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.