Plate 14. Prehistoric Altar. Hopewell Mound, Ross County, Ohio.
Found near the copper Swastika shown in [fig. 244].
Moorehead, “Primitive Man in Ohio,” Fig. XXXVII. Cat. No. 148662, U. S. N. M.

In trench No. 3, 15 skeletons (numbered 264 to 278, inclusive), were found on the base line, all extended. Objects of coal, bone, shell, or stone, had been placed with nearly all of them. Nos. 265 and 266 were laid on blocks of burnt earth 3 inches higher than the base of the mound. One of the skeletons in this mound (No. 248) is shown in [pl. 13]. It was a most remarkable specimen, and forms the frontispiece of Prof. W. K. Moorehead’s volume “Primitive Man in Ohio,” where it is described (p. 195) as follows:

At his head were imitation elk horns, neatly made of wood and covered with sheet copper rolled into cylindrical forms over the prongs. The antlers were 22 inches high and 19 inches across from prong to prong. They fitted into a crown of copper bent to fit the head from occipital to upper jaw. Copper plates were upon the breast and stomach, also on the back. The copper preserved the bones and a few of the sinews. It also preserved traces of cloth similar to coffee sacking in texture, interwoven among the threads of which were 900 beautiful pearl beads, bear teeth split and cut, and hundreds of other beads, both pearl and shell. Copper spool-shaped objects and other implements covered the remains. A pipe of granite and a spearhead of agate were near the right shoulder. The pipe was of very fine workmanship and highly polished.

Fig. 250.
SPOOL-SHAPED OBJECT OF COPPER.
Repoussé and intaglio decoration. Hopewell Mound, Ross County, Ohio. Natural size.

While digging out skeletons 280 to 284, Professor Moorehead says they touched the edge of an altar ([pl. 14]). It was on the base line and 15 feet north of the copper find before described. On the 5th of January, 1892, the altar was uncovered, and the earth, charcoal, and objects within it put into five soap boxes and transported to headquarters, where the material was assorted in my presence and with my aid. The mass on the altar had been charred throughout. It contained, in part, mica ornaments, beads, spool-shaped objects, whale, bear, and panther teeth, flint knives, carved effigies of bone and stone, some of which were broken, while others were whole. There were stone tablets, slate ornaments, copper balls, fragments of cloth, rings of chlorite, quartz crystals perforated and grooved, and a few pieces of flint and obsidian, with several thousand pearls drilled for suspension. These objects were heaped in the cavity of the altar without any regularity. All were affected by heat, the copper being fused in many cases. The teeth and tusks were charred, split, and calcined. There were no ashes. All the fuel was charcoal, and from the appearance of the débris, especially the wood, earth, and bone, one might suppose that after the fire had started it had not been allowed to burn to ashes as if in the open air, but had been covered with earth, and so had smoldered out as in a charcoal pit.

Fig. 251.
FRAGMENT OF ENGRAVED BONE
REPRESENTING A PAROQUET.
Hopewell Mound, Ross County, Ohio.
Natural size.