Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/855

ARCHÆOLOGY. large numbers, togetluT with a wide variety of artifacts attesting lavish mortuary saorilices. In some instances structures of wood or stone have beeu found in the mounds; and in south- western United states, Mexico, Yucatan. Hon- duras, and some South American countries, many of the mounds are but ruins of habitations, temples, or other structures reiluced by weather- ing. In some districts the tumuli are associated with embankments, either simple or in circular or rectangular form ; and these are sometimes eondjined and connected with conical or pyra- midal mounds in claljorate systems. 8quier, whose investigations of the aboriginal earthworks of the Ohio Valley are classic, deemed the earth- built circles accurate and the squares perfect; and while later surveys have revealed imperfec- tions in tlie engineering, the extent and sym- metry of the works must be regarded as re- markable. In some cases the earthworks have been shown, by early observation or otherwise, to be designed as fortifications; but similar evi- dence indicates that many of the most remark- able works were ceremcmial. and connected with elaborate systems of faith and forms of worship. In Wisconsin. Minnesota, and Iowa, and to some extent elsewhere, many mounds are rudely shaped in animal forms, representing various mammals, birds, and reptiles; these elhgy mounds denoted the totems (or zoic tutelaries) of local clans and tribes. One in Wisconsin, known as "the Elephant Jlound." from its resemblance to the elephantine form, has attracted much atten- tion, though it is the prevailing opinion of in- vestigators that the resemblance is fortuitous; but perhaps the most remarkable example of its class is "the Serpent Jlound" of Summit County. Ohio, described by Putnam, and through his ef- forts preserved in a public park. Along most or all of the American coasts shell-mounds, or mid- dens, occur, sometimes in great size and profusion. Those of the ilaine coast have been examined by Uiany investigators, and have been found to con- sist primarily of shells, bones, and other refuse of a shoreland dietary, together with inqilements, utensils, and ornaments lost in the debris from lime to time, so that they afl'ord a clear picture of prehistoric life; and similar records have been obtained from the middens of Alaska, British Cohunbia. California, Greenland, and other parts of the North American coast. The shell movnuls of Florida yielded a remarkably clear record under the investigations of Wyman; and this record was greatly extended on the western coast of Florida by Gushing, who found the coast- wise kevs and other small islands raised and strengthened by carefully laid walls of conch and other shells, and who obtained from adjacent muck-beds remarkable series of utensils, orna- ments, ceremonial objects, etc.. preserved in the peaty mass in remarkable perfection. The shell mounds of the Loiisiana coast also are of great extent, though they have not been fully exam- ined ; while Moore and others have found those of the Alabama coast to throw nuich light on local characteristics of the aborigines. Perhaps the largest American shell mouml is that fiirming Punta Antiaualla, opposite Tiburon Island in the Gulf of California; it is about ninety feet high, and although a large but unknown ])ortion of it has been carried away by wave-wear, it still ccjvers an area of some seventy-five acres; it is wholly of local shells, chiefly those of the clam, and contains pottery and stone implements pre- cisely like those used by the surviving aborigines of the district, from base to summit.

The origin of the custom of building mounds lias been discussed by Gushing; he conceived the original mound to be a midden of shells and other refuse aceumulaled under a slioreland pile- dwelling to such heiglit as eventually to form a suiqiort for the habitation; and that the asso- ciation of mound and dwelling eventually be- came so deeply fixed in the minds of the dwellprs that when new habitations were erected further inland, the mound was regarded as a necessary accompaniment, and was built of earth in lieu of refuse. During the earlier two-thirds of the Nine- teenth Century the 0])inion prevailed that the "ilound Builders" were a distinct people or race, antedating the Amerind tribes found inhabiting the coimtry by the Caucasian invaders; this was shown, chiefly by Powell and later by Thomas, to be an error. The latter described the earth- works of the eastern United States in detail, and identified many of them with the aborigines re- siding in their vicinity up to the time of white settlem-cnt. The demonstration of the identity of "ilound Builders" and "Indians" may be said to have been completed by Holmes, who in vari- ous publications established the unity of iesthetic, technic, and sj-nibolic motives in the mounds and among the living tribesmen. The moimd proper, with its variants in the form of embank- ments, efiigies. etc., may be regarded as pertain- ing to hiunid lands, and the shell-mounds to shorelands; while in arid lands the earth-work- ing sometimes differentiated into a .style of house-building known in parts of Spanish Amer- ica as cajon (so called from the bo.x-like arrange- ment of parallel boards between which puddled earth was laid and allowed to harden in suc- cessive ledges, or strata, varying from a few inches to a foot or more in vertical thickness) ; and this type of structure is widely dilfused in the more arid regions of both American conti- nents, the best example in the United States being the ruin known as Gasa CJrande (q.v.),near Florence, Ariz. Modernly the cajon structure grades into adobe — i.e.. sim-dried bricks of pud- dled silt; but there is some question whether the tise of adobe proper ("dobies" in the vernacular) antedated the Caucasian invasion. From cajon to a plaster of earth and stone over wicker walls was an easy stej). which was taken by many tribes, as attested by buried ruins of the arid region as well as by vestiges among living tribes, e.g.. the Papago; and the step thence to wrought stucco was little harder, and was taken by the ancient Mexicans. Yncateeans, Central Ameri- cans, and some South Americans, as well illus- trated in several ruined cities (noted luider Architecture. Ancient American).

WoonEN Structi'RE.s. While wood was un- doubtedly used largely by the prehistoric tribes of America for habitations as well as for imple- ments, utensils, etc.. comparatively little of the material remains for study. In certain large tumuli described by Thomas, remains of wooden structures were found under such conditions as to indicate that earth was heajied over a house or stout wigwam in such manner as to form a lofty moiuid; the stumps of prehist(uic piles, probably used either to support palafittes (or pile dwell- ings) or as adjtmcts to large fish weirs, were found by Cresson in Delaware River, near Clay-