Mound (archaeology)

“ The only satisfactory answer to the question, so far as competent authorities have yet discovered, is that the modern grave-mound is the shrunken representative of the long barrow, the features having been retained because of the inertia of social custom, and because inveterate imitation is easier than new experiment. It is noteworthy that the modern mound is often{260} so large as to be unsightly. ”

“ The lower mounds, or most of them, must have been constructed as foundations of the more important edifices of the mound-building people. Many of the great buildings erected on such pyramidal foundations, at Palenque, Uxmal, and elsewhere in that region, have not disappeared, because they were built of hewn stone laid in mortar. For reasons not difficult to understand, the Mound-Builders, beginning their works on the lower Mississippi, constructed such edifices of wood or some other perishable material; therefore not a trace of them remains. ”

“ From what we have seen during the exploration of this Mound we try to form a picture of how the builders of it must have lived. In this the archæologist assists by telling us that many other things besides those which we have seen here are found with burials. The Mound-builders 20 made artistic pottery; from grasses, plants and trees they collected fibers which they wove into fabrics; from stone, flint, bone, shell, wood, copper and silver they made their implements, cooking utensils and ornaments. ”

“ The spade has disturbed and distributed flints and shards, and any other primitive relics have been broken and scattered so many times that their original positions are unknown. Levelling has followed inequality, and, in some cases, the graveyard has been enlarged and a secondary dispersal of soil has been made. (The observations on burial shards in Chapter VII. should be read in this connection.)
We will start with some of the less-authenticated examples first. A mound, long thought to be a barrow, but now considered to be quite natural, stands near Woodnesborough church, Sandwich, Kent. ”

“ Petrie employed men to make a section into the mound, and himself superintended and assisted in the operation, which proved one of considerable time and labour, from the large stones and the quantity of clay used in completing the external mound, as well as in the masonry of the structure found underneath. ”

“ The capping of the mound covers, mayhap, the dust of more than one celebrity. Bones and earthenware were found at, or near, this spot a century ago, and soon after the visit just described skeletons were dug up in the sand pit. The ultimate fate of these skeletons, and their determinations, could not be ascertained. Perchance this toot-hill will remind the visitor of the cremation of Beowulf, and the mound which “the Weders people wrought on the hill,” after the funeral-pyre which they had kindled had ceased to glow. We learn that the lamenting warriors raised ”

“ The mounds are usually opened by injudicious explorers or by treasure-seekers, who have paid little attention to the location of the relics found or the condition of the surrounding soil. Museums and private collections are full of spurious relics thus obtained. It is certain in some cases, and probable in many more, that the mounds have been 'salted' with specimens with a view to their early investigation. Yet many mounds have been opened by scientific men, who have brought to light curious relics, surely the work of the Mound-builders. ”

“ If mounds were the only works remaining of these ancient people, we would not take so great an interest in them, and, as it is, we are not to suppose that all the mounds are the works of those people we call the Mound Builders. Recent investigation and historical evidence unite in showing that some comparatively recent Indian tribes formed and used mound structures. Early explorers have left abundant testimony to show that in many cases the Indians resorted to mound-burial. ”

“ The different periods to which the various mounds and burial places belong can only be made out by such a series of explorations as the museum is now conducting in the Little Miami Valley, and when they are completed we shall be better able to answer the question, "Who were the mound-builders?" than we are now. That more than one of the several American stocks or nations or groups of tribes built mounds seems to me to be established. ”

“ The largest earthen mound, which I call the grand mound because all the graves are facing it, is about ninety feet in diameter, and at this time about 4 feet high; but when first discovered by whites it was 5 or 6 feet high. This mound has not yet been examined, but others in the valley, not so high but larger in diameter, have been looked into and were found to contain graves, pottery ware, pipes and arrow-heads made of dirt or cut out of rock. These are found in the graves in the mound and in those around it. ”

“ During a visit to this locality in 1857, he partially opened this mound, finding masses of burned earth and charred human bones mingled with charcoal and ashes. At his visit in 1882, on behalf of the Bureau, a further examination revealed, on the lower side, the end of a double line of flat stones set on edge, about a foot apart at the bottom and leaned so as to meet at the top and form a roof-shaped flue or drain. ”

“ The true burial mounds are very numerous, an comprise by far the larger number of mounds. They are to be found all over the Mound Builders’ territory, and are about the only class of remains found in the prairie regions of the West. From the upper waters of the Missouri and the great lakes on the north to the Gulf States on the south, and from west of the Mississippi to the Alleghenies of the East, in all this vast region they are the prevailing class of remains, and occur by hundreds, and even thousands, along the valleys. The mounds themselves are often not very conspicuous ”

“ Of these silent records of a rapidly vanishing race the most important as well as the most legible are the earthen mounds which cover the bones and dust of their dead. They crown all the peaks and ridges of our bluffs, a few rising to considerable proportions, but the greater number are mere swellings of the surface not readily recognized as being of artificial origin. Every gradation of mound structure is here present, from the stately tumulus 30 feet in height to the broad, flat sepulchres so slightly elevated as to be scarcely noticed. ”

