Further proofs of the settled character of this ancient population are furnished by another class of defensive works, supposed to mark the sites of fortified towns. One of these, called “Clark’s Work,” on the north fork of Point Creek, in the Scioto valley, embraces an area of one hundred and twenty-seven acres; and encloses within its circumvallations sacrificial mounds, and symmetrical earthworks assumed with every probability to have been designed for religious or civic purposes. A stream has been turned into an entirely new channel, in order to admit of the completed circuit of the walls. “The embankments measure together nearly three miles in length; and a careful computation shows that, including mounds, not less than three million cubic feet of earth were used in their composition.”[[83]] Within the enclosures thus laboriously executed, many of the most interesting relics of ancient art have been dug up, including several coiled serpents of carved stone, carefully enveloped in sheet mica and copper; pottery, fragments of carved ivory, discoidal stones, and numerous fine sculptures.
It is obvious that the population capable of furnishing the requisite labour for works of so extensive a nature must have been numerous, and its resources for the maintenance of such a phalanx of workers proportionally abundant. The garrisons of the great strongholds, and the population that found shelter within such mural defences as “Clark’s Work,” must also have been very large, requiring for their subsistence the contributions of an extensive district. But this only accords with other proofs of the condition of the Mound-Builders as a settled people. When we turn from the consideration of single large fortifications crowning the insulated heights, and estimate the number and extent of mounds, symmetrical enclosures, and works of various kinds connected with the arts of peace and the rites of religious worship, which give so striking a character to the river-valleys and terraces, it is no longer possible to doubt that many sections of this fertile region were once before filled by an industrious, settled population.
The Sacred Enclosures have been separated from the military works of the Mound-Builders on very obvious grounds. Their elaborate fortifications occupy isolated heights specially adapted for defence; whereas the broad river-terraces have been selected for their religious works. There, on the great unbroken levels, they form groups of symmetrical enclosures, square, circular, elliptical, and octagonal, with long connecting avenues, suggesting comparisons with the British Avebury, or the Hebridean Callernish; with the Breton Carnac; or even with the temples and Sphinx-avenues of the Egyptian Karnak and Luxor.
The predominant impression suggested by the great military earthworks of the Mound-Builders is that of the action of a numerous population, co-operating under the guidance and authority of approved leaders, with a view to the defence of large communities. Elaborate fortifications such as that of “Clark’s Work” in the Scioto Valley, or “Fort Ancient” on the Little Miami River, are constructed on well-chosen hills or bluffs, and strengthened by ditches, mounds, and complicated approaches; but the lines of earthwork, like those of the great Scottish hill-forts, are everywhere adapted to the natural features of the site. With the sacred enclosures it is wholly different. Some of these also do, indeed, impress the mind with the imposing scale of their embankments. On first entering the great circle at Newark, and looking across its broad trench at the lofty embankment overshadowed with full-grown forest-trees, my thoughts reverted to the Antonine vallum, which by like evidence still records the presence of the Roman masters of the world in North Britain. But after driving over a circuit of several miles embracing the remarkable group of earthworks of which this is only a single feature, and satisfying myself by personal observation of the existence of parallel avenues which have been traced for nearly two miles; and of the grand central oval, circle, and octagon, the smallest of which measures upwards of half-a-mile in circumference: all idea of mere combined labour is lost in the higher conviction of manifest skill, and even science. The angles of the octagon are not coincident, but the sides are very nearly equal; and the enclosure approaches so closely to a perfect figure that its error is only demonstrated by actual survey. Connected with it by parallel embankments 350 feet long, is a true circle, measuring 2880 feet in circumference; and distant nearly a mile from this, but connected with it by an elaborate series of earthworks, is the circular structure above referred to. Its actual form is an ellipse, the respective diameters of which are 1250 feet, and 1150 feet, respectively; and it encloses an area of upwards of 30 acres.
At the entrance of this great circle the enclosing embankment curves outward on either side for a distance of 100 feet, leaving a level way between the ditches, 80 feet wide. The earthen mound, which is here higher than at any other point, measures about 30 feet from the bottom of the ditch to the summit. The area of the enclosure is so nearly a perfect level that Mr. J. M. Dennis, to whose intimate local knowledge I was indebted for a thorough survey of the works, informed me that he had observed during the rains of the previous spring the water stood at a uniform level nearly to the edge of the ditch. In the centre of this enclosure is an earthen mound, still called “The Eagle.” Mr. Squier says of it: “It much resembles some of the animal-shaped mounds of Wisconsin, and was probably designed to represent a bird with expanded wings.” It has been opened and found to contain a hearth, or “altar.” The fact is important; as it distinguishes it in this respect essentially from the emblematic mounds of Wisconsin, and tends to confirm the idea that the great circle and its related groups of earthworks all bore some reference to sacred games, or other strange rites of religion, once practised within their circumvallations. But successive excavations have greatly marred the original contour of the mound; and now that, with a view to the preservation of the principla earthwork, it has been secured as the Licking County fair ground, the erection of a grand stand on the summit of the Eagle Mound has contributed still further to obscure the traces of its primary form.
