Travels Amongst American Indians, Their Ancient Earthworks and Temples / Including a Journey in Guatemala, Mexico and Yucatan, and a Visit to the Ruins of Patinamit, Utatlan, Palenque and Uxmal

by Lindesay Brine

A perpendicular shaft was sunk from the centre of the summit to the centre of the base, and two horizontal shafts were made, one at eighteen feet, and another at thirty-six feet respectively. At a depth of four feet from the top, there was a layer of wood ashes. At eight feet there was discovered a skeleton and some decayed wood. At fifteen feet there was a layer of charcoal and lime. At the depth of twenty-four feet a singular construction was found. It consisted of an upright stone, standing upon two flat stones, together with a number of rounded water-worn stones. With these there was some closely pressed material, looking like a kind of cloth made from wood fibre. Upon reaching the depth of thirty feet, there was discovered a quantity of charcoal and ashes. Six feet below this was a hollow space and, from the character of the contents within, it was supposed that there must have been a vault there, which had been surrounded and covered with logs of wood. At the base of the mound there was a large quantity of charcoal.

Before the tumulus was opened, it had been conjectured that it was raised by the Indians for the purposes of observation. It is situated at the extreme western limit of the territories of the Mound Builders, and at a considerable distance from any of their other earthworks. The other great burial mound was placed in a similar manner beyond the eastern boundary at the confluence of a small stream called the Grave Creek with the Ohio, near Wheeling. On my way there by the river, I passed the mouths of the Scioto and Muskinghum, and the towns of Portsmouth and Marietta,[13] where are the remains of extensive encampments.

The Grave Creek Mound is similar to that at Miamisburgh, but it is, in all its measurements, rather larger and rises to a height of seventy feet. In the early part of the present century, some slight excavations were made upon the slopes, and it was then ascertained that numerous skeletons were buried there.

In the year 1838, a more thorough system of examination was adopted. A shaft was carried through horizontally from the surface of the ground at the base to the centre. Then a perpendicular shaft was sunk from the centre of the summit to the base, connecting these with the passage already opened. At three feet from the summit there was found a skeleton in a complete state of decay. Thirty-two feet lower down, there was a small vault or structure of logs of wood, within which was another skeleton also decayed. At the base there was a larger vault, containing two skeletons which were in a sufficiently well preserved condition to enable them, subsequently, to be exhibited. These skeletons were found to be partly enveloped in a fibrous material, and they were placed within a structure, formed by a number of upright logs of wood, covered by other similar logs placed horizontally. Upon the top of this roof there had been piled a small heap of stones.

The excavation of the horizontal shaft, near the surface, disclosed a very singular system of burial.

Dr. Clemens,[14] in his account of this operation, states that at a distance of twelve or fifteen feet were found masses of a substance composed of charcoal and burnt bones, and also that when enlarging the lower vault, in which were the two skeletons, ten more skeletons were discovered, all of them in a sitting posture, but in a state so fragile as to defy all attempts to preserve them. In this lower vault there were six hundred and fifty beads made of shell and perforated in the centre. In the smaller vault above, in which was the single skeleton, there were seventeen hundred shell beads, about one hundred and fifty small plates of mica perforated at their sides and corners, five hundred marine shells and five copper bands or bracelets which were placed on the bones of the arms.

There was a tree growing upon the top of the mound which interfered with the operations. Dr. Clemens stated that it was two-and-a-half feet in diameter, and had three hundred growths from centre to circumference. Some years earlier another oak which had become decayed was cut down by the proprietor, who said that he had counted upon it nearly five hundred annual rings. The number of rings in the trunk of a tree, growing upon any part of the mound, gives clear evidence upon the question of its least age, and therefore it may be assumed that the date of the completion of the burial mound cannot be later than the fourteenth century. It is, however, possible that there may have been several successive growths of trees on the slopes, and in that case it may have been raised at some earlier period. The Miamisburgh mound, at the time when I saw it, was covered with trees, none of which appeared to be of great age. They must have been preceded by other growths.

The nature of the ornaments buried with the skeletons in the Grave Creek mound, seems to prove that there must have been communications between these Ohio races, and the tribes dwelling to the South of the Mississippi valley,[15] for the small sea shells were considered to be of the same kind as those seen on the beaches in Florida. The glittering flat slabs of mica, which hung over the breast, either as ornaments or marks of distinction, were similar to those discovered in burial mounds in the Iroquois country, near Lake Ontario. The copper bracelets were of rude workmanship, and were probably hammered into their shape from lumps of native copper. Similar bracelets have been found in some smaller burial mounds in other parts of Ohio. Those examined by me were made in the most rough and simple manner. The copper seems to have been beaten out into the required lengths, and then bent over to form the bracelets. The shapes resembled the bangles made in Hindostan and Persia.

There are circumstances with respect to the manner of burial by the Mound Builders which require to be noticed. It seems from the evidence of the various excavations that have been made, that it was frequently the custom to construct in the centre of the spot intended to be a burial place, a vault surrounded by upright logs of wood. In this was put the earliest burial, which was probably that of a chief. This vault was then covered with a roof of logs, and over it was piled a heap of stones. Other mounds were added in the course of time, and were placed on the surface of the ground in a circle surrounding the vault. This system of placing mounds was then continued in circles, one outside the other, until the space or area intended to be occupied was filled up. The later interments were probably made successively one above the other, until the tumulus was completed. The time that would elapse before a tribe had raised such a high mound as that at the Grave Creek, would necessarily be very long.

In the town of Newark, situated in a part of the country which appears to have been much occupied by the races that built the ancient earthworks, a very interesting collection of local antiquities had been brought together. Amongst the various relics discovered in the mounds were, stone axes and chisels, quantities of rude coarse pottery, many shell beads, and some copper bracelets.