Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1884-06-24
THE MOUND BUILDERS.

The remains of the mound-builders,
as the vanished people who once lived
on this continent have been called, are
scattered over most of the States of the
Central and Lower Mississippi valley,
on the sources of the Allegheny, and
have been observed away up along the
banks of the tawny Missouri, rs well as
down by the shores of the Gulf of
MexicoS They are most numerous in
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Mis-
souri,, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee,
Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida
and Texas, and are found in the west
ern part of New York, and in Michi-
gan and Iowa. A mound, until recent
ly, was to be seen ON the plain of Ca
hokia, H., nearly opposite the city of
st. Louis, No., that was 7O) feet long,
500 feet broad, 80 feet high, and that
covered more than eight acres OF ground.
Some of the mounds in Wisconsin and
Iowa are in the shape of huge animals,
and there is one near Brush creek, Adj
ans county, Ohio, that is in the form OF
serpent, and that is more than 1000
feet long. At Marietta, Ohio, are an
cient eaith-works that cover on area of
about three-quarters of a mile long, and
half mile broad; but the most intricate
and perhaps most extensive OF the works
of the mound-builders are those of the
Licking valley, near Newark, Ohio, ex-
tending over an area OF two square
miles. Many OF these mounds have
been found to contain skeletons, and the
appearance of the bones has led some
to believe that these remains point to an
antiquity Of 1000 or more years. A
number of these works were evidently
designed as works of defense, others as
burial places for the dead, and others
again seem to have been constructed as
temples or places OF worship and sacri-
fee. Among the remains have also been
found numerous implements and orna-
ments, usually composed of stone, some
times of copper always in its native
state) and occasionally shell and bone.
Curious pottery has been found, often
coarse and rude, but sometimes graceful
and highly ornamental. 1t was not be-
lieved that the mound builders had any
written language. Prof. Newberry,
generalizing the views Of leading scien-
lists, remarks that, from all the facts
before us, we can Only say that the Mis-
/ sissippi valley and the Atlantic coast
were once populated by sedentary,
agricultural and partially civilized race,
quite different from the nomalic Indians,
though possibly the progenitors of some
of the Indian tribes and that, after
centuries of occupation, they disap-
peared, at least 1000, and perhaps
many thousand years before the advent
of the Europeans. Some have main
tanned that the noun l-builders and the
mysterious people who preceded the
Aztecs in Mexico were the descendants of
crews from Japan, whose ships had been
accidentally driven across the Pacific.
Another theory has been advanced that
that these people migrated from Asia
they passed from the cradle of the
race over Asia to Siberia, across BehrinG
straits, down the Plci6c coast of Amer
lea from Alaska to the Mississippi val
ley, and down to Mexico Central Amer
lea and Peru. 1t is noted, by those who
suggest this, that in Siberia mounds
have been found similar to thoJo in tho
Missi. sippi valley.