Ohio History Journal

362       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.  [VOL. 4

 

 

 

A DESCRIPTION OF FORT ANCIENT.

 

WARREN KING MOOREHEAD.

 

The members of the Society, and also the readers of THE

ARCHAEOLOGIST have a special interest in the earthworks and

enclosures of the Mississippi Valley. The former are proud to

be possessers and preservers, in company with the State of Ohio,

of the most extensive prehistoric fortification of the United

States. The latter, as students of antiquities, are interested in

facts obtained through explorations of the place. Both members

and readers have seen some of the numerous references to the

enclosure which have appeared from time to time in books,

magazines, and newspapers.

Although I have done work covering more than forty-three

weeks ('88, '89, '90, '91) at Fort Ancient, and published two

books containing detailed descriptions of the place, its peculiar-

ities, etc., I have never attempted a condensed report of the

discoveries. At the request of the Secretary of the Ohio Archae-

ological and Historical Society, I shall now endeavor to present

in brief form all that is known regarding Fort Ancient, its

builders, their culture, etc. I shall use all the material collected

by others as well as by my own surveys from the time of the

first mention of the place in 1809 up to February 1, 1895. In

such a synopsis, it is necessary to confine myself to conclusions

and general statements. There is not space for the details of

burials, the nature of ash-pits and notes on the village sites, etc.

Archaeologists agree in considering the enclosure of defen-

sive character. Placed, as it is, on a high plateau overlooking

the little Miami River, in central Warren county, Ohio; guarded

by precipitous ravines, made strong and steep, walled up in

places with large stones, it was a veritable ancient Gibraltar!

One may truly say that Time, recognizing its importance and

interest to Archaeologists, has dealt gently with it, for the walls

are in good condition and the entire erosion (of the last seventy

years) is less than 300 feet-out of 18,712 feet of embankment.

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A Description of Fort Ancient.         363

 

So it is in good form for study, the walls being somewhat

broader and lower than as left by the aborigines, the moats or

ditches filled nearly to the level, but the general features of the

place remaining as they were.

A structure covering one by one-third miles (approxi-

mately) is rather large to be described under one name. To

avoid confusion, the southern part has been named Old Fort, the

narrow or central portion, Middle Fort, and the large northern

section, New Fort. These names and their application will be

understood at a glance by means of my large folder map, which

will appear in the April number. The distance around Fort

Ancient (on top of the walls) is three and two-thirds miles; the

space enclosed about 126 acres; the wall varies from 4x20 feet

to ³³x²⁵⁶ feet.* The average is 12x⁵⁰ feet. In the main, the

embankment resembles the heavy grading of a railroad bed. If

the four illustrations presented + are examined readers will

observe the massive character of tile walls.

The embankments are largely of earth, although stones are

numerous here and there. It has been well said that the fort is

rather like North and South America in contour, and one is

impressed thereby. However, on more careful inspection, you

observe that it is the configuration of the site that produces the

resemblance and not design on the part of primitive man.

Ravines, flanking the fort on every side save the north, twist

and turn making great bends and angles. Following the edge

of these, the walls must be as crooked themselves.++ The site is

a strong one and was selected because of its strength.

At the time of completion, the walls probably averaged

twenty feet high and were surmounted by strong palisades. A

ditch or moat four to seven feet in depth extended around inside

the enclosure in the Old Fort, and part of the way in the new.

In the Middle Fort, there was less than 200 yards of moat.

Why? Because the Middle Fort or isthmus is only two or three

 

"This includes two mounds measured from an artificial ravine at the

Great Gateway, Middle Fort.

+ From "Fort Ancient," by W. K. M., Cincinnati, Robt. Clarke &

Co., 1890.

++The larger hollows are more than 200 feet in depth.

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364       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.  [VOL. 4

 

hundred feet wide, and is flanked by deep ravines on either

hand. The walls are strong, and there was hardly necessity for

a moat.

