1886. | The Peabody Museums Explorations in Ohio. 1017 
THE PEABODY MUSEUM’S EXPLORATIONS IN 
HIO 
BY F. W. PUTNAM. 
CAN truly say a new chapter has been added to our archzo- 
logical work in the valley of the Little Miami. First, you 
must know that our camp is pitched by the side of the great pile 
of earth we turned over in our explorations of the group of altar 
mounds on the land of Mr. Michael Turner. We have been 
` working, with occasional necessary intermissions, on this and the 
adjoining farm of Mr. Benjamin Marriott for the past five 
years, and this is the place where we have discovered-so much of 
aig within the great earthwork of which the following is a 
sketch 
A hill through which two danas. thirty feet deep, had been 
cut, separated the hill into three parts. Around the central por- 
tion a wall of earth had been raised, making a perfect circle 550 
feet in diameter. In this inclosure was a large mound, and near 
ita small one. These mounds proved of great interest, particu- 
larly the large one, with its stone wall four feet high, surrounding 
an altar of burnt clay. We found several human skeletons in the 
clay outside of the stone wall and two others on the wall, with 
various objects made of copper, shell and stone. The earth taken 
from the ditches was used to make the graded way from the top 
` of the hill to the level land below. This graded way connects 
With an embankment of earth, somewhat oval in shape and 1500 
feet in its greatest diameter, in which are two openings. Oppo- 
_ Site the northern opening is an earth circle 300 feet in diameter, 
= and in this isa small mound which we have not yet explored. 
Opposite the eastern opening is a mound nine feet high. It was 
-On this mound that we began our work at this place five years 
ago. At the foot of the graded way is a small circle inclosing a 
burial mound. North of this circle were two. other burial 
= Mounds, and east of it was the great group of altar mounds,- 
around each of which was a wall of stones four feet high, built 
below the surrounding level of the field. These mounds con- 
tained from one to seven altars, formed of clay, on which fierce 
: various kinds, particularly of copper, the 60,000 pearls, sheli- 
ds and other objects, also = wonderful little figures of terra 
$ hiies T XH. 
