The record-union., 1893-09-09
as old As OTHERS.
Evidence That America is Not a
New World.
Recent Research Goes to Show That
the Civilization of the Mississippi
Mound Builders Was CoevaI With
That of the Ancient Orientais.

That of the Ancient Orientais.
We are so accustomed to think of
America as the new world, says the Lon
don Spectator, that the assertion of re-
cent writer that America is an old
world, and compares well with other
countries in this respect" comes upon
! the reader with something of a shock.
1 But when we find how lavishly the re-
mains of prehistoric races are scattered
over the length and breadth of the North
) American continent we realize that an
cient monuments are no more numerous
on this than on the other side of the At
lantic. And when we consider the works
/ left by the lost races we are constrained
| to admit that the prehistoric relics of
! America are as interesting as any yet dis
covered within our own borders. The
] American archRologist is, it is true, con-
| fronted with a great and peculiar diff
/ Guilty. His continent is covered with re-
mains of prehistoric races. but historic
/ time for him begins at least no
earlier than the landing of Columbus,
! and the mystery which must always en-
]
/ way of writ en- records commences for
! him but four ce INJURIES ago. On the other
/ hand we have clear evidence that some Of
| the early inhabitants were contemporary
with the mammoth and the mastodon,
| and in South America at any rate, re-
mains of cliff-dwelling races are associ-
ated with the bones of no fewer than
| fOrty-tour animals now entirely extinct.
| Many interesting notices, more or less
| fragmentary, have from time to time ap-
peared relative to the wonderful archi
| tectural relics OF the cliff dwellers of Col
Orado and to the no less wonderful pyra-
mids and earthWorks of the mound
| builders OF the Mississippi. But the
4GOth anniversary of the discovery Of
| America has been marked, among other
things, by the publication of one volume
| OF all that has yet been made known Of
! the mound huilders-a volume Of which
| it is not too much to say that it is one of
the most Interesting of all archaeological
| records. When the relics of this van
| ished race first began to attract attention,
| some forty years ago, 1t was thought that
| the silver sword scabbards, iron knives
and Hebrew inscriptions then brought to
! light were traces of a highly civilized
people who had migrated from some
historic country" Latterly the current
Of opinion has been tending quite the
| other way, and some authorities appear
to think that the real mound builders,
who had nothing to do with the modern
/ implements which had been 'intruded"
among their remains, were, after all,
mere savages. But it is the view of many
eminent American antiquarians that
| these early races-mOund-builder cliff
| dweller and others coeval with them
constituted a cultus which differed es-
sentially from any other now known to
history"
| RELICS IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.
The works of the mound-builders are
most abundant in the Mississippi Valley.
/ They are found, it is true, in other parts
| OF the continent, but nowhere else do
| they occur in such profusion or such mag
/ nitude. From the Red River to Florida,
| from the Alleghanies 10 the Rocky Noun
tains, the whole ground is streWn with
| their remains. In Ohio alone there are
10000 mounds for burial or for the found
atiOnS of dwellings, and more than 800
! Enclosures surrounded with earthwOrks.
Some of the mounds are acres in extent
| Munk's Mound, the great tumulus of
| CahOkla, near st. Louis, rises by four
platforms to a hight of 100 feet, and COW
ers sixteen acres OF ground. Some tribes,
! evidently hunters Uy occupation, using
tools and weapons made of unsmelted
| copper and meteOric iron, have left, in
addition to the ordinary conical mounds,
/ huge earthen engleS, not only of beasts
! OF the chaSe-elk and moose, wolf and
panther, goose and wild duck-but of
hawks and swallows, snakes and tad
poles. One such figure OF a serpent is
nearly 500 yards long.
Other tribes, apparently more warlike,
have left earthen walls, some of which
are still thirty feet high and inclose as
much as 400 acres of ground. The actual
mounds which are so numerous served in
many cases for burial, and We're so used
! by successive races. In some instances
II iG ala1r that MT continued
into historic times. OF two mounds in
I the same group one contained the skele-
| ton OF medicine man with modern
| looking glass, perhaps not fifty years old,
! in his hand. Another mound in the group
! contained the skeleton of q child with a
string of beads on its wrist and pot of
! sWeetmeats at its head, while trees with
at least three centuries growth were
growing in the ground above. That these
structures have been used by successive
races is well illustrated by mound in
Illinois, in which, lying underneath re-
cent Indian interments, was the skeleton
of some long-forgotten Jesuit pioneer,
/ with rosary of Venetian beads about its
/ waist and silver crucifiX still in Its bOny
hand
There must have been several entirely
different races of mound builders, judg-
ing from the wide differences in the style
and materials of their works. In the up
per part of the Mississippi Valley the
mounds are mainly burial places. In
! Wisconsin m"ny are in the shape of ami
mails. In other districts the mounds con-
tain chambers rooted with logs. The
Gulf States are remarkable for their
earthen pyramids. At one point on the
lower Mississippi is group of eight, one
of which covers six acres Of ground Its
sides correspond to the points of the com
pass, and it is surrounded by ditch ten
feet deep.
| SACRED ENCLOSURES IN OHIO.
In Ohio are great many so-called sa-
cred Enclosures, some of which are OF
large extent. Not a few of them consist
OF a square and two adjacent circles, and
look like gigantic geometrical figures.
The stone forts are larger still. The walls
of Fort Ancient are still twenty feet high
and three and half miles in length, in
closing a space of l40 acres. An immense
number of relics have been collected bv
various explorers. Few, perhaps, are OF
greater interest than those lately taken
from a mound on Paint Creek. At the
base of the tumulus, which was 500 feet
long, were domed chambers four or five
feet high. In one of these was a skele-
ton, evidently of some distinguished war
rior. On its head, fastened to q sort oi
helmet were wooden antlers, covered
with copper. over it were strewn pearls,
bears teeth and claws of eagles. At its
side lay pipe, an agate spearhead and
canes covered with copper. Other skele-
tons in the same mound were clad in
copper armor, decorated with elaborate
and beautiful designs. Here, too, was
found a copper ax-still sharp, forty
pounds in weight, and bearing traces ol
gliding. In a burial mound on the Iowa
River, in district which was inhabited
by hunted tribes, were found three cham