242 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll. 60 



Sqiiier and Davis state on the authority of I. Dille, of Newark, 



Ohio, that in constructing a lock on the Chesapeake 



Remarkable Burial ^^ qj^-^ (^ ^^^j Lickiug Countv, Ohio, an excavation 



Deposit _ '^ • ^ 



A\ as made, probably in a burial mound, in Avhich were 

 encountered, -i feet beneath the surface, 14 human skeletons, over 

 which, carefully and regularly disposed, were laid a large number 

 of sheets of mica. Some of these were 8 to 10 inches long by 4 to 5 

 inches wide and all from ^ to 1 inch in thickness. It was estimated 

 that 15 or 20 bushels of this material were thrown out and built into 

 the support of the lock.^ 



In a sacrificial mound near Chillicothe, Ohio, Squier and Davis 



discovered a layer of large plates of mica measuring 

 Use in Sacrifice from 10 to 12 inchcs in diameter, which overlapped 



one another like the tiles on a roof and were arranged 

 in the shape of a half moon. The excavation disclosed more than 

 half of the crescent, which must have measured at least 20 feet from 

 horn to horn, the greatest width being 5 feet.- It is surmised that this 

 figure had some special religious significance in the minds of the 

 builders of the mound. 



An altar in a mortuary mound situated near Chillicothe, Ohio, 



was filled with fine ashes intermixed with fragments 

 Personal Ornament of clay vessels and some small convex copper disks. 



Over the contents of the altar basin was a layer of 

 mica sheets overlapjiing one another and serving as a base for a heap 

 of burnt human bones.^ These authors also found occasionally in the 

 mounds ornaments of thick sheets of mica cut out very neatly and 

 with great regularity in the shape of scrolls, oval plates, and disks, 

 and pierced with small holes for suspension or attachment. They 

 were doubtless intended for embellishing the dress of persons of dis- 

 tinction.* From the Turner mounds in Clermont County, Ohio, Prof. 

 F. W. Putnam obtained a number of figures neatly cut from sheet 

 mica representing serpents, birds, and other animal forms. 



It a]ipears that no definite knowledge of the sources of supply of 



the mica was obtained until about the year 1868, 

 Mh'eT"'"'' "^ *"'' ^^'^len they were brought to light by Gen. T. L. Cling- 



man, who undertook to exploit certain artificial pit- 

 tings in western North Carolina under the impression that they 

 might be ancient silver mines. The mica-bearing veins were dis- 

 covered in the bottoms of the old excavations, and this led to the 

 working of the mica for commercial purposes not only on the pre- 

 historic sites but in newly discovered veins over wide areas. 



1 Squier anrl Davis, Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, p. 72. 



- Ibid., p. 155. 



3 Ibid., p. 154. 



* Ibid., pp. 155, 240. 