The material used in the construction of the embankment is

chiefly surface loam and clay, although some glacial clay and

gravel enter into its composition. The stones used to face the

exterior of the wall to a height of four or five feet, are large lime-

stone slabs, 2x3 feet or ¹⁸x25 inches. They were laid without

cement. Some very large slabs seem to have been used to

prevent the edge of the wall from washing into the ravine. We

find many of these stones several yards within the present edge

of the embankment. Originally they marked the edge of the

embankment and the earth which now covers them has been

washed down from above. A study of these and their position

gives us an idea of the width and height of the original embank-

ment.

Within the enclosure are two village sites. That one in the

Old Fort seems to be the largest. It was occupied for several

seasons. When the ground was first plowed circular depressions

marking the sites of large lodges 30 or 40 feet in diameter were

observed.  There were several dozen of these. They were

strangely like Mandan lodges of the Upper Missouri, and seemed

to have been constructed of poles covered by a thick coating of

clay. In the New Fort, the village site is but slightly marked,

and seems to have been occupied for a brief period of time.

There are few traces of these large circular lodges.

On many of the ravine sides, especially around the Old

Fort, are artificial terraces 15 to 30 feet in width. These ter-

races are 150 to 200 feet from the walls above, and are marked

by graves, ash heaps and camp sites. Their use has long been a

matter of conjecture. Not only are they found about Fort An-

cient, but for some distance up and down the Little Miami Val-

ley, and for two miles along Caesar's Creek (a tributary to the

Miami and not far from Fort Ancient) they extend.  At one

point there are two terraces, one of which is half-way between

the embankment and the Little Miami River; the other being

near the wall, as previously stated. The bodies in the stone

heaps upon the terraces and the relics found thereon, seem to in-

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A Description of Fort Ancient.          365

 

dicate a different tribe. There is quite a diversity between the

specimens, methods of interment, pottery and crania of the ter-

races, and of the village within the walls. This difference I will

refer to in detail presently.

On the banks of the Little Miami River, less than half a

mile from Fort Ancient is a large village site. The graves and

the relics indicate that the same tribe who lived within the en-

closure, also resided upon the banks of the river. The river site

is much larger, covering fully 100 acres of ground, and extend-

ing through the soil to a depth of four feet. It was occupied

for a considerable length of time.

Several sites of camps are found upon the plain east and

north of the northern extremity of Fort Ancient. Several of

these are marked by quartz arrowheads from the South and

other foreign material.

There are many fortifications in the Ohio Valley of the same

general character as Fort Ancient, only varying in size, being

smaller.  There is still some argument as to whether the en-

closures of the plain are different from those of the hill-tops.

The great works at Newark, those in the Lower Scioto Valley

near Chillicothe, and generally throughout the Mississippi Val-

ley, are thought by most Archaeologists to be simply defensive

works. The embankments are usually the same, the ditch is in-

variably on the inside instead of upon the exterior. The chief

difference lies in the rectangular, circular or square embankments

which are frequently associated with the enclosures of the Valley.

These peculiar geometric works, although frequently described

and studied, have never been satisfactorily explained. Dr. Peet

and others have thought them to be of religious or ceremonial

significance. Several have advanced the opinion that in these

peculiar figures were conducted games and festivities. None of

these explanations satisfactorily solve the problem, and we have

no positive knowledge as to the purpose of such unique enclos-

ures. I need only remark that the theory that they were used

for games, etc., is visionary, and there is not the slightest foun-

dation for the statement in facts. Caleb Atwater very aptly re-

marked, as early as 1820, that no people of sane minds would

perform the labor necessary to build an embankment of earth

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366       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.  [VOL. 4

 

eight or ten feet high and twenty feet wide, and enclosing (as

these works frequently do) twenty or thirty acres for mere sport.

We have had entirely too much speculation. If some of the en-

closures were excavated as carefully as the Turner group, the

Hopewell group, Madisonville Cemetery and the argillite chip-

ping shops (site of supposed paleoliths) of Trenton, N. J., or

the Serpent Mound, we would know nearly all about the purpose

of their erection. It might be accepted that all the hill-top

works, save, of course, the effigy structures, are defensive in

character. A trace of palisades upon some of the hill-top forti-

fications proves their use beyond a doubt. When we consider

that the Miami Valley contains a great many village sites,

mounds and small enclosures, and that Fort Ancient is the only

really strong position of them all, we can readily believe that the

aborigines, for a radius of thirty or forty miles, would flock to

this rendezvous and use it as a common fortification.

