The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1873-05-22
THE MOUND BtlLDEBs.
sesches Of the A.efesls Of Amerfes

Should the "sknll and body homes" which
were found the other day in an excavation near
Columbus, Obio, prove to he, as il now thought,
remains OF the extinct race technically known us
mOuud builders, paleOn tOlOysts will have great
cause to be thankful, for mp to the present time
the skeletons of the said mound builders have OBJ
stinately refused to be exhnmed in useful form.
As Mr. Baldwin, whose interesting book Oh SAN
cieht America IL too little known, says: "The
decayed bones of the mound builders are invari-
ably found within the mounds. never ON the sur
face, usually at the bottom of the structure and
nearly always in such state Of decay as to render
all attempts to restore the skull, or indeed any
part of the skeleton, entirely hopeless Not more
than or two skeletons of that peeple have
been recovered in q condition suitable for exam
nation" Messrs. Squier and Davis assert that
the only skull belonging incontestably to an in
ii'idnal OF the mound builder race which has
been preserved entire, was taken from a mound
four miles below Chllicothe.
There is much reason, therefore, to doubt the
authenticity of this "skull and body bones,n
though until examination has revealed their true
characters there is no reason to dogmatize upon
their n"n-genuincness. The Importance of "the
fnd' can hardly be exaggerated if it turns ont to
he true remains of the ancient civilized people of
the Mississippi valley. That such people exist
I'd there is now no doubt. That the red skins of the
past or present have no genetic relations to them
u ne undOubted. The Huns and GOfhs who over
ran Italy in the fifth century had fewer points Of
ethnic character in common with the Romans
Ut the Twelve tables and the military republic
than the Indians of the sixteenth century with
the mound builders. From all we know of these
people, whose name has persisted wholly from
among men, they were confined in habitat ~ far as
our conntry is concerned to the fertile regions of
the mississippi valley. "This ancient race, says
Baldwin, epitomizing the results Of American
archaeological researches, "seems to have occu-
pied nearly the whole basin of the Mississippi and
its tributaries, with the fertile plains along the
gulf. Their settlements were continued across
the Rio Grande into Mexico. Toward their east
ern, northern and western limit, the population
was evidently smaller and their occupation of the
territory less complete than in the valley Of the
Ohio, and from that point down to the gulf"
This people were civilized. They worked the
mines on Lake Superior more extensively though
not more deeply than we have done. They must
have been acquainted with geometry, for the an
giles on their mounds are true right angles; their
circles are true circles. Mathematical instru-
ments would be required to make them as correct
ss we hnd them. Their pottery was elegantly
designed. They used bracelets and other orna-
ments. Albert Gallatin thought them an semi
nently agricultural" people. Many Of their CHS
ella, axes, hammers AIDES, &C., were deliberately
finished. It has been suggested, in view of no
graves Of the mound-b builders being found i'm the
mining regions, that the miners had possibly had
better means Of river INSTRUMENTATION than
the "canOe"
From our present knowledge, the hypothesis
with NEST versmilitnde is that these people came
from the south-that in fact they are identified
with the civilized races of Mexico and Peru. fit
should prove true that Peru, as N. Lopez in a
lately published book claims, was civilized by an
Aryan race, whose language 10 pathological
"missing link, the present people of the United
States will turn out not to have been the frat
Arysns who have been extensive settlers of this
continent. Let us hope that American archaol-
ogy will not be much longer neglected, ~ the an.
tiqnities Of no portion of the globe promise So
rich harvest to the earnest gleaner.-Ner York
Uorld.