W R K 8 K D E K E N C K , 37 



PLATE XV. 



ANCIENT WORKS IN NORTHEKN OHIO. 



The succeeding plans and descriptions, relating to aboriginal monuments of 

 northern Ohio, were communicated by Charles Whittlesey, Esq., of Cleveland, 

 whose archseological researches have been both extensive and accurate. 



Number 1. Ancient Works near Norwalk, Huron county, Ohio. — " The relative 

 positions of the various works composing this group are given by the eye ; they 

 are nevertheless sufficiently accurate. The individual works are laid down from 

 actual survey. 



" The enclosure A is principally in a field long cultivated, and is scarcely 

 traceable. The ditch is exterior to the wall, and exists only upon the north-west 

 and south-west sides. The walls were very much reduced : when first seen by the 

 whites, they scarcely exceeded eighteen inches in height. The ditch was of 

 corresponding depth. 



" The enclosure B occupies a promontory of gravelly land, elevated about forty 

 feet above the creek. The detached circular work D is nearly obliterated by the 

 plough. It had a slight exterior ditch, as had also a part of the main work B. 

 The present height of the wall is from one to two and a half feet ; depth of ditch 

 somewhat less. The breadth of the embankments, at the base, varies from fifteen 

 to thirty feet. Within the enclosure B is an elevation of earth, a, of a rectangular 

 form, about three feet high, from which a low embankment extends to the outer 

 wall. At 6 is a similar elevation connected with the wall. Exterior to the work, 

 and occupying the point of the headland on which it stands, is a small mound, 

 from which a skull was taken some years since, and deposited in the museum of 

 the Willoughby University of Lake Erie. In it were also found the two valves of 

 what is described as a clam shell, each having three holes near the beak, suggesting 

 the probability of a handle having been attached at that point, so as to constitute a 

 spoon or ladle. Besides these were found two pipes of clay, and one of white marble, 

 partly disintegrated, about two and a half inches high ; also, a flat piece of a hard 

 grayish slate, half an inch thick, wrought to an edge at the broad end, with a hole 

 pierced obliquely through it, called by the finders ' a hoe.' A small earthen vessel, 

 of coarse material and rude finish, holding about a pint, accompanied these relics. 

 All these articles were taken from the vicinity of coals and ashes, and burned 

 human bones. In the hands of one of the skeletons were pieces of clay, which 

 had evidently been placed in them while in a plastic state, inasmuch as they still 

 retained the impressions of the fingers, joints, and palms.* 



* These relics, as also the skeletons found with them, were probably those of the more recent 

 Indians, and constituted a second and comparatively late deposit. Tlie burned icmains, doubtless, 

 resulted from the original burial by fii't^ Incremation was extenniNily praclised by (he mound builders. 