Reference to the map will show that there are several

mounds and a crescent within the walls. It will also be observed

that the parallel walls which begin at two large mounds, just

east of the fortification, or where the Lebanon and Chillicothe

pike cuts through the embankment, include between them a

stone pavement some 200 feet in length and 40 or 50 feet in

width, or it may be larger. The exact measurements are un-

known. I once stated it to be 500 x 130 feet, on the authority of

a certain gentleman, but I now think that measurement exceeds

its actual size. These parallel walls run for 2,760 feet north-

east, and enclose at their terminus a small mound.  It was

thought that this mound was of particular significance, and that

its exploration would reveal much of importance. The mound

was opened for the World's Columbian Exposition, in 1891, and

with the exception of a few decayed bones, nothing whatever

was found in it. There was not even an altar, barely a streak of

burnt earth.  Excavations made at various points along the

ground covered by the parallel walls also revealed nothing. The

purpose of these walls must remain a mystery. Whether they

were used for games or for some religious purpose, we cannot

say.  That they could not have been defensive is apparent,

because the embankments never stood more than three or four

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A Description of Fort Ancient.            367

 

feet in height, and were only 12 or 15 feet distant from each

other. Cultivation obliterated them as early as 1860, and they

can only be traced to-day by the sections preserved by fences,

and by the discoloration of the soil in the fields. Twenty years

from now it will be impossible for an Archaeologist, and no

matter how skillful he may be, to trace them.

The pavement is composed of stones varying in size from

6 by 8 inches to 10 by 15 inches. Part of the pavement is laid

in a coarse sand or fine gravel, but most of it seems to have been

laid roughly upon the blue glacial clay of the plateau. It is not

so evenly and carefully constructed as the rough stone pave-

ments of modern country villages of the same region. The

slabs are of various thicknesses.

Through the Old and New forts, several small sections of

pavement, varying from ten or fifteen to twenty or thirty feet in

diameter have been found. These are quite irregular. They

may mark the site of lodges, but as few tribes ever laid stone

floors within their homes, this is hardly probable. Perhaps they

represent ground prepared for the carrying on of certain cere-

monies. Several men have made much of these small irregular

stone pavements, but I am inclined to attach little importance to

them. If they were so important to the aborigines and repre-

sented such important rites and ceremonies as some claim,

certainly there would have been more care evinced in their con-

struction. They evince no more skill than pavements of cobble-

stones laid by children of to-day.* They cannot approach the

bowlder mosaics made in some of the mounds of the Scioto

Valley and of Wisconsin. The difference between the rudeness

exhibited in their construction and the skill and energy displayed

in the building of great Fort Ancient is very apparent. I can-

not see that the pavements would be of any service for dances

or assemblies. The surfaces are rough and would seriously

interfere with the free movements of the feet. A level strip of

ground beaten until the surface was hard and even, would form

a much more convenient dancing place.   Moreover, the pave-

* I have seen children while at play construct rude pavements several

yards in extent.

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368       Ohio Arch. and His Society Publications.  [VOL. 4

 

ments are too small; and except at the beginning of the parallel

walls, not fifteen dancers could perform at a time.

The surfaces of the small platforms show, in several in-

stances, marks of fire. Pottery, bones and ashes have also been

found about and between the stones. As stone hearths have

been found at various points in the Little Miami Valley, it is not

improbable that these pavements are simply paved fire places.

Such a name is entirely in keeping with the village life of all

American tribes, either post or pre-Columbian. The large pave-

ment I shall leave for the speculation of Archaeologists.

The mounds within the enclosure are all small. Only two

or three of them contained badly decayed skeletons. The others

seem to have been house sites, raised three or four feet above the

surrounding plain. All of them have been carefully explored

and the results were far from satisfactory. The mounds located

before the gaps or gateways of the walls seem to have been built

for defensive rather than burial purposes. Shafts sunk in parts

of them revealed nothing.

