Mound-Builders | Page 3

rivers or streams, and, consequently, in
the valleys, although some few are to be found on high lands, and even
on hills very suitable for military purposes. Sometimes they may be
seen in clusters, indicating a great business centre and large population,
while again only one may be found in a journey of fifty or one hundred
miles.
During the last fifty years, these tumuli have been carefully examined,
and, from their contents, shape and position, they are now classified as
Temple or Sacrificial Mounds, Burial or Sepulchral Mounds, Symbolic
Mounds, Signal Mounds and Indefinite Mounds. I shall briefly describe
the characteristic of each class and give a few examples.
Temple Mounds.--These mounds are not so numerous in Ohio as in
some other States, yet they occur in sufficient numbers to deserve a
small share of our attention. The city of Marietta has slowly encroached
upon some interesting remains of a sacrificial character, which consist
of two irregular squares containing 50 and 27 acres respectively. They
are situated on a level plain 100 feet above the level of the Ohio and
Muskingum Rivers. The smaller square has ten gateways, which are
covered by mounds, while the larger square, being strictly a sacred
enclosure, has no mounds to cover the 16 openings, but contains
nevertheless four temple mounds of considerable interest. On the top of
these mounds, doubtless there were erected capacious temples, as there
are significant avenues of ascent. There may still be seen the remains of
the ancient altar, where, without doubt, these people assembled for
worship, and where, from the presence of human bones, we may
conclude human beings were offered in sacrifice. In all the sacred
enclosures, evidences of altars have been found, on which, doubtless,
the sacrificial fires blazed for ages. Often are to be found successions of
alternate layers of ashes and blue clay, indicating a desire for pure
sacrifice.

In the neighborhood of Newark, Ohio, at the forks of Licking River,
may be seen most elaborate enclosures, square, circular, and polygonal
in their form, covering in all an extent of four square miles. Like the
ancient temples of the Druids, most of the enclosures have their
openings to the east, or rising sun, so that the first rays shall strike the
altar where doubtless a priest, from the early hour of dawn, performed
mysterious rites.
On the west, there is erected a mound, 170 feet long and 14 feet in
height, which overlooks the whole works, and has been styled "the
Observatory". To the east is a true circle 2,880 feet in circumference,
the wall being 6 feet in height. To the north of this is an avenue leading
from the circle to an octagon of fifty acres, in the wall of which are
eight gateways, which, however, are covered by mounds five feet in
height. From this strange eight-sided figure run three parallel walls.
Those to the south are about two miles in length, and those running
towards the east are each about one mile in length.
About a mile east, where the middle line of parallel walls terminates, is
a square containing twenty acres, within and around the walls of which
are disposed seven mounds. To the north-east of this is an elliptical
work of large dimensions. On the south-east is a circle, in the centre of
which is the form of a bird with wings expanded. The body is 155 feet,
the length of each wing 110 feet, and the head of the bird is towards the
opening. When this structure was opened, there was found an altar,
proving that, in this circular place, this ancient people must have
assembled for worship.
There is a place three miles north of Chillicothe, where an extensive
enclosure--now called "Mound City"--contains 26 well formed and
regularly disposed mounds, covering an area of 13 acres. Many of those
mounds contained altars at their base, but have been subsequently
converted into ordinary mounds. One mound, which is 90 feet in
diameter at the base and 7-1/2 feet in height, contained an altar, within
the basin of which was found a layer of solid ashes three inches thick,
in which were numerous pieces of pottery and shell-beads. On the top
of the altar was a layer of sand, then gravel for two feet, then a thin

layer of sand, then one foot of gravel.
Buried three feet below the apex of the mound, were found two well
developed and highly preserved skeletons, which, however, were not
those of Mound-builders, but rather of the Indians who were buried
there long after the mounds were abandoned. One altar was covered by
a layer of opaque mica, which must have been brought from a great
distance. In the centre of the basin was found, besides numerous other
relics, a large heap of