American Antiquities: Corroborative of the Book of Mormon (28 January 1860)

(From an American paper.)

“Mr. William D. Frazer writes to the Cincinnati Gazette from Winchester, Ind., that half-a-mile north-west of that place there is an old fort, including about thirty-six acres of ground within the fortification. The mound in the centre is about 25 feet high, while the fort or breastwork is only about 15 feet. Directly east and west of the mound are openings or gateways, around which are other forts. A quarter of a mile northwest of the fort is the burying ground, where bones have been exhumed of men that were perhaps ten feet tall. Any man who doubts the latter statement, he says, may call at his office and see the evidence.”

(From Hall's ‘‘Essay on the History of the North American Indians,” published in 1850.)

“The mounds scattered profusely over the great central plain of the Mississippi have attracted attention chiefly on account of their number and size. … It is worthy of remark, that these mounds are usually found in places suitable for the sites of towns; and we think that the largest mounds and the most numerous groups always exist in the most fertile tracts of country, and on the borders of rivers. … At some of these places the evidences of former habitation still remain; but many of them are on the open prairie, covered with long grass, and exhibiting no sign of recent population; while others are concealed in the tangled forest, in all its pristine luxuriance, and overgrown with great trees, whose ages may be computed by centuries. They are therefore, of great antiquity. … Another class of remains, of a highly curious character, have recently been discovered in the Wisconsin Territory. These are mounds of earth having the outlines and figures of animals raised in relief upon the surface of the plain. They are very numerous, and the original forms so well preserved, that the respective species of animals intended to be represented are easily recognized. The figures are large—as much as thirty or forty feet in length, and raised several feet above the natural surface.’’

(From a paper “On the Antiquities of the Old and the New World,” read by E. Getty, Esq., before the Natural History and Philosophical Society of Belfast, Feb. 1850; being a review of Messrs. Squier and Davis’s work on “The Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley.”)

