PLATE XL. ANCIENT MONUMENTS, DADE COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

This group of mounds is figured and described from actual survey, by Mr. R. C. TAYLOR.[85] It occurs about eighteen miles west of the “Four Lakes,” and seven miles east of the “Blue Mounds,” in Dade county, Wisconsin. It is situated on the Great Indian Trail already noticed, and consists; as will be observed, of effigies of six quadrupeds, six mounds in the form of parallelograms, one circular tumulus, one effigy of the human figure, and a small circle. The area comprehended in the map is something less than half a mile in length. The dimensions of the figures and their relative positions are indicated in the plan. It is not easy to make out, from the effigies, the character of the animals intended to be represented. It has been suggested that they were designed to represent the buffalo, which formerly abounded in the vicinity; but the absence of a tail and of the characteristic hump of that animal would seem to point to a different conclusion. They display a closer resemblance to the bear than to any other animal with which we are acquainted. These figures seem to be most prevalent; and, though preserving about the same relative proportions, vary in size from ninety to one hundred and twenty feet. In many other places, as at this point, they occur in ranges, one after the other at irregular intervals. In the midst of this group is the representation of a human figure, placed with its head towards the west, and having its arms and legs extended. Its length is one hundred and twenty-five feet, and it is one hundred and forty feet from the extremity of one arm to that of the other. The body is thirty feet in breadth, the head twenty-five feet in diameter, and its elevation considerably greater than that of most of the others, being not much less than six feet. The human figure is not uncommon among the effigies, and is always characterized by the extraordinary and unnatural length of its arms. The conical mound in the centre of this group is the most elevated work, and commands a view of the entire series. These works are situated upon a high open prairie, on the dividing ridge between the waters of the Rock and Wisconsin rivers. Half a mile westward of this remarkable group, and on the same elevated prairie, occurs a solitary mound, about ninety feet in length, representing an animal in all respects like those just described, but lying with its head towards the south-west. p127

“Along the space of twenty miles from this position,” observes Mr. R. S. Taylor, “extending to the Four Lakes eastward, similar monuments, intermixed with plain tumuli, are seen at almost every mile, in the lowest situations as well as crowning the highest swells of the prairies; and they are still more numerous all around those beautiful but almost unknown lakes. It would be a ceaseless repetition of similar forms to figure many of these.”

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CHAPTER VI. EARTHWORKS—THE MOUNDS.

Fig. 27.—Group illustrating the forms of the mounds.

In connection more or less intimate with the various earthworks already described, are the Tumuli or MOUNDS. Together, these two classes of remains constitute a single system of works, and are the monuments of the same people. And while the enclosures impress us with the number and power of the nations which built them, and enlighten us as to the amount of military knowledge and skill which they possessed, as well as, in some degree, in respect to the nature of their superstitions,—the mounds and their contents, as disclosed by the mattock and the spade, serve to reflect light more particularly upon their customs and the condition of the arts among them. Within these mounds we must look for the only authentic remains of their builders. They are the principal depositories of ancient art; they cover the bones of the distinguished dead of remote ages; and hide from the profane gaze of invading races the altars of the ancient people.

A simple heap of earth or stones seems to have been the first monument which suggested itself to man; the pyramid, the arch, and the obelisk are evidences of a more advanced state. But rude as are these primitive memorials, they have been but little impaired by time, while other more imposing structures have sunk into shapeless ruins. When covered with forests, and their surfaces interlaced with the roots of trees and bushes, or when protected by turf, the humble mound bids defiance to the elements which throw down the temple and crumble the marble into dust. We therefore find them, little changed from their original proportions, side by side with the ruins of those proud edifices which mark the advanced, as the former do the primitive state of the people who built them. They are scattered over p140 India; they dot the steppes of Siberia and the vast region north of the Black Sea; they line the shores of the Bosphorus and Mediterranean; they are found in old Scandinavia, and are singularly numerous in the British islands. In America, they prevail from the great lakes of the north, through the valley of the Mississippi, and the seats of semi-civilization in Mexico, Central America, and Peru, even to the waters of the La Plata on the south. We find them also on the shores of the Pacific ocean, near the mouth of the Columbia river, and on the Colorado of California. With the character of those abroad we have little, at present, to do, except perhaps to note some of the more striking features which they exhibit in common with those of our own valley.

