THE OHIO DISTRICT. 
This, as before stated, includes Ohio, a portion of eastern Indiana, 
and the western part of West Virginia. 
As only very limited explorations have been made in the Ohio portion 
of this district by the Bureau of Ethnology, I will content myself with 
a brief allusion to the observations of others. 
The descriptions given by Squier and Davis of the few burial mounds 
they explored are too well known to require repeating here. Their 
conclusion in regard te them, which has already been alluded to, is 
stated in general terms as follows: 
Mounds of this class are very numerous. They are generally of considerable size, 
varying from 6 to 80 feet in height, but having an average altitude of from 15 to 20 
or 25 feet. They stand without the walls cf enclosures at a distance more or less re- 
mote from them. 
Many are isolated, with no other monuments near them; but they frequently occur 
in groups, sometimes in close connection with each other, and exhibiting a depend- 
ence which was not without its meaning. They are destitute of altars, nor do they 
possess the regularity which characterizes the “temple mounds.” The usual form is 
that of a simple cone; sometimes they are elliptical or pear-shaped. These mounds 
invariably cover a skeleton (in very rare instances more than one, as in the case of 
the Grave Creek mound), which at the time of interment was enveloped in bark or 
coarse matting, or inclosed in a rude sarcophagus of timber, the traces and in some 
instances the very casts of which remain. Occasionally the chamber of the dead is 
built of stone, rudely laid up, without cement of any kind. Burial by fire seems to 
have been frequently practiced by the mound-builders, Urn burial also appears to 
have prevailed to a considerable extent in the Southern States. With the skeletons 
in these mounds are found various remains of art, comprising ornaments, utensils, 
and weapons.! 
For the purpose of conveying to the mind a clear idea of the char- 
acter of these mounds, I give here a copy of their figure of one of them 
(Fig. 19), and also of the wooden vault found in it (Fig. 20). This 
mound, as was the case with most of the burial mounds opened by them, 
although comparatively large, is without any distinct stratification. 
In some cases (see Ancient Monuments, Figs. 52 and 53, p. 164) a 
layer of bark was first spread on the natural surface of the ground 
after it had been cleared, leveled, and packed ; on this the body was 
laid at fulllength. It was then covered with another layer of bark and 
the mound was heaped over this. 
‘Ancient Monuments, p. 161. It may be rewarked here that the statement that 
“urn burial appears to have prevailed to a considerable extent in the Southern 
States” cannot be sustained by facts. 
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