E. H. Davis

“ The block idol of the poor Laplander has its sacred limit within which the devotee only ventures on bended knees and with face to the earth; the oak-crowned Druid taught the mysteries of his stern religion in temples of unhewn stones, open to the sun, in rude but gigantic structures, which in their form symbolized the God of his adoration; conquerors humbled themselves as they approached the precincts which the voice of the Pythoness had consecrated; no worshipper trod the avenues guarded by the silent, emblematic Sphynx, except with awe and reverence ”

“ It seems to have been the first domestic art practised by man, and the worker in clay may be esteemed the primitive artisan. Go where we will, from the hut of the roving Indian to the palace of the civilized prince, we everywhere find the products of his craft, rude and unpolished from the hand of the savage, or rivalling the marble from the manufactories of Wedgwood and Copeland.
The site of every Indian town throughout the West is marked by the fragments of pottery scattered around it; and the cemeteries of the various tribes abound with rude vessels of clay, piously deposited with the dead. ”

“ Certain it is that they are now invaded by a busy population, careless alike of their origin and of their future fate, before whose encroachments they are rapidly disappearing. Already the plough has broken in upon the outlines and symmetry of hundreds, and unless the present favorable moment is seized upon to secure their accurate admeasurement and delineation, these embossed illustrations of our ancient history will be obliterated forever. ”

“ Here, covered with the gigantic trees of a primitive forest, the work presents a truly grand and impressive appearance; and, in entering the ancient avenue for the first time, the visitor does not fail to experience a sensation of awe, such as he might feel in passing the portals of an Egyptian temple, or in gazing upon the silent ruins of Petra of the desert. This work is not, as has been generally represented, a true circle; its form is that of an ellipse, its diameters being twelve hundred and fifty feet, and eleven hundred and fifty feet res­pec­tive­ly. ”

“ We have reason to believe that the religious system of the mound-builders, like that of the Aztecs, exercised among them a great, if not a controlling influence. Their government may have been, for aught we know, a government of the priesthood; one in which the priestly and civil functions were jointly exercised, and one sufficiently powerful to have secured in the Mississippi valley, as it did in Mexico, the erection of many of those vast monuments, which for ages will continue to challenge the wonder of men. ”

“ Savage taste in sculpture is generally exhibited in monstrosities,—caricatures of things rather than faithful copies. The dawn of art is marked by a purer taste; the result of an appreciation of the beauties of nature which only follows their close observance. The aim of the neophyte is to imitate, rather than distort, the objects which he sees before him. It is in this view that the sculptures taken from the mounds seem most remarkable ”

“ Whether any significance may attach to the predominance of stone, in some of the mounds, is a question difficult to answer. It occasionally happens that a mound of stone occurs in the midst of a group composed of earth. Such was the case with one which formerly stood within the limits of Chillicothe. As a general rule, however, the mound is composed of material found upon the spot or taken from pits near by; and stone mounds oftenest occur where, from the hardness of the soil or the abundance of stones, it would be easiest to construct the tumulus of the latter material. ”

“ The polished instrument with which the pioneer of civilization prostrates the forest, has its type in the stone axe of the Indian which his plough the next day exposes to his curious gaze. In the barrows of Denmark and Siberia, in the tumuli on the plains of Marathon, and even under the shadow of the pyramids themselves, the explorer finds relics, almost identical with those disclosed from the mounds, and closely resembling each other in material, form, and workmanship. ”

“ We may perhaps find the key to its purposes in a very humble but not therefore less interesting class of Southern remains. Both in Mexico and in the mounds of Mississippi have been found stamps of burned clay, the faces of which are covered with figures, fanciful or imitative, all in low relief, like the face of a stereotype plate. These were used in impressing ornaments upon the clothes or prepared skins of the people possessing them. ”

“ The importance of a complete and speedy examination of the whole field, cannot be over-estimated. The operations of the elements, the shifting channels of the streams, the levelling hand of public improvement, and most efficient of all, the slow but constant encroachments of agriculture, are fast destroying these monuments of ancient labor, breaking in upon their symmetry and obliterating their outlines. ”

