164 



ANCIENT MONUMENTS. 



Fio. 52 



Fig. 52. This tumulus, selected as a type of the second description of sepulchral 

 mounds, is situated upon the broad and beautiful terrace on which Chillicothe 

 stands, about one mile to the north of that town.* It is fifteen feet in height by 

 sixty-five or seventy feet base, and is composed of earth taken up from the 

 surrounding plain. A shaft eight feet square was sunk from the apex. Nothing 

 worthy of remark was observed in the progress of the excavation, until the skeleton 

 at the base of the mound was reached. It was deposited with its head towards the 

 south ; and, unlike the one above described, had been simply enveloped in bark, 

 instead of having been enclosed in a chamber of timbers. The course of preparation 



for the burial seemed to have been as follows : The sur- 

 face of the ground was first carefully levelled and packed, 

 over an area perhaps ten or fifteen feet square. This 

 area was then covered with sheets of bark, on which, 

 in the centre, the body of the dead was deposited, with 

 a few articles of stone at its side, and a few small 

 ornaments near the head. It was then covered over 

 with another layer of bark, and the mound heaped 

 above. This skeleton was better preserved than the 

 one last mentioned, but not sufficiently well to be of 

 much value for purposes of comparison. The skull was 

 found broken into small fragments and completely 

 flattened beneath the weight of the mound, which had been so great as to imbed 

 the bones in the original level ; so that, when the fragments were removed, a 

 nearly perfect mould of the skeleton was exhibited.* ■ The subject had been a man 

 of the ordinar}- size, not exceeding five feet ten inches in height. The lower 

 maxillary or jaw-bone, wanting the condyles, was recovered. It exhibited some 

 remarkable features, which will be noticed elsewhere. The articles found with the 

 skeleton were few in number, and consisted of a stone tube and a stone imple- 

 ment or ornament, designed probably for suspension. The latter is three inches 



* Numbered 2 in Map. Plale 