“ It has already been remarked, that the mounds are the principal depositories of ancient art, and that in them we must seek for the only authentic remains of the builders. In the observance of a practice almost universal among barbarous or semi-civilized nations, the mound-builders deposited various articles of use and ornament with their dead. ”

“ Burial mounds are called "cairns" when their constructive materials consist of small stones, and "barrows" when the material is ordinary soil; but not unfrequently both substances were used in the same mound— a small cairn being often found inside an earthen barrow. Their great diversity in appearance and form gave rise to a number of qualifying epithets, such as "long," "round," "oval," "bell-shaped," etc. Sometimes the mound was surrounded by a ditch, or a stone circle, or by both; and instances are on record in which both these accessories were within the area covered by the mound. ”

“ Certain it is that this tumulus and that at Grave Creek were fit pyramids for the Pharaohs of the New World.
It is not to be supposed that the mounds were the sole cemeteries of the people who built them. Like the barrows of Europe, they were probably erected only over the bodies of the chiefs and priests, the wise men, and warriors of the tribe. The amount of work required for the erection of a mound was too great to provide one for every person. ”

“ It will shortly be seen that the mound first described (number 2 of the plan) probably belongs to the class of altar or sacrificial mounds, or those which were connected with the superstitions of the builders. The human remains found in that, as in mound number 3, were, most likely, deposited subsequent to their erection. It is not impossible that the mound last named is of a later date than those upon the higher ground.
79 The perfect regularity which the plans exhibit, it will readily be understood, does not actually exist. The angles of all these structures are more or less rounded. ”

“ Although the investigation of this class of mounds has, from a variety of causes, been comparatively limited, yet enough has been ascertained concerning them, to justify the belief that a large proportion contain human remains, undoubtedly those of the mound-builders. ”

“ Burial mounds are of various sizes, I presume, according to the dignity of the individual entombed. Sometimes one large mound is found to possess a skeleton, and some interesting relics, which indicate the position of the departed, while a group of smaller mounds is situated around it. ”

“ That the character and condition of the ancient monuments, and the relative uniformity in the culture status of the different tribes shown by the works and the remains of art found in them, indicate that the mound-building age could not have continued in this part of the continent longer than a thousand years, and hence that its commencement probably does not antedate the fifth or sixth century. ”

“ The author excavated it in 1877, and found it a veritable mound containing fragments of human bones and of charcoal. Being encased with large sandstones, and composed of stone and earth, it is very difficult to excavate. As there has been a central depression for a great many years, what remains the mound V contained of a perishable character have probably been destroyed by the collecting of water. This site also commands a fine view of the Black Fork Valley. ”

“ Another mound of similar size, upon a dry terrace, was found to consist chiefly of very hard clay, scattered through which were stone chips and fragments of rude pottery. Near the natural surface of the ground a layer of ashes and charcoal was encountered, in which were found the remains of at least two skeletons. ”

“ Accordingly they took it to a silversmith at Wooster, Ohio, who told them that it was copper, and bought it from them for a trifle. In 1878 the mound was explored by J. Freshwater and the author. The center of the mound, where not disturbed by former excavations, resembles an altar or fire-place where the fire had burned the earth to a brick-red. In the ashes and burnt earth were fragments of arrow-heads broken by the heat. The fire had been kindled on the mound when it was from 21⁄2 to 3 feet high. No human remains were discovered in this last excavation. ”

“ Some pieces are found hard and well preserved; others are rapidly disintegrating. As stated already, in the grand mound, a vessel some five inches in diameter was dug up by one of the workers, filled with earth, which though we tried earnestly to save it, yet went to pieces in our hands. The frequency with which fragments of pottery are found in the mounds has given rise to the theory that being used at the time of the funeral rites the vessel was dashed to pieces as was done by some ancient nations in the burial of the dead. ”

“ They assert that "these mounds invariably cover a single skeleton (in very rare instances more than one, as in the case of the Grave Creek mound) , which, at the time of its interment, was enveloped in bark or coarse matting or enclosed in a rude sarcophagus of timber, the traces, in some instances the very casts, of which remain. Occasionally the chamber of the dead is built of stone rudely laid up, without cement of any kind." ”

“ Such are the prevailing characteristics of this class of mounds. It will be remarked that while all have the same general features, no two are alike in their details. They differ in the number and relative position of their sand strata, as well as in the size and shape of their altars and the character of the deposits made on them. One mound covers a deposit made up almost entirely of pipes, another a deposit of spear-heads, or of galena or calcined shells or bones. ”

“ Two other mounds, numbered 6 and 7 in the map, Plate II, exhibited some features in common with the one last mentioned, though neither had the clay deposit at the base. After penetrating a foot or twenty inches into these, traces of ashes and other carbonaceous matter, with here and there small quantities of burned bones in fine fragments, became abundant,—indeed the remainder of the mound seemed entirely constituted of such materials. In some instances, if not in all, the fragments of calcined bones were of the human skeleton. ”

“ There did not seem to have been any action of fire on the stones, so far as we could discover, neither were there any bones or implements found in the mound, although we dug down 3 feet below the layer of stone. There were a few chips of flint found on the ground around the base of the mound, and a large stone implement which the writer thinks may have been used for a hoe, but belonged to a later tribe than the one which built the mound. ”

“ 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. ”