THE INSIDE STORY OF A MOUND
Fig. 7—Exploring the Seip Mound, Ross County, Ohio.
No doubt every reader of this booklet would like to take part in the actual “digging” of a mound. This, of course cannot be, since the actual exploration of a large Mound requires months and even years. But perhaps we can do the next best thing; perhaps we can take part in an imaginary examination of a Mound, and in that way get an idea of how it is done and of what is found. Supposing we select a Mound of the interesting Hopewell culture. The Hopewell peoples, as we have seen, were very highly advanced and this fact, therefore, might lead the reader to expect too much of the other cultures, yet if we keep this in mind we will be on the safe side.
Let us imagine that our Mound is located in Ross County, in the charming Paint Creek Valley, somewhere near old Chillicothe, first capital of Ohio and ancient capital of the Mound-builders. Before us stands a mound of earth, 125 feet in diameter at its base and 25 feet in height. The field in which it stands is under cultivation but the mound itself, being too steep for farming purposes, is covered by a thicket of shrubbery and trees. An exploration party has arrived on the scene and is preparing to examine this ancient earthwork.
Workmen with picks and shovels step to the edge of the Mound and begin to dig, throwing the loose earth well behind them. The “boss” explains that the entire mound is to be removed by slicing it off, as a cake might be, in five-foot sections. We note surveying instruments, cameras, notebooks, everything in readiness. Teams and scrapers are waiting to take away the loose earth after it has been carefully examined.
Fig. 8—Burials in the Hopewell Mounds, Ross County, Ohio.
The first of the five-foot slices having been removed there appears, at the level of the surrounding field, what looks like a cement floor. At the outer edge of this and following the curve of the mound we see post holes a foot or two apart in some of which are decayed posts. These post holes prove to the explorer that this Mound was built by the Hopewell peoples. When a Hopewell Culture band or tribe picked a site for a new home, he explains, one of the first things it did was to set aside a place for the burial of its dead and for worship, a sacred place. After clearing this spot of all underbrush and trees, the top-soil was removed and in order to make a firm floor they plastered this over with clay. On top of that was placed an inch or two of sand or fine gravel for a floor-covering. The next step was to secure some posts and set them in the ground around the edge of this area to form a wall. Twigs and branches of trees were woven among these and plastered with clay to keep out cold and rain. A thatched roof made of closely woven twigs and boughs was placed over it and the sacred temple was complete. Into this they brought their dead for funeral ceremonies, burial and cremation.
Our attention is suddenly called to the actual work at hand. A laborer has struck his mattock into a loose spot in the face of the Mound. We are informed that this will be a burial and, sure enough, within an hour a human skeleton has been unearthed and lies there on the floor all ready to have its picture taken. The Hopewell people, we learn, made platforms of earth a few inches above the floor and after placing their dead on these they built cabin-like structures of logs over them and covered these, in turn, by small mounds of earth.
Fig. 9—Crematory Basin in a Hopewell Mound.
And now we come to the second burial which appears in every way like the first, excepting that instead of a skeleton there is merely a “hatful” of burned bones and ashes. This we are informed is a cremated burial. We can see no evidences that a fire has burned here and we are curious to learn how the ashes and charred bones came to be so carefully placed in a small heap. These questions are answered when we find near-by a little rectangular basin of baked clay, shaped something like a cement horse trough, built into the floor. In this basin they had cremated the body and then had removed the ashes and burned bones to the prepared platform for burial.
Thus far in exploring this Mound we have found no relics; these two people must have been just “poor folks.” But now comes a third. This grave is larger than the others and, we are told, looks as if it might be a good one. It proves to be a double burial containing the skeletons of a male and female. Royalty, they must have been, judging from the many ornaments that were placed around them; helmet-shaped head-dresses made of copper; beads and bracelets made of the same metal; spool-shaped ear ornaments of copper, and hundreds, yes, thousands of fresh-water pearl beads, and pieces of cloth with colored designs painted on it.
The workmen have found another burial. This one may have been the chief of the tribe for, in addition to ear ornaments, a copper head-dress and a necklace made of bear-teeth, we find a large copper axe and beautiful spearheads chipped from what appears to be colored glass but which, we are told, is volcanic glass or obsidian.
From what we have seen during the exploration of this Mound we try to form a picture of how the builders of it must have lived. In this the archæologist assists by telling us that many other things besides those which we have seen here are found with burials. The Mound-builders made artistic pottery; from grasses, plants and trees they collected fibers which they wove into fabrics; from stone, flint, bone, shell, wood, copper and silver they made their implements, cooking utensils and ornaments. Many of the materials which they used had been brought from distant sources. They found copper and silver near Lake Superior which they hammered and ground into the desired forms. They obtained grizzly-bear teeth for necklaces from the Rocky Mountains; lead ore from Illinois; sea shells from the Gulf of Mexico. They may have secured some of these things by trade or by sending out expeditions, probably both. A great deal of their time must have been spent in gathering mussels from the streams in order to secure the thousands of pearls they possessed.
And now that we have seen how the Hopewell peoples buried their dead, we ask “Where did they live?”
Like the ancient Mexicans, the Hopewell peoples, and some others of the Mound-builders, gave most of their attention to the dead rather than the living. The Pueblos and Cliff-dwellers built for the living, burying their dead in the quickest and easiest manner. The Mound-builders built mainly for the dead. Not far from the mounds are found the sites of their villages or towns but the only evidences of their homes are the post molds and fireplaces showing where their rude huts or tepees have stood.
In the fields surrounding their villages they raised maize, squash, beans, and tobacco; but they depended mainly on the game which they secured in the chase, fish from the streams, and wild fruits, berries and nuts from the forest, for their food supplies.
Fig. 10—Statue of a Mound-builder, in the Ohio State Museum.
Having learned something of what the Mound-builders did and how they lived, we naturally are curious to know what they looked like. Formerly it was believed that the mysterious builders of the mounds were a race of giants and that they were altogether different in appearance from any other people. Careful study of their skeletons however proves that this is not true. Scientists are able to determine almost exactly how persons looked, no matter to what race or age they belonged, through a study of their skeletons, and by making use of these methods we now know that the Mound-builders were quite similar in appearance to the Indians. In the Ohio State Museum there are life-size statues of a Mound-builder man and woman, constructed after these methods and clothed with the garments, implements and ornaments which they actually used in life. A picture of the male figure is shown on [page 21].