In the Middle Fort, near the Great Gateway, are several more

elevations which have contained human bones. The platform

itself, leading from the Middle Fort to the Old or South Fort,

has yielded a great many fragmentary bones upon explora-

tion. There is a small mound immediately within the Old Fort

and distant 15 or 20 feet from the inner slope of the Great Gate-

way, which, upon exploration, was found to contain hundreds

and hundreds of fragments of badly-decayed human bones. A

conservative estimate would place the number of skeletons in-

terred in this tumulus at from 200 to 300. Many human bones

have been found just beneath the loam along the backbone

of the Middle Fort and along the terraces to the southwest of

the Great Gateway. Great quantities of bones at this place

seem to indicate that when attack was made upon Fort Ancient

it was the point most hotly contested, and that the warriors

of both parties were hastily buried. Several bones in which

flint arrowheads were imbedded also strengthen this belief.

In the Old Fort there existed a village covering some fifteen

or twenty acres. A part of this was used as a cemetery, and is

so marked upon the map. Nearly all of the remains were badly

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A Description of Fort Ancient.          369

 

preserved, and so far as I can remember, only one skele-

ton was preserved in anything like good condition. The de-

composition of the skeletons is due to the fact that they were

buried only two or three feet deep and upon a hard bed of

tough glacial clay. The water penetrating through the soil to

the remains could not be absorbed and lay along the bones, caus-

ing their decomposition. On the other hand, the skeletons

buried in the valley in sand or very porous earth, were well pre-

served, because all water easily penetrated below the level of the

bones and left them comparatively dry. The burials in the

village in the Old Fort were mostly in stone graves. These

graves were not like those of Tennessee, hollow, but consisted

of a head and foot stone and several stones at each side and one

or two covering the remains. Often the body was simply buried

in a narrow hole and several large limestone slabs laid over.

There would from six to eight inches of earth intervene between

the skeleton and the stones. None of the interments in the

valley or in the Old Fort were accompanied by European relics.

None of the stones were dressed, but were all rough, weather-

worn limestone slabs, which were selected because of their size

and shape. Many of the stones were eighteen to twenty inches

wide and more than three feet in length. The graves in the Old

Fort were much ruder than those in the valley.

The village site in the old fort is plainly marked to-day by

pottery fragments, animal bones, flint chips, etc. When first

plowed it plainly showed large circular depressions marking the

lodge sites. The lodges seem to have been thirty or forty feet in

diameter and strangely like the Mandans of the upper Missouri

(1810-35). To make them, large saplings were firmly planted in

the ground in a circle and bound together at the top, something

after the manner of the modern tepee, only that the poles were

longer and thicker. These were covered with interlaced vines or

twigs and the whole coated with clay to a thickness of eight or

ten inches. This gave a dome shaped lodge fifteen or twenty

feet in height, and one which was strong enough for the inhabi-

tants to run up to the top and inspect the surrounding country.*

* Four miles up the Little Miami I discovered more of these circular

lodge depressions in July, 1894.

Vol. IV-24

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370       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.  [VOL. 4

 

In the river bottoms, between the base of the hill and the

Little Miami, was an extensive village. The illustrations of

graves herewith presented show the form of burials. Most of

the bodies were interred in groups of fifteen or twenty, and

there was this peculiarity, that the adults seem to have been sep-

arated from the children. The children were found, with but

one or two exceptions, in one cemetery, the adults in another.

Another peculiarity was that the skeletons of men were absent

from these graves in the valley, and that women and children

constituted the entire interment.

There are seventy-one openings in the walls of Fort Ancient.

These have been called "gateways" and, perhaps, there is no

better term to be applied to them. Men familiar with modern

fortifications can not understand why there should be so many

of these gaps. Would not fifteen or twenty suffice for egress

and ingress; does not seventy weaken the place? Certainly one-

fourth of the number would have been sufficient.

If the walls of Fort Ancient were originally nearly perpen-

dicular, the faces being burnt so that they would remain smooth

and steep, the defenders could hardly ascend them for observa-

tion, they must have openings through which to observe the

enemy, to shoot arrows, etc. I think that these numerous

openings were used for such purposes, and that they were filled

with logs and sharpened stakes to such a height that they would

be as difficult of penetration as the walls themselves. Portions

of the works in the gaps were so arranged that they could be

removed when persons desired to pass in or out. As several of

the ends of embankments upon either side of the gateways show

traces of fire, it seems that the openings were filled with logs

and stakes. Whether the occupants of the fortification, or those

who assaulted it, burned the wooded gap protections, I am

unable to state.

