360 SKETCH OF ANCIENT EARTHWORKS 



was deemed necessary to protect the east bank from abrasion with stone, so that 

 it might be used for the purposes of navigation by tow-boars. The nearest 

 stones available for this purpose were those of the great mound. During the years 

 1831-'32 from 50 to 75 teams were employed in removing this mass of material. 

 It is said that from 10,000 to 15,000 wagon loads were carried away. As the 

 workmen approached the base of the mound they discovered 15 or 16 small 

 earthmovmds around or near the circumference of the base, and a similar one in 

 the centre. Nothing else was noticed worthy of attention, as was then thought, 

 and the small mounds were levelled to the ground. • 



No further examination was made into any of these mounds until about 1850, 

 when some of the farmers in the vicinity devoted a part of a day to an explora- 

 tion of them, They opened two which were not covered by the rubbish. In 

 one they found human bones, with some fluviatile shells, and in the other they 

 dug down to a hard, white fire-clay. Two or three feet below the surface of 

 this they came to a trough sirpilar to those formerly made in the west for feed- 

 ing pigs, by hollowing out a log. This was overlaid by small logs of wood to 

 serve as a cover, and in it was found the skeleton of a man, around which appeared 

 the impression of a coarse cloth. Within this trough were fifteen copper rings 

 and a breastplate of the same metal. The wood of the trough and covering was 

 in a state of good preservation. The clay which environed it was not only im- 

 pervious to air, but also to water. Satisfied with their discovery, the explorers 

 covered up the ancient coflSn, and all remained undisturbed until the summer of 

 1860, when the Jate David Wyrick, with the aid of two or three men, raised the 

 rude ccffin with its covering of logs and brought them to town. The small round 

 logs that overlaid this sarcophagus were so well preserved that the ends showed 

 the axe marks, and the steepness of the kerf seemed to indicate that some instru- 

 ment sharper than the stone axe, found throughout the west, had been employed 

 to cut them. The woody fibre of the coffin remained firm, but the annulars were 

 partially separated, so as to be split apart. 



In the following November Mr. Wyrick, with five other men, met at this 

 spot and made further exploration into this mound. They found several arti- 

 cles of stone, among which was a stone box enclosing an engraved tablet in un- 

 known characters; a mortar, made of the fine-grained sandstone of the country; 

 and several neatly-worked stones, similar to a mason's plumb bob. The en- 

 graved stone has given rise to much speculation as to its origin and significa- 

 tion, with much division of opinion. 



The central mound in the base of the large stone mound was opened in the 

 presence of the writer of this article. A great number of human bones were 

 found in it, but no other relics worthy of note. These bones were all deposited 

 in, or covered by, the humus peat fi om the adjacent swamp, now covered by 

 the reservoir. It is remarkable that all of those mounds which have been ex- 

 plored contained earth from a distance. The pipe or fire clay is found in place 

 at Flint Ridge, six or eight miles distant, and none of that peculiar variety is 

 known in place nearer. This ancient work we know was for burial use, but 

 we know not what faith or what personal distinction induced the construction of 

 a mausoleum of so much labor. 



Just west of the town of Newark two confluents of the Licking river, the 

 Raccoon and South Fork, unite, and between them is a rich valley of some 

 thousands of acres, which is the site of the most elaborate and extensive ancient 

 works known in the west. From the streams the land rises by natural terraces 

 to the general level of the plain, and previous to the 'construction of the canal 

 on the second alluvial bench, on the east side of the great works, was a series of 

 low mounds, so low, indeed, that a casual observer would not suspect them to 

 be mounds. The canal embraced these mounds in its range, and the first lock 

 west of the town was constructed on the site of one of them. In excavating 

 the pit for it in the spring of 1828, a deposit of human bones was discovered, 



