142
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society
Publications.
LAST EDITORIAL.
The following from The Columbus
Evening Dispatch of
September 2, 1919, is believed to be the last
editorial contribution
from Mr. Randall to that paper. It may
be considered his final
word on a subject to which he had given
much thought and on
which he had frequently written:
WHO WERE THE MOUND BUILDERS?
The remarkable discoveries, recently
unearthed by the ex-
ploring department of the Ohio State
Archaeological and Histor-
ical Society, in the Hazlett mound,
Licking county, revives the
unsolved query, Who were the people that
erected these myster-
ious earthen structures ? They must have
been a populous and vig-
orous race, for their forts, walled
enclosures and isolated mounds,
no less than half a century ago in Ohio,
if placed in a single
straight line would have reached from
Cincinnati to Cleveland.
With no mechanical means of assistance,
these numerous artificial
earthen and stone productions must have
required the population,
if sparse, a very long period of time
for completion of the works,
or a countless number of people must
have simultaneously occu-
pied the territory and engaged in the
work.
More than ever the problem arises, Who
were they? It sur-
passes the riddle of the Sphinx. The
Mound Builders, so-called
for want of a better name, had no
written language and left no
inscriptions, hieroglyphics, symbols or
records of any kind save
the earthen temples, graves, village
sites and forts. The Ohio
Mound Builders seem to have belonged to
the neolithic or later
stone age, giving evidence to some
extent of representing the
mesolithic period - the twilight zone
between the two - a tran-
sition age from pure stone articles to
the most primitive use of
metal, for while no iron implements are
found, some beaten cop-
per ornaments and utensils are
discovered.
Until a generation ago the general
opinion of the archaeolo-
gists was that these peculiar workmen
were a distinct and sepa-
rate race from the American Indian and
that the skilful and in-
genious architects of these earthen
structures inhabited the coun-
try previous to the red men, or at their
coming, and perhaps were