64 Primitive Man. 



Peru, and Bolivia, the huge chulpas, or burial crypts, of 

 perpendicular stones, answering to the similar dolmens and 

 tumulus graves of Europe, and proving a universal tendency 

 of primitive peoples to develop correspondent ideas as to 

 architectural work, at widely different localities. 



It is to the so-called " Mounds of the American Basin " 

 that notice and research have of late years been more par- 

 ticularly directed, and it is in these localities, embracing 

 the extensive areas in the region of the junction of the 

 Ohio and Mississippi, in the valley of the Scioto, and in 

 Wisconsin, that Messrs. Squier and Davis, and others, have 

 made an exhaustive study of these prehistoric phenomena. 

 Briefly stated, these mounds, mostly designed and con- 

 structed for burial purposes, though in certain instances for 

 purposes of religious observance, are in form most generally 

 circular. At other times they are laid out, over extensive 

 areas, in the form, or after the outline, of various animals, 

 or even of such objects as pipes, etc. Advantage has been 

 taken of the natural conformation of the ground to represent 

 such figures, and tlie results, so far as mere size is con- 

 cerned, are astonishing, one of them containing not less 

 than 550,000 cubic feet, while four would exceed the largest 

 of the Pyramids, and another one is fulh' 700 feet in lengtli 

 by 500 in width and 90 in height, and is estimated to con- 

 tain twenty million cubic feet of contents. 



There is considerable uniformity as to the relics discov- 

 ered. Together with polished stone implements, we find 

 work in copper, and also chipped flints, making it difficult 

 to attribute the mounds to specific periods. The question 

 is still furtlier complicated by tlie fact that they have been 

 occupied by ditt'erent tribes, if not by various races, at suc- 

 cessive periods, remains having frequently been disturbed, 

 though not generally molested, for the convenience of sub- 

 sequent occu])aiits. 



With reference to the mounds, as well as to the dolmens 

 and barrows of Euroj)e, the conclusion of archaeologists is 

 that they were intended, as in the case of the Pyramids, 

 for places of seimlture for chiefs of tribes, perlia])S also 

 for others of distinction. So much labor would not be 

 expended for the burial of the common peoi)le. The rela- 

 tive scarcity of human remains indicates the purpose above 

 mentioned, and the presence of altars, and other tokens 

 and emblems of ritual and sacrifice, suggestive of the 



