PREHISTORIC CANNIBALISM IN AMERICA. 203 

 PREHISTORIC CANNIBALISM IN AMERICA. 



Br Rev. A. N. SOMEES. 



IN the summer of 1888 I took a club of young people belonging 

 to my church, to the famous ruins of the mound-builders at 

 Aztalan, Wis., for a day's outing, and exploration of the mounds 

 of that once great village. A superficial survey soon convinced 

 me that it had been a very populous village, as it covered at 

 different times as much as two hundred acres, down to an area 

 of a little more than seventeen acres, which was skillfully and 

 strongly fortified, representing the increased intelligence and 

 caution of several generations constantly shrinking under the 

 ravages of war and possibly cannibalistic devastations. 



A first effort located the communal refuse-heap, where had 

 been thrown the refuse and garbage of the village, when it 

 covered an extent of nearly one hundred acres for a very long 

 period of time. 



In these heaps one generally learns more of the manner and 

 means of subsistence of the prehistoric people than from all other 

 sources of conjecture combined, for in them are thrown the bones 

 and refuse of their meat-supply, and the broken cooking and other 

 utensils. Broken weapons and ornaments likewise find their way 

 to the garbage-heap, just as with us. But when the mound-builder 

 broke his tools, weapons, and ornaments, they could not be re- 

 duced back to raw material, to enter into the construction of some- 

 thing else, as do many of our worn-out or broken implements, for 

 they were made of material, in the main, that would not permit 

 of such transformations. Those, then, no longer useful were 

 thrown, along with the bones and other insoluble and almost im- 

 perishable refuse, into a common heap in some convenient place 

 where they would afford the least annoyance. 



A few hours' work in this heap was rewarded by over five 

 hundred valuable relics, including broken pots, arrows, ornaments, 

 hoes, and bones — no less than one hundred of which were human 

 bones, in about equal proportion with the bones of beasts, birds, 

 and fishes. 



A subsequent trip to the same place, in company with Prof. J. 

 Q. Emery, Principal of the High School at Fort Atkinson, added 

 nearly one thousand more bones to the collection. Another trip 

 to the place, in company with an amateur collector of relics, added 

 about six hundred more bones to the collection ; I now have nearly 

 two thousand bones from the refuse-heap, forty per cent of which 

 are human, while the remainder are evenly divided between birds, 

 beasts, and fishes. 



This refuse-heap covered a space about one hundred feet long 



