“Lying immediately over, or on the forehead of the body, were found three large circular bosses, or ornaments for a sword belt, or a buckler; they are composed of copper, overlaid with a thick plate of silver. The fronts of them are slightly convex, with a depression, like a cup, in the centre, and measure two inches and a quarter across the face of each. On the back side, opposite the depressed portion, is a copper rivet or nail, around which are two separate plates, by which they were fastened to the leather. Two small pieces of the leather were found lying between the plates of one of the bosses; they resemble the skin of an old mummy, and seem to have been preserved by the salts of the copper. The plates of copper are nearly reduced to an oxyde, or rust. The silver looks quite black, but is not much corroded, and on rubbing, it becomes quite brilliant. Two of these are yet entire; the third one is so much wasted, that it dropped in pieces on removing it from the earth. Around the rivet of one of them is a small quantity of flax or hemp, in a tolerable state of preservation. Near the side of the body was found a plate of silver which appears to have been the upper part of a sword scabbard; it is six inches in length and two inches in breadth, and weighs one ounce; it has no ornaments or figures, but has three longitudinal ridges, which probably corresponded with edges, or ridges of the sword; it seems to have been fastened to the scabbard by three or four rivets, the holes of which yet remain in the silver.
“Two or three broken pieces of a copper tube, were also found, filled with iron rust. These pieces, from their appearance, composed the lower end of the scabbard, near the point of the sword. No sign of the sword itself was discovered, except the appearance of rust above mentioned.
“Near the feet, was found a piece of copper, weighing three ounces. From its shape it appears to have been used as a plumb, or for an ornament, as near one of the ends is a circular crease, or groove, for tying a thread; it is round, two inches and a half in length, one inch in diameter at the centre, and half-an-inch at each end. It is composed of small pieces of native copper, pounded together; and in the cracks between the pieces, are stuck several pieces of silver; one nearly the size of a four-penny piece, or half a dime. This copper ornament was covered with a coat of green rust, and is considerably corroded. A piece of red ochre, or paint, and a piece of iron ore, which has the appearance of having been partially vitrified, or melted, were also found. The ore is about the specific gravity of pure iron.
“The body of the person here buried, was laid on the surface of the earth, with his face upwards, and his feet pointing to the north-east, and head to the south-west. From the appearance of several pieces of charcoal, and bits of partially burnt fossil coal, and the black colour of the earth, it would appear that the funeral obsequies had been celebrated by fire; and while the ashes were yet hot and smoking, a circle of flat stones had been laid around and over the body. The circular covering is about eight feet in diameter, and the stones yet look black, as if stained by fire and smoke. This circle of stones seems to have been the nucleus on which the mound was formed, as immediately over them is heaped the common earth of the adjacent plain, composed of a clayey sand and coarse gravel. This mound must originally have been about ten feet high, and thirty feet in diameter at its base. At the time of opening it, the height was six feet, and diameter between thirty and forty. It has every appearance of being as old as any in the neighbourhood, and was, at the first settlement of Marietta, covered with large trees, the remains of whose roots were yet apparent in digging away the earth. It also seems to have been made for this single personage, as the remains of one skeleton only were discovered. The bones were much decayed, and many of them crumbled to dust on exposure to the air. From the length of some of them, it is supposed the person was about six feet in height.
“Nothing unusual was discovered in their form, except that those of the skull were uncommonly thick. The situation of the mound on high ground, near the margin of the plain, and the porous quality of the earth, are admirably calculated to preserve any perishable substance from the certain decay which would attend it in many other situations. To these circumstances, is attributed the tolerable state of preservation in which several of the articles above described were found, after lying in the earth for several centuries. We say centuries, from the fact that trees were found growing on those ancient works, whose ages were ascertained to amount to between four and five hundred years each, by counting the concentric circles in the stumps after the trees were cut down; and on the ground, besides them, were other trees in a state of decay, that appeared to have fallen from old age.”
It should be observed with reference to the statements made in the above letter, that the age of the trees, said to have been estimated by the early settlers at Marietta, has generally been accepted as being correct, and based upon direct and accurate evidence. Consequently it would be necessary to admit that the earthworks were raised at some period before the fifteenth century.
Passing from the question of this date, as calculated by the annular rings counted upon the trees, to the subject of the contents of the burial mound which was excavated in the presence of Dr. Hildreth; the problem that has chiefly to be solved is the age of the silver-plated ornaments. It is difficult to fix the time when these were made, but judging from the sketches of them, as published in the account of these discoveries, the ornaments appear to have been such as would have been placed upon the sword belt and scabbard of a European officer of rank.
When the inclosures and their ramparts were for the first time surveyed and described in the year 1805, it was observed that there were parallel passages or protected ways leading from the larger of the forts down to the river. These appear to correspond with the parallels that can still be traced at Newark, and which also lead to the river. Those at Marietta were however more remarkable, because, in order to obtain the gradual approach which was required, it was necessary, apparently, to excavate the river bank in such a manner as to make a sunken road. A conveniently sloped communication with the water was thus constructed. It is probable that at the river side where the protecting embankments terminated, a fleet of canoes was kept ready for use or escape.
The next confluence of rivers below Marietta, occurs at the point where the Scioto falls into the Ohio. Near the spot where the town of Portsmouth is now situated, are traces of an extensive series of low embankments which seem to have been made for temporary entrenchments. On the opposite or south bank of the river, there was an inclosure constructed in the shape of a square, each of the sides being eight hundred feet long; the area inclosed was nearly fifteen acres. The embankments were over twelve feet high: and there was no ditch.
This fort was brought into especial notice in consequence of a strange discovery. A large number of iron pickaxes, shovels and gunbarrels were found buried in the ramparts. It has been conjectured that they were hidden there by the French soldiers when they retreated down the Ohio after the capture of Fort Du Quesne[19] by the British forces in the year 1758. The Indian fortifications on the banks of that river were placed upon the direct line of the communication with the other French forts in the valley of the Mississippi and Louisiana. In the ordinary course of events they would probably have been used by the French and their Indian allies, when they happened to be in their neighbourhood.
The valley of the river Scioto above Portsmouth, towards Chillicothe, was evidently much frequented by the Indians, who dwelt in inclosures resembling in their formation the square and circular works at Newark, although the embankments were of smaller dimensions. A brief description of one of them as it existed when first surveyed, is sufficient to give a knowledge of the usual plans of these encampments. It was situated on the left bank of a tributary of the Scioto, called Paint Creek.
There was a square inclosure, each of whose sides was one thousand and eighty feet in length. Attached to this square, which contained an area of twenty-seven acres, was a large circular inclosure having a diameter of about seventeen hundred feet. This circle had another smaller work connected with it which was also circular, and had a diameter of eight hundred feet. The embankments of all these inclosures were low, and did not anywhere exceed five feet in height. The position of the gateways and the mounds protecting them was the same as in the octagonal work at Newark. The large circle had an opening into it leading out of the square, and the small circle had also one opening which connected it with the other.
This part of Ohio was, in the eighteenth century, occupied by settlements of the Shawnee tribes. In several of the burial mounds, which are supposed to have belonged to them, there have been found copper kettles, silver crosses and iron gunbarrels—all of which must have been unquestionably made by workmen of European descent.