Ohio History Journal

EXCAVATION OF THE COON MOUND AND AN ANALYSIS OF THE ADENA CULTURE E. F. GREENMAN, CURATOR OF ARCHAEOLOGY

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EXCAVATION OF THE COON MOUND AND AN

ANALYSIS OF THE ADENA CULTURE

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

PAGE

Introductory  Note.....................................  369

General Features of the Coon Mound ..................... 370

Contents of the  Mound .............................. ..                                               375

The    Burial.......................................                                                     375

The    Tomb ........................................                                                   379

The   Gravel  Circle .................................                                              387

The Horizontal Log-Molds .......................... 392

The Passage ................................... 397

Reconstruction ................................... 400

Conclusion  ......................................... .  408

The Adena Culture.................................... 411

Introductory      Note .......................................                                               411

Explanation       of  Tables .................................                                             414

Table A ............................................. 420

Table  B  ..............................................  425

Table C .................                  .......... 442

Table D ............................................. 446

Table E ................................................... 446

Table  F      ..............................................                                                        447

Discussion of Traits  1 to  59 ..............................                                           450

Discussion of Traits Listed in Table C .................... 478

Conclusion  ........................................ ..  487

Comparison of Adena and Hopewell ................. 487

Identity of the Adena People ....................... 493

Bibliography ........................................ 503

(367)

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EXCAVATION OF THE COON MOUND AND AN

ANALYSIS OF THE ADENA CULTURE

E. F. GREENMAN

 

CURATOR OF ARCHAEOLOGY

 

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The Coon Mound receives its name from Mr.

Gabriel Coon, the owner of the land upon which the

mound was situated, in The Plains, Athens County

Ohio. The work of excavation was accomplished under

the direction of the writer, with the assistance of Mr.

Robert Goslin.

The mound was at the western edge of the village,

which is about three and one-half miles north and slight-

ly west of the city of Athens. Excavations occupied a

five-week period during July and August, 1930. The

mound was originally some 25 or 30 feet in height but

at the time excavations were commenced about three-

quarters of it had been removed and spread as top-soil

in neighboring gardens, a process which had been going

on for many years, beginning apparently with the level-

ing of the mound about 40 feet in from the southern

edge to accommodate a section line road.

In 1930 the mound presented a ragged appearance.

A semi-circular segment stood up to a height of about

20 feet on the north and east sides, and numerous holes

had been dug in the perpendicular face of this segment,

mostly near its top. Extending westward from this

face to the edge of the mound, and southward to the

road, where the material had been removed to the ground

(369)

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level, there was a table-like elevation representing the

lowest point to which removal of dirt for gardens had

reached. The surface of this area was about six feet

above the ground level, and therefore about 11 feet

above the bottom of the tomb at the center. Excava-

tion was begun at the western edge and continued east-

ward through this remaining base, presenting a vertical

face only six feet in height until the semi-circular seg-

ment on the east was reached, where the face of exca-

vation attained a height of 21 feet. Fortunately the

tomb and its contiguous structures were at the center

of the mound and the tearing down of the mound

previous to 1930 destroyed nothing of value. Inasmuch

as a great part had been carried away, no attempt was

made to restore the mound after its complete excavation.

Excavation was in fact greatly aided, and the expense

of the operation lessened, by shoveling the dirt into

trucks in which it was carried away to enrich the sur-

rounding gardens.

 

 

GENERAL FEATURES OF THE COON MOUND

The Coon Mound was one of a number of mounds

and other earthworks situated on a level plain in the

northwestern part of Athens County, west and south

of Hocking River (See Figure 1). This plain is about

two miles long north and south and a mile in greatest

width near its center. It is nearly surrounded by hills

which rise to a height of 200 feet above the level of

the plain, which is about 65 feet higher than the valley

flats of Hocking River. On the northwest and south-

east the two ends of this level area are gullied by small

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture          371

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post-glacial streams where there is a gradual descent

into the river valley. This topography is very similar

to that at Chillicothe, where in prehistoric times a plain

considerably larger was selected for the site of some

30 or 40 mounds and inclosures.

In the Archaeological Atlas of Ohio there are re-

corded 25 earthworks and a village site within a mile

and a half of the village of The Plains, ten of which were

in the surrounding hills. Eleven of these are circular

and square inclosures while the rest are burial mounds.

In a survey of the same general area during excava-

tion of the Coon Mound only 17 mounds and one earth-

work were found (Figure 1). Eleven of these are

on the level plain within three-quarters of a mile from

the Coon Mound. Half a mile north of this mound on

the farm of Mr. Gilbert Hartman is the largest mound

of the entire group (Number 2 in Figure 1), measuring

37 feet in height, with a diameter not greatly exceeding

that of the Coon Mound. The latter, second in size,

was identical with the Hartman mound in general ap-

pearance.

The north and south diameter of the Coon Mound

was 158 feet; east and west, 132 feet. These measure-

ments are not in agreement with those given by An-

drews in Report of Exploration, who examined the

mound before the year 1876. According to Andrews the

mound was "about thirty feet high and with a diameter

of base of one hundred and fourteen feet." Andrews'

measurement was probaby taken from the north edge

of the mound to the north border of the road which

had been cut through the south side of the mound. This

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  373

distance would be very close to 114 feet. The north and

south diameter secured during excavation of the mound,

158 feet, was taken from the north edge to the southern

border of a semi-circular elevation 18 inches in height

immediately south of the road which was regarded as

the remnant of the southern border of the mound.

Andrews, examining the face of the vertical cut

exposed by the road on the south edge of the mound,

describes a mottled appearance for the clays, light loam,

gravelly and black earth of which the mound was com-

posed. This description tallies with the findings of the

Society's excavations in 1930. No burials nor struc-

tures of any kind were found above the floor of the

mound, and all inquiry failed to disclose that anything

of that nature was found by those who carried the earth

of the mound away for gardens. The mottled appear-

ance of the materials of the mound described by An-

drews is a familiar phenomenon of most of the larger

burial mounds which have been excavated.    These

patches, varying in color from light brown or yellow to

black, doubtless represent single baskets full of earth

deposited by the aboriginal builders.

The material of the upper portion of the mound was

very rich in organic content and was unquestionably re-

moved from the surface and to a depth of from six to

12 inches in the immediate vicinity. No depressions in

the surrounding surface indicated that the builders had

gone beneath the hardpan to secure material for the

mound. The top soil in the vicinity of the mound is

light in color and somewhat deficient from the agricul-

tural point of view, quite different from the earth of

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374      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications the mound, which appears to have been gathered to some extent from an occupation site. On the southwest side Andrews found large quantities of "kitchen refuse." This, he reports, was made up of "blackened soil, ashes, charcoal, bits of bone (some burned and some not),

fresh-water shells, land snails, bits of broken pottery and of broken flints, and small stones, generally burnt, such as might be in fires built on the ground." While the Society's explorations confirm Andrews' estimate of the richness of the soil, very little in the way of "kitchen refuse" was found. The only artifacts found

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  375 in the upper portion above the floor were the arrow- points shown in Figure 2. About a dozen fragments of animal bones were encountered in addition to a simi- lar quantity of fragments of calcined human bone. Cer- tainly the amount of refuse material found would not indicate a village site of any great size.

CONTENTS OF THE MOUND. The Burial. The Coon Mound contained the re- mains of a single individual in a rectangular sub-floor tomb at the center (See Frontispiece). The skeleton was that of a male who at the time of his death was from 25 to 35 years of age. The only artifacts which

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accompanied the skeleton were two copper bracelets,

one around each wrist, about 260 disc-shaped shell

beads (Figure 3) which had been worn in five strands

at the forehead and neck, and the clay object between

the upper ends of the tibiae (See Figure 5). This ob-

ject, consisting apparently of unbaked yellow clay, is

four inches long, two inches in width and thickness. A

hollow interior contains a yellow powder which adheres

to the sides of the cavity, and a small quantity of black

clay in spherical lumps about one thirty-second of an

inch in diameter. Chemical and mineralogical analysis

revealed a basic sulphate of iron such as results from

the decomposition of pyrite, a mineral resembling gold

in its lustre and color. One or more lumps of pyrite,

very likely mistaken for gold, appear therefore to have

formed, in the minds of the builders of the mound, the

main mortuary offering. In the immediate vicinity of

this mass of disintegrated pyrite the upper ends of both

tibiae had entirely disappeared (See Figure 5), a cir-

cumstance which is explained by the well-known capac-

ity of pyrite for attacking adjacent materials.

The skeleton was extended on the back, head to the

east. The arm-bones lay parallel to the axis of the

skeleton and the right hand lay over the right side of

the pelvis while the bones of the left hand lay beneath

the edge of the left side of the pelvis. The skull, lying

face up, had been badly crushed by the weight of the

earth. The total length of the skeleton, measured in

situ, was six feet and two inches, representing a devia-

tion of probably not more than two inches from the

height of this individual during life.

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture    377 The skeleton lay on the floor of the tomb, ten inches south of the center. The skull was 64 inches from the east wall while the tips of the foot bones were 33 inches from the west wall. It was therefore not in the exact center of the tomb. Beneath the skeleton was a layer of

bark about half an inch in thickness, which extended out beyond its outline from six to ten inches. Another bark covering, 87 inches long and 30 inches wide, lay directly over the skeleton (Figure 4). This layer varied in thickness from one to three-quarters of an inch. Like the layer of bark beneath, it was reddish brown in some places and black in others. The upper surface of the bark over the skeleton was corrugated, parallel ridges

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  379

running north and south in a half-inch relief and about

twice that distance apart. In addition to these ridges

there were protuberances corresponding to bones of the

skeleton directly beneath. At the edges of the skeleton

the upper and lower layers of bark came together and

their combined thickness was not at any point greater

than an inch and a half.

None of the bones of the skeleton were in a state

of preservation which would permit accurate measure-

ments. The bones of the feet and legs, and part of

the right humerus, had retained their form sufficiently

to stand out above the gravel floor. These, with the

teeth and fragments of the jaws, were the only ones re-

moved.

Lying directly on the upper layer of bark and co-

extensive with it, was a stratum of firm yellow clay

averaging an inch in thickness. Above this was the

mixture of black and coarse yellow earth, the same mate-

rial as that constituting the bulk of the mound.

The Tomb. The tomb was rectangular with the

long axis running about five degrees north of east. The

length was 15 feet; width 12 feet and eight inches

(Figure 6). The depth beneath the original level of the

ground was about 60 inches, but the southwest corner

was eight inches lower. The material of the floor of

the tomb was heavy gravel mixed with reddish clay.

The surface of the floor was black, a color due possibly

to the action of fire. This deposit of mixed gravel and

clay forms a hardpan beginning at a depth of two to

three feet beneath the surface on the site of the mound

and for some distance around it.

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At the bottom of the vertical walls of the tomb were

67 holes which were originally occupied by vertical posts

(Figure 6 and Frontispiece). These holes varied in

diameter from five to eight inches, and from center to

center the distance was from six to 23 inches. In depth

beneath the floor of the tomb they varied from 21 to 27

inches, and at the bottom the holes were flat instead of

coming to a point. Instead of driving the original posts

into the floor of the tomb with heavy stones, the builders

must have dug out a trench about a foot wide around

the base of the vertical walls, placed the posts in position

and then filled in around them. The gravel and clay

beneath the floor of the tomb would have made it very

difficult if not impossible for them to dig a hole six inches

in diameter to a depth of two feet (Figure 11). After

removal of the skeleton excavation was carried to a

depth of three feet directly beneath it and the resistance

of the clay and gravel mixture was such as to necessi-

tate the use of a miner's pick.

