FOWKE] MOUNDS IN PIKE COUNTY, OHIO 495 
was kept well down into this, and at every point was fully 18 inches 
below the deepest artificial object found. At about the center of the 
mound was a depression 7 by 2 feet, the bottom a few inches below the 
general level of the floor of the excavation. It was clearly a grave, 
but there was no trace of bone in it. Loose in the earth was a small 
piece of very coarse pottery; a thin flat piece of sandstone with a 
double-bevel edge, used as a hide dresser; and a piece of hollow clay- 
ironstone, resembling fossilized wood, which had one side broken 
away to give access to the hollow interior, probably a receptacle for 
some sort of charm. 
There was absolutely nothing else in the mound, and no apparent 
reason for its construction. 
MOUNDS IN PIKE COUNTY, OHIO 
NEAR PIKETON 
The numbers refer to the order in which the mounds were excavated. 
A mile south of Piketon, on the Vanmeter farm, is the town 
cemetery. In this is a large mound having three small ones con- 
nected with its base. These are figured by Squier and Davis as 
being at the end of a long embankment, now obliterated, running 
southward from the so-called Graded Way. 
In the same field as the cemetery are three other mounds. All 
were explored. 
Mowunp 1.—This is 75 feet in diameter, not including 4 or 5 feet 
of wash on every side, the summit being 15 feet above the surround- 
ing level. When the center was reached the bottom of the trench was 
16 feet lower than the top. In all large mounds the lowest point 
is below the outside surface of the ground, for two reasons; there is 
an accumulation of soil around, and a subsidence under the struc- 
ture due to the weight of the material. 
There was a core of black earth such as is found in all low or over- 
flow bottom lands in the vicinity. This was about 10 feet high at the 
center of the mound. It was closely packed, requiring almost con- 
stant use of a pick. Scattered through it at irregular intervals were 
small masses of muck; ashes, charcoal, and earth, mingled; frag- 
ments of bone, burned or unburned; pieces of chipped flint or broken 
rocks; all of which had been dumped in at random in the course of 
the work. Little masses of earth, each as large as a man could easily 
carry, were often easily traceable. 
Over this core of dark earth had been placed a capping of yellow 
clay, the subsoil of the fields. This was 6 feet thick at the top and 8 
feet on the sides. Apparently it had been spread to the latter thick- 