“The monuments of which it treats consist almost entirely of extensive earthworks and hill fortifications, bearing indubitable proofs of being the works of a very remote age and of a people of whom no trace is now supposed to be found in the present inhabitants of the New World, but who had attained a considerable advanced state of civilization. There is something of high interest in the contemplation of ancient remains and works of art, under whatever form they may present themselves to our attention; and we cannot, perhaps, spend a few leisure hours more profitably than in the examination of the evidence they afford. By this means, the past progress of the race, after the lapse of ages, becomes gradually unrolled by the hands of careful science, and is placed before us like an extended picture. … According to Messrs. Squier and Davis, the authors of the work now under consideration, the great monuments of the Western United States, which have attracted considerable attention for at least thirty years, and are noticed in a work entitled ‘Archaeologia Americana,’ consist, for the most part, of elevations and embankments of earth and stone, many of them of great extent, erected with considerable labour, combined with manifest design, and spread over a vast extent of country. They are found on the sources of the Alleghanies, in the western part of the State of New York on the east, and extend thence westwardly, along the southern shore of Lake Erie, and through Michigan and Wisconsin, to Iowa and the Nebraska Territory on the west. We have no record of their occurrence above the great lakes. Carver mentions some on the shores of Lake Pepin, and some are said to occur near Lake Travers, under the 46th parallel of latitude. Lewis and Clarke saw them on the Missouri river, 1,000 miles above its junction with the Mississippi; and they have been observed on the Kanzas and Platte, and on the remote western rivers. They are found all over the intermediate country, and spread over the valley of the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. They line the shores of the Gulf from Texas to Florida, and extend in diminished numbers into South Carolina. They occur in great numbers in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and Texas. They are found in less numbers in the western portions of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North and South Carolina; as also in Michigan, Iowa, and in the Mexican territory beyond the Rio-Grande-del-Norto. In short, they occupy the entire basin of the Mississippi and its tributaries, as also the fertile plains along the Gulf. Ancient works, probably of a similar kind, occur on the Susquehanna river, as far down as Wyoming, in Pennsylvania; and they are also said to be observed in Oregon and California. … Mounds of several stages, closely resembling the Mexican Teocalli in form and size, broad terraces of various heights, elevated passages, and long avenues, are mentioned among varieties of ancient structures which abound from Florida to Texas. The mounds are often disposed with the utmost system in respect to each other. Around some of the larger ones others of smaller size are placed at regular intervals and at fixed distances. Some have spiral pathways leading to their tops, and others possess graded ascents like those at Marietta. … According to Lyell, one of the mounds at Marietta must be more than 800 years old, for Dr. Hilditch counted 800 rings of annual growth in a tree which grew upon it. ‘When we notice,’ the authors add, ‘all around us, the crumbling trunks of trees half hidden in the accumulating soil, we are induced to fix upon an antiquity still more remote. Did time permit, many other proofs might be adduced.’ The notice intended to be given of this American volume would be imperfect, unless mention were made of the stone works that occur, many of them of great extent; as, for example, that near Bourneville, Ross County, Ohio, on the summit of a lofty hill, and embracing an area of 140 acres, the wall measuring upwards of two miles and a quarter in length. Here indications of fire are observable, as also at several other works; for instance, at the North Fork works, where it is stated that the slight wall along the terrace bank is composed chiefly of smooth, water-worn stones, taken from the creek, and cemented together by tough clayey earth. The wall of the square is wholly of clay, and its outline may be easily traced by the eye from a distance by its colour. This appearance is so marked as to induce some persons to suppose the walls were, in certain instances, originally composed of bricks partially baked, but which had, in process of time, lost their form and subsided into a homogenous mass. That they have in some cases been subjected to the action of fire is too obvious to admit of doubt. At one point, in the lower wall of the square, stones and large masses of pebbles and earth much burned, and resembling a ferruginous conglomerate, are turned up by the plough. … A most important class of American works is the fortified hill, which stands at the head of works of defence. It usually occupies strong natural positions, and crowns the bluff headland and high hills with level summits,— sometimes connected by narrow isthmuses with the original table, but occasionally entirely detached. The sides of these elevations are generally steep and difficult of access,— in some cases precipitous and absolutely inaccessible, except by the regular approaches. … Nearly 100 enclosures are said to be found in Ross County, Ohio, and 500 mounds. In that State alone the tumuli are reckoned at 10,000, and enclosures at 1,000 to 1,500; and they are nearly as frequently met with in several other States. It has been calculated that some of these mounds would require the labour of 1,000 modern operatives, with all their mechanical aid and the improved implements of labour, for months to form. … It is a striking fact, illustrative of the civilization of the people by whom these works were constructed, that the circular figures are generally perfect circles, and the rectangular perfect squares. ‘This fact has been demonstrated in numerous instances by careful admeasurements, and has been remarked in cases where works embrace an area of many acres, and where the embankments or circumvallations are a mile or upwards in extent.’ There is one deduction to be drawn from the fact that the figures entering into these works are of uniform dimensions, which is of considerable importance in its bearing upon the state of knowledge among the people who erected them: It is, that the builders possessed a standard of measurement, and had some means of determining angles. … A large— perhaps the larger portion of the enclosures are regular in outline, the square and the circle predominating. Some are parallelograms, some ellipses, others polygons, regular or irregular. … The square and the circle often occur in combination, frequently communicating with each other, or with irregular works directly, or by avenues consisting of parallel lines of embankment. Detached parallels are numerous. But we not only find accurate squares and perfect circles, but also octagons of great dimensions. … The great mound in the vicinity of Miamisburg, Montgomery County, Ohio, is 68 feet in perpendicular height, and 852 in circumference at the base, and contains 311,353 cubic feet. A truncated pyramid at Cahokia, Illinois, has an altitude of 90 feet, and is upwards of 2,000 feet in circumference at the base. It has a level summit of several acres area. The great mound at Selsertown, Mississippi, is computed to cover six acres of ground. The mounds to the south are much larger than those to the north. … The works of art found in the mounds are very various. The articles of pottery are described as being much superior to anything the existing tribes of Indians are capable of forming, and rather resemble the specimens brought from Peru.”

(To be continued.)