96 Harshberger. — Maize : 



archaeological excavations have been made, no particular atten- 

 tion has been paid to the remains of maize, and the remarks 

 as to the discovery of the cereal in ancient mounds, barrows 

 and ruins have been, therefore, mostly incidental. The 

 attempt will be made in this section to sift carefully the evi- 

 dence which archaeology affords as to the cultivation of maize 

 in prehistoric times. For convenience, North America will 

 be surveyed first. 



The mound-builders were described ten years ago as the 

 oldest inhabitants of the northern portions of the North 

 American continent. The discussion relative to the antiquity 

 of this race of men will be left to a following section ; but it 

 is well to notice, in passing, that they are now considered to 

 have lived comparatively recently. 



By far the most celebrated unearthments were made near 

 Madisonville, Ohio. The terrain, in which the discoveries 

 were made, lies in the valley of the Little Miami, southeast of 

 Madisonville, where the space covered by the principal mound 

 was from four to five acres. Virchow 1 says; " Jedenfalls halt 

 man es fur pracolumbisch." He describes the surroundings, 

 that over the grave mound stood trees more than 300 years 

 old, particularly an oak, six feet two inches in circumference. 2 

 Diggings revealed 185 human skeletons, twelve pipes, three 

 of catlinite from Minnesota, stone rubbers, axes, lance heads, 

 needles of perforated teeth, two small cylinders of rolled cop- 

 per, two feet long, two plates of copper, and near by ash-pits 

 filled with ashes, and sand mixed with pipes, bones, mussels, 

 stone implements, the tooth of a mastodon, bones of the wild 

 ruminants (buffalo, elk, deer). 3 At one place was found a 

 kind of sacrificial altar, where ashes were mixed with numerous 

 animal bones, deer, elk, opossum, turkey, weasel, woodchuck 

 and bear, evidently sacrificed to the all-powerful Manito. 



1 Virchow, Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie, 1S79, 446. 



2 Cincinnati Daily Enquirer, 1879, April 24; Cincinnati Commercial, 1879, August 31; 

 Short. North Americans of Antiquity. 



3 Notice the buffalo bones, as they throw light upon the antiquity of the Madisonville 

 mounds an i surrounding structures in Ohio. Cf. Shaler, Nature and Man in America 

 183. 