“ Now it is evident that works of art, so numerous and vast as we have seen those of the Mississippi valley to be, could only have been erected by a numerous people,—and especially must we regard as numerous the population capable of constructing them, when we reflect how imperfect at the best must have been the artificial aids at their command, as compared with those of the present age. ”

“ It is a fact well known, that the existing tribes of Indians, though possessing no knowledge of the origin or objects of the mounds, were accustomed to regard them with some degree of veneration. It is also known, that they sometimes buried their dead in them, in accordance with their almost invariable custom of selecting elevated points and the brows of hills as their cemeteries. That their remains should be found in the mounds, is therefore a matter of no surprise. They are never discovered at any great depth, not often more than eighteen inches or three feet below the surface. ”

“ The outwork, of which A is an enlarged plan, possesses all the features of a bastion, and was perhaps designed as such. It could hardly have been intended as a gateway; for, although the ditch is interrupted for a narrow space at c, the embankment is unbroken.
The transverse section of the wall, a b, demonstrates the artificial origin of the work, which it is not probable any one would be disposed to deny. The upheaved gravel upon the exterior side of the wall, wherever it is under cultivation, supports dwarfed and sickly maize; while on the inner side, the grain is luxuriant. ”

“ There is nothing, however, in its position or structure so different from hundreds of other works as to warrant us in assigning to it a later date or a different origin. As a military work, it is vastly inferior to many with which we are acquainted, and its regularity is not sufficiently marked to entitle it to any special consideration on that account. It clearly belongs to that great family of remains, of which so many examples have already been presented. ”

“ In the square and in the irregular works, if there be a fosse at all, it is exterior to the embankment; except in the case of fortified hills, where the earth, for the best of reasons, is usually thrown from the interior. These facts are not without their importance in determining the character and purpose of these remains. Another fact, bearing directly upon the degree of knowledge possessed by the builders, is, that many, if not most, of the circular works are perfect circles, and that many of the rectangular works are accurate squares. ”

“ As an agricultural people, they must have possessed some means of clearing the land of forests and of tilling the soil. We can hardly conceive, at this day, how these operations could be performed without the aid of iron; yet we know that the Peruvians and Mexicans, whose monuments emulate the proudest of the old world, were wholly unacquainted with the uses of that metal, and constructed their edifices and carried on their agricultural operations with implements of wood, stone, and copper. ”

“ It will, of course, be understood that nothing of the imposing character of many of the sculptured relics of Central America is found in the mounds. Aside from the stupendous earth structures, which deserve to be classed with the most wonderful remains of ancient power and greatness, there is nothing imposing in the monuments of the Mississippi valley. ”

“ The p248 material is a fine porphyry of a greenish brown or lead-colored ground, interspersed with black and white granules of a harder nature, and is identical with the material composing many similar articles taken from the mounds. It has the body of a bird with the head of a man, and is delicately and symmetrically carved. It is adapted as a pipe; the bowl rising from the centre of the back communicates with a hole drilled for the insertion of a stem from the side. The attitude of the entire figure is graceful, and the proportions of the different parts in admirable harmony. ”

“ A very copious spring of water starts from the bank near the wall, a little to the right of the entrance. A small circle and a couple of mounds are situated on the next lower terrace, at the points indicated in the plan.
This work is admirably preserved, and is remarkable as being the only circular work at present known, which has its ditch exterior to the walls. The proprietor esteems the soil much richer within the enclosure, than upon the adjacent plain. We are unprepared to ascribe any other than a religious origin to this structure. ”

“ The vast amount of labor expended upon these works, and the regularity and design which they exhibit, taken in connection with the circumstances under which they are found, denote a people advanced from the nomadic or radically savage state,—in short, a numerous agricultural people, spread at one time, or slowly migrating, over a vast extent of country, and having established habits, customs, and modes of life. How far this conclusion, for the present hypothetically advanced, is sustained by the character of the minor vestiges of art, of which we shall now speak, remains to be seen. ”

