64 A N C; 1 K X T MO N U M E N T S . 



short avenue, leading from a gateway to the north, connecting with a small circle. 

 Along the western wall runs the bank of a plain, elevated a number of feet above 

 the level of the work, upon the very brow of which is situated an outwork (A) 

 eighty feet wide by two hundred and eighty in length. It overlooks the larger 

 work, and has a wide gateway opening towards it. At this point the bank seems 

 to have been graded to a more gentle descent. The great avenue approaches to 

 within sixty feet of the gateway at a, which is one hundred and twenty feet wide ; 

 the walls closing, at the other extremity, upon a radius of half the width of the 

 avenue. A low mound occupies the extreme point of the avenue. At some distance 

 south of the main work, is a mound surrounded by a ditch and low embankment ; 

 and at the distance of about half a mile, very nearly in the course of the avenue, 

 are a number of mounds, — one of which is fifteen feet high, truncated, and with a 

 base of one hundred feet diameter. The diameter of the level area on the top is 

 about fifty feet. These mounds stand on the lowest portion of the second terrace ; 

 the ground which they occupy being overflowed at periods of very high water in 

 the river. These are the only monuments known which are reached by overflows. 

 The top of the truncated mound was made a place of refuge, during the high 

 water of 1832, by a family, with their cattle, horses, etc., numbering in all nearly 

 a hundred. It was among the first opened, in the progress of these investigations, 

 and before the characteristics of this class of works were clearly known. Hence, 

 although a number of skeletons were disinterred, at depths of from two to five feet, 

 together with a few rude instruments, the original deposit of the mound-builders 

 was not reached. The skeletons were unquestionably those of the modern 

 Indians. Upon the mound and around it, many fragments of rough pottery are 

 found, and a number of entire vases of rude workmanship were exposed a few 

 years since in ploughing over an adjacent small mound. Many decayed fresh- 

 water shells are also found on and around the mound ; and, as these when 

 pulverized entered into the composition of the rude pottery of the more recent 

 Indians, it seems highly probable that a sort of manufactory of this ware was 

 established here. A number of large mounds also occur at some distance to the 

 northward of the principal work. 



PLATE XXIII. No. 2. 



ANCIENT WORKS, ATHENS COUNTY, OHIO. 



Four miles north of the town of Athens, Athens county, Ohio, is a broad and 

 level plain, upon which is situated a large group of ancient earthworks. The 

 accompanying plan and description were furnished by S. P. Hildreth, M. D., of 

 Marietta, Ohio.* 



* The proportions of the circles, etc., are necessarily somewhat exaggerated in the plan ; their relative 

 positions are, however. \<'rv Mcouiatelv preserved. 



