Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/188

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��HISTORY OF RICHLAND COl^NTY.

��CHAPTER XVTII

��ARCHEOLOGY.*

Mound Builders — Mounds Classified — Mounds and Earth-Works in Richland County — Relics — Copper AND Stone Implements — Axes, Mauls, Hammers, etc. — Mortars and Pestles — Plates, Thread Sizers, Shuttles, etc. — Wands and Badges — Paint-Cups, Pipes.

��Before the white man, the Indian; before the Indian, ?

THE archaeology of any county forms one of its most interesting chapters. Who the ancient dwellers were, what the}' did, what lives they led, are all questions of con- jecture now. Their history appears only in their silent monuments, as silent as the race they perpetuate. The relics they left are the only key to their lives now possessed, and these give a history whose antiquity seems almost Adamic. The principal remains left in this part of Ohio consist of earthworks, mounds and parapets, filled with the rude implements of the people who built them, and with the bones of these lost portions of humanity. From their proclivities to build these earth- works, these people are known as "Mound- Builders," the only name that now fits their peculiar style of life. The mounds erected by them are of all sizes and shapes, and range in height from three or foiir feet to sixty or seventy feet. In outline, they are of equal magnitude, though none of great height were ever known to exist in the confines of Richland County. What have been discovered are generally small in size and irregular in outline. The}' have, in nearly all instances, been much reduced in height, as the hand of modern man demands them for practical purposes.

The earth mounds are classified as sepulchral, sacrificial, temple or truncated ; mounds of ob-

Edw. Wilkinson, who has given the subject some study, and who has one of the finest private cabinets in tlie county. The chapter was written from his notes by Mr. A. A. Graham, the compiler of the history.
 * The not«8 and material of this chapter were prepared by Mr.

��servation, symbolical or animal — also known as emblematic — and mounds of defense. The first named, sepulchral, are the most common of any. Emblematical or symliolical mounds are not known to exist in this county. If they did in the earliest da^'s of the whites, all traces of them have lieen olil iterated by that leveler of savage country — the plow. Sepulchral mounds were devoted to the purpose of burial, and were generall}' pyramidal in form, and usually con- tained layers of clay, ashes, charcoal, various soils and one or more skeletons, often ver}' many.

Sacrificial mounds are usually stratified, the strata being convex layers of clay and loam, the layers alternating above a layer of fine sand. They also contain ashes, igneous stones, char- coal, calcined animal bones, beads, implements of stone, pottery and rude sculpture. They also have altars of burned clay or stone, rest- ing in the center of the mound upon the original earth, on which the people offered sacrifice, em- ploying fire for the purpose.

Mounds of observation — sometimes termed defensive — are found upon prominent eleva- tions. The}' were, doul)tless, alarm posts, watch- towers, signal stations, or outlooks. They commonly occur in chains or regular systems, and still bear traces of the beacon fires that once burned upon them.

In addition to the division of mounds already made, some add monumental or memo- rial mounds, not numerous, supposed to have been erected as memorials to the distinguished dead among the Mound-Builders.

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