The water supply of the holders of the fort was fairly good.

There are several graded ways leading down to springs upon the

hill-sides, and during the night, in spite of the enemy, the

inhabitants surely had opportunity to bring up vessels of water.

Supplies of small and large stones, of a size suitable for throw-

ing, abound at many points upon the wall. In case of a shortage

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A Description of Fort Ancient.          371

 

of ammunition, these could be used with effect upon the enemy.

They would be especially destructive, as all approaches (save on

the east) are up the sides of steep ravines.

At no place does the moat seem to be deeper than six feet,

and the average is about four. I cannot say that the moat was

filled with water. Excavations in it yield pottery, animal bones,

flint implements and chips, and a few human bones. I cannot

believe that the moat is a strong feature of the place, save on

the east side, where it is placed without the wall. There it

seems to add considerable strength to the place. But at the

many points where it is within the walls, it seems to be posi-

tively a detriment rather than a help. However, there may have

been good reasons of which we know not for this peculiar

method of defense. As I have before remarked, the inside moat

is a characteristic feature of all prehistoric works in this country.

Traces of fire at many points in the ditches seem to indicate that

they were not filled with water, and were used (for short intervals)

as convenient places for camp-fires, etc.

A study of the village sites between Millgrove (one and one-

half miles below Fort Ancient) and the mouth of Caesar's Creek

(five miles above) convinces one that the same tribe inhabited

the whole valley. Save at Madisonville, nearly thirty miles down

the river, no large body of aborigines seem to have lived long on

one spot. Of all the sites near Fort Ancient, the one along the

banks of the Little Miami, just above the hotel and railroad

station (marked on map in the April number), and that one on

Hiram Taylor's farm, near Caesar's Creek, seem to be largest.

There are nine sites, ranging from 12 to 150 lodges, in six and

one-half miles of valley. Many people have failed to understand

why there was not one large village in which all these scattered

bands could be gathered together for mutual protection and sup-

port. It is contrary to the custom of savages to reside in large

communities. Moreover, their dependence on fishing and hunt-

ing renders such existence extremely difficult. The greater the

population of a village the further must penetrate the hunters,

for game in the immediate neighborhood is soon killed or dis-

persed. Thus nine small villages, ranging for 6½ miles along the

river, would have a hunting territory of 30 miles north and south

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372       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.  [VOL. 4

 

and 20 east and west. The Madisonville people were large agri-

culturalists and depended more on their corn crop than upon the

chase.

The exploration of the village sites indicates that the people

lived largely by hunting and fishing. There is no evidence that

they were agriculturists to the extent of the tribes in the Scioto

Valley. Fewer pestles are found; the ash-pits and hearths of the

sites are covered with bones of animals, fish, birds and reptiles

of the following species: Bear, deer, elk, musk-rat, ground-hog,

raccoon, squirrel, rabbit, wolf, wild turkey, wild duck, hawk,

owl, quail, land and water turtles, blacksnake, catfish, gar, bass,

sucker, pike, etc. There are broken bones, others which show

evidence of fire and quantities which are highly polished. Long

bones were split in order that marrow could be extracted; the

burnt ones represent roasting or baking, the polished ones refer

to boiling. Very few traces of charred corn have been found

and the quantity can not compare with that dug from the pits at

Madisonville. Muscles were largely eaten. The land tortoise,

the deer, turkey and fish seem to have been favorite food. The

shell of the tortoise is found every few feet through the refuse

of the sites. Many of the slender bones of the smaller animals

were sharpened and made into awls and perforators. A few har-

poons of bone were found. The shell of the tortoise seems to

have served as a drinking cup and sometimes as an ornament.

Large and thick muscles were perforated, fastened to handles and

used as hoes. Celts, arrow-heads, knives and spear-heads were

like those found in other parts of the State. War points were

more numerous than in the Scioto Valley.

At Oregonia several stone graves were found in the east

slope of a mound, in the centre of the village site, upon the farm

of Mr. Taylor. At the base of the mound were many skeletons

buried in usual mound style, without being surrounded by stones.

