and five on the other side of the central skeleton, and, like it, extended horizontally, with their feet pointing toward the central one but not quite touching it. Like the first, they had all been buried in bark coffins or wrappings. With each skeleton on the east side was a fine, apparently unused lance-head about 3 inches long, and by the right side of the northern one a fish-dart, three arrow-heads, and some fragments of Unio shells and pottery. No implements or ornaments were found with either of the five skeletons on the west side, although careful search was made therefor. In addition to the copper plate, a few shell beads and a large lance-head were found with the central skeleton. As there were a number of holes resembling post-holes, about the base, which were filled with rotten bark and decayed vegetable matter, I am inclined to believe there was a vault here similar to the lower vault in the Grave Creek mound, in which the walls were of timbers set up endwise in the ground. But it is proper to state that the assistant who opened the mound is rather disposed to doubt the correctness of this explanation.

In order to show the character of the smaller burial mounds of this region, I give descriptions of a few opened by Colonel Norris.

One 20 feet in diameter and 7 feet high, with a beech tree 30 inches in diameter growing on it, was opened by running a broad trench through it. The material of which it was composed was yellow clay, evidently from an excavation in the hillside near it. Stretched horizontally on the natural surface of the ground, faces up and heads south, were seven skeletons, six adults and one child, all charred. They were covered several inches thick with ashes, charcoal, and fire-brands, evidently the remains of a very heavy fire which must have been smothered before it was fully burned out. Three coarse lance-heads were found among the bones of the adults, and around the neck of the child three copper beads, apparently of hammered native copper.

Another mound, 50 feet in diameter and 5 feet high, standing guard, as it were, at the entrance of an inclosure, was opened, revealing the following particulars: The top was strewn with fragments of flat rocks, most of which were marked with one or more small, artificial, cup-shaped depressions. Below these, to the depth, of 2 or 3 feet, the hard yellow clay was mixed throughout with similar stones, charcoal, ashes, stone chips, and fragments of rude pottery. Near the center and 3 feet from the top of the mound were the much decayed remains of a human skeleton, lying on its back, in a very rude stone-slab coffin. Beneath this were other flat stones, and under them charcoal, ashes, and baked earth, covering the decayed bones of some three or four skeletons which lay upon the original surface of the ground. So far as could be ascertained, the skeletons in this mound lay with their heads toward the east. No relics of any kind worthy of notice were found with them.

Another mound of similar size, upon a dry terrace, was found to consist chiefly of very hard clay, scattered through which were stone chips and fragments of rude pottery. Near the natural surface of the ground a layer of ashes and charcoal was encountered, in which were found the remains of at least two skeletons.

A mound some 200 yards south of the inclosure, situated on a slope and measuring 50 feet in diameter and 6 feet in height, gave a somewhat different result. It consisted wholly of very hard clay down to the natural surface of the hill-slope. But further excavation revealed a vault or pit in the original earth 8 feet long, 3 feet wide, and 3 feet deep at the upper end. In this was found a decayed skeleton, with the head up hill or toward the north. Upon the breast was a sandstone gorget, and upon it a leaf-shaped knife of black flint and a neatly polished hematite celt. The bones of the right arm were found stretched out at right angles to the body, along a line of ashes. Upon the bones of the open hand were three piles (five in each) of small leaf-shaped flint knives.

As the four small mounds just mentioned pertain to the Clifton groups, in the Elk River Valley, we will call attention to one or two of the Charleston group, for the purpose of affording the reader the means of comparison.

Below the center of No. 7 ([see Plate]), sunk into the original earth, was a vault about 8 feet long, 3 feet wide, and 3 feet deep. Lying extended on the back in the bottom of this, amid the rotten fragments of a bark coffin, was a decayed human skeleton, fully 7 feet long, with head west. No evidence of fire was to be seen, nor were any stone implements discovered, but lying in a circle just above the hips were fifty circular pieces of white perforated shell, each about 1 inch in diameter and an eighth of an inch thick. The bones of the left arm lay by the side of the body, but those of the right arm, as in one of the mounds heretofore mentioned, were stretched at right angles to the body, reaching out to a small oven-shaped vault, the mortar or cement roof of which was still unbroken. The capacity of this small circular vault was probably two bushels, and the peculiar appearance of the dark-colored deposit therein, and other indications, led to the belief that it had been filled with corn (maize) in the ear. The absence of weapons would indicate that the individual buried here was not a warrior, though a person of some importance.

Mound No. 23 of this group presents some peculiarities worthy of notice. It is 312 feet in circumference at the base and 25 feet high, covered with a second growth of timber, some of the stumps of the former growth yet remaining. It is unusually sharp and symmetrical. From the top down the material was found to be a light-gray and apparently mixed earth, so hard as to require the vigorous use of the pick to penetrate it. At the depth of 15 feet the explorers began to find the casts and fragments of poles or round timbers less than a foot in diameter. These casts and rotten remains of wood and bark increased in abundance from this point until the original surface of the ground was reached. By enlarging the lower end of the shaft to 14 feet in diameter it was ascertained that this rotten wood and bark were the remains of what had once been a circular or polygonal, timber-sided, and conical-roofed vault. Many of the timbers of the sides and roof, being considerably longer than necessary, had been allowed to extend beyond the points of support often 8 or 10 feet, those on the sides beyond the crossing and those of the roof downward beyond the wall. Upon the floor and amid the remains of the timber were numerous human bones and also two whole skeletons, the latter but slightly decayed, though badly crushed by the weight pressing on them, but unaccompanied by an ornament or an implement of any kind. A further excavation of about 4 feet below the floor, or what was supposed to be the floor, of this vault, and below the original surface of the ground, brought to light six circular, oven-shaped vaults, each about 3 feet in diameter and the same in depth. As these six were so placed as to form a semicircle, it is presumed there are others under that portion of the mound not reached by the excavation. All were filled with dry, dark dust or decayed substances, supposed to be the remains of Indian corn in the ear, as it was similar to that heretofore mentioned. In the center of the circle indicated by the positions of these minor vaults, and the supposed center of the base of the mound (the shaft not being exactly central), and but 2 feet below the floor of the main vault, and in a fine mortar or cement, were found two cavities resembling in form the bottle or gourd shaped vessel so frequently met with in the mounds of southeastern Missouri and northeastern Arkansas. Unfortunately the further investigation of this work was stopped at this stage of progress by cold weather.

In another mound of this group the burial was in a box-shaped stone vault, not of slabs in the usual method, but built up of rough, angular stones.