The Art of the Great Earthwork 

 Builders of Ohio 



By Charles C. Willoughby 



j|NE of our most interesting as well as least understood 

 archeological culture groups is that which attained its 

 greatest development in southern Ohio and whose out- 

 posts extended into some of the neighboring states. 

 s This group of people had attained a high degree of native 

 culture and had become wealthy and powerful according to native 

 standards. They had mastered certain simple geometrical problems 

 which were apparently unknown to their neighbors, had learned the 

 principle of the lathe, and made the first cutting tools of iron so far 

 known in America. It seems that nearly all of the greater earthworks 

 of southern Ohio were built by them, but some of the smaller mounds, 

 inclosures, and burial places should doubtless be attributed to other 

 tribes. 



The great earthworks under consideration are unquestionably 

 prehistoric and apparently antedate the occupancy of this region by 

 any known tribe. They consist mainly of round, square, and octago- 

 nal inclosures, protected ways, burial mounds, and a few domiciliary 

 and effigy mounds. No object of European origin has been found 

 with any of the original burials in these mounds. Intrusive burials 

 of the later Indians are, of course, occasionally encountered, but 

 these must not be confused with original interments. Most of the 

 artifacts illustrated in this paper were taken from mounds containing 

 skeletons and clay altars or places of sacrifice. The explorations 

 were conducted under the general direction of the late Prof. F. W. 

 Putnam, by Dr Metz, Mr Moorehead, and others. The specimens 

 from the Turner and Liberty groups are in the Peabody Museum of 

 Harvard University, and those from the Hopewell group are in the 

 Field Museum at Chicago, 



The skeletons and altars for the greater part were found near the 

 base-line of the mounds. The altars are usually heaps of clay raised 

 a foot or more in the center and have sides sloping outward and a 

 depression a few inches deep in the top which usually shows signs of 

 extreme heat. These altars are of various sizes, but usually the cavity 

 or depression is about three feet in diameter. In the larger mounds 



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