The impressions of many of these 67 vertical posts,

particularly of those in the corners, were traceable in

the clay of the side walls to the top (Figures 8 and

9). Most of these post-molds in the walls were vertical,

but a few were at a slant, probably indicating an acci-

dental deviation due to pressure, from an original up-

right position.

Inset diagonally about 30 inches from each corner

of the tomb was a post-mold, of the same size and depth

as those around the base of the walls. While the posts

which originally stood in these four holes probably were

as high as those around the walls of the tomb, their im-

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture    381 pressions had not been preserved in the soft earth which filled the tomb.

The walls of the tomb were lined with a coating of gray clay about six inches thick. This coating also

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382      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications underlaid the horizontal log-molds which bordered the tomb on the outside (Figures 12 and 13). Several areas up to a yard in diameter on the vertical walls were very

smooth, as is shown in Figure 10, while in other areas fine layers of the mottled clay with which the tomb had been filled adhered to the surface of the walls. These smooth surfaces were probably made by the inner sides

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture    383 of the layers of bark with which the walls were lined, and which were no doubt held in place by the 67 ver- tical posts. No impressions of the outer surfaces of

bark layers were found on the walls, and the material filling the tomb was too loose and soft to preserve them. The entire surfaces of all four walls however were cov- ered with streaks and patches of red and black, with

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384      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications spots of a white, ash-like substance (Figure 10). The red and white substances were powdery and with small doubt were formed by the disintegration of bark. The black may have been caused by heat. It turned red upon being crumbled between the fingers. In large areas the gray clay of the walls was only half an inch in thick- ness over a layer of yellow clay four or five inches thick.

In the smooth areas where the original surface of the walls was exposed, the clay was much harder at the surface than an inch or two beneath. This circum- stance, taken together with the presence of the black powder which exhibited a red stain, may be taken as presumptive evidence that a large fire was built in the tomb before the burial was made. In agreement with this the surface of the floor of the tomb was black for the most part, the natural red of the gravel and clay

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture    385 beneath showing up only in small spots. Of the purpose of this fire, nothing can be said, and if there was a fire, resulting debris such as charred branches was com- pletely cleared from the tomb.

The earth filling the tomb, similar in consistency and color to that forming the bulk of the mound, was loose and soft. This condition prevailed not only in all parts

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of the tomb itself but for a distance of three or four

feet above the top of the side walls. Elsewhere above

the floor of the mound (at the original level of the

ground) the mottled clay was very solid and continual

use of mattocks was necessary to break it up. Mattocks

were not used in removing earth from the tomb. De-

spite the fact that there had been no rain for at least

two months prior to these excavations, the clay of the

lower three feet of the tomb was very damp, and con-

tinual tramping over the same area produced a thick

paste. The presence of water may of course be ex-

plained by pointing out that the inner slope of the gravel

circle around the tomb (Figures 12 and 16) acted as a

fifty-foot catch basin for all the descending moisture

in the mound, draining it into the tomb where it was

brought to a stop by the floor of gravel and clay. This

moisture may account in some degree for the softness

of the materials filling the tomb. But it cannot explain

the looseness of the earth four feet above the top of the

tomb, nor can it be held responsible for the existence

of hollow spaces as much as three inches in diameter

throughout the earth with which the tomb was filled.

The collapse of a roof of logs, precipitating the earth

overhead down into the hollow sepulchre, best accounts

for these conditions. What was left of this roof, if

our surmise be correct, was found eight inches above

the floor of the tomb in the form of a number of log-

molds accompanied by streaks of red and white powder.

These molds extended the length and breadth of the

tomb at this level and most of them ran parallel north

and south while the remainder extended in all directions

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  387

except the vertical. The soft honeycombed earth would

not have preserved the mold of a log in vertical posi-

tion. All that remained of these roof-logs in the loose

earth were flat streaks of disintegrated wood that ad-

mitted of no accurate measurement. The earth around

them filled in their molds as fast as they decayed. The

six or eight inches of earth between this stratum of logs

and the floor of the tomb probably sifted through the

roof before the cave-in.

The Gravel Circle. Beneath that portion of the

mound above the original surface lay two different kinds

of earth in horizontal strata. At the floor of the mound

and to a depth of about three feet was a deposit of

blue-gray clay, somewhat darker at the top than lower

down. Beneath this was a deposit of gravel and red-

dish clay of undetermined thickness (Figure 12). Both

deposits were natural and extended beyond the site of

the mound.

Those who excavated the tomb utilized the earth

which they removed to form a raised circle around it

(Figure 16). This circle averaged two feet in height

and was continuous except for the opening on the east

which appears to have been used as an entrance (Figure

19). The relative positions of the two different kinds

of earth composing the circle corresponded to the order

in which they were thrown out of the tomb. In the

process the blue-gray clay was thrown out first and

spread around the tomb to form the base of the earthen

circle. At the bottom of the deposit of blue-gray clay

the top of the gravel and clay hardpan was encountered,

and this material was thrown out and carefully spread

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adcna Culture    389 over the base into a symmetrically rounded wall whose crest was from 12 to 15 feet from the edges of the tomb. The inner slope of the wall was rather abrupt for a distance of three feet from the crest, from which point to the edges of the horizontal log molds bordering the tomb the slope was scarcely noticeable.

The surface of the gravel circle was as smooth as the coarse material of which it was made would permit. Like the surface of the floor of the tomb, but to a lesser extent, it was covered with small and continuous patches of black, giving the whole a mottled red and black ap- pearance. The black may have been the result of fire. The surface of the gravel circle, and to a depth of two inches, was very hard, exceptionally difficult to break up with a pick. Trenches were cut through the circle from one edge to the other at several points, down to the blue- gray clay forming the floor of the mound. One of these trenches, exposing the strata in cross-section, is shown in Figures 14 and 15. In Figure 14 the outer portion of

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390      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications the trench, that exposing the wall proper, is shown. Fig- ure 15 is the continuation of the same trench showing the level part of the gravel circle and the horizontal log- molds (in cross-section) on the incline dipping to the edge of the tomb. Figure 13 is a scale drawing of the entire face of the trench, from the outer edge of the gravel circle to and including the wall of the tomb down to the base of one of the vertical post-molds. The mold of the horizontal log about eight inches beneath the crest

of the circle (Figures 13 and 14) extended inward from the face of the trench three feet. Similar molds were found in other trenches through the wall of the circle, and in the north wall of the passageway (Figure 21). Aside from the possibility of a ceremonial function these logs, perhaps left over after the timber construction in

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture    391 the tomb was finished, may have been used simply as filling. The surface of the floor of the mound directly be- neath the gravel circle contained impressions, and often the disintegrated remains, of leaves, twigs and grasses in profusion. Among these impressions were occasional very small flakes of mica not more than an eighth of an

inch across. Beyond the edge of the gravel circle the surface of the floor was almost entirely devoid of such materials. The floor itself had no well-packed stratum of muck such as is usually found in mounds of the Hope- well type, and represented merely the original surface of the ground before the mound was erected, unmodified except perhaps for some levelling; apparently however it had been swept clear of the debris of the forest while beneath the gravel circle this debris remained untouched.

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Aside from the possibility of a ceremonial purpose, two

possibilities explain this situation. The twigs, grasses,

leaves and so forth, cleared from the floor of the mound,

were deposited in the area to be covered by the gravel

circle as the easiest way in which this material could

be disposed of; or the debris on the floor beyond the

borders of the gravel circle was swept toward the out-

side of the area to be occupied by the mound, that on

the site of the gravel circle being left in place because

it was to be covered up. Of course the ceremonial ex-

planation offers a third possibility, its plausibility being

somewhat heightened by the presence of small flakes of

mica, which were not found elsewhere in the mound.

A large square block of limestone containing 16

pits, shown in Figure 17, lay upon the crest of the

gravel circle east of the tomb near the point where the

end of the circle expanded into the south wall of the

passage (Figure 6). This stone is 16 by 12 inches, and

eight inches thick. The side opposite that in the illus-

tration is very uneven. Pieces of another stone, the

largest fragment containing three pits, lay in one of

the parallel horizontal log-molds to the south of the

southwest corner of the tomb (See Figure 6).

The Horizontal Log-molds.    The impressions of

horizontal logs paralleled each of the four sides of the

tomb (Figures 6, 13, 15, 18). On the north there were

four of these impressions, only two of which extended

the length of the tomb. These two log-molds were

about a foot wide and from six to eight inches deep.

Four log-molds of similar dimensions paralleled the

southern wall of the tomb; there were three on the west,

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture         393

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394      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications with the molds of two crossed poles adjacent to the outer log-mold. On the east there were two log-molds about 20 feet in length and eight inches in width, the original timbers of which extended either under or over a rounded depression at the edge of the tomb (a, in Figure

6), or it is possible that the two logs terminated at the sides of this depression. To the east of this depression were the molds of other shorter logs, extending to the base of the west end of the passageway (Figure 20). These horizontal log-molds were in an inclined position,

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  395 the slope beginning at the inner edge of the level por- tion of the gravel circle and extending to the tops of the perpendicular walls of the tomb, which were about 18 inches beneath the floor of the mound. Thus at a certain stage in its construction the tomb presented the appearance of a square funnel-shaped depression with

rounded corners, the lower three feet of whose sides were perpendicular. Later about a foot of the slanting sides of this funnel were overlaid with the gravel thrown out from the tomb proper, this gravel forming a down- ward extension of the gravel constituting the circular wall. Next, the perpendicular sides of the tomb and the slanting sides of the funnel were overlaid with a coating

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture   397 of gray clay about six inches thick. Upon this coating were laid the horizontal logs along the slanting sides from the inner edges of the wall to the tops of the perpendicular sides of the tomb (Figure 12). In some of these horizontal log-molds there were holes an inch or two in diameter and about a foot in depth, left by vertical stakes. Layers of white powdery, ash-like re-

mains of the disintegrated logs, of varying thicknesses up to a quarter of an inch, were distributed in irregular streaks and patches in and between the log-molds. The Passage.    On the east the two ends of the gravel circle turned abruptly eastward to form the par- allel walls of a narrow corridor 12 to 15 feet in length and about four feet wide at the floor level (Figures 6,

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19). This corridor had all the appearance of a pass-

ageway through which the tomb was approached and

entered.

The two walls stood up from the floor of the mound

from three to four feet; that is, the topmost horizontal

log-molds found upon them were at this level. In Fig-

ure 21 the strata of the two walls about at the center are

shown in transverse cross-section. The gravel base of

these walls (C in Figure 21) is continuous with the

gravel of the circle around the tomb, descending to the

floor-level at the east ends of the walls. Overlying the

gravel of each wall to a height of a foot and a half

above it were mottled blue, gray and yellow clays, re-

sembling closely the materials in the body of the mound.

On the flat tops of the walls, five or six feet in width,

were numerous log-molds from six inches to a foot or

more in width, lying in parallel horizontal rows in

groups at right angles to one another (Figures 19, 20).

Some of the log molds disposed at right angles to the

length of the walls extended down the sloping inner

sides into round depressions four or five inches in depth

(Figure 19).

