290 Some Facts and Considerations about Fort Ancient. 



These were not the rude empires of savage and uncultivated races. 

 Tlie complicated system of remains traceable from the great lakes 

 through the verdant valleys of the Mississippi and the Ohio, through 

 jMexico and Central America, and southward along the western slopes 

 of the Andes through Peru into Chili, indicate a powerful, cultivated 

 and peaceful race, and a Avell organized government. AVhence they 

 came, whither they went, or who they were, are questions Avhich 

 deserve our careful consideration, aided by a comprehensive and thor- 

 ough examination of the memorials which they left. 



Doubtless every reader of the Journal is familiar with the general 

 characteristics of tlie works scattered over the Middle and Southern 

 States, many of which are still traceable even where the plow has been 

 for years engaged in the work of obliteration. They are not merely 

 the slight elevations which mark the temporary lodgment of nomadic 

 tribes, nor the simple burial mound which all nations have at some 

 time erected in memory of their dead. We here behold a system 

 of works projected upon a grand scale, and distinguished by such fea- 

 tures of magnitude, engineering skill, astronomical and geometrical 

 knowledge, as stamp the builders a race far superior in culture to the 

 later Indians. While the greater number of these were evidently con- 

 structed for peaceful purposes, connected probably with the religious 

 system of the builders, many others are defensive military structures, 

 exhibiting the same marked features of magnitude and skill. 



To the latter class belongs Fort Ancient, a brief description of 

 which appeared in a previous number of the Journal. This fortifica- 

 tion is one of the largest, and in many respects the most interesting of 

 its kind in the United States ; and, singularly enough, no satisfactory 

 account of it appears in any of the published works upon our antiqui- 

 ties, excepting a brief description and survey made by Professor Locke 

 many years ago, and quoted by subsequent writers. Our present ob- 

 ject is to describe some of its features — the result of a few days' per- 

 sonal examination — which have escaped observation hitherto. To ex- 

 hibit these intelligibly it is necessary to recall the general features of 

 the work as described by Professor Locke. 



As observed by him, Fort Ancient occupies a spur or promontory of 

 the general plateau projecting into the valley of the Little Miami, 

 elevated two hundred and thirty feet above its waters. The walls of 

 cireumvallation, over five miles in extent, and inclosing an area of 

 more than seventy acres, compose, properly sjieaking, two forts, con- 

 nected by two nearly parallel lines of embankment, skirting a narrow 

 ridge, and forming a passage which is defended by two large mounds 

 and a cross wall. 