The objects found with them indicated that they were people

who lived in the village occupying the same hill as the mound.

Although the stone graves found in the mound were near the top

and upon the side, what few relics lay with the remains were of

the same rude character as those found on the site or in the bot-

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A Description of Fort Ancient.        373

 

tom of the mound. Nothing of modern manufacture was found

with any of the remains, either in the mounds, upon the village

site or in the graves.

The cranium shown in the illustration is a typical one from

the village along the river opposite Fort Ancient. No perfect

crania have ever been found within the fort itself, and therefore

we must confine our observations to those from the village sites

along the Little Miami. Dr. Cresson found some differences be-

tween the crania of Fort Ancient and those of the Hopewell

group, but did not consider the variations very marked.* He

observed the flattening of the tibia, and the olecranon perfora-

tion of the humerus in a great many of the skeletons exhumed,

and also noticed many fractures and breaks in the long bones and

that unaided nature had knit the bones together. He therefore

concluded that the people had no knowledge of surgery or of the

setting of bones. Of the graves in the villages, both above and

below Fort Ancient, it seems that most of the interments are

those of young persons. As I have remarked, the children and

the adults were usually placed in separate groups or at either end

of the same group. The ages of the persons in these graves

seem to have ranged from mere children a few years old to adults

of 30 or 35; but six or eight old people have been found.

It is somewhat surprising that no more interments, or

evidences of village life have been discovered around Fort

Ancient. When we consider the amount of labor and length of

time necessary to erect such a stupendous work, we ask, what

became of the people who built it? The life of the mound

builders was such that but little evidence of their occupation

would remain; their lodges and towns being composed of perish-

able material would soon be obliterated, but most of their imple-

ments and utensils were of stone, clay, shell and bone, which

would preserve.  Only a few hundred interments have been

found, and the total population of the villages within the six and

one-half miles of valley could not have exceeded three or four

 

* See Chapter 17, " Primitive Man in Ohio," pp. 217, 222, for measure-

ments, percentages, etc.

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374        Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.  [VoL. 4

 

thousand persons, if that many.*  Many of the sites could not

have been occupied by more than two or three dozen families.

I have never been able to satisfactorily answer this question

in my own mind. If the builders of the place moved to a dist-

ance and carried their belongings with them, we would find but

few traces of their occupation. Explorations seem to point that

this is the correct solution of the problem. On the other hand,

if a large body of people lived in one valley long enough to

construct a work of the magnitude of Fort Ancient, would we

not find thousands of ash-pits and interments, hundreds and

hundreds of lodge sites, great quantities of pottery, implements,

etc.? The various surveys of Fort Ancient have dug hundreds

of holes in the level ground of the Old and New Forts. But a

small amount of material has been found, compared with the

extent of the place and the quantity which one would reasonably

expect to discover. The same is true of the work in the village

sites of Oregonia, and at the site in the valley alongside the fort.

While many of the problems connected with the place have been

solved, it is, at present, impossible for us to account for the

discrepancy between the extent of the forts and the evidences of

insignificant occupation which we find.

The irregularities in Fort Ancient are due to the natural

configuration of the site, rather than to any effort on the part of

man. Several gentlemen have made much of the bastians, or

spurs, or "lookout stations" found along the edge of the ravines.

Many of the points or spurs of land which are formed by the

natural erosion, have been slightly rounded by the builders.

But none of them were built up entirely from the bottom of the

slopes.

While it is far from my purpose to claim extensive art, cul-

ture or foresight for the ancient mound builders, yet I must give

them credit for having selected one of the strongest natural posi-

 

*Exclusive of large quantities of fragmentary skeletons and small

pieces of bones at the Great Gateway and Middle Fort, I am therefore

prompted to conclude the place never was occupied for a great length of

time, but only temporarily, and that the people of thirty miles about

resorted to it in case of attack, and that its care fell to those who lived

nearest it.