The floor of this passageway, at the general level of

the floor of the mound, consisted of gravel and clay

similar to that making up the base of the two walls, as

is shown in Figure 21. Like the floor of the tomb,

the surface of this gravel and clay was very hard

and covered with irregular patches of black. The top

of the underlying stratum of dark clay (D in Figure 21)

contained the imprint of grasses, leaves, twigs and so

forth. Lying above the gravel floor was a deposit of

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  399 gray clay from one to six inches thick, containing the impressions of the ends of posts or logs, resembling post-molds in appearance, along both sides of the pass- ageway at the bottoms of the interior slopes of the two walls (Figure 19). Some of these round depressions reached to the surface of the gravel floor while others did not. Many of them were not more than an inch or two in depth. This layer of gray clay above the gravel floor was no more solid in texture than the mottled clay directly above, forming the upper part of the mound

proper, and it bore no signs of fire. The semi-oval area between the west end of the passageway and the east wall of the tomb (this is shown in the background in Figure 19, and on the floor-plan in Figure 6) was very firm in texture on the surface and for two inches be- neath, as if the clay had been packed solid by the pres- sure of many feet. Such pressure would have left no noticeable sign on the surface of the almost brick-hard gravel and clay floor of the passageway, upon which those who passed between the two walls probably walked. The inner edges of the two walls of the passageway

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were not parallel throughout their entire length, as a

glance at Figures 6 and 19 will show. For a distance

of six and one-half feet from the west end the corridor

is from 36 to 40 inches in width, widening eastward

from that point to form an outer opening about seven

feet wide. Three and one-half feet above the floor a

single log-mold extended northeast from the end of the

south wall, apparently turning the entrance of the cor-

ridor to the north. This log-mold, shown in the fore-

ground in Figure 19, rested upon dark clay similar to

that forming the upper stratum of the walls of the corri-

dor, but the clay in this instance did not rest upon the

gravel, which terminated at the ends of the two walls.

The mold was poorly defined and isolated by two feet

from the end of the south wall. For this reason it was

not included in the floor-plan in Figure 6.

Reconstruction. The condition of the tomb and its

contiguous structures as they were revealed by excava-

tion have now been described in detail and it is obvious

that the picture obtained so far represents but a momen-

tary condition in time and space. With a difference of

five hundred years in either direction the picture would

have been quite another one; backward, more complete,

forward, more fragmentary. The picture obtained in

1930 was made by following out the various strata, and

differentiating between them on the basis of their rela-

tive hardness, color and consistency. This picture deals

mostly with flat impressions and cavities of objects

which once were solid and three-dimensional, and which

in some instances formerly occupied different positions

from those in which their molds were finally uncovered.

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Our picture is but a rough outline drawing of certain

portions of an original structure of logs and bark which

was covered with earth. The missing portions may be

sketched into the picture by interpretation of strata, by

inferences based upon our own knowledge of construc-

tion in wood and by consideration of the purposes and

aims of the builders of this burial mound. In this re-

construction an attempt will be made to show that the

tomb and the passageway were roofed, and to explain

the function of the timbers which originally occupied

the horizontal log-molds around the tomb. Interpreta-

tion must be made with two considerations in mind.

First, this subterranean structure was built to receive

the remains of the dead, and many of its features sym-

bolized to the builders certain of their religious or magi-

cal beliefs bearing upon the phenomenon of death. The

more apparent of these symbolical aspects of the tomb

and its parts are its orientation approximately with the

cardinal points, the situation of the passageway on the

east and the position of the skull of the burial to the

same direction, the gravel circle enclosing the tomb and,

perhaps, the fact that it was beneath the original level of

the ground, for this structure could have been erected on

the surface and still have been subterranean, some fifteen

or twenty feet beneath the top of the mound. While it

is easy and attractive to give a utilitarian interpretation

to the various logs and posts which left their unmistaka-

ble impressions, some of these features, for example the

horizontal logs on the four sides, may have been so

placed entirely for symbolical or ceremonial reasons. In

fact it is entirely possible that every post, log and layer

• 37
 

Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  403

of bark which served a practical purpose in the construc-

tion of the tomb symbolized at the same time some as-

pect of those special procedures which primitive people

build up around the phenomenon of death.

Second, if our assumption of a roof is correct, the

builders found themselves confronted with problems of

a highly practical nature. The positions of some of the

timbers at least were determined by utilitarian consid-

erations. The roof must be supported and some pro-

vision was necessary against lateral pressure of the

earth of the mound against the sides of the tomb if they

projected above the floor of the mound. Correct recon-

struction of the tomb therefore depends upon the ex-

pertness of the builders in solving these problems. A

faulty solution on their part would result in the placing

of timbers in positions which would prohibit a reasona-

ble utilitarian interpretation. In reconstructing the orig-

inal appearance of the tomb it therefore becomes in-

creasingly difficult for us to distinguish between the

utilitarian and the symbolical, and the reconstruction in

Figure 22 is admittedly hypothetical.

The following features strongly suggest that the

tomb was originally roofed: the four inset post-molds in

the floor, the looseness of the earth within and above

the tomb, and the presence of disintegrated timbers eight

inches above the floor. The structure and purpose of

the tomb may be taken as further evidence. Keeping

strictly within the limits of the known facts, the sym-

metry of the tomb and the vertical post-molds in the

floor indicate a comparatively complicated architectural

structure and without much doubt the dwelling-houses

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of the builders offered the plan and pattern for this

house of the dead. Presumably their houses were roofed

and if the tomb and the entrance faithfully reproduce

their features they also were covered in some manner.

The practice of contructing the sepulchre upon the plan

of the dwelling house is not unknown among prehistoric

peoples. Dwelling houses have been reconstructed from

wooden grave chambers in Europe, belonging to the

Hallstatt Period of the Iron Age, and small clay urns,

receptacles for the ashes of the dead, were modelled in

imitation of the dwelling huts of the time (See Prehis-

toric Ancestors, pp. 291, 296).

It is not necessary to suppose that the entire mound

and the tomb were erected during one continuous period.

It is entirely possible that a considerable interval of

time elapsed between the completion of the tomb and the

erection of the mound above and around it; that, in

other words, the interior of the tomb remained accessible

from the outside, through the passageway on the east,

during a period of mourning. It is equally possible

that the passageway, roofed and sided with timbers, re-

mained open after completion of the mound, or at least

that such was the intention of the builders. A roof over

the tomb could have served one or both of two purposes;

to protect the interment from the elements during the

period of mourning before the mound was thrown up,

and to protect the interment and whatever perishable

objects may have accompanied it from the weight of the

earth after erection of the mound. There is no way to

estimate the time occupied in throwing the earth over

the tomb to a height of thirty feet. But with the ac-

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  405

cumulation of weight upon the roof it may have col-

lapsed, and if so those engaged in the work were proba-

bly aware of it.

Several equally plausible reconstructions of the eleva-

tion of the tomb could be made, but the available evidence

points to a structure resembling that in Figure 22. This

drawing is made from the point of view of an observer

standing at the east end of a vertical cut revealing the

interior of the tomb in cross-section. The vertical posts

lining the walls of the tomb were not more than two

feet apart. In the drawing they are represented at a

greater distance from one another as an aid to the

graphic presentation of the structure of the tomb in its

relationship to the surrounding horizontal timbers at the

original level of the ground. In this reconstruction the

known facts have admittedly been transcended, in an

effort to explain the circumstances in the light of our

own knowledge of the stresses and strains involved in

the construction of underground wooden chambers.

The roof is placed at a distance of three or four feet

above the tops of the side walls, or eight or nine feet

above the floor of the tomb. This position has been de-

termined in relation to the attempt to explain the mean-

ing of the horizontal log-molds as the remains of logs

which had a mechanical significance in the structure of

the tomb. Further, this interpretation leaves a clearance

or three or four feet at the east end for entrance into the

tomb proper from the passageway. The height of the 67

vertical post-molds outlining the floor of the tomb, which

with the four inset post-molds represent the remains of

uprights supporting the roof, could not be determined.

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The 67 side-posts certainly extended to the tops of the

tomb walls, leaving their impressions in some instances

from top to bottom (Figure 9). Streaks of disinte-

grated wood which may have been the tops of these ver-

tical posts were found at a distance of three or four feet

above the walls of the tomb in the soft, honeycombed

earth of that area, but they could not be traced to the

impressions in the side walls with any certainty. It

should be noted that a cave-in would completely destroy

the alignment of vertical post-molds.

In figure 22 the horizontal log-molds have been in-

terpreted as the bases of piles of logs, the purposes of

which were to absorb the weight of the earth around the

sides of the tomb, a function which they would serve

efficiently only by being piled pyramidally, without touch-

ing the upright posts supporting the roof; the earth oc-

cupying the intervening space being prevented from fall-

ing through the cracks between the upright posts by

extension of the bark lining of the wall to the roof.

Small stake-holes in the edges of some of these hori-

zontal log-molds apparently represent an attempt to hold

the piles of logs in place and to keep their weight, in-

creased by the lateral pressure of the earth of the mound,

from crushing the side-walls. It is possible that the

inner logs of the horizontal piles were placed close

against the upright posts to a height equal to that of the

roof. The pressure of these logs would have been con-

siderable however, probably as great as the earth would

have exerted had there been no horizontal timbers in

these positions.

The bottom logs of these horizontal, pyramided

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture   407

piles, rest upon an incline. A glance at Figure 12 will

show that this incline starts above the original ground

level, on the inner slope of the gravel wall, and descends

to a depth of from one to two feet beneath the original

ground level, at which point is the vertical drop of the

side walls. The structural significance of this incline

might be regarded as a further attempt to lessen the

weight of the earth against the vertical posts, an attempt

however, which was not effectual.

The three girders upon which the timbers of the roof

are supported are shown resting on the tops of the ver-

tical posts. There was of course nothing to show the

manner in which these girders were fastened to the tops

of the posts. The latter, including the four inset posts,

may have been forked at the top, and the girders tied in

firmly with thongs.

The log-molds on the walls of the passageway are

easier to interpret. There is strong evidence here of

a cave-in, as in the tomb, but the lack of vertical post-

molds of any depth in the floor of the passageway points

to simplicity in construction. Apparently this corridor

had a roof of logs and bark, the ends of the logs resting

upon the tops of the two walls, giving a height to the

passageway of only three feet. The depressions at the

bases of the walls and the log-molds down the slopes of

their inner sides may be explained by supposing that

when the cave-in occurred the logs of the roof were

broken at center, and at the inner edges of the tops of

the walls. The pressure of the earth forced the ends of

the logs at the broken center, down upon the gravel floor,

leaving their round, more or less vertical impressions at

the sides of the walls (Figure 19).

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CONCLUSION

The Coon Mound exhibits the characteristic features

of the Adena culture in its purest form. This culture is

described in the final chapter of this report, and a brief

enumeration of the main elements will suffice for the

present purpose. These are as follows: conical mounds,

sub-floor burial as well as burial in the upper part of

mounds, sepulchres of various sizes built of logs, use of

copper mainly for ornamental rather than for practical

purposes, certain types of slate or limestone gorgets, to-

bacco pipes of the simple tubular type, and flint points

of the unnotched leaf-shaped, and the square-stemmed

types. The name of this culture is taken from the Adena

Mound, in Chillicothe, Ross County, which was exca-

vated by the Society in 1901. Nearly all of the features

exhibited by the Coon Mound were found also in the

Adena Mound. The sub-floor tombs at the center of

both mounds were of approximately the same size, and

both were rectangular; each contained on its floor a

skeleton extended at full length, whose lower leg bones

were painted with red ochre (See Figure 23). In

the Adena Mound the clay and gravel from the tomb

had been used in forming a wall at the ground level

which, in the cross-section shown in Excavations of the

Adena Mound in Figure 19, was of about the same size

and contour as that of the wall in the Coon Mound.

While extreme caution is necessary in making deduc-

tions regarding social status from the manner in which

the dead are buried, it seems worth while in the present

instance to suggest that the individual entombed in the

Coon Mound was a person of considerable importance.

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The erection of a mound of this size over the remains

of a single individual is very suggestive and the presence

of red pigment on the tibia of the skeleton is of further

significance. Captain Romans, who travelled among the

Indians of the south before 1775, makes the following

statement in regard to the burial customs of the

Choctaw:

 

"As soon as the deceased is departed, a stage is erected, and

the corpse is laid on it and covered with a bear skin; if he be a

man of note, it is decorated, and the poles painted red with

vermillion and bears oil . . . the head being painted with ver-

million (after the flesh has been scraped off) is with the rest

of the bones put into a neatly made chest . . ." (A Con-

cise History of Florida, p. 88).

