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

  • Ephraim George Squier
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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    3d. Those which contain neither altars nor human remains, and which were places of observation or the sites of structures. These classes are broadly marked in the aggregate; but, in some instances, they seem to run into each other. Mounds of this mixed character, as well as those which, under our present con¬ dition of knowledge respecting them, do not seem to indicate any clear purpose, have been denominated anomalous. Of one hun¬ dred mounds excavated, sixty were altar or sacrificial mounds, twenty sepulchral, and twenty either places of observation or anom¬ alous in their character. Such however, is not the proportion in which they occur. From the fact that the mounds of sacrifice, are most interesting and most productive in relics, the largest number excavated were of that class. In the Scioto valley the mounds are distributed, between the three classes specified, in very nearly equal proportions; the mounds of observation and the anomalous mounds constituting, together, about one third of the whole number. Mounds of Sacrifice.—The general characteristics of this class of mounds are,— 1st. That they occur only within, or in the immediate vicinity enclosures, or sacred places. 2d. That they are stratified. 3d. That they contain symmetrical altars of burned clay or stone, on which are deposited various remains, which, in all cases, have been more or less subjected to the action of fire. Of the whole number of mounds of this class, which were ex¬ amined, four only were found to be exterior to the walls of en¬ closures, and these were but a few rods distant from the ramparts. The fact of stratification, in these mounds, is one of great in¬ terest and importance. The feature has heretofore been remark¬ ed but not described with proper accuracy, and has consequently proved an impediment to the recognition of the artificial origin of the mounds, by those who have never seen them. The stratification, so far as observed, is not horizontal, but always con¬ forms to the convex outline of the mound.* Nor does it resemble the stratification produced by the action of water, where the lay¬ ers run into each other, but is defined with the utmost distinct¬ ness, and always terminates upon reaching the level of the sur¬ rounding earth. That it is artificial will, however, need no argu¬ ment to prove, after an examination of one of the mounds in which the feature occurs; for, it would be difficult to explain, by what singular combination of “ igneous and aqueous” action, * Some of the mounds, on the lower Mississippi, are horizontally stratified, ex¬ hibiting alternate layers, from base to summit. These mounds differ in form from the conical structures here referred to, and were, doubtless, constructed for a dif¬ ferent purpose. Prof. Forshey has described one which had layers of coarse bricks, at intervals, throughout its entire height.