Observations on the uses of the mounds of the west, with an attempt at their classification / By E.G. Squier.

  • Squier, E. G. (Ephraim George), 1821-1888.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the uses of the mounds of the west, with an attempt at their classification / By E.G. Squier. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    OBSERVATIONS, &c. The monuments of the Mississippi valley, are divisible into two grand classes, viz. the Enclosures, familiarly known as “ Forts,” and the Tumuli, or Mounds together they constitute a single system of remains, and are the. work of the same people. The enclosures, from their magnitude and other obvious rea¬ sons, have attracted, by far, the largest share of attention; and the character of some of them, with their walls and ditches and guarded ways, is manifest, and may be regarded as settled. Of the mounds, however, little has been hitherto said or known.— The popular opinion, based, in a great degree, upon the well as¬ certained purposes of the barrows and tumuli occurring in cer¬ tain parts of Europe and Asia, is, that they are simple monu¬ ments, marking the last resting place of some great chief or dis¬ tinguished individual, among the tribes of the builders. Some have supposed them to be the cemeteries, in which were depos¬ ited the dead of a tribe or a village, for a certain period, aii^ that the size of the mound is an indication of the number in¬ humed ! Others that they mark the sites of great battles, and contain the bones of the slain. On all hands the opinion has been entertained, that they were devoted to sepulture alone. This received opinion is not, however, sustained by the investiga¬ tions set on foot by the writer and his associate, Dr. E. H. Davis, of Chillicothe, Ohio. Nearly one hundred and fifty mounds, em¬ bracing those of every size and description, within enclosures and out of them, in groups and isolated, have been carefully exca¬ vated under their personal supervision, and every fact of import¬ ance respecting them carefully noted. The conclusion, to which these observations have led, is, that the mounds were construct¬ ed for several grand and dissimilar purposes, or rather, that they are of different classes ;—the conditions upon which the classifi¬ cation is founded being three in number—namely : position, structure, and contents. In this classification, we distinguish— 1st. Those mounds which occur in, or in the immediate vicin¬ ity of, enclosures, which are stratified and contain altars of burn¬ ed clay or stone, and which were places of sacrifice* or in some way connected with religious rites and ceremonies. 2d. Those which stand isolated, or in groups, more or less re¬ mote from the enclosures, which are not stratified, which con¬ tain human remains, and which were the burial places and mon¬ uments of the dead. * The term Mound is used, in this paper, in a technical sense as synonymous with tumulus and in opposition to embankment, rampart, etc.