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A Description of Fort Ancient.         375

 

tions in the State upon which to erect their fort. The aborigines

of the Ohio Valley were primarily warriors, and this trait is

apparent in their descendants, the modern Indians. While we

must rate all pre-Columbian peoples north of the Cliff Dweller

country as lacking in those essential requisites to civilization,

viz., the use of characters to convey thought, the use of metal,

the domestication of animals, the recognition of religion, mor-

ality, good government, etc., we must give them credit for the

immense labor which they expended in defense of their homes,

and their wonderful advance in the construction of fortifications.

It seems incongruous that a savage people, as they undoubtedly

were, had the ability to construct Fort Ancient, or the Turner

and Hopewell groups, and yet have been utterly lacking in those

evidences of civilization which I have enumerated. Thus we

see that the ancient tribes of the Mississippi Valley present a

unique spectacle for the consideration of the archaeologist. That

is, while far behind the other races of the earth in general cul-

ture, they rank above the savage in their fortifications and

enclosures.

We must regard Fort Ancient as representing the highest

point attained in earthwork construction in the United States.

It seems to be the crowning effort on the part of the ancient

people of the Mississippi Valley. In point of construction, in

engineering ability evinced in its make-up, it is primarily the

most important, the strongest and most stupendous work which

the country contains. And yet, while admitting so much, we

are surprised that the builders left no copper tools or ornaments,

very little mica, no obsidian, few sea shells, no pearls, no altars,

and no valuable relics save those found on the surface. In works

in Ross county, of far less magnitude, the most beautiful imple-

ments which the savage could manufacture have been found by

the dozen. Those objects which represent foreign exchange and

migration, and some progress in primitive trade, such as I have

enumerated above, have been found in the Scioto Valley by the

thousands. Many were excavated by Professor Putnam at the

Turner group, twenty-five miles down the river.

As to the age of Fort Ancient, men have guessed as high as

5,000 years. There is no evidence trustworthy, save that two

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376       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.  [VOL. 4

 

forests have grown upon the embankments. Four hundred years

are allowed on this evidenee. Several trees, showing 340 to 430

rings have been cut. I once stated it be 800 years old, after our

careful survey of '89, but that was merely an opinion and can

not be verified save to the extent of 400 years. How far it

exceeds the age of two forests no one knows.

As to supposed underground chambers there has been much

printed. No Ohio tribes were able to cut rooms in solid rock,

there could be no natural caverns, for caves do not form in

the kind of limestone found under Fort Ancient. No person of

scientific knowledge ever gave credit to the story and there is

not the slightest evidence for it.

The illustrations will give readers an idea of the relics

found on the surface about the enclosure.

In the foregoing papers it will be observed that I have

strongly urged the careful and conscientious study of not only

this important work, but also of other equally interesting and

ancient fortifications of our valley. In this study we must

admit all that savors of the charlatan and the ultra-scientific.

We must consider simply facts. We must not be swayed by any

false sentiment, by preconceived notions, by our personal preju-

dices. If we do this we will further the science of Archaeology,

whether we study Fort Ancient, or Fort Hill, or Fort Miami, or

any of the great works of the Scioto Valley.

The papers which have been presented are, as was said

in the preface of the first, but a brief resume. Space does not

permit me to enter into a lengthy dissertation upon Fort

Ancient. Much has been already printed regarding the place.

I shall consider that my few pages have not been written in vain

if I can correct some of the false and erroneous impressions

which have prevailed. Considering the important part which it

played in the history of prehistoric man in Ohio, acknowledging

its position among the other enclosures of the Mississippi Valley,

it is fitting that an Ohio society has bought and preserved it

to future generations.

Two, and perhaps many more, forests have sprung into life,

fallen, decayed and passed away since the last man connected

with its construction left the place. Time has dealt gently with

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A Description of Fort Ancient.          377

 

it, and the embankments very nearly present their original form.

Ohio people should appreciate this ancient, valuable legacy left

us by our predecessors, and the study and preservation of other

enclosures should be a characteristic feature of the Ohio Archae-

ological and Historical Society. When I think of the many

ages which have elapsed since Fort Ancient was deserted, when

I consider that its strong embankments will continue when those

of us who represent the Society to-day have long passed into

oblivion, I am more and more convinced of the responsibility

which rests upon us for the care of scarcely less imposing

prehistoric monuments of our State.

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