168 ANCIENT MONUMENTS. 



The relics of art found in these mounds possess great uniformity of character. 

 Personal ornaments are most common, such as bracelets, perforated plates of cop- 

 per, and beads of bone, ivory, shell, or metal. Few weapons, such as spear or arrow 

 points, are found ; stone implements are more common. Many of these articles 

 are identical with those found in mounds of the first class. Plates of mica are of 

 frequent occurrence ; they are sometimes of large size and considerable thickness. 

 Instances are known in which this material has been found in vast quantities, 

 dispersed over and sometimes completely covering the skeleton. It seems not 

 unlikely that a degree of superstitious regard attached to it, or that it was sacred 

 to certain purposes. The plates are often cut into regular figures, discs, ovals, 

 etc. Vases of pottery are occasionally, but not often, found. Of all these 

 varieties of relics appropriate notice will be taken in a subsequent chapter. 



In all of the sepulchral mounds opened and examined in the course of these 

 investio-ations, with a single exception, the human remains have been found so 

 much decayed as to render any attempt to restore the skull, or indeed any portion 

 of the skeleton, entirely hopeless. With this experience, it is considered extremely 

 doubtful whether any of the numerous skulls which have been sent abroad and 

 exhibited as undoubted remains of the mound-builders, were really such. A few 

 are possibly genuine ; this can only be determined by a full understanding of the 

 circumstances under which they were obtained. The fact that they were found in 

 the mounds, in view of the variety of deposits which have been made at difterent 

 periods, is hardly presumptive evidence that they belonged to the builders. 



Considering that the earth around these skeletons is wonderfully compact and 

 dry, and that the conditions for their preservation are exceedingly favorable, while 

 they are in fact so much decayed, we may form some approximate estimate of 

 their remote antiquity. In the barrows of the ancient Britons, entire well-pre- 

 served skeletons are found, although possessing an undoubted antiquity of at least 

 eighteen hundred years. Local causes may produce singular results, in particular 

 instances, but we speak now of these remains in the aggregate. 



It has already been observed, that, as a general rule, each mound was raised 

 over a single individual. The mound at Grave creek furnishes the only exception 

 to the remark within the range of our observation. The mounds of the Southern 

 States are probably of ditlerent construction, and some of them may perhaps be 

 regarded as general cemeteries. 



The Grave creek mound, although it has often been described, deserves, from its 

 size and singularity of construction, more than a passing notice. It is situated on 

 the plain, at the junction of Grave creek and the Ohio river, twelve miles below 

 Wheeling, in the State of Virginia. It occurs in connection with various works 

 now much obliterated, but is not enclosed by circumvallations. It is one of the 

 largest in the Ohio valley ; measuring about seventy feet in height, by one thousand 



