Mound No. 25 115 



into an elevated platform, as the earth layers indicate that the top was 

 flat for a considerable distance. 



The deposits of sheet copper, and also the deposits of axes and celts, 

 were apparently made after the original smaller mounds were com- 

 pleted. Indeed, they were placed on the hard burnt floor subsequent 

 to some of the burials. It seems also that No. 248 and a number of 

 other skeletons north of the centre of the mound were placed there, 

 after these first interments had been made. This is based on the fact 

 that many of the layers seemed disturbed or broken, as though the 

 Indians had dug down four or five feet through the original slope of 

 the first mounds on the north side. Having made these interments, 

 they heaped dirt above to a height of from 8 to 14 feet. How long a 

 period elapsed between these various interments it is impossible to state, 

 but the evidence indicates that the Hopewell group was occupied for 

 a considerable length of time. The number of mound interments and 

 objects is of such character as to indicate that the place was occupied 

 for at least a hundred years. I do not think that the peculiar character 

 of Mound 25 can be explained on the theory that all the interments and 

 the amount of labor necessary to erect such a structure were due to 

 concentrated effort on the part of the villagers during a few years of 

 occupation. 



