RADIX] WINNEBAGO ARCHEOLOGY 89 



of the aboriginal monuments of Wisconsin. The inclosure was first noticed by the 

 government surveyor. In 1837 a hasty survey was made by N. F. Hyer, who after- 

 wards published a brief description. ... In 1850 Lapham made a careful survey of 

 Aztalan. . . and in 1855 published a description illustrated with several fine plates 

 and figures in his "Antiquities of Wisconsin." . . . 



This interesting inclosure, now almost obliterated by many years of cultivation, 

 may be briefly described as being in the shape of an irregular parallelogram, lacking 

 one of the long sides which is supplied by the bank of the Crawfish which forms its 

 eastern boundary. It is reported to contain 17 J acres of land. The length of the 

 north wall Lapham gives as 631, the west as 1,4 19, and the south as 700 feet. The width 

 is given as about 22 feet and the height at from 1 to 5 feet. Along the outer edge of its 

 entire length, at somewhat regular distances, were rounded projections which have 

 been frequently referred to as "buttresses or bastions," but which Lapham deter- 

 mined "were never designed for either of the purposes indicated by these names." 



" The distance from one to another varies from 61 to 95 feet, scarcely any two of them 

 being exactly alike. Their mean distance apart is 82 feet. On the north wall and 

 on most of the west wall they have the same height as the connecting ridge and at a 

 little distance resemble a simple row of mounds. 



"On the inner wall, opposite many of these mounds (projections), is a slight de- 

 pression or sinus; possibly the remains of a sloping way by which the wall was as- 

 cended from within the inclosure." — Lapham, Antiquities, 43. 



Within the wall at the northwest corner of the inclosure was a rectangular truncated 

 pyramidal mound, its level top measuring 60 by 65 feet. At its southeast corner was 

 a sloping ascent. At the southwest corner, also witliin the wall, was a square, trun- 

 cated mound, the level area on its top being 53 feet wide on the west side, it being 

 originally in all probability a square of this size. Lapham's figure shows the sides 

 of the mound rising in two terraces to the top. There appeared to be a sloping wav 

 leading down from its top toward the east. It was the highest earthwork within the 

 wall, which it overlooked. These two mounds he judged to have been the probable 

 foundations of buildiags or of other structures of perishable materials. From the 

 eastern side of the last-mentioned mound a line of wall with a number of projections 

 similar to those on the wall of the inclosure extended about two-thirds of the way 

 to the river, where it angled and proceeded in a northwesterly direction, being broken 

 near its middle to within about 250 feet of the north wall. Beginning near the angle 

 and on the east side of and paralleling this wall for its entire length was a second line 

 of wall with projections distributed at various distances along its sides. 



Within the inclosure were also a number of excavations, conical mounds, embank- 

 ments, and other earthworks, some of which our present knowledge enables -us to iden- 

 tify as very probably effigy or emblematic mounds. 



Opposite the southwestern angle of the wall of the inclosure were several emljank- 

 ments also with projections along their sides. Scattered at intervals along the entire 

 front of the west wall were a considerable number of excavations irregular in outline 

 and of different sizes from which some of the earth used in the construction of the wall 

 was most probably taken. 



A short distance west of these, and also extending along the front of the wall, is a 

 long mound of the familiar tapering effigy t)'pe, an irregular line of conical mounds, 

 and a single linear mound. Several hundred feet northwest of the inclosure on the 

 higher ground was a doulile line of 60 or more conical mounds of different sizes, extend- 

 ing from west of the present Aztalan road across the road and in a general northerly 

 direction into the present village of Aztalan. A small number of the more prominent 

 of these can still be seen along the road. 



On the east bank of the Crawfish opposite the inclosure were two long earthen 

 embankments and a group of conical mounds. The larger of the two embankments 

 1S6S23°— 22 7 



