1884.] 215 [Putnam. 



General Meeting, Dec. 3, 1884. 



The President, Mr. S. H. Scuclder, in the chair. 



Dr. E. B. Wilson and Miss Clara Pike were elected Associate 

 Members. 



Mr. F. W. Putnam occupied the evening with an account of recent 

 explorations of mounds in Ohio, carried on for the Peabody Mu- 

 seum at Cambridge, by Dr. C. L. Metz and himself. 



The particular group which he described is known as the Liberty 

 Works, and is situated on the farm of Mr. Edwin Harness in 

 Liberty township, Ross Co., Ohio. These ancient earthworks 

 were surveyed by Squier and Davis in 1840. Their plan and 

 description are published in their well-known volume on the An- 

 cient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley. With their plan in 

 hand, the earth-walls of the square and great circle can be easily 

 traced in the cultivated fields, on both sides of the Narrow Gauge 

 Railroad. A portion of the earth-walls forming the square are 

 still fairly well preserved in the woods beyond the field. In the 

 next field to the northwest, the outlines of the walls crossing the 

 pike, and connecting the square with the small circle, can also 

 be seen, while the small circle can be followed in the woods on the 

 west side of the pike, toward Mr. Harness's house. Several of 

 the depressions or excavations noted by Squier and Davis about 

 and within the works, are still defined, and the little circle to the 

 east of the square and the long embankment running south- 

 ward, can still be made out. 



Squier and Davis represent five small mounds inside the great square 

 of twenty-seven acres area. These have been levelled by cultivation, 

 but we determined the position of three, one of which we thoroughly 

 examined and found that it was simply a mound of earth thrown 

 up inside one of the " gateways" of the square. Three mounds, 

 one twice the size of the others, are represented on the plan as 

 just outside one of the " gateways" on the eastern side of the great 

 circle of forty acres area. All these have been much reduced in 

 height by ploughing over them, but probably only the superficial 

 portions were disturbed. These three mounds we examined with 

 care and found that the small one to the westward contained sim- 

 ply a small bed of ashes. The other two proved to be burial 

 mounds of considerable interest. The human bones were much de- 