Allusion has already been made to the number and dimensions of the mounds of the West. To say that they are innumerable in the ordinary use of the term would be no exaggeration. They may literally be numbered by thousands and tens of thousands. In form, as observed in a preceding chapter, they are generally simple cones, frequently truncated and sometimes terraced. They are also elliptical, pear-shaped, or of a square pyramidal form,—in the last case always truncated, and most usually having one or more graded ascents to their summits. These varieties are partially illustrated in the cut at the head of this chapter, and will be amply exhibited in the pages which follow. No doubt can be entertained that their forms were, in great part, determined by the purposes for which they were designed, and may therefore be of use to us in ascertaining their character. Thus, if any were designed to serve as the sites of temples, or as “high places” for the performance of religious rites and ceremonies, it is evident they would be constructed with special reference to these objects.

In common with the enclosures, the mounds are for the most part composed of earth, though stone mounds are by no means rare. They are sometimes composed entirely of clay, while the soil all around them, for a long distance, is gravel or loam. The object of this may perhaps be found in the fact that mounds composed of such materials better resist the action of the elements, and preserve their form. There is certainly no difference in their position or contents which would justify the supposition that any peculiar dependence existed between the material composing the mound and the purposes to which it was devoted. Whether any significance may attach to the predominance of stone, in some of the mounds, is a question difficult to answer. It occasionally happens that a mound of stone occurs in the midst of a group composed of earth. Such was the case with one which formerly stood within the limits of Chillicothe. As a general rule, however, the mound is composed of material found upon the spot or taken from pits near by; and stone mounds oftenest occur where, from the hardness of the soil or the abundance of stones, it would be easiest to construct the tumulus of the latter material.

In respect to the position of the mounds, it may be said that those of Ohio occur mostly within or near enclosures; sometimes in groups, but oftener detached and isolated, and seldom with any degree of regularity in respect to each other. Such is believed to be the case generally throughout the entire valley of the Mississippi. A section of the Ohio valley, however, embraced between the mouths of the Guyandotte and Scioto rivers, an extent of sixty miles, which was p141 examined with special reference to this point, exhibited no works of magnitude in the form of enclosures; yet there was an abundance of mounds, though chiefly of small dimensions. Occasional groups of fifteen or twenty were noticed, sometimes occurring in lines, as if placed with design; a circumstance easily accounted for by the nature of the ground, which is here broken into long, low swells, or narrow ridges, with marshy intervals between them,—the mounds occupying the summits of the ridges.

Fig. 28.—Hill mounds.

On the tops of the hills, and on the jutting points of the table lands bordering the valleys in which the earthworks are found, mounds occur in considerable numbers. The most elevated and commanding positions are frequently crowned with them, suggesting at once the purposes to which some of the mounds or cairns of the ancient Celts were applied, that of signal or alarm posts. It is not unusual to find detached mounds among the hills back from the valleys and in secluded places, with no other monuments near. The hunter often encounters them in the depths of the forests, when least expected; perhaps overlooking some waterfall, or placed in some narrow valley where the foot of man seldom enters.

Thus much respecting the mounds could not escape observation, and has long been known; but beyond this our information has been extremely limited. And though partial excavations have been made at various times by different individuals, still nothing like a systematic exploration, sufficiently thorough and extensive to warrant any conclusion respecting them, has hitherto been attempted. The few detached observations which have met the light have been too vague, and in many cases too poorly authenticated, to enable the inquirer to make any satisfactory deductions from them.

The popular opinion, however, based in a great degree upon the well ascertained purposes of the barrows and tumuli occurring in certain parts of Europe and Asia, is that they are simple monuments, marking the last resting-place of some great p142 chief or distinguished individual, among the tribes of the builders. Some have supposed them to be the cemeteries, in which were deposited the dead of a tribe or a village for a certain period, and that the size of the mound is an indication of the number inhumed; others, that they mark the sites of great battles, and contain the bones of the slain. On all hands the opinion has been entertained, that they were devoted to sepulture alone. This received opinion is not, however, sustained by the investigations here recorded. The conclusion to which these researches have led, is, that the mounds were constructed for several grand and dissimilar purposes; or rather, that they are of different classes. The conditions upon which the classification is founded are four in number,—namely: position, form, structure, and contents. In this classification, we distinguish—

These classes are broadly marked in the aggregate, though in some instances it is difficult to determine the character of the mounds which fall under notice. Of one hundred mounds examined, sixty were altar or temple mounds; twenty sepulchral; and twenty either places of observation or anomalous in their character. Such, however, is not the proportion in which they occur. From the fact that the altar or sacrificial mounds are most interesting and productive in relics, the largest number excavated was of that class. Excluding the temple mounds, which are not numerous, the remaining mounds of the Scioto valley are distributed between the three other varieties in very nearly equal proportions.

These general observations will serve to introduce plans and sections with accompanying descriptions of each of the above classes of mounds. The sections, for obvious reasons, are not drawn upon a uniform scale, nor are the relative proportions of the mounds always preserved; this however will result in no misunderstanding in any essential particulars. p143