CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
The results of our examination of the burial mounds of the northern 
districts may be briefly summed up as follows : 
First. That different sections were occupied by different mound-build- 
ing tribes, which, though belonging to much the same stage in the scale 
of civilization. differed in most instances in habits and customs to a suffi- 
cient extent to mark, by their modes of burial, construction of their 
pn -unds, and their works of art, the boundaries of the respective areas 
occupied. 
Second. That each tribe adopted several different modes of burial 
depending, in all probability, to some extent upon the social condition, 
osition, and occupation of the deceased. 
Third. That the custom of removing the flesh before the final burial 
prevailed very extensively among the mound-builders of the northern 
sections. The bones of the common people being often gathered to- 
gether and cast in promiscuous heaps, over which mounds were built. 
Fourth. That usually some kind of religious or superstitious ceremony 
was performed at the burial, in which fire played a prominent part. 
That, notwithstanding the very common belief to the contrary, there is 
no evidence whatever that human sacrifice was practiced. 
Fifth. That there is nothing found in the mode of constructing these 
mounds, nor in the vestiges of art they contain, to indicate that their 
builders had reached a higher culture-status than that attained by some 
of the Indian tribes found occupying the country at the time of the 
first arrival of Europeans. 
Sixth. That the custom of erecting mounds over the dead continued 
to be practiced in several localities in post-Columbian times. 
Seventh. That the character and condition of the ancient monuments, 
and the relative uniformity in the culture status of the different tribes 
shown by the works and the remains of art found in them, indicate 
that the mound-building age could not have continued in this part of’ 
the continent longer than a thousand years, and hence that its com- 
mencement probably does not antedate the fifth or sixth century. 
Nothing has been found connected with them to sustain or justify the 
opinion, so frequently advanced, of their great antiquity. The calcu- 
lations based upon the supposed age of trees found growing on some 
of them is fast giving way-before recent investigations made in regard 
to the growth of forests, as it has been ascertained that the rings of 
trees are not a sure indication of age. 
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