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—
- 1st. ALTAR MOUNDS, which occur either within, or in the immediate vicinity of enclosures; which are stratified, and contain altars of burned clay or stone; and which were places of sacrifice.
- 2d. MOUNDS OF SEPULTURE, which stand isolated or in groups more or less remote from the enclosures; which are not stratified; which contain human remains; and which were the burial places and monuments of the dead.
- 3d. TEMPLE MOUNDS, which occur most usually within, but sometimes without the walls of enclosures; which possess great regularity of form; which contain neither altars nor human remains; and which were “High Places” for the performance of religious rites and ceremonies, the sites of structures, or in some way connected with the superstitions of the builders.
- 4th. ANOMALOUS MOUNDS, including mounds of observation and such as were applied to a double purpose, or of which the design and objects are not apparent. This division includes all which do not clearly fall within the preceding three classes.
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
ALTAR OR SACRIFICIAL MOUNDS.
- The general characteristics of this class of mounds are:
- 1st. That they occur only within, or in the immediate vicinity of enclosures or sacred places.[99] Of the whole number of mounds of this class which were examined, four only were found to be exterior to the walls of enclosures, and these were but a few rods distant from them.
- 2d. That they are stratified.
- 3d. That they contain symmetrical altars of burned clay or stone; on which are deposited various remains, which in all cases have been more or less subjected to the action of fire.
The fact of stratification, in these mounds, is one of great interest and importance. This feature has heretofore been remarked, but not described with proper accuracy; and has consequently proved an impediment to the recognition of the artificial origin of the mounds, by those who have never seen them. The stratification, so far as observed, is not horizontal, but always conforms to the convex outline of the mound.[100] Nor does it resemble the stratification produced by the action of water, where the layers run into each other, but is defined with the utmost distinctness, and always terminates upon reaching the level of the surrounding earth. That it is artificial will, however, be sufficiently apparent after an examination of one of the mounds in which the feature occurs; for it would be difficult to explain, by what singular combination of “igneous and aqueous” action, stratified mounds were always raised over symmetrical monuments of burned clay or of stone.