“ The scarcity of mounds, the absence of pyramids of earth, which are so common on the Ohio, the want of rectangular and other regular works, at the north,—all these differences tend to the conclusion that the northern part of Ohio was occupied by a distinct people.
“At the north there is generally more than one wall of earth, and the ditches are invariably exterior. There are sometimes passages, or ‘sally-ports,’ through the outer parallel, and none through the inner one. There is also, in general, a space between the parallels sufficiently large to contain a considerable body of fighting men. ”

“ The fact of the existence, within the valley of the Mississippi river and its tributaries, of many ancient monuments of human labor and skill, seems to have escaped the notice of the adventurers who first made known to the world the extent and fertility of that vast region. ”

“ The walls of some works, which, from their position and other circumstances, are manifestly of defensive origin, are so slight that it would be absurd to suppose them designed for protection, unless crowned with palisades. Most of those of northern Ohio are subject to this remark. It has been asserted by certain writers on American antiquities, that traces of palisades are yet to be seen in some of them. Aside from the palpable improbability of anything of the sort, it is proper to remark that no such evidences have been observed in the course of our own investigations. ”

“ Minute circumstances are often of the first importance in arriving at correct conclusions. The comparative slightness of the wall and the absence of a ditch, at the points possessing natural defences,—the extension of the artificial defences upon the table lands overlooking and commanding the terrace,—the facilities afforded for an abundant supply of water, as well as the large area enclosed, with its mysterious circles and sacred p029 mounds,—all go to sustain the conclusion, that this was a fortified town or city of the ancient people. ”

“ Implements and ornaments of copper are found in considerable abundance among their remains; silver is occasionally found in the form of ornaments, but only to a trifling amount; the ore of lead, galena, has been discovered in considerable quantities, but none of the metal has been found under such circumstances as to establish conclusively that they were acquainted with the art of smelting it. No iron or traces of iron, except with the recent deposits, have been discovered; nor is it believed that the race of the mounds had any knowledge of that metal. ”

“ A section of the embankment, near the gap, exhibited a thin line of loam, even with what might be supposed to have been the surface of the ground. Alluvial stratification is positive proof that a formation is not artificial; but the absence of a base of mould is not proof of the same thing, for the surface of the earth may have been removed before the erection of the mound. In examining the tumuli of Wisconsin, I did not at any place discover a ditch or cavity from which the earth to construct them had been taken. ”

“ It is a remarkable fact that no embankment accompanies the ditch; although the work is not entirely singular in that respect. Within the enclosure thus formed by the river on the one hand and the ditch on the other, are several mounds, one of which is of great size and extraordinary character. It measures upwards of seventy-five feet in height, and is twelve hundred feet in circumference at its base. It is truncated, the area at its summit having a diameter of one hundred and forty feet. A graded avenue, which may be ascended on horseback, leads to its top from the east. ”

“ Some are excessively rude, but most are formed with great labor from the finest materials within reach. Along the Mississippi and among the tribes to the westward of that river, the material most valued for the purpose was, and still is, the red pipe-stone of the Coteau des Prairies, a beautiful mineral resembling steatite, easily worked and capable of a high finish. The spot whence it is obtained, and which is certainly one of the most interesting mineral localities of the whole country, is regarded with superstitious veneration by the Indians. ”

“ The fidelity to nature observed in the latter fully warrant us in believing that the sculptures of the human heads discovered with them are also faithful copies from nature, and truly display not only the characteristic features of the ancient race, but also their method of wearing the hair, the style of their head-dresses, and the character and mode of adjustment of a portion of their ornaments. ”

“ It is a singular fact that no relics which were obviously designed as idols or objects of worship have been obtained from the mounds. Such are occasionally discovered on the surface, but none, so far as known, within the enclosures deemed sacred or defensive. Those which have been found are all of exceedingly rude workmanship, quite unlike any of the authenticated mound remains. They are more abundant in the region towards the Gulf than upon the Ohio, though not of frequent occurrence there. ”