308 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1894. 



RECENT MOUND EXPLORATION IN OHIO. 

 BY GERARD FOWKE AND \V. K. MOOREHEAD. 



During the psmt summer (1894) a number of mounds have been 

 explored in Ohio in l)ehalf of the Academy of Natural Sciences 

 of Philadelphia. The reports of Mi-. Gerard Fowlce relating to the 

 Van Meter mound and of Mr. Warren K. ISIoorehead as to the 

 Metzger mound are appended. Clarence B. Moore. 



"Mounds in Pike County, Ohio. — Three miles south of 

 Piketon, half a mile from the point where Beaver Creek discharges 

 into the Scioto river, on the farm of J. M. Van Meter,' is a^ 'double 

 mound ' on the highest terrace. The larger part, measuring, after 

 being plowed over for a number of years, 75 feet in diameter and 

 10 feet high, has its west base just at the brink of the terrace at a 

 point where the bluff is 50 feet high, quite steep, with the creek at 

 its foot. The smaller, south of east from the first, is six and one-half 

 feet above the surrounding level and 56 feet in diameter. At the 

 junction of the two, the top is three and one-half feet above the general 

 level. 



"A trench 10 feet wide was started in the east sid§ of the smaller 

 mound, gradually widening until it was 25 feet at the center, and 

 then drawing in until it was 20 feet Avide at 15 feet west of the 

 center. Beneath the middle part was a core 20 feet across and 8 

 feet high of soil placed and packed, or much tramped, while wet; 

 it was somewhat darker than the loam composing the remainder of 

 the mound, quite hard, and broke off in clods. 



"On the original surface of the ground, beginning about five feet 

 east of the center, was a burned place a little over 20 feet across at 

 the widest part, and reaching 20 feet west of the center, or nearly to 

 the lowest point between the mounds. A fire had been burned over 

 this area for a short time only and with a small amount of wood, as 

 the burned earth was nowhere more than an inch thick, most of it 

 much less, while the charcoal and ashes varied from a mere streak 



^ See Catalogue of Prehistoric Works East of the Rocky Mountains, by- 

 Cyrus Themas, page 182. C. B. M. 



