Evening star., 1939-02-11
Of Stars, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study

In Field, Laboratory
And Study
BY Thomas r. Henry.
Skulls Of long headed, short-statured
people who lived along the Missouri
River between st. Joseph and st. Louis
some centuries before the historic In
dians Of the neighborhood now are being
studied at the Smithsonian Institution.
They were obtained this summer by
DR.. Waldo R. Wedel, United States Ma
tional Museum archeologist, from
strange "houses Of the dead"-haystack
sized stone mounds inclosing rectangular
vaults which are peculiar to that part OF
the country. DR.. Wedel opened five Of
been tampered with by amateur archie
ologists and pot hunters in the past, so
that material which might give q clue
to the relationships OF the ancient people
has largely disappeared. The bones
which were found however, show that
the builders of the vaults were Of quite
different physical type than the Indians
encountered by the first white explorers
of the area.
DR.. Wedel was trying to follow up a
clue which indicated that the persons
inferred in the vaults belonged to the
same general race and culture complex
as did the so-called "Hopewellians," the
prehistoric people who built the enor-
nous mounds along the Ohio and Upper
Mississippi Rivers and in whom the
Mound Builder culture reached its climax
of ornateness and luxury. In spite of
much archaeological work the connections
of these Hopewellians remain unknown,
although various clues have been uncov-
cred.
Two summers ago on an old village
site near Kansas City an amateur archie
ologist found two fragments of pottery
such as are characteristic of the Ohio
mound builders. This gave the idea that
the stone vaults might be either primi-
tive or decadent phase Of the same cul-
ture. Finding of similar pottery in one
of the tombs would have come close to
proof of this thesis.
Actually, however, Dr. Wedel was not
able to find anything of the sort. The
ancient people do not seem to have been
given to the custom of burying priced
possessions or magical artifacts with
their dead About all he found besides
bones were some stone balls, approx
mately the size Of golf balls, which pre-
sumably were used in some sport or
gambling game
A curious feature of the setup was
that all the vaults examined had OPEN
ings facing to the south. This must
have been associated in some way with
the religious ideas Of the builders.
The great Ohio mounds, DR.. Wedel
points out, were themselves burial places.
So far as it can be reconstructed the
practice of the Hopewellians was to place
the skeletons of their dead in log houses.
When such house was filled 1t was set
on fire and earth piled over the ruins.
This would result in mound about IS
feet high. There might be two or more
such burial houses close together, so
that the earth piled over their charred
remains eventually would form a single
mound.
At least IS per cent of the Mound
Builder dead were cremated in this way,
SO that it is difficult to get a comprehen-
sive picture of their physical type from
such skeletal material as escaped the
flames. Hence there can be no very
accurate matching of their skulls with
those of the ancient dwellers near Kan
sas City. 1t is quite possible, however,
that the stone mound building complex
was a natural adaptation of the Hope
wellian custom to a relatively treeless
region. On the other hand, DR.. Wedel
says, the log building practice may have
come later as the Indians migrated into
a relatively heavily timbered country,
where, life being easier. their culture
made the great advances which placed
it among the most remarkable of pre-
Columbian America.
Compared with the HopeWellians the
Kansas City dwellers had rather scant
civilization" The Ohio dwellers were
UlSllIl6 ulSlltu 1OI IIlc pOSSeSSlOll Oh cop.
per, alabaster and pearls which indicate
that they had extensive trading rela-
tionships with other prehistoric tribes.
The Missourians had only copper.
Indians encountered by the first white
explorers had no memories or traditions
concerning the builders either of the
mounds or of the stone vaults. They
could only say that they had been there
long, long time ago, before their own
ancestors first came into the country.
Almost the only thing certain about them
is that they were members of the Indian
race, the only one of which there is the
slightest trace in prehistoric North
America.
DR.. Webel also conducted excavations
this summer in an ancient village site
and graveyard in the same general area.
The skeletal material and artifacts un-
covered here were those of quite diff
ferent people from the vault builders.
They probably came later in point Of
time, but still there is no discernable
connection between them and the Paw
nees and Kansas who lived in this part
of the country in the middle OF the 18th
century.