A number of other Adena type mounds have con-

tained skeletons, parts of which were painted with red

ochre. These include the Westenhaver Mound and the

Fortney Mound, both excavated for the Society, and a

mound in Illinois, numbered 53 in the following study

of the Adena culture. In the latter mound the red ochre

was on the skull only.

Taking into consideration the facts that the Coon

Mound contained the remains of only one individual, and

that an elaborately constructed tomb was covered with

thirty feet of earth, the conclusion that the individual

represented was a leader of some kind among his people

is probably not far from the truth.

In age, the Coon Mound was prehistoric, like all

mounds of the Adena type so far excavated. Despite

certain contrasts with the Adena and other mounds of

the same culture, nothing was found to provide a basis

for conclusions as to their relative age.

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THE ADENA CULTURE

 

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

In the following study, sixty mounds are classed as

Adena in type which have not heretofore been included

in that culture. In this process the zoological method of

identifying a species is used as far as it is possible to do

so. According to that method of classification and de-

scription the first specimen of the type to be found and

described is the type specimen. While the Grave Creek

Mound, number 55 herein, was partially excavated in

1838, the Adena Mound, Number 1, was the first one

belonging to the culture-type to be completely excavated

and described, and it is therefore the type specimen, a

fact already recognized by Shetrone in Culture Problem

in Ohio (page 161). The inclusion of other mounds un-

der the specific term Adena is made herein upon the basis

of the characteristics exhibited by the Adena Mound.

Shetrone has recognized five mounds as Adena in

type in the paper just referred to. These are the Adena,

Westenhaver, Grave Creek, Miamisburg and Great

Smith mounds; the latter is number 58 in the present re-

port, and belongs to the Kanawha Valley Group in West

Virginia. In addition the same authority includes other

mounds of the Kanawha Valley, and of the Scioto Val-

ley in Ohio, and since their excavation the material from

Mounds 16, 29-32 and 35 has been on exhibit in the

Museum of the Ohio State Archaeological and His-

torical Society as Adena in type.

(411)

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The distinctive traits of Adena culture have been

listed by Shetrone (Op. cit., page 160) as follows:

"Shapely, conical mounds, generally single but sometimes oc-

curring in apparent series; mounds unaccompanied by earth-

works; absence of pre-structures of upright timbers, sites of

mounds unlevelled and showing no evidence of previous use;

erection of mounds often begun by piling logs and brush upon

the sites or bases; non-cremation of the dead; burial made

upon the base line and throughout the mounds, usually with an

important central grave below the base line; sepulchres of logs

often used, particularly for the more important burials. Materials

from distant sources, as with the Hopewell culture proper, were

extensively used, but copper appears to have been employed for

objects of ornamentation only, and rarely if ever for utility im-

plements. Of the artifacts persistently occurring there may be

mentioned copper bracelets and finger rings; gorgets of the ex-

panded center and concave edge type; tubular pipes; necklaces

of beads made from univalve shells; and projectile points of flint

of the ovate unnotched and the stemmed type."

This general statement is verified in the following

tables, with the exception of cremation and the occur-

rence of mounds within inclosures. Thirty of the 350

or more burials in the seventy mounds under discussion

were cremated, and six of these seventy mounds were

either at the center or in a gateway of an inclosure.

In the following tables the contents of seventy

mounds, distributed in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, West

Virginia, Pennsylvania and Tennessee are listed. Be-

ginning with the Adena Mound in Chillicothe, Ohio, each

mound is numbered serially in geographic progression.

There is a break between Mounds 47 and 48, since the

first 47 mounds are in Ohio and Mounds 48 to 52 are in

Indiana. Mound 53 is in Illinois, from where the series

jumps again, to West Virginia, beginning with Mound

54 and ending with Mound 69. Mound 56 is in Penn-

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture     413

sylvania but is included in the West Virginia series be-

cause of its proximity to Mounds 54 and 55. Mound 70

is in Tennessee.

While there is little question that the Miamisburg

Mound, in Montgomery County, the highest mound in

Ohio, is Adena in type, it has not been included among

the seventy listed herein. Excavation of a central shaft

in this mound in 1869 is reported in Volume XIV of

the Publications of the Ohio State Archaeological and

Historical Society, page 446, but not enough was found

to enable its inclusion under the method of identification

used in the present study.

In the Bibliography at the end of this report are the

published references for each mound, their locations, di-

mensions, and the number of burials found in each one.

Titles of published references are abbreviated in the

text, and these will be found in complete form in the

Bibliography.

The picture of the Adena culture which is presented

in the following tables is no more than a sample, since

the entire contents of every mound are not known. The

70 mounds may be divided into the following four classes

on the basis of the degree of completeness with which

each was excavated.

Mounds completely excavated... 1, 12, 13, 16, 21, 29, 31, 32, 33,

34, 35, 38, 52, 54, 70

Mounds not completely excavated 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15,

17, 18, 20, 24, 26, 27, 39, 40,

41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 48, 49,

51, 53, 55, 56, 57, 59, 60, 61,

64, 65, 67

Degree of completeness not in- 4, 19, 22, 25, 28, 47, 50, 58, 62,

dicated in report ..........  63, 66, 68, 69

No report nor field notes....... 23, 36, 37

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What there was remaining of Mounds 43 (Coon

Mound) and Mound 48 when excavations were begun,

was completely excavated, but Mound 48 had been

largely worn away by the adjacent stream, and three-

quarters of the portion of Mound 43 more than six feet

above the ground level had been carried away to enrich

the gardens in the vicinity. At the time of excavation

however, questions in regard to finds during this process

were answered invariably in the negative, and it is un-

likely that this mound contained anything more, at least

in the way of objects intentionally placed by the builders,

than that described in the present report.

Explanation of Tables. Tables A and B list every-

thing which is of value in identifying the culture to

which each mound belongs. This includes all artifacts,

and other features such as burial types, strata, positions

of burials, log tombs, shape of mound and so forth. In

Table A the traits are arranged serially in numbers ac-

cording to the number of mounds in which each is found,

beginning with Trait 1, or Mound conical, which is

found in the largest number of mounds, a total of 57

times, and ending with Trait 59, Obsidian flakes, which

is found in only two mounds. The total frequency of

each trait for all mounds is also given in Table A, except

in seven instances, where it is either impossible to give

the number, or the number is self-evident, as is the case

with Mound conical. In the third column are the mound

numbers showing those mounds in which the trait is

found, with the figure in heavy type indicating the num-

ber of times the particular trait is found in the particular

mound involved. Reading this Table for Trait 2, it will

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  415

be found that Log tombs occur 55 times in 35 mounds;

11 times in Mound 1, once in Mound 2, once in Mound

5, and so on. In all tables an asterisk after a number

indicates an obscurity in the original report as to the

exact amount, with the number so marked as the mini-

mum; an X indicates one or more. Table B is an elabo-

ration of some of the information contained in Table A.

For example in Table A, the term Stone gorgets is

used generically, without distinguishing between the dif-

ferent shapes and materials expressed in Table B. But

all stone gorgets described in the literature are included

in each Table. The positions of beads and red ochre on

skeletons, the artifacts which have been painted with

red ochre, and other detailed information, are given in

Table B. With regard to beads, Table A lists only disc-

shaped shell beads, bone, pearl and copper. Table B

lists the various types of disc shell and copper beads,

and includes other types not listed in Table A. Table

C contains traits which were not used in identifying the

mounds as Adena in type. This Table reads the same

as Table A, giving in the first column the number of

times each trait occurs for all seventy mounds; in the

second column the number of mounds exhibiting the

trait, and in the third, the number of times the trait is

found in each mound.

Table A consists of two parts. The traits numbered

from 1 to 33 are all present in Mound 1, the Adena

Mound, and it is on the basis of these first 33 traits that

the other 69 mounds are identified as Adena. The

method of reasoning involved in this identification is as

follows: Each of the 69 mounds contains from two to

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17 of the 33 traits found in Mound 1. Among these 33

traits there are some which have a higher identification

value than others, either because they are found a large

number of times in a large number of mounds, or be-

cause they are found, so far as is known to the writer,

only in mounds of the Adena type. Copper bracelets are

an example of the former type of trait, and grooved

stones of the latter. If a mound exhibited but one of

these traits, with nothing indicative of the Hopewell or

any other culture type, it would be necessary to include it

in the Adena group. The smallest number of times

that any series of the 33 traits found in Mound 1 occurs

in any one of the other 69 mounds is two, as is shown in

Table D. These mounds may be classified as Adena de-

spite the small number of traits exhibited by them, be-

cause they present no features indicative of any other

culture. It is possible to doubt the correctness of this

identification only for Mound 24, which was in Clinton

County, Ohio, near Wilmington. The two traits ascribed

to this mound are Conical shape and Important central

graves, of which latter the mound possessed one. How-

ever, the two copper objects described in the report for

this mound as "bands," were found at the ankles, and

their resemblance to bracelets in form, material and use

increases the probability that this mound is correctly

identified. These "bands" are included in Table C. Fur-

thermore, Mound 24 was situated in a region where

other mounds of the Adena type have been found, includ-

ing Mound 25 in the present classification, and the Wil-

mington Mound, which is not included herein, but which

will be discussed later. With regard to Mound 51, in

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  417

Indiana, the writer is informed by Mr. Glenn Black of

Indianapolis that this was not a mound but a natural

gravelly knoll. But the articles found, 16 copper brace-

lets and one skeleton with disc-shaped sea shell beads,

are of such high identification value as linked together

in the same group of burials that its inclusion seems jus-

tifiable, especially since this formation is in the general

vicinity of Mounds 49, 50 and 52. In addition to the

conical shape of Mound 63 and the copper bracelet

found therein, this mound is one of the group of the

Kanawha Valley, all of which are probably Adena in

type.

Table D gives the number of traits found in Mound

1 which are also found in the other 69 mounds, begin-

ning with the smallest number of traits possessed by in-

dividual mounds, and continuing down to Mound 1 with

the entire 33 traits. Table E gives the frequency for

each mound of those traits which occur two or more

times in the entire group. This Table will be discussed

later. Table F contains the key numbers for the specific

traits possessed by each mound. Thus for Mound 23,

which exhibits Traits 3, 10, 13, 14 and 1.5 (all of which

are found also in Mound 1 because they are below num-

ber 34), reference to Table A will show that these traits

are as follows: one stone gorget, one tubular pipe, one

or more cremations, four mica designs or fragments and

two grooved stones.

The second part of Table A, consisting of Traits

numbered from 34 to 59, is concerned with the estab-

lishment of a generalized Adena culture complex. This

is a departure from the zoological method of identifying

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and describing a member of a species, but owing to the

difference in degree of unity as possessed by zoological

specimens of one species on the one hand, and archaeo-

logical specimens (regarding in this case a mound as a

specimen, and a culture as a species), this method ap-

pears to be justified. One mound varies in its features

from another of the same culture much more than, for

example, does one hermit thrush from another.

