142 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 71 



stream to the JSIississippi and beyond. Therefore it is reasonable to 

 regard the two ancient sites ah-eady mentioned, one on the bank of 

 Paint Creek, the other bordering on the Scioto, as the remains of 

 Siouan viUages peopled generations ago. 



The Sionan family, now and proliably always quite numerous, could 

 have spread over the hills and valleys bordering the Ohio and could 

 have been the builders of the numerous earthworks. Crania re- 

 covered from graves in this region are not to be distinguished from 

 those of the present-day Osage, and certain customs of the latter, as in 

 establishing their camps and enacting their ceremonies, could readily 

 be carried back to the use of great circles and other figures. But 

 with a decided change of habitat, leaving their long occupied towns 

 and entering a new region, and thus probably for several genera- 

 tions becoming nomadic rather than sedentary, and more expert 

 hunters than agriculturists, they no longer erected great works but 

 sought new^ homes under changed conditions. The cause or causes 

 of this great tribal migration may never be determined. Whether 

 voluntary or enforced may ever remain unsolved, but it is difficult to 

 picture a people abandoning their homes, with the extensive works 

 revealing the results of great labor, unless for some vital reason. 



The mound which stood near the left bank of the Scioto less than 

 one-half mile north of the Cedar Bank Works revealed two forms 

 of burials. The later was the inhumation of the entire bodies, ex- 

 tended and at different levels, but the earlier proved the practice of 

 cremating the dead and depositing the ashes, together with various 

 objects, on a previously prepared platform of clay. Whether this 

 should be regarded as representing a period of transition or as merely 

 revealing the customs of two or more branches of the tribe may never 

 be determined ; nevertheless the most interesting discoA^eries yet made 

 in the valley of the Scioto have been associated w^ith cremated human 

 remains. 



A short distance east of the Scioto, about 8 miles south of Chilli- 

 cothe, in Ross County, Ohio, stood a group of earthworks of charac- 

 teristic forms, including various mounds. The largest mound of this 

 group measured about 160 feet in length, with a maximum width of 85 

 feet and a height of 16 feet 3 inches. Various attempts had been 

 made in the past to examine it, but without discovering its true char- 

 acter. However, the final examination proved " the object of the 

 mound was purely mortuary, and the site of the mound a charnel 

 house until it w-as filled with graves, when the house was destroyed 

 by fire and a mound erected as a monument to the dead. All of the 

 graves in the mound showed a careful preparation for the reception 

 of the remains." (Mills, (3) , p. 82.) 



The careful examination of the base of the mound made it possible 

 to gain a very good conception of the nature of the ancient structure 



