ADMIMSTRATIVE REPORT. XLV 



construction and in contents, something of the art, religion, and 

 sociology of their occupants and builders. Articles found with 

 the skeletons, such as implements, ornaments, and fetiches, 

 manv of them still in good preservation, are full of biographic 

 and ethnic significance 'concerning the beliefs, habits, pur- 

 poses, social condition and life history of long buried men ;\nd 

 of the survivors who paid them funeral rites. 



These artificial ihounds scattered throughout the United 

 States are of many types. They are made of different mate- 

 rials. They are evidently designed for different purposes — 

 mortuary, military, social. They are constructed in different 

 forms. They evince different degrees of art. They have 

 diverse contents, which apparently vary with the varying ends 

 in view and the various possessions available. 



Now as these tumuli are unnumbered and may fairly be 

 said to be innumerable, it is obviously impossible that every 

 mound can be scientificall}^ examined and a complefe correla- 

 tion and coordination thus established. If it can be shown 

 that some of the mounds and some of the other antiquities of 

 all the different types and classes were made by Indians, or 

 even by people having the same habits, beliefs, and culture- 

 status as the Indians, the inference is justifiable that all are 

 the work of the same race or one closely allied in culture. In 

 fact, such an inference from such data is irresistible. Prof 

 Thomas has made, in the paper herewith presented, a com- 

 prehensive accumulation of these significant facts which seems 

 to overwhelm all a priori theories of a "lost race" and to 

 demonstrate inductively that all of these mounds were built by 

 the people known to ha^•e built some of them or by other peo- 

 ])le of similar characteristics and of the same grade of culture. 



The explorations recorded in this paper were conducted in 

 Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, 

 Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New 

 York, North Dakota, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, 

 . South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and West 

 Virginia, and excavations have been made in more than 130 

 counties. More than 2,000 mounds have been explored, 

 including every known form, from the circular tumulus of the 



