The evidence that some of the altars remained in use for a considerable period, and were repeatedly renewed ere they were finally covered over, has suggested the idea that they are no more than the hearths of the ancient Mound-Builders’ dwellings. But in some cases a single altar-hearth has been found within extensive circumvallations. When in groups their enclosures are slight demarcations, as of places sacred to religious observances, and not defensive embankments with outer ditch. Their contents cannot be regarded as mere miscellaneous deposits, either like the waste heap of an Indian hut, or the contents of the modern Indian’s ossuary; and it is obvious that those hearths have been systematically overlaid with mounds constructed with great care, even where they were devoid of other traces than the ashes of their final fires. In one large mound, for example, one hundred and forty feet in length, by sixty feet in greatest breadth,—already referred to as that in which so many quartz spear and arrow-heads, with copper and other relics, were found;—a new and smaller hearth was observed to have been constructed within the oblong basin of the original altar. In this all the relics deposited in the mound were placed, and the outer compartments of the large basin had been filled up with earth to a uniform level, the surface of which showed traces of fire. A more minute examination led to the discovery that three successive altars had been constructed, one above another, in addition to the smaller hearth or focus which had received the final offerings, ere it was buried under its enclosing mound. In other examples the altars have been observed to be very slightly burned; but wherever such was the case, they have also been destitute of remains.
Along with the evidences of a uniformity of system and purpose in those structures, there is also considerable variety in some of their details; and one group may be selected, as on several accounts possessing peculiar features of interest. On the western bank of the Scioto, an ancient enclosure occupies a level terrace immediately above the river. In outline it is nearly square with rounded angles, and consists of a simple embankment, between three and four feet high, unaccompanied by a ditch, or any other feature suggestive of its having been a place of defence. It encloses an area of thirteen acres, within which are twenty-four mounds, including the large oblong one already referred to. The whole of these have been excavated, and found to contain altars and other remains, suggestive of places of sacrifice, and not of sepulture. Here, therefore, it may be assumed, was one of the sacred enclosures of the Mound-Builders. The name of “Mound City” has been given to it; and the results of its exploration prove it to have been one of the most remarkable scenes of ancient ceremonial in the Scioto Valley. It would almost seem as if here an altar had been reared to each god in the American pantheon; for not the least remarkable feature observed in reference to this class of mounds is, that they do not disclose a miscellaneous assemblage of relics, like the Indian’s ossuary or grave-mound. On the contrary, the sacrificial deposits are generally nearly homogeneous. On one altar sculptured pipes are chiefly found, to the number of hundreds; on another pottery, copper ornaments, stone implements, or galena; on others, only an accumulation of calcined shells, carbonaceous ashes, or burnt bones. One mound of this enclosure covered a hearth in the form of a parallelogram of the utmost regularity, measuring ten feet in length, by eight in width, and containing a deposit of fine ashes, with fragments of pottery, from which the pieces of one beautiful vase were recovered and restored. With these also lay a few shell and pearl beads. In another oblong mound, the altar was an equally perfect square, but with a circular basin, remarkable for its depth, and filled with a mass of calcined shells. Another, though of small dimensions, contained nearly two hundred pipes, carved with ingenious skill, of a red porphyritic stone, into figures of animals, birds, reptiles, and human heads. In addition to these were also disks, tubes, and ornaments of copper, pearl and shell beads, etc., but all more or less injured by the heat, which had been sufficiently intense to melt some of the copper relics. The number of the objects found in this mound exceed any other single deposit. Some of them supply illustrations of great importance relative to the arts, habits, and probable origin of their makers; and that they were objects of value purposely exposed to the destructive element can scarcely admit of doubt. A like diversity marks the contents of other mounds, both within the enclosure referred to, and in others where careful explorations have been effected. From one, for example, upwards of six hundred disks of hornstone were taken, and it was estimated that the entire deposit numbered little short of four thousand.
It thus appears that sacrifices by fire were practised as an important and oft-repeated part of the sacred rites of the Mound-Builders; and also that certain specific and varying purposes were aimed at in the offerings. The altar-mounds are chiefly found within what appear to have been enclosures devoted primarily, if not exclusively, to religious purposes; but they also occur, generally as single works, within the military strongholds: where it may be assumed they sufficed for sacrifices designed to propitiate the objects of national worship, and to win the favour of their deities, when the garrisons were precluded from access to the sacred enclosures where national religious rites were chiefly celebrated.
Within a quarter of a mile of “Mound City” a work of somewhat similar outline, but of larger dimensions, suggests the idea of a fortified site: not designed as a military stronghold, but as a walled town, wherein those who officiated at the sacrifices of the adjacent temple may have resided. Unlike the slight enclosure of the latter, its walls are guarded by an outer fosse; and if surmounted by a palisade, or other military work, they were well suited for defence. The area thus enclosed measures twenty-eight acres; and nearly, if not exactly, in the centre is a sacred mound, which covered an altar of singular construction, and with remarkable traces of sacrificial rites. It had undergone repeated changes before its final inhumation. Upon the altar was found an accumulation of burnt remains, carefully covered with a layer of sand, above which was heaped the superstructure of the mound. “The deposit consisted of a thin layer of carbonaceous matter, intermingled with which were some burnt human bones, but so much calcined as to render recognition extremely difficult. Ten well-wrought copper bracelets were also found, placed in two heaps, five in each, and encircling some calcined bones,—probably those of the arms upon which they were worn. Besides these were found a couple of thick plates of mica, placed upon the western slope of the altar.”[[88]]
All investigations coincide in proving that the altars of the Mound-Builders were used for considerable periods, and that their final incovering was effected with systematic care. In this respect they present a striking contrast to the sepulchral mounds of the Indians, the largest and most imposing of which are no more than huge grave-mounds, or earth-pyramids, sometimes elliptical or pear-shaped, but exhibiting in their internal structure no trace of any further design than to heap over the sarcophagus of the honoured chief such a tumulus as should preserve his name and fame to after times.
