162 



A N C; I E N T M N U M P: N T S . 



ornaments, utensils, and weapons. The structure and contents of a few mounds 

 of this class will sufficiently explain their general character. 



Fig. 50 exhibits a section of a large sepulchral mound situated on the third 

 terrace, on the east bank of the Scioto river, about six miles below the city of 

 Chillicothe.* It is the largest of the group, represented in the cut (Fig. 49) at the 

 head of this chapter. There are no enclosures nearer than a mile ; though there 

 are three or four other mounds of smaller size, on the same terrace, within a few- 

 hundred yards. The mound is twenty-two feet high by ninety feet base. The 

 principal excavation was made (as represented in the section) from the west 

 side, commencing at about one third of the height of the mound from the top, 

 and was carried in a slanting direction towards the centre. The soil of the 

 mound is a sandy loam, entirely homogeneous throughout, though much com- 

 pacted and slightly different in color towards the centre, where water cannot 

 penetrate. At ten feet below the surface occurred a layer of charcoal, o, not far 

 from ten feet square, and fr om two to six inches in thickness, slightly inclined from 

 the horizontal, and lying mos tly to the left of the centre of the mound. The coal 

 was coarse and clear, and s eemed to have been formed by the sudden covering up 

 of the wood while burning, i nasmuch as the trunks and branches perfectly retained 

 their form, though entirely carbonized, and the earth immediately above as well as 

 beneath was burned of a reddish color. Below this layer, the earth became much 

 more compact and difficult of excavation. At the depth of twenty-two feet, and 

 on a level with the original surface, immediately underneath the charcoal layer, 

 and, like that, somewhat to one side of the centre of the mound, was a rude 

 sarcophagus or framework of timber, Fig. 51, now reduced to 

 an almost impalpable powder, but the cast of which was still 

 retained in the hard earth. This enclosure of timber, measuring 

 from outside to outside, was nine feet long by seven wide, and 

 twenty inches high. It had been constructed of unhewn logs 

 laid one upon the other, and had evidently been covered with 

 other timbers, which had sunk under the superincumbent 

 earth, as they decayed. The bottom had also been covered 

 with bark, matting, or thin slabs of wood, — at any rate, a 

 whitish stratum of decomposed material remained, covering 



Fin. 51. 



Niimbprod 1, in the ' .\f;ip of 



;i sRolinii 



if twi'h-i' mili'^ of till- Si-ioto vmUpv," Pl;ite [I, 