From the elliptical enclosure a wide avenue of two dissimilar parts, seemingly constructed without relation to each other, leads to a square of twenty acres, with seven mounds disposed symmetrically within the enclosing walls, and numerous other works occupy hundreds of acres with their geometrical configurations. But in spite of the intelligent interest which prevails in reference to those remarkable monuments of an ancient people, the industrial operations of the modern occupants of their sites are fast obliterating all but the most prominent works. In the great octagon I noticed a difference of nearly five feet between the height of the embankments still standing on uncleared land, and those portions which have been long under the plough. But for the aid of my intelligent guide I should have found it impossible to trace out the indications of the parallel ways; and already many of the smaller mounds and enclosures have entirely disappeared. Roads, railways, and a canal, have successively invaded the sacred enclosures, and wrought more changes in a single generation than had been effected in all the previous interval since the discovery of America. But the accompanying plan (Fig. 70), derived from surveys executed while the chief earthworks could still be traced in all their integrity, will enable the reader to comprehend their character; and if he clearly realises the scale on which these geometrical figures are constructed, he can be at no loss in recognising their essential difference from the ephemeral earthworks which mark the sites of Indian stockades or sepulchral mounds. While they present certain analogies to mound-groups and enclosures both of Europe and Asia, in many other respects they are totally dissimilar: and illustrate rites and customs of an ancient American people without a parallel among the monumental memorials of the Old World.
Fig. 70.—Newark Earthworks, Ohio.
Several striking coincidences between the details of these works and others of the same class are worthy of notice. The diameter of the circle, the perfect form of which has been noted, is nearly identical with two others forming parts of remarkable groups in the Scioto valley, one of them seventy miles distant. The square has also the same area as a rectangular enclosure belonging to the “Hopeton Works,” where it is attached to a circle 1050 feet in diameter, and to an avenue constructed between two parallel embankments 2400 feet long, leading to the edge of a bank immediately over the river-flat of the Scioto. A like coincidence in the precise extent of the area enclosed has been noticed in the octagon of a group, called the High Bank Works, on the same river-terrace; and in another, at the junction of the Muskingum and Ohio rivers. The authors of the elaborate surveys embodied in the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, remark generally that the figures of the Scioto valley earthworks are not only accurate squares and perfect circles, but are in most cases of corresponding dimensions; each square being 1080 feet a side, and the diameter of each of the larger and smaller circles a fraction over 1700 and 800 feet. This they observe is “a coincidence which could not possibly be accidental, and which must possess some significance. It certainly establishes the existence of some standard of measurement among the ancient people, if not the possession of some means of determining angles.”[[84]] It is no less important to note that it establishes the use of instruments. A standard of measurement could not otherwise exist, still less be applied, on so large a scale in geometrical construction; and the very simplest instruments that we can conceive of, constitute no less certain evidence of a condition of intellectual development attained by this ancient people very different from anything achieved by the most advanced Indian tribes. Varied, moreover, as the combinations of their singular groups of earthworks are, traces are clearly discernible that certain well-defined plans of construction, and a proportionate scale of parts, guided their builders. Justly estimating the importance of such coincidences, and the still greater value of the evidence of the construction of geometric figures on so large a scale, the authors of the surveys have detailed their method of procedure, in order “to put at once all scepticism at rest, which might otherwise arise as to the regularity of these works.” This important point rests accordingly on the most satisfactory evidence;[[85]] nor are even the imperfections observed in the construction of some of the rectangular figures without their significance, as a test of the extent to which geometry had been mastered by the ancient builders.
That this remarkable class of earthworks originated in some totally different purpose from the strongholds already described, is obvious. Their site is invariably on a level plateau, and their avenues are connected with the neighbouring flats by laboriously constructed approaches, as if to facilitate the solemn march of processions. The embankments are frequently slight; where a ditch occurs it is generally in the interior; and their whole construction is in striking contrast to the defensive enclosures in their vicinity. At Newark they extend over the level terrace, and, with outlying structures, embrace an area of several miles in extent; while on each side of the Valley, formed by the Racoon Creek, military works occupy prominent elevations presenting special natural advantages for defence. One of those, obviously of a defensive character, encloses the summit of a high hill; but it also contains a small circle with tumuli, covering “altars” corresponding to those hereafter described, which give their peculiar character to the sacred mounds. There is no room, therefore, for doubt that the various works referred to illustrate what may be styled the civil, military, and ecclesiastical structures of the same people, including in the latter public games, such as among many ancient nations constituted one special feature of their religious festivals.