The investigation of this class of ancient works suggests many curious questions to which it is difficult to furnish any satisfactory answer. It seems probable that not only each successive stage in the use and reconstruction of the altar, but in the building of the superincumbent mound, had its own significance and accompanying rites. In one of the “Mound City” structures, after penetrating through four successive sand-strata, interposed at intervals of little more than a foot between layers of earth; and excavating altogether to a depth of nineteen feet: a smooth level floor of slightly burned clay was found, covered with a thin layer of sand, and on this a series of round plates of mica, ten inches or a foot in diameter, were regularly disposed, overlapping each other like the scales of a fish. The whole deposit was not uncovered, but sufficient was exposed to lead the observers to the conclusion that the entire layer of mica was arranged in the form of a crescent, the full dimensions of which must measure twenty feet from horn to horn, and five feet at its greatest breadth. In some mounds the accumulated carbonaceous matter, like that formed by the ashes of leaves or grass, might suggest the graceful offerings of the first-fruits of the earth. In others, the accumulation of hundreds of elaborately carved stone pipes on a single altar, is suggestive of some ancient peace- or war-pipe ceremonial, in which the peculiar American custom of tobacco-smoking had its special significance, and even perhaps its origin. In others again, we should perhaps trace in the deposition under the sacred mound of hundreds of spear and arrow-heads, copper axes, and other weapons of war, a ceremonial perpetuated in the rude Indian symbolism of burying the tomahawk or war-hatchet. But looking to the evidence which so clearly separates the sepulchral from the sacred mounds, it is scarcely possible to avoid the conclusion that on some of the altars of the Mound-Builders human sacrifices were made; and that within their sacred enclosures were practised rites not less hideous than those which characterised the worship which the ferocious Aztecs are affirmed to have regarded as most acceptable to their sanguinary gods. Among the Mexicans, if we are to believe the narratives of their Spanish conquerors, human sacrifices constituted the crowning rite of almost every festival. That great exaggeration is traceable in the narratives of the chronicles is admitted in part even by the enthusiastic historian of the conquest of Mexico; and the charming historical romance woven by Prescott, is perhaps even more open to question in its reproduction of the gross charges of cannibalism and wholesale butchery in the superstitious rites of the Mexicans: than in its gorgeous picturings of their architectural magnificence, their temples and palaces, sculptured fountains, floating gardens, and all the strange blending of Moorish luxury, with the refinements of European life, and its unreserved freedom of women.
Nothing corresponding to the geometrical enclosures or altar-mounds of the Mississippi Valley appears among the works of any Indian nation known to Europeans. Nevertheless in searching for evidence of their ethnical affinities, we are naturally led to inquire if no traces of their peculiar rites and customs can be detected in the ruder practices of savage nations found in occupation of their deserted sites; and some of those in use by different Indian tribes undoubtedly suggest ideas such as may have animated the ancient people of the valley in the construction and use of their mounds of sacrifice. One class of mound relics, for example, is thus illustrated in Hariot’s narrative of the discovery of Virginia in 1584. He describes the use of tobacco, called by the natives uppówoc, and greatly enlarges on its medicinal virtues. He then adds: “This uppówoc is of so precious estimation amongst them that they think their gods are marvellously delighted therewith, whereupon sometime they make hallowed fires, and cast some of the powder therein for a sacrifice.” The discovery of unmistakable evidence that one of the sacred altars of “Mound City” was specially devoted to nicotian rites and offerings, renders such allusions peculiarly significant. In the belief of the ancient worshippers, the Great Spirit smelled a sweet savour in the smoke of the sacred plant; and the homely implement of modern luxury became in their hands a sacred censer, from which the vapour rose with as fitting propitiatory odours as that which perfumes the awful precincts of the cathedral altar, amid the mysteries of the Church’s high and holy days.
It is indeed a vague and partial glimpse that we recover of the old worshipper, with his strange rites, his buried arts, and the traces of his propitiatory sacrifices. But slight as it is, it reveals a condition of things diverse in many respects from all else that we know of the former history of the New World; and on that account, therefore, its most imperfect disclosures have an interest for us greater than any discoveries relating to the modern Indian can possess. Still more is that interest confirmed by every indication which seems to present the ancient Mound-Builders as in some respects a link between the rude tribes of the American forests and prairies, and those nations whom the first Europeans found established in cities, under a well-ordered government, and surrounded by many appliances of civilisation akin to those with which they had been long familiar among ancient nations of southern Asia. To the great centres of native progress still manifest in the ruined memorials of extinct arts in Central America, and illustrated by so many evidences of national development attained under Aztec and Inca rule, attention must be directed with a view to comprehend whatever was essentially native to the New World. But before turning southward to those seats of a well-ascertained native civilisation, there still remains for consideration one other class of earthworks of a very peculiar character. The mineral regions from whence the Mound-Builders derived their stores of copper have been described; but between them and the populous valleys of the Ohio, an extensive region intervenes, abounding in monuments no less remarkable than some of those already referred to; and valuable as a possible link in the detached fragments of such ancient chroniclings. Lying as they do in geographical, and perhaps also in other relations, immediately between the old regions of the Mound-Builders and the Miners of ante-Columbian centuries, they cannot be overlooked in any archæological researches into the history of the New World.
| [88] | Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, p. 157. |