The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1871-07-07
COLUMBIA, TENNESSEE, JULY !, 1871.

race. Trees undistinguished in age o.
size from those of the primeval fores
covered these structuers. No buildin,
stone Is in the vicinity, and the levee
and mounds were all earthworks o
various kinds. They could be easil.
} traced, and any practical antiquarian
could readily distinguish and classif.
them. They presented then, as
think they do still, vast and interest
ing field for archaeological research.
ONE OF THE TUMULI.
: One of the tumuli / examined wa
/, different from anyI have ever seen
or heard described. It was larg
: octagonal pyramid about thirty feel
in height, and containing an area Q
!, the eighth of an acre of land on tn
summit. Its eight facets were per
fectly uniform and well defined; an'
the architect who planned it. was &C
. quainted with geometry; but l coul'
not ascertain whether 1t was palac
I or a pantheon. 1t may have beel
the foundation of the palace of king
If any edifices were built upon thes
earth works, they were probably mad
+ of wood, and have long decayed. Th,
temples are easily recognized by thei
quadrangular form, with the four side
of each facing north, south, east, ant
west. They are generally built upog
large areas of Level ground, and are 81
situated that immense muldtudes as
sembled around t1em could witness
the religious ceremonies performed
upon them. In Chickasaw county, in
1888, 1 preached to congregation O
the white emigrants recently settled
in the neighborhood Of Gillem's store,
upon one of these large rectangular
mounds. 1t was fifteen feet high, and
the summit was perfectly level, em-
bracing an area of the fourth of an
acre, well shaded with large hickory
aud oak trees. An irregularly shaped
earth wall and deep ditch enclosed
| this and four others, one of them thir-
ty feet high, all of them OF the same
quadrangular pyramidal form, and
evidently the temples of the gods their
builders worshipped. The large and
| beautifully sculptured vase of white
stone in the museum of this Academy
was dug out of one of these ancient
mounds in DeSoto county, Mississippi
and presented by Mr.. Peyton Skip
with. 1t affords sufficient evidence to
prove that the "mound builders" Of
our valley not only understood the
principles of geometry, as applied to
architecture, but that they also had
attained to high degree Of taste and
skill in sculpture. The larger hem
spherical or semielipsordal mounds
seem to have been usually constructed
to hold the remains and to honor the
memory of their dead slain in battle,
like that CT Marathon and others rear
ed by the ancient Greeks to mark
their heroes graves. The small circu-
lar mounds were evidently their resi-
dences. Sectionscut across the tumu-
Ii reveal these facts:
THE HOUSES OF THE ABORIGINES.
The houses of the aborigiles were
built in circular form, like the huts
of the negroes of Central Africa, sup
ported by wooden props, thatched
with cane and other materials, plas-
tered with clay and heavily covered
with earth, something similar to those
of the Mandan Indians described by
Lewis, Clarke and Catlin. They built
their fires in the centre of the earth
floors. Their dead were buried in q
sitting posture beneath them and
around the inner walls of their dwell
ings. 1t is worthy of observation that
the Chickasaw Indians, who occupied
the building sites and cultivated the
fields of "the mound builders" SO late
as the year 1886, buried their dead in
their cabins, although their DWELL
ings were constructed like those of
The frontier white people, whose mode
of building, with many of the arts and
improvements of civilized life, they
had adopted. The ancient fortifica-
tions, and other structures Of the pre-
decessOrs of the modern Indians have
been so thoroughly explored, and rep
resented by Schoolcraft. Squiers and
others, and such elaborate descriptions
of them have been published by the
Smithsonian Institute, and by the
Government of the United States un-
der the direction of the Commissioner
of Indian Affairs, before the late civil
war, that will add nothing more in
relation to them except a fe n remarks
which may possibly be useful to those
who attempt to determine the precise
era.
WHEN THESE BUILDERS FLOURIsHED.
and the dates of the construction of
the architectural works whose ruins
are left without record to tell us who
they were, when they lived and died,
and how they passed away. We may
conjecture that the PimOs
of the Ghila, and the other Puebla In
dians of New Mexico and Arozona,
are their living descendants; and that |
they have retained more of the pecu- |
liarities of the ancestors, who construc-
ted the Casas Grandes, now tenantless
in uncultivated wilderness, than any
Of their progeny, who are western
or who were hunters east of
the Mississippi when discovered by /
European white men. We may doubt |
these savage hunters are their
posterity but we cannot resist the
evidence of their Tartar, Mongolian
and Scythian descent afforded by the
striking resemblance of these ruins to
those which are scattered over Mongo-
ia, and other parts of Asia embraced
within the limits of ancient Scythia,
and the still more convincing proofs of
Identity of race with these ancient
painted in the catacombs of
Egypt after their contests with Rame-
ses the Great Their practice of scalp
ing enemies, which bloody: custom
was observed by the ancient Scythians;
he wearing of the "scalp-lock," yet
by the plated cue of the
Chinese, of the same yellow race of
Cuvier; their complexion, straight
black hair, scant boards and general
appearance are sufficient to convince
IS that this great naturalist was cor
'ect in CHASING the yellow Asiatics,
md North American Indians, with
)ut few exceptions, as the same race.
THE AGE OF THE ABORIGINAL RUINS.
In attempting to decide correctly
he age Of the aboriginal ruins of the
Mississippi Valley archeologist are
lpt to make a common mistake and
lssign for them an age far too great,
,ased upon the ancient appearance of
he forests in which they are found,
md especially of the size of the trees
which grow upon them. These
mounds are never found on the recent
llluyium of any stream, or in what
lrc termed the first lotions of rivers
md creeks subjected to annual inunda-
ions, except in the bottom of the
River. Where that is very
vide, the fertility of the soil and the
many advantages, afforded for agri-
culture, fishing and hunting, seems to
lave attacked them to the shores of
he bayous and lakes remote from the
Hills where they settled in the greatest
nultitudes and made their most exten-
i've Improvements. Unlike its tribu-
aries and the most other rivers, which