506 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1895. 



ARCHAEOLOGICAL WORK IN OHIO. 



By Gerard Fowke. 

 Excavation of a Mound in Pike County, Ohio. 1 



On the farm of W. M. Volgainore, three and one half miles south 

 of Piketon, is the largest mound in the Scioto Valley between Chilli- 

 cothe and the Ohio River except one four miles south of the "High 

 Banks" in Ross County. It stands on the third of four terraces 

 bordering the river here, the first being regularly and the second 

 occasionally overflowed. A mile below are two earthen enclosures, 

 one square the other circular, each containing between fifteen and 

 twenty acres and connected by parallel walls. Many other remains 

 exist in the county, notably the much-mentioned "Graded Way," 

 which, however, is mostly a natural formation. 



The mound has an elliptical base 130 x 110 feet, the longer axis 

 north and south, and its altitude while intact was fully 18 feet. In 

 1894 the owner scraped off the upper portion, leaving it a truncated 

 cone whose top was about seven feet above the surrounding level. 

 He also scraped a narrow trench across the middle to within three 

 feet of the bottom. At this depth he reports finding two skeletons 

 with some shell beads and two copper bracelets. He went no farther 

 but replaced such bones as he saw and filled the trench from the side. 

 The outline of the mound being destroyed by this work, it was difficult 

 to judge where the axes would intersect; a point was chosen (it may 

 have been several feet out of the way) as nearly over the middle of 

 the base as could be determined, and from this as a center a circle 

 was described with a diameter of forty feet. All the earth within 

 this limit to the original surface was then removed, which was found 

 at a depth of between eight and nine feet. The difference between this 

 measure and that of the height of the mound from the outside, is due 



1 During the past summer and autumn (1895) investigations have been carried 

 on in certain Ohio mounds by Mr. Gerard Fowke in behalf of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. This report and the succeeding ones give the 

 results of his investigations. All objects obtained by Mr. Fowke are now in the 

 archaeological collections of the Academy. 



Clarence B. Moore. 



