CHAPTER II. 



E A RTHAVORKS — ENCLOSURES. 



The Enclosures, or, as they are fiimiliarly called throughout the West, " Forts," 

 constitute a very important and interesting class of remains. Their dimensions, 

 and the popular opinion as to their purposes, attract to them more particularly 

 the attention of observers. As a consequence, most that has been written upon 

 our antiquities relates to them. A considerable number have been surveyed and 

 described by different individuals, at different times ; but no systematic examina- 

 tion of a sufficient number to justify any general conclusion as to their origin 

 and purposes has heretofore been attempted. We have therefore had presented 

 as many different hypotheses as there have been individual explorers ; one main- 

 taining that all the enclosures were intended for defence, while another persists 

 that none could possibly have been designed for any such purpose. Investigation 

 has shown, hoAvevcr, that M'hilc certain works possess features demonstrating 

 incontestil)ly a military origin, others were connected with the superstitions of the 

 builders, or designed for other purposes not readily apparent in our present state 

 of knowledge concerning them. 



It has already been remarked that the square and the circle, separate or in com- 

 bination, were favorite figures with the mound-builders ; and a large proportion of 

 their works in the Scioto valley, and in Ohio generally, are of these forms. Most of 

 the circular works are small, varying from two hundred and fifty to three hundred feet 

 in diameter, while others are a mile or more in circuit. Some stand isolated, but 

 most in connection with one or more mounds, of greater or less dimensions, or in 

 connection with other more complicated works. Wherever the circles occur, if 

 there be a fosse, or ditch, it is almost invariably interior to the parapet. Instances 

 arc frequent where no ditch is discernible, and where it is evident that the earth 

 composing tin; embankment was brought from a distance, or taken up evenly from 

 the surface. In the s(juare and in the irregular works, if there be a fosse at all, it is 

 exterior to the embankment ; except in the case of fortified hills, where the earth, for 

 the best of reasons, is usually thrown from the interior. These facts are not without 

 tlioir importance in determining the character and purpose of these remains. 

 Another lact, bearing directly upon the degree of knowledge possessed by the 

 builders, is, that many, if not most, of the circular works are perfect circles, and 

 that many of the rectangular works are accurate squares. This fact has been 

 diMnonstrated, in numerous instances, by careful admeasurements ; and has been 

 remark('(l in cases where the works embrace an area of many acres, and where the 

 embankments, or circumvallations, are a mile and upwards in extent. 



