The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1872-10-11
Jllr 5}larietta 9Onrnal.
Marietta, Georgia, October 18th, 1872.
ANCIENT AMERICA.
BY MRS. NJ. a. HALLoCK.

|
time Of creation to the ccming of the
Indians, an unbroken wilderness,
where the monsters of the deep and
of the land had everything their owr
way.
1t is quite startling to be called
upon by Mr.. Baldwin in his recent
book, to believe that our own west
ern States were supporting an intel
Iigent, settled, and civilized people
two or three thousand years ago
about as far back as when Solomon
was on the throne, or when Nebu
chadnezzar and Daniel were gov
erning the Assyrian Empire, and
when Scion was promulgating his
wise code of laws to the refractory
Greeks.
In Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Wis
consin, Nebraska, and other of our
States, from the Gulf of Mexico to
the far north on the Missouri river,
artificial mounds are found, which
have puzzled the curious ever since
their discovery. Some have thought
them to be Indian burying places.
No less than ten thousand of these
are in Ohio alone. They are made
with great labor, some of them hav~
ing the combination of squares and
circles which are executed with geo
metrical precision,
Indian skeletons have been dug
from near the surface of these
mounds from time to time, their good
preservation showing that not many
ages have gone by since they were
inferred. But far below these
near the base of the mound, skele
tons Of another race have been ex-
humed, which crumble to dust on
the slightest exposure. These rem
nants of humanity speak of only one
thing, and that is of antiquity. On
all other subjects they are as silent
as the dust around them. These
mounds are, or were, covered with
old forests. One tree showed an age
of eight hundred years, yet it is sup
posed that other generations of trees
on the mound had passed away be-
fore this sprang up.
Many relics of art, far SURPRISING
any the Indians have ever produced
have been taken from these mounds
"Thcy consist of a considerable va
riety of ornaments and implements
made of copper, silver, obsidian, e
kind of glass produced by volca.
noes,) porphyry, and green stone,
finely and deliberately wrought
There are axes, double and single,
a lzis, chiseIs, drills, or gravers,
lance-heads, knives, bracelets, pen
dants, beads, and the like made of
copper. There are also articles of
pottery elegantly designed and fin
ished, ornaments made of silver,
bone, mica from the Alleghanies,
and shells from the Gulf OF Mexico"
A telescope answering to one Pic
tured upon the ruins of Mexico,
which a man holds in his hand,
placed to his eye, has been found,
also remnants of cloth, which indi
cate that the art of spinning and
weaving was known.
These mounds vary in size; gen
orally they are from six to thirty
feet high, but many are very much
higher. One in illinois is ninety
feet high, seven hundred feet long
and five hundred wide. All have
fiat tops on which were once stand
ing, it is supposed, the principa
buildings of the people. Traces o
stairs winding up on the outside, are
on some while in Mexico and Cen
trail America, the stairs, parts of the
| baIustrades, and the ruins of stone
buildings on top, are to be seen to
this day. The northerners probably
used wood for these elevated build
ings, as no traces of them are found.
These people are supposed to have
been un-worshippers, and it may
have been fancy of theirs to get as
near their god as possible.
Works of different character are
found, made of stone and dirt, de-
signed as enclosures. Some encir-
Gle only a few acres, others include
in their regular sweep a hundred
and forty acres or more. Some Of
these are in circles, large and small,
combined with the square. One in
Adams county, Ohio, is in the form
of serpent, one thousand feet long,
with the jaws distended as if in the
act of swallowing an oval mound,
while It's tail lies in a triple coil.
| A fanciful people truly. That the
mound builders were also miners,
and worked the copper mines OF the
northwest, is quite probable, for
most of the mines, if not all which
have been opened by the miners Of
the present generation, show that
they have been worked before.
hIr. Baldwin tells US that ''near
Lake Superior in new mine huge
mass of copper, weighing nearly six