The definition of the generalized Adena culture com-

plex will be evident in the following description of the

method by which it is established. Table D is a compila-

tion of the figures given in Table A, Traits 1 to 33, and it

establishes the 69 mounds as of the same culture group

as Mound 1. Traits 34 to 59 in Table A are found in

Mounds 2 to 70 but not in Mound 1; but since Mounds

2 to 70 have been proved to be Adena in type, it may be

said that all traits exhibited by them are of that type

whether or not they were found in Mound 1, except with

regard to traits which might be the product of local

development or of trade influences. Such features may

be identified by ascertaining their occurrence in but a

single region. If therefore a feature is present only in

one mound it cannot be taken as truly representative of

the Adena culture; the same is true if it is found in two

or more mounds of a single group occupying a restricted

area. Examples of such traits are to be found in Table

C: Crematory basins, found only in Mounds 34 and 48

in the same region; Combs, bone, of which but two were

found in Mound 1, and Plummets, stone, of which two

were found only in Mound 37.

Recognizing Traits 34 to 59 as characteristically

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  419

Adena, they complete the entire list of traits compris-

ing the Adena culture complex. Table E shows the

number of these generalized traits possessed by each

mound. It will be observed that a number of mounds

exhibit more of the generalized Adena traits than of

those traits found only in Mound 1. Mounds 40 and

70, for example, showing only two traits in Table D,

show three and five respectively in Table E. To take

another example, Mound 54 shows only 17 traits in

Table D, and 29 in Table E. Reference to Table F re-

veals that the 12 additional traits are as follows: stone

celts, copper beads, notched projectile points, hematite

celts, red ochre, handles, red ochre on artifacts, geodes

cup-like, steatite platform pipes, flint scrapers of the

"thumb-nail" type, graphite and obsidian flakes.

The significance of this generalized Adena culture

complex is in the fact that the excavator of an Adena

type of mound at any point within the distribution of the

mounds discussed herein may expect to find any of the

traits numbered from 1 to 59. His chances of finding

any of the traits enumerated in Table C are remote, with

the exception of those traits in this Table which are not

adequately described in the literature.

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture         445

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TABLE D

Traits found only in Adena Mound. Frequency in the remaining

69 mounds.

Number of

traits              Mound numbers

2............... 24, 25, 40, 63, 68, 70.

3................30, 42, 44, 45, 47, 51, 62, 64, 69.

4................10, 14, 19, 22, 29, 31, 33, 57, 65, 66, 67.

5................4,  20, 23, 50, 60, 61.

6................3, 5, 8, 15, 17, 21, 26, 36, 41, 46, 52, 58.

7................2, 6,  13,  16,  18, 35, 49.

8................9, 27, 34, 37, 38, 53, 56.

9................28, 48, 55, 59.

10............... 7, 11, 32, 39.

13  ................12.

15................  43.

7  ................ 54.

33.···············1.

 

TABLE E

Frequency of generalized Adena traits in the entire 70 mounds.

Number of

traits              Mound numbers

2................24, 25, 63.

2        ... 24, 25, 63.

3................40, 42, 45, 51, 62, 64, 68.

4................10, 29, 30, 31, 33, 44, 47, 69.

5................23, 50, 60, 66, 67, 70.

6................3, 8, 14, 17, 19, 20, 41, 57, 61.

7................2, 4, 5, 15, 22, 26, 46, 58, 65.

8................6, 13, 16, 38, 52.

9................18, 27, 34, 36, 53, 56.

10................32, 37, 49, 55.

11 ...............9, 11, 35.

13................21, 48.

14  ..............7, 28.

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture        447

 

Number of

traits               Mound numbers

15 ................39.

17................ 43,  59.

18  ................ 12.

29 ................54.

33 ................ 1.

 

TABLE F

Mound

number                 Trait numbers

1....1 to 33.

2.... 1, 2, 6, 7, 14, 16, 19.

3....1, 3, 7, 10, 17, 19.

4....1, 4, 7, 13, 14, 41, 47.

5.... 1, 2, 6, 11, 14, 26, 40.

6 ....1, 2, 3, 5, 9, 11, 18, 49.

7... 1, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 25, 29, 34, 37, 39, 45.

8....1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 14.

9....2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 12, 14, 32, 35, 43, 45.

10....1, 2, 7, 17.

11.... 1, 2, 3, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 20, 35.

12....1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 17, 19, 20, 27, 36, 39, 40, 46, 57.

13....1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 11, 19, 45.

14 ....1, 3, 6, 12, 35, 44.

15.... 1, 2, 6, 9, 12, 23, 34.

16....1, 2, 3, 6, 11, 23, 25, 36.

17 ..1, 2, 4, 5, 11, 17.

18 ....1, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 24, 42, 43.

19....1, 2, 4, 5, 35, 56.

20.... 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 41.

21....3, 4, 8, 9, 13, 15, 34, 36, 38, 43, 48, 50, 53.

22.... 4, 9, 14, 22, 36, 38, 48.

23 .... 3, 10, 13, 14, 15.

24....1, 7.

25....2, 15.

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Mound

number                  Trait numbers

26 .... 1, 3, 12, 14, 15, 18, 34.

27.... 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 11, 13, 16, 38.

28....1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10, 17, 18, 26, 34, 39, 51, 54, 57.

29....1, 3, 8, 9.

30 ....1, 3, 7, 34.

31... .1, 5, 10, 30.

32....1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 11, 12, 16, 17, 21.

33 ... 3, 9, 13, 16.

34 ....1, 2, 3, 4, 13, 15, 17, 20, 35.

35 ....1, 3, 8, 9, 10, 12, 19, 34, 35, 36, 39.

36....3, 8, 9, 10, 15, 18, 39, 48, 53.

37.... 3, 8, 9, 10, 18, 22, 30, 33, 34, 52.

38.... 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 11, 19, 24.

39 ....1, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 13, 19, 20, 27, 34, 35, 37, 38, 46.

40....2, 4, 42.

41....1, 3, 6, 7, 13, 26.

42.... 1, 2, 7.

43 ....1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 17, 20, 22, 24, 36, 56.

44 ....1, 10, 13, 42.

45 ..1, 2, 10.

46.... 1, 2, 6, 7, 10, 12, 35.

47 ....3, 10, 15, 47.

48....1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 13, 18, 23, 34, 38, 46, 58.

49 ...1, 3, 4, 9, 18, 21, 29, 34, 40, 44.

50 ....1, 4, 7, 16, 28.

51....4, 6, 12.

52.... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 15, 36, 41.

53  ...1, 2, 8, 12, 14, 17, 18, 31, 59.

54.... 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 19, 20, 23, 24, 27, 28, 34,

35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 49, 50, 52, 55, 58, 59.

55....1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 12, 14, 44.

56 ... 1, 5, 7, 10, 11, 16, 20, 25, 42.

57 ....1, 2, 8, 11, 34, 40.

58....2, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 41.

59....1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 11, 14, 16, 21, 34, 37, 40, 42, 43, 51, 54, 55.

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture        449 TABLE F Mound number                 Trait numbers 60 ...1, 2, 4, 5, 7. 61  ....1, 2, 5, 8, 21, 37. 62.... 1, 4, 7. 63....1, 4. 64.... 1, 2, 21. 65.... 1, 4, 8, 22, 34, 37, 47. 66.... 1, 3, 5, 8, 37. 67.... 1, 6, 8, 13, 35. 68....3, 5, 41. 69. .. 1, 21, 22, 41. 70.... 1, 4, 35, 44, 45.

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DISCUSSION OF TRAITS 1 TO 59

1. Mound conical. The term conical is used herein

to mean steep-sidedness, coupled with an outline of base

which is circular or closely approaching to the circular.

For most mounds of the Adena type the height tends to

increase proportionately as the diameter. A tabulation

of the dimensions of 55 of the 70 mounds reveals the

following facts: Of the 28 mounds whose diameters fall

between 325 and 80 feet the sum of their heights is 632

feet; of the 27 mounds whose diameters fall between 75

and 20 feet the sum of their heights is 214 feet.

2. Log tombs. In average size the Adena log tomb

is much larger than that of the Hopewell culture. Di-

mensions are given in the reports of 20 or more mounds,

indicating lengths of not less than six feet and up to 19

feet; widths not less than three feet and up to 12 feet;

heights from one and one-half to ten feet. In shape, the

log tombs are generally square or rectangular but some

are circular or polygonal, including that of Mound 61.

The log tomb described in the present report for Mound

43 appears to be typical for other mounds of the Adena

type. Table A describes one log tomb for Mound 54,

possibly in error since no such structure is mentioned in

the report for this mound. But the sub-floor grave was

lined with bark, and in a drawing of a horizontal aspect

of this burial (Plate I) there is shown a section of bark

which retains the curve of the log from which it was

taken. In the opinion of the writer this grave probably

had a small log tomb, but the soft, sandy soil in which

(450)

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  451

the grave was dug would have left no molds of individ-

ual logs.

3. Stone gorgets. Illustrations of many of the gor-

gets may be found in the original publications as listed

in the Bibliography. In the description of Mound 47 a

slate object described as a "tablet" is interpreted in Table

B as a diamond-shaped gorget. In the description of

Mound 3, Squire and Davis give two different sets of

dimensions for the limestone two-holed gorget from this

mound. On page 165 of Ancient Monuments the length

is given as three inches, width one and one-half inches;

on page 236 the length is given as three and one-half

inches, width two inches. The meaning of the term

"semi-keeled" as used in Table B in describing this piece,

will be seen by reference to the illustration, page 236,

Figure 133, Number 1. The term "Trapezoid" as ap-

plied to the slate gorget found in Mound 37 indicates a

form whose ends are parallel but of different lengths.

The stone gorgets are of various shapes and sizes,

ranging from about three to seven inches in length. Ac-

cording to Table B four different materials were used

in their manufacture: slate, limestone, sandstone and

cannel coal. Shetrone mentions gorgets of the expanded

center type as a distinctive feature of Adena culture.

These vary in outline, but the general proportions are

similar to the one in the middle in Figure 178, Stone

Ornaments, from the Story Mound, which is Mound 6

in the present report. Twenty expanded center gorgets

were found in 14 mounds. Limestone, sandstone and

slate were used in their manufacture. Of gorgets with

concave sides and concave ends, five made of slate or

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limestone were found in five mounds, in Indiana, Ohio

and West Virginia. Of gorgets with concave sides and

convex ends, nine were found in seven mounds in Ohio

and Indiana. One, from Mound 28, was made of cannel

coal and the rest were of slate or limestone. All gorgets

described as top straight, bottom convex expanded, one

hole, were made of slate. Six were found in five mounds

in Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia. Another of the

same material but with the top slightly convex was found

in Mound 16.

4. Copper bracelets. The copper bracelets from

Adena type mounds in the Museum of the Ohio State

Archaeological and Historical Society are all circular

or slightly oval in outline. All have a circular cross-

section varying from one-eighth to three-eighths of an

inch in diameter, with the exception of two from Mound

1 which have a rectangular cross-section. The ends of

three from Mound 1 overlap from five-eighths to one

and one-half inches. In the rest the ends meet, with gaps

of from one-sixteenth to one-half inch. The 15 copper

bracelets from Mound 40 are called "rings" in the de-

scription of that mound by Mr. I. Dille. Two "bands"

of copper, found on the ankles of a skeleton in Mound

24, are not included as bracelets in Table A.

5. Sub-floor graves. By the term grave is meant

a chamber in the earth, prepared with logs, stone or bark

or all three materials, whether it contains the remains

of one or more individuals. The term floor is used to

indicate the original level of the ground.

6. Skeletons with beads. All skeletons accompa-

nied by beads, of whatever type or material, are listed in

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  453

Tables A and B. The beads are also listed separately by

types and materials in Table B. Note the frequence with

which beads are found at the heads and necks of skele-

tons. Among the totals for artifacts of a given type

from the seventy mounds the highest number is that for

disc-shaped shell beads. It should be noted however

that a bead is not an artifact in the sense with which the

term is used for most objects, copper bracelets for ex-

ample, one of which, unlike a bead, is complete in itself.

