SACREUEN CLOSURES. 73 



PLATE XXVI. 



ANCIENT WORKS AT MARIETTA, OHIO.* 



This remarkable group of works was among the earliest noticed by Western 

 explorers. It was described by Harte as early as 1791 ; and a further account 

 was presented in "Harris's Tour," published in 1805, in which an imperfect 

 birds-eye view was also given. Since that period various descriptions have 

 appeared in print ; and a number of plans, differing materially in their details, have 

 been published. It is of so much importance, however, and has been the basis of so 

 much speculation, that it is time an accurate map and a careful description should 

 be placed before the public. Such a map and such a description it is here aimed 

 to present. 



The works occupy the high, sandy plain, at the junction of the Muskingum and 

 Ohio rivers. This plain is from eighty to one hundred feet above the bed of the 

 river, and from forty to sixty above the bottom lands of the Muskingum. Its 

 outlines are shoAvn on the map. It is about three fourths of a mile long, by half 

 a mile in width ; is bounded on the side next the hills by ravines, formed by 

 streams, and terminates on the side next the river in an abrupt bank, resting upon 

 the recent alluvions. The topography of the plain and adjacent country is 

 minutely represented on this map. 



The works consist of two irregular squares, (one containing forty acres area, 

 the other about twenty acres,) in connection with a graded or covered way and 

 sundry mounds and truncated pyramids, the relative positions of which are shown 

 in the plan. The town of Marietta is laid out over them; and, in the progress of 

 improvement, the walls have been considerably reduced and otherwise much 

 obliterated ; yet the outlines of the entire works may still be traced. The walls 

 of the principal square, where they remain undisturbed, are now between five and 

 six feet high by twenty or thirty feet base ; those of the smaller enclosure are 

 somewhat less. The entrances or gateways at the sides of the latter are each 

 covered by a small mound placed interior to the embankment; at the corners the 

 gateways are in line with it. The larger work is destitute of this feature, unless 

 we class as such an interior crescent wall covering the entrance at its southern 

 angle. 



* The iruip here presented is drawn from a careful survey of these works, made in ISSV, by Charles 

 Whittlesey, Esq., Topographical Engineer of the State, under the law authorizing a Geological and Topo- 

 graphical Surve}- of Ohio. It has never before been published ; and its fidelity, in every respect, may b? 

 relied on. It will be seen that the supplementary or "small covert way" represented on the plan in the 

 Archa?ologia Americana, does not appear. What was taken for a graded way is simply a gully, worn by 

 the rains. The topography of the map. and the accompanying sections, are features which every intelligent 

 inquirer will know how to apprprintp. 



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