Ohio History Journal

148       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

Really of what value to any one are the opinions of Mr.

Fowke ?

The society cannot afford to become sponsors for Mr.

Fowkes' eccentricities. It is far better that the entire edition be

suppressed and all the books sent out recalled, than that the soci-

ety should suffer from this most inconsiderate of books.

If the Executive Committee will take such action it will not

only meet with my approval but I will advocate the same before

the entire Board of Trustees.

 

 

 

THE MOUND BUILDERS OF OHIO.

 

S. S. KNABENSHUE, TOLEDO, OHIO.

[The following interesting review of Mr. Fowke's ARCHAEOLOGICAL

HISTORY OF OHIO, is from the Toledo Blade of June 26, 1902.]

Archaeology, in its widest sense, is the science of antiquities.

It investigates the relics of man and his industries, and classifies

his remains and records of every kind from the past. In the

United States the domain of archaeology covers everything con-

nected with the inhabitants down to the period when the whites

came upon the scene.

The Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society has just is-

sued a volume of 760 pages, entitled Archaeology of Ohio: The

Mound Builders and Later Indians. It is written by Mr. Gerard

Fowke, of Chillicothe, whose name and work are well known to

all who are familiar with the archaeological and scientific progress

of the past score of years.

Mr. Fowke's book is written for the general reader, not for

the specialist or scientist. There are very many persons inter-

ested in American antiquities who have neither time nor oppor-

tunity to obtain and read the vast amount of literature which has

accumulated, especially since the publication of Squier and Davis's

researches in the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, over

a half-century ago. In the present work, so much of this matter

as relates to Ohio antiquities will be found in compact form. As

certain features of Ohio achaeology, however, can not be well

• 1
 

The Mound Builders of Ohio.            149

 

considered by themselves, the discussion is often given a conti-

nental scope. This is especially true of the large portion of the

work relating to the Mound Builders, and to the mooted question

of the existence of man before the glacial epoch.

The first thing which strikes the reader-and most favor-

ably-is that the author does not set up a theory on any subject

and then proceed to twist the evidence to support it. An excel-

lent example of this is in the chapter on Palaeolithic Man. A

few rudely chipped flints have been found at different places in

the United States, notably in the Trenton gravels along the Dela-

ware river. The question is, whether these relics were laid down

in the situations where found at the same time the gravels were

deposited, or whether, through the caving of the river bank, and

perhaps other causes, they were transferred from the surface to

the points where discovered. Mr. Fowke gives the statements of

various writers on both sides of the controversy, and then leaves

the matter with the remark that when men of great ability, after

devoting much time to investigation on the spot, can not agree,

those less informed have no right to form or express an opinion.

This excellent attitude of fairness and conservatism runs through-

out the book.

The discussion of the various theories as to the origin of

the American Indians is excellent. Much space is given to a fair

and impartial presentation of the views of those who have dis-

cussed the subject. The great stumbling-stone to correct views

on this subject is the supposed necessity of assuming that the

Western Continent must have been peopled from the Eastern.

In the light of modern scientific beliefs, this is not a necessary

predicate. If man came into existence through an evolutionary

process, there can be no valid reason assigned why the pro-

genitors of the American Indians may not have originated on

this continent, the negro in Central Africa, and so on.

The largest portion of the work naturally is that which refers

to the Mound Builders and their remains. Mr. Fowke has done

a somewhat disagreeable task, but one very necessary to be done,

in demolishing a number of fanciful theories which have served

no purpose but to obscure the subject, and to hinder the progress

of investigation.

• 2
 

150       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

Perhaps the most colossal of these erroneous theories is that

the Mound Builders were a people much more advanced in civili-

zation than the Indians: that in all portions of the country

wherein their remains are found they flourished at the same

period, forming a great empire; and many more suppositions

based upon the assumption that they must have been a very

numerous people. The fallacy of this contention is shown, after

numerous characteristic quotations from all its leading supporters,

from Squier and Davis down to the present. There is no evi-

dence that they were in any respect superior to the Indians in

civilization; they had no greater knowledge of the arts; that

they occupied contemporaneously all the localities where their

remains are found is a mere assumption. They were probably

divided into tribes, just as the Indians were, and were more or

less migratory.

In point of fact, there is nothing to prove that they were

in any respect different from the Indians. It it not a violent

presumption that they were of the same race, for some tribes of

Indians continued the erection of burial mounds down to the

period of white occupancy. And it is the conclusion of Mr.

Fowke that "there is no probability that any manuscripts, inscrip-

tions or other records will ever be disclosed which will aid in

solving the unanswered questions concerning Mound Builders."

All we can do is to investigate their tumuli, cemeteries and vil-

lage sites. "But the discouraging feature presents itself that we

seem unable to find anything new or essentially different from

what we already have. Our museums are filling up with material

from all these sources; and yet, for years, the accumulation has

added nothing in the way of real information to what we already

knew."

Much space is given to the various enclosures, mounds, for-

tifications, village sites and relics of these people. There are 303

plates, maps, plans and engravings, many of which are reproduc-

tions from former publications, but which are very valuable taken

in connection with the text. In the chapters dealing with the

indians there is much interesting matter, especially in the com-

parisons of their work and habits to some observed in the remains

of the Mound Builders. Mr. Fowke has done splendid service

• 3
 

Ohio Researches into Archaeology.          151

 

incidentally in correcting a number of errors with regard to the

ancient monuments of Ohio, due to the superficial nature of the

examinations and measurements made by different writers, and

the errors, deliberate or otherwise, in their descriptions. The

book is a most valuable contribution to archaeology, and the state

society is to be congratulated upon its enterprise in securing its

preparation and publication.

 

 

 

OHIO RESEARCHES INTO ARCHAEOLOGY.

[The following is from the pen of the distinguished author, Frank

B. Sanborn, who was the guest of the Ohio State Archaeological and

Historical Society at its annual meeting, June 6, 1902. The article here

produced first appeared in the Springfield Republican of Springfield, Mass.

-E. O. R.]

The barbarous archaeology of North America has been re-

ceiving great attention of late years, especially in Ohio, where

its more important monuments are; and now Gerard Fowke,

backed by the Ohio Archaeological Society, whose president is

Gen. Brinkerhoff of Mansfield, and its secretary E. O. Randall

of Columbus, has written the "Archaeological History of Ohio,"

at much length and with many engravings, to describe the work

of the mound builders in that state and near its borders, and to

illustrate the character of our aboriginies, who must have built

the great works and furnished the wars and burials and religious

rites for which they were built. No such complete single volume

exists, so far as I know; and in it are summed up, not without

scorn and refutation, those theories of the origin of the works

and the habits of the builders, which do not square with the

author's own. It is quite impossible now, and probably always

will be, for us to understand the minute causes and full explana-

tion of these numerous and peculiar mounds and earthworks; for

the race or races which made them had no literature, nor even an

alphabet, that first step in literature, so that they could hand

down to posterity their own explanation, as the Greeks and other

literary races have done. Mr. Fowke makes it appear clearly

enough that there was no lack of intellectual ability in our aborig-

• 4