7. Important central graves. The term grave is

used here in the same meaning as with Trait 5. In many

instances the remains of but one individual have been

found in mounds of the Adena type, an interesting fact

when taken together with the proportion of the height

of the mounds to the diameter. Of the 24 mounds in

Table A with important central graves, 16 possessed but

one burial and that one was at the center; but these

figures probably do not represent the true state of af-

fairs, for of these 16 mounds only three were com-

pletely and thoroughly excavated, or four, if we are cor-

rect in assuming that there were no burials in the upper

part of Mound 43, the Coon Mound, much of which had

been removed prior to its excavation in 1930. Most of

the mounds of the Kanawha Valley group in West Vir-

ginia, reported by Thomas, were excavated only at the

center, from the top to the base or beneath in a vertical

shaft. Ten of the important central graves were be-

neath the original level of the ground, in Mounds 1, 12,

20, 28, 38, 43, 54, 55, 58 and 60. There is some ob-

scurity in the original description of Mound 55, for the

sub-floor tomb listed here as at the center of the mound.

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Tomlinson gives only the circumference of the mound,

and the diameter of 286 feet, given in the Bibliography,

is computed therefrom. On page 199 Tomlinson de-

scribes this vault as at a distance of 111 feet from the

edge of the mound, which would put it 32 feet from the

exact center. But on page 200 the upper vault is de-

scribed as situated at the center of the mound over the

sub-floor vault.

8. Leaf-shaped projectile points. These vary in

length from two to ten inches. One of the cache of 20

leaf-shaped points from Mound 29 was of this latter

length. Those of the cache of 1195 points from Mound

53 averaged from three and one-half to six inches in

length. Most points of this type were found with

burials. Thomas' term lancehead, used in all of his re-

ports, is interpreted herein to mean the leaf-shaped type

of point.

9. Stemmed projectile points. These vary in length

from about one and one-half to seven inches. The speci-

men from Mound 33, made of light pink Flint Ridge ma-

terial, was seven inches in length. Most points of this

type are found in direct association with burials.

Thomas frequently uses the term fish dart to describe

projectile points. While this term probably refers to

the stemmed type of point, specimens so described are in-

cluded only in Table C with those whose type is not

given. The type of point described as Trait 9 is shown

in Figure 2, B, in the report on the Coon Mound.

10. Tubular pipes. An illustration of a typical tu-

bular pipe may be found in the report on the Adena

Mound, Figure 11, page 461. Only one effigy tubular

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  455

pipe was found in the entire group of 70 mounds. This

is a pipe in effigy of a human being, with head-dress,

loin-cloth and ear-ornaments, from the Adena Mound.

The tubular ornament of slate listed in Table C, from

Mound 33, is not a tubular pipe, but resembles some of

the banded slate "ceremonials" found on the surface of

the ground in the general region of the Great Lakes.

The specimen described and illustrated by Moorehead

from Mound 7, described as an "unfinished pipe of fer-

ruginous sandstone" (Figure XXVI and page 149), is

called a handle in Tables A and B.

11. Bark-prepared graves.   The term grave is

here used in the same meaning as with Traits 5 and 7.

In a bark-prepared grave a skeleton or a cremation may

be wrapped in bark, on or beneath layers of bark, both

on and beneath layers of bark, or in a dug chamber whose

sides are lined with bark.

12. Disc shell beads. Most of these were made from

marine conch shells, probably Busycon perversum L., or

allied forms. They vary in diameter from one-quarter

of an inch to one inch, are round in outline and thin

enough to justify their description as disc-shaped. The

52 disc shell beads listed for Mound 58 were an inch in

diameter and one-eighth of an inch thick. Presumably

the disc beads of mussel shell listed for Mounds 9 and 11

were much thinner. In Table B the sub-division Shell

under Disc-shaped is a reflection of obscurity in de-

scription in the original accounts. Probably most beads

under this sub-division were of marine species.

13. Cremations. This includes also partial crema-

tions, of which one was found in both Mounds 11 and

41, and seven in Mound 67.

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14. Mica designs or fragments. The pieces of mica

described as a head-dress in Table C for Mound 1, are

included in Trait 14. There are ten of these. In form

they are perforated shallow crescents, and are identical

with those from a burial in Mound 9 (See Figure XXX,

Primitive Man), and with the 24 pieces of mica listed in

Table A for Mound 22.

15. Grooved stones. These interesting objects are

described in detail in Table B. Heretofore they have

been called abrading or sharpening stones, but the term

used herein was adopted to distinguish them from Trait

53, irregular chunks of sandstone of the type commonly

called sinew stones (See Trait 53). The grooved stones

are always symmetrical in outline, with both surfaces

flat. A typical form is illustrated in the report on the

Adena Mound, Figure 21, page 470. The occurrence

of these stones with burials, and their rectangular sym-

metry, suggest some special evaluation by their original

owners. Their use in the manufacture of slate gorgets

is suggested by the fact that gorgets were found in ten

of the 11 mounds in which grooved stones were found.

For the three grooved stones in Mound 47, no

mention of grooves is made in the original account. One

is described as "a sandstone tablet, three by four inches,

and half an inch thick," and the other as "a tablet of

sandstone four inches in length" (Primitive Man, page

26). The dimensions of the third are not given. It is

possible that these will receive a different classification

in the future. Likewise no mention of grooves is made

for the specimen from Mound 52. This piece is de-

scribed as a sandstone tablet, "used perhaps for shar-

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  457

pening or polishing bone implements" (page 30). With

regard to the ceremonial value of grooved stones, it is

interesting to note that the specimen from Mound 34 is

made of slate, with one groove occupying the central por-

tion of each opposite surface. The material is a fine-

grain slate with very low abrasive qualities.

16. Primary strata. In the descriptions of several

mounds it is said that the mound "was built at two dif-

ferent periods." In the present report this phrase has

been interpreted to refer to different strata consisting of

earths of contrasting colors and textures. While this

does not necessarily indicate a time-element, a difference

in burial customs between the interior and outer mounds

of Mound 1, the Adena Mound, suggests such a factor

at least for that mound.

17. Red ochre on skeletons. The occurrence of Red

ochre on human bones is apparently limited to Adena

mounds in Ohio and Illinois. The particular bones bear-

ing stains are listed in Table B. Mound 8 is not in-

cluded in Table A among those mounds exhibiting this

feature, since the stain was found only in the earth ad-

joining a tooth.

18. Awls, bone or antler. The awl is a bona fide

trait of Adena culture, although its identification value

is somewhat lowered by that fact that it is found abun-

dantly in other cultures, as a mortuary tribute or other-

wise. Most of the descriptions are vague as to the size,

shape and material of awls. Those from the Adena

Mound vary in length from five to 11 inches, and are

made of the shoulder blades of the elk and the Virginia

deer. Those from Mound 53 were from eight to 12 1/2

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inches long and were made from the metapodial bones

of the elk. They are identical in shape with the 100 or

more with which a fabric canopy over the Multiple

Burial in Seip Mound Number 1 had been pegged down

(See Explorations of the Seip Group, Figure 63).

19. Animal teeth. Table B contains the details for

these. In Mound 12 two bear canines were found in

natural position in a worked piece of the jaw. These

two teeth are listed in Table A, but the jawbone as a

whole appears only in Table C.

20. Impressions of leaves, grass and twigs. Shet-

rone, in Culture Problem in Ohio, describes an aspect

of this trait: "erection of mounds often begun by piling

logs and brush upon the sites or bases" (page 160).

Readers of this report are already familiar with the im-

pressions of leaves, grass and twigs on the original sur-

face of the ground beneath the gravel circle in the Coon

Mound, Number 43, and the fact that small bits of mica

were found among these impressions suggests that they

are an intentional feature. While these impressions are

not found in similar situations in all mounds, nor is

there mention of mica in connection with them for any

other mound, the reports of the eight mounds concerned

explicitly mention this feature.

21. Constructional use of stone. Stones, generally

flat slabs of limestone or sandstone, were occasionally

used in constructing graves and also log tombs. In the

Adena Mound a tomb was built of stones and logs, three

slabs at the head and four at the foot of a skeleton, with

large logs from three to nine inches in diameter laid over

the tops of the stones (page 468). In Mound 61 a skele-

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  459

ton was contained in a grave made by leaning stone

slabs together (page 430). There was a wall of stone

slabs around the sub-floor tomb in Mound 38, but since

the constructional nature of this wall is rather doubtful

it is not included in Trait 21, but will be discussed under

Trait 24.

22. Pitted stones. The finding of two blocks of

stone, each pitted with a number of small round holes in

Mound 43, one at the southwest corner and the other

near the southeast corner of the sub-floor tomb, suggest

that pitted stones in Adena mounds are not an accidental

feature. One of these from the Adena Mound, found

near the apex unaccompanied by human remains, was

eight inches long, six inches wide and five inches thick,

with cup-shaped pits on both sides, unlike, in this last

detail, the larger of the two from the Coon Mound.

The other was found near a clay vessel which was at the

head of a skeleton. This was of sandstone like the

other, but the pits were on one side only. The pitted

stones from Mounds 22 and 37 are only three or four

inches in diameter, with one pit on each side. Thomas

describes the pitted stone from Mound 65 as follows:

"A * * * slab of limestone three inches thick, which

had a hemispherical or cup-shaped depression of two

inches in diameter near the center of the under side

* * *". This pitted stone was found placed over a

"hollow, hemispherical coarse-grained sandstone, burned

until red and brittle," which was held by the outstretched

hands of two sitting skeletons. These details are illus-

trated in Figure 302, page 432, in Report on the Mound

Explorations. The hollow, hemispherical piece of sand-

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stone is not tabulated herein as a pitted stone, but is

listed in Table C. Thomas says of Mound 69: "The top

was strewn with fragments of flat rocks, most of which

were marked with one or more small, artificial, cup-

shaped depressions."

23. Marginella beads.   The number given for

Mound 1, as for most of the mounds, is an approximate.

In the reports for Mounds 9, 11 and 55 there were quan-

tities of beads described as "entire marine shells." This

indefinite description is carried over into the classifica-

tion in Table B, but the 707 or more beads so described,

while they were probably Marginella, are not included

as such in Table A.

24. Wall around sub-floor tomb. Table A discloses

the fact that this feature is found in Mounds 1, 18, 38,

43 and 54. The gravel circle consisting of the material

thrown out from the sub-floor tomb in Mound 43 is

already familiar to readers of this report. The gravel

from this tomb was used consciously and with intention

for the purpose of building up a well-rounded symmetri-

cal wall around the tomb; it was not left in irregular

piles after being thrown or carried out. For Mounds 1,

18 and 54 however, nothing more is indicated than an

unfilled grave or tomb. Mills, in the report on the

Adena Mound (See Figure 19, page 468) makes no men-

tion of secondary handling of the gravel from the sub-

floor tomb, although this is suggested in the illustration

by the symmetrical curve of the pile in cross-section. In

the report for Mound 18, Fowke figures a cross-section

of the mound at center, in which the gravel (note that it

is gravel in the foregoing instances) is shown on each

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  461

side of the sub-floor tomb at the edges, and is described

as "thrown from the excavation." The same condition

is found in Mound 54 (see Plates V and VI). On page

157 it is said that "They then dug the grave * * *

throwing the comparatively coarse and bright-yellow

sand on all sides * * *" In Mound 38 the wall was of

stone. Thomas describes it as "an irregularly quad-

rilateral stone inclosure * * *. The east and west di-

ameter varied from 10 to 13 feet, the north and south

from 13 to 15. The thickness of the wall at the base

was from 5 to 10 feet, the height from 1 1/2 to 3 feet. The

stones were piled up without any attempt at regularity."

No mention is made of the disposition of the earth from

the sub-floor tomb surrounded by the stone wall, nor is

this earth shown in the cross-section of the mound in

Figure 307, page 445. But it is significant that here

again, as in the Coon Mound, there is exhibited a neces-

sity in the minds of the builders of the mound for a wall

surrounding the sub-floor tomb. A similar wall of stone

is reported for the vicinity of Waukesha, Wisconsin, in

Antiquities, pages 27-28, Plate 18. For the Nicholls

Mound in Trempeleau County, Wisconsin, McKern de-

scribes four disconnected low walls of earth on each side

of a rectangular sub-floor pit containing four extended

skeletons. The sides of this sub-floor tomb were lined

with bark, and McKern mentions leaf-shaped flint

points, copper beads and deposits of red pigment.

Otherwise the artifacts were of the Hopewell type (See

Nicholls Mound, Bibliography). Another mound con-

taining a wall around a sub-floor tomb, in Tennessee,

excavated by Harrington, will be discussed later.

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25. Knives, flint flake. The flint flake knives found

in Mounds 1 and 16 are of the colored Flint Ridge ma-

terial, and accompanied burials. Those from Mounds 7

and 56 were found near the femora of skeletons.

26. Bone beads. In the report for Mound 28 it is

said that "about the waist were several bird bones, each

about an inch in length, which also appear to have been

used for beads." These are included in Table A under

Trait 26, and in Tables B and C as Tubular bone beads.

For the remainder of the bone beads it is not said

whether the material is from animals or birds.

27. Flaking tools, antler or bole. The two flaking

tools from Mounds 1 and 12 are about three inches long.

The one from Mound 1 is bone, with a circular cross-

section about one-quarter of an inch thick. The one

from Mound 12 is of antler with a rectangular cross-

section one-eighth of an inch thick and one-half an inch

wide. Both ends are worn. The 12 flaking tools from

Mound 39 are described as follows: "* * * formed

from the antler of the deer and elk. They are cylindrical

in form, from three to eight inches in length, and an

inch to an inch and a half in diameter. Most of these

had both ends somewhat rounded, and perfectly smooth

* * *" (page 6).

28. Claws, animal. In Mound 1, 15 bear claws

were found on the right arm of a skeleton. The single

claw from Mound 50, that of a bear, was near the wrist

of a skeleton. An eagle claw accompanied the single

burial in Mound 54.

29. Copper rings. Four copper rings were taken

from the Adena Mound, but in the report Mills only

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  463

mentions two, made of light copper wire bent twice

around the finger in a spiral. These were found on the

bones of one finger of the left hand of a skeleton of an

adult. The two copper rings from Mound 7 were found

among the bones of the right hand and wrist of a child.

They are not of the spiral type, the two ends coming to-

gether with a slight gap. In the report for Mound 49

the position of the copper ring is not given. If the il-

lustration in this report, Figure 2, page 723, represents

the actual size, this specimen is larger and thicker in

cross-section than the others. The ends overlap about

three-eighths of an inch.

30. Stone balls. Some of these closely approach

the spherical form while others are only roughly so. In

Mound 1 there were three of diorite and one of quartzite.

In Mound 31 there was one of granite and the one from

Mound 37 is quartzite. The latter is well-made, almost

spherical to the unaided eye, and has on its surface a

round flat area half an inch in diameter.

31. Pearl beads. These were found only in Mounds

1 and 53. Those in Mound 1 were intermingled with

bone beads at the neck of a skeleton. The 42 pearl beads

from Mound 53 were mixed with shell beads in a deposit

adjoining a "large bundle of human leg bones, upon

which lay a skull partially painted red." The number of

pearl beads ascribed to Mound 1, 200, is an approximate

number, since the exact number is not given in the

original report (page 474).

32. Antler projectile points. These are of the ordi-

nary type, hollowed out at the base for hafting. The

three from Mound 1 were found near the head of a skel-

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eton. The one from Mound 9 was found near the left

hand of an adult skeleton.

33. Concretions or fossils. The two concretions

from Mound 1 are not mentioned in the report for that

mound, but they are described in the catalog and are

among the objects on exhibit from the Adena Mound.

The larger of the two, about half the size of a baseball,

is reddish brown and weighs 11 ounces. The other,

two-thirds as large as the first, is gray and weighs six

ounces. One of the fossils from Mound 37 is irregu-

larly cubical, apparently fossil coral. The other is the

fossil of a spiral sea-shell, two inches long.

34. Stone celts. The two stone "axes" described in

the original report of Mound 26 are interpreted herein as

celts, since there is no mention of grooves. In Table B

the various materials used in making stone celts are re-

corded.

35. Copper beads. Information concerning shapes

may be found in Table B.

36. Notched flint projectile points.  Six of the

seven points of this type from Mound 16 are perhaps

better described as an expanded stem type, closely ap-

proaching what is called the Stemmed type in Table A,

with the notches, consisting of two lines at right angles,

forming a straight stem. These six from Mound 16

however have the stem slightly expanded, increasing in

width toward the base. All six are almost identical

in form and size and were probably made from the

same piece of Flint Ridge material, by the same indi-

vidual. Unlike most if not all of the notched points,

these from Mound 16 were found with a burial, near

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  465

the feet of a male adult skeleton, in a pile with the

points all turned toward the skeleton. They are about

three and one-half inches in length and two and one-

quarter inches in width.

37. Hematite celts. Nine of the ten hematite celts

were with skeletal remains as intentional tributes. The

remaining one, one of the two found in Mound 54, was

found above the floor in which the sub-floor burial

chamber had been excavated. The two from Mound 39

were described as "a hematite hand-axe and a hatchet,"

implying a contrast in their outlines. The celts from

two of the mounds were similarly placed. That from

Mound 61 lay on a stone directly over the head of a

skeleton, and that from Mound 66 lay on a sandstone

gorget which rested on the breast of a skeleton. Five

of these celts were with sub-floor burials.

38. Red ochre, lump or granular. Table B shows

only the application of red ochre to skeletons, artifacts or

bark, or in the earth adjacent to those objects. Granu-

lar red ochre was found in Mounds 21 and 39. In the

lump form it occurred in Mounds 22, 27, 38 and 54. In

Mound 39 the powdered red ochre was found near two

skeletons of the opposite sex. It is significant that two

hematite celts were also found in this mound. The po-

sition of the ground hematite in Mound 21 is not given.

In Mound 27 one lump of red ochre was found on what

was described as an altar. This altar is not included in

Table A, as the original report is indefinite as to its

form. In Mound 48 an unstated number of lumps of

red ochre were found detached from human remains.

The same applies to Mound 54. One of four of the

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largest lumps was found close to a broken tubular pipe,

and a smaller one lay on a group of flint blades (pages

142-143).

39. Handles, bone, antler or stone. The term Handle

as used here is descriptive only of shape. The sandstone

handle from Mound 7 has already been mentioned under

Trait 10. In the original report of this mound it was

called an unfinished tubular pipe. It was found between

the femora of a skeleton. The two handles from Mound

12 are both made of antler. Mills is in error in describ-

ing the ornamented one (see page 258 and Figures 18

and 19) as made of stone. The hole is about two inches

deep and comes to a blunt point. The other specimen

from this mound is about two inches long, and retains

part of the annular projection or flange at the base of

the antler. This projection is at the base or proximal

end of the handle and is notched at regular intervals.

The indefinite number of handles given for Mound 28 in

Table A are described by MacLean as "whistles made

from buck's horn." That these were similar to the

handles from Mound 12 is evident from Mills' descrip-

tion of the ornamented specimen from that mound as a

"peculiar whistle-like specimen. * * *" The antler han-

dle from Mound 35 is not described. For the two bone

handles from Mound 54 it is said (page 142) that each

"has a tapering hole at one end, the face of the end

showing very plainly the green stain of copper about

the hole and extending to the edge." These specimens

are illustrated in the report for Mound 54, Figure A, 1,

and Plate XXIII, 3. The handle from Mound 36 is

antler, rectangular with the proximal end rounded; two

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  467

and one-half inches long, one and one-eighth inches wide

and five-eighths inches thick. The hole is round, one-

half of an inch in diameter at the open end, and taper-

ing to a point at a depth of one and three-eighths inches.

40. Stone discs. The dimensions of the stone disc

from Mound 5 are not given. It was found in a log-

mold. The disc from Mound 12 is about three and one-

half inches in diameter and one and one-half inches

thick, with one circular surface slightly convex and the

opposite surface flat. It was found near the lower right

arm bones of a skeleton. From the illustration in the

report on Mound 49 (Figure 6, page 725) the disc from

this mound appears to be of the same size and general

shape as the one from Mound 12. It was found with a

group of four skeletons. The two discs from Mound 57

were found near the heads of two skeletons. The ma-

terial is not given, but it is assumed that they were stone.

The two stone discs from Mound 59 were found in a

log tomb containing six skeletons.

41. Mounds in an inclosure. Mounds 20 and 52

were surrounded by square inclosures with an entrance

or gateway at the east. The inclosure around Mound

52 had a gateway also on the west, and the other had

rounded corners. It is of interest to note that the circu-

lar wall of gravel in Mound 43, also had an entrance or

passageway on the east. The same is true of the sub-

floor log tomb in Mound 19. Mound 4 was surrounded

by a roughly circular wall of earth with six gateways.

The inclosure in one of whose two gateways Mound 58

was situated was roughly triangular. Mound 68 was at

the center of a circular inclosure with one gateway on

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the northwest. Mound 69 was at the entrance to an in-

closure whose shape is not given.

42. Copper gorgets. The five rectangular copper

gorgets in Mound 18 "had evidently been fastened

around the wrist" of a skeleton (page 310). They were

all about two and one-half by three and one-fifth inches.

The copper gorget listed for Mound 40 is described in

the report for that mound as a copper "breastplate or

badge." Dimensions are not given. The copper gorget

with serrated edges from Mound 44 was found with

cremated human remains. This specimen was about

two and three-quarters inches long and one and one-half

in width, with two holes one and three-eighths inches

apart. It is illustrated in Figure 8, page 72, in the

report for Mound 44. The rectangular copper gorget

with concave sides listed for Mound 56 was found with

the fragments of a human skeleton. It was three by

four and one-quarter inches and had been doubled over

and hammered flat. The copper H-shaped gorget from

Mound 59 was found on the breast of a skeleton. It

measured three and one-half by three and three-quar-

ters inches. It is illustrated in the report for Mound 59.

43. Hematite hemispheres. The specimen from

Mound 9 was found near the left hand of a skeleton,

and that from Mound 21 accompanied cremated human

remains. The latter was one and one-half inches in

diameter and is illustrated in Figure 13, page 87, in the

report for Mound 21. The two hematite hemispheres

from Mound 59 were found in a log tomb containing

six skeletons. The specimen from Mound 18 was found

on the top of the mound previous to its excavation

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  469

by Fowke,--"perhaps plowed out." A hemisphere of

barite is listed in Table C for Mound 54. It was found

unassociated with human remains, and is about one and

one-half inches in diameter.

44. Stones with incised characters. The type speci-

men is the famous Grave Creek Tablet. The question

of the integrity of this object was raised shortly after it

was found in Mound 55 in 1838, and the controversy

was carried on until an opinion was delivered by M. C.

Read, in Archaeology of Ohio, some time after 1885.

According to Read the Grave Creek Tablet is a fraud.

The illustration of it in Figure 24 is a pen-sketch made

by the writer from Read's illustration.

Read's opinion of this tablet is called in question by

the occurence of similar inscribed stones in three other

mounds all of which, like Mound 55, exhibit Adena

traits. The specimens from Mound 49 and Mound 70

are shown in Figure 24. These also are drawings made

from illustrations in the reports of these two mounds.

The inscribed stone from Mound 14 is not illustrated.

Moorehead says: "At the side of the head were thirty-

two disk-shaped shell beads, and a piece of slate the size

of a dollar, with some peculiar markings on it" (page

132).

The markings on the three tablets of which illustra-

tions are given all resemble alphabetical characters to

some extent, alike in individual shape and in arrange-

ment with regard to one another. It will be noted that

those on the Grave Creek Tablet are arranged in three

lines with one character below these lines; on the speci-

men from Mound 49 the characters are in four lines;

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470      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications on the one from Mound 70 the characters are in one line, and detached from that line is another character

which resembles very closely the character detached from the three lines in the Grave Creek Tablet. Some of the characters are, with slight variations, common to these

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  471

three stones. With regard to the piece from Mound

70, Thomas makes the following statement: "* * *  im-

mediately under the skull and jaw bones * * * were

two copper bracelets, an engraved stone, a small drilled

fossil, a copper bead, a bone implement, and some small

pieces of polished wood. * * * The engraved stone

lay partially under the back part of the skull and

was struck by the steel prod used in probing. * * *

The engraved characters on it are beyond question

letters of the Cherokee alphabet said to have been

invented by George Guess (or Sequoyah), a half-breed

Cherokee, about 1820." In a footnote on page 37, Prob-

lem of the Ohio Mounds, Thomas says that this in-

scribed tablet shows either that Mound 70 was built

after the year 1820 or that George Guess was not the

author of the Cherokee alphabet. Lest it be thought

that an attempt to show that Grave Creek Mound was

erected after 1820 is about to follow, it may be said

here that Tomlinson, owner and excavator of the

mound, records that the mound was discovered by his

grandfather soon after he settled in the vicinity, in 1772,

and that dates as early as 1734 were cut in the bark of

a large beech tree which stood in the center of the de-

pression at the top of the mound.

There is no alternative to the inclusion of these in-

scribed stones as traits of the Adena culture. In the

opinion of the writer definite proof of the fraudulent

origin of the Grave Creek Tablet has never been given.

As for the others, two of them are described by pro-

fessional archaeologists whose word is beyond question;

there is just as little reason to question the origin of the

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472      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

third from Mound 49, which was excavated and de-

scribed by Dr. G. W. Homsher. It seems apparent that

the Grave Creek Tablet was regarded as a fraud mainly

because it was at first widely heralded as the work of

Europeans who visited America before 1492, a claim for

which there is little or no support. If the characters on

thi stablet had been compared with inscriptions found

only in America, carved on rocks in various parts of the

mound area, their fraudulent origin would have been less

generally accepted. It is not contended in this study that

the Grave Creek Tablet is genuine, nor that the finding

of three more similar tablets in mounds of the Adena

type demonstrates the final authenticity of all four.

Only further excavation in mounds of the Adena type

will solve the problem.

It should be pointed out here that very obvious

frauds have been found in mounds exhibiting Adena

features, although none of these are reported from the

four mounds containing the inscribed tablets under dis-

cussion. After the excavation of Mound 40 in 1850

and the finding of the objects listed in Table 1, it was

re-opened in 1860 by David Wyrick of Newark, Ohio,

who claimed to find a stone tablet bearing inscriptions

in Hebrew and a likeness of Moses. A complete ac-

count of this specimen may be found in Archaeology of

Ohio, pages 105-106. It is also discussed in Archaeolog-

ical History of Ohio, pages 581-582. A number of

fraudulent engraved tablets and banner-stones were

also taken from the Wilmington Mound which, al-

though it is not included in this report among the sev-

enty Adena type mounds, probably belongs therein.

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  473

These objects are described and illustrated in the orig-

inal report (See Wilmington Mound, Bibliography).

Finally, one of the so-called Davenport Tablets is re-

ported to have been taken from a mound which had a

sub-floor burial chamber and some powdered red ochre.

These tablets are described in Proceedings, Davenport,

Volume 2, pages 91 and 221.

Nothing so obviously of a fraudulent nature as these

inscribed and illustrated tablets was taken from Mounds

14, 49, 55 and 70. The fraudulent characters supposed

to represent hieroglyphics or letters of some alphabet

are of an entirely different nature from those illustrated

in the reports for Mounds 49, 55 and 70.

45. In a group of three mounds. Shetrone men-

tions this trait in Mound Builders, page 167. Four of

the 70 mounds were in groups of three. In the group

to which Mound 70 belongs however, one of the mounds

was on the opposite side of Bat Creek from the other

two, the three being at the conjunction of Bat Creek

with the Little Tennessee River. Mound 1 itself may

originally, for a time at least, have been one of a group

of three, as it was in the vicinity of a number of mounds

of the same type.  Moorehead says of Mound 13:

"Alongside of it is a horse-shoe or crescent-shaped em-

bankment and two small mounds."

46. Spatulas, bone. These four peculiar imple-

ments accompanied human remains. The specimen from

Mound 12 is figured on page 260 of the report for that

mound. It is made of the metapodial bone of the elk,

is 115? inches long, and was found near the lower right

arm of a skeleton. The blade is much like that of a

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474      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

modern case-knife. The one from Mound 39 was found

with a female skeleton and is described as a "spatula,

cut from an ulna and probably used for molding pot-

tery." Two of these implements found in Mound 48 are

described as "narrow bone paddles," and were found

with the scattered parts of a skeleton.

47. Altars. There is much confusion in the litera-

ture of mound archaeology in the use of this term, as

has been pointed out in Explorations of the Seip Group.

What is called in that report a "burial platform" is

termed a "grave" or "altar-like" structure by Willough-

by in Turner Group of Earthworks, on page 30. On

page 82 what is called a "crematory basin" in Explora-

tions of the Seip Group, is described as an "altar." Mc-

Kern uses the terms "Crematory" and "Altar basin" in-

terchangeably (See Nicholls Mound, Bibliography, page

237). For Mound 4 in the present classification, Squire

and Davis use the term "altar" to indicate a low cone of

earth with a depressed apex. A cross-section of this

altar is given in Ancient Monuments, page 156. The

depression in the cone is called a "basin," and both the

basin and the base of the cone are circular. The base

of the cone is 13 feet in diameter and the basin seven

feet in diameter and eight inches deep. It was paved

with small stones. The term "altar" is used in this re-

port to describe a structure of this nature. Of Mound

47 Moorehead says (page 26) that there was "upon the

base line an altar four feet square, dipping toward the

centre, and six inches high." The objects described in

Table A from this mound were found in the basin of the

altar. Of Mound 65, Thomas says that on the natural

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  475

surface of the ground was "a clay bed or so-called 'altar'

from 6 to 18 inches thick, and covering a larger space

than the 16 feet to which the (central) shaft was here

enlarged, though the altar proper was about 12 feet long

by 8 feet wide." The two sitting skeletons supporting

with outstretched arms the vessel-shaped piece of sand-

stone, heretofore alluded to in the discussion of Trait 22,

were immediately above this altar.

48. Flint drills. The drill from Mound 21 is two

and three-quarters inches long. It is broken at the prox-

imal end but there is enough to show that this end was

expanded, either in the usual cross-piece, or as a

rounded knob. The dimensions and types of drills from

Mounds 22 and 36 are not given. The drill from Mound

21 was found with a cremated burial.

49. Red ochre on artifacts. This feature was

found in only two mounds, Mound 6 in Ohio and Mound

54 in West Virginia, although in Table B, Mound 18

shows red ochre stains in the earth adjoining gorgets.

A hematite hemisphere was also found in this mound.

50. Flint scrapers, "thumb-nail" type. This type

of scraper is illustrated in Plate XXI in the report for

Mound 54. These were not found with burials in either

of the two mounds containing them.

51. Skulls artificially deformed. MacLean says in

the description of Mound 28 that "A peculiarity of six

or eight crania consisted in having the occipital bone

flattened." Of a skeleton in Mound 59 Thomas says

"The skulls showed very plainly the flattening of the

front."

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476      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

52. Geodes, cup-like. Two of the geodes from

Mound 54 are described as "naturally formed mortars,

which were probably employed in preparing the ochre

for use" (page 144). These are illustrated in Plate

XXIV, 4 and 5. Traces of red ochre were found in the

smaller of the two. The other two from Mound 54

were not found in association with human remains. One

of them was "smeared with red ochre." The specimen

from Mound 37 is two inches long and five-eighths

inches deep in outside measurement. The resemblance

to one of those from Mound 54 (Plate XXIV, Figure

12) is very close.

53. Abrading stones. These are irregular pieces of

light brown sandstone with irregular grooves in them,

closely resembling the "sinew stones" illustrated by Par-

ker in Archeological History, New York, page 436, Plate

136, Number 7. The abrading stone from Mound 21

was not found with human remains, although the

grooved stone (Trait 15) accompanied one of the cre-

mated burials in this mound. The positions of the

specimens from Mound 36 are unknown.

54. Pestles, stone.  Details for the stone pestles

from Mounds 28 and 59 are not given. The one from

Mound 59 was found in a log tomb containing the re-

mains of six individuals. MacLean does not give the

number for Mound 28.

55. Steatite platform pipes. The steatite platform

pipe from Mound 54 was found as excavations were be-

ing filled in during the absence of the authorized exca-

vators, Bache and Satterthwaite, who are however sat-

isfied that it came from the mound. Any remaining

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  477

doubt is dispelled by the presence of a pipe identical in

type and material in Mound 59, in the log tomb contain-

ing six skeletons and a number of other artifacts typical

of the Adena culture. Both pipes are illustrated in the

reports for these mounds.

56. Log tombs, passageway at east. This feature

in Mound 43 is familiar to readers of this report. What

has been interpreted herein as a sub-floor log tomb with

a passageway on the east is described in the report for

Mound 19, as follows, by Fowke: "* * * an irregular

ellipse with a narrow prolongation toward the east

* * *" at the east end a graded slope was left to facili-

tate the passage of those engaged in the labor of exca-

vating; on either side the walls were carried vertically

downward four feet from the termination of the slope,

or to a total depth of seven feet. The pit thus formed

measured within the perpendicular walls, sixteen feet

east and west by ten feet north and south. Traits 1, 2,

4 and 5 are also found in both of these mounds.

57. Skeletons flexed. In the rather vague descrip-

tion of this feature for Mound 28 it is apparent that

only two of the eight or more skeletons found in the

mound were extended. Of those flexed it is said that

"Some had their bodies reclining with the hands thrown

over the head, and the knees drawn up." The one flexed

burial in Mound 12 was that of a child in a sub-floor

grave.

58. Graphite, lump or granular. In the report for

Mound 48 "several small lumps of graphite" were found

in a rectangular pit about four by three feet, which also

contained a lumbar vertebra, presumably human. The

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478      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

graphite from Mound 54 is described as follows: ^"* * *

in small grains or pebbles, the largest diameter varying

between five and ten millimetres * * * This material

occurred in eight distinct patches above the skeleton on

the grave floor; in one patch with a broken tube section

a few centimetres above the ribs; and in two patches

close together on the inside slope of the sand thrown out

in excavating the grave * * * at the southwesterly or

head end of the grave."

59. Obsidian flakes. One obsidian flake was found

in Mound 53, in Illinois, and another in Mound 54, in

West Virginia. In neither mound did they accompany

burials. They were probably in the earth on the sites

of these two mounds before their erection.

 

 

DISCUSSION OF TRAITS LISTED IN TABLE C

Table C contains traits which were of no value in

identifying the cultural affiliations of the seventy

mounds, either because they were found only in one

mound, or in more than one mound in a restricted area,

or because they are not adequately described in the orig-

inal reports.

Crematory basins, animal jaws, and the "beehive"

type of vault were not included in Table A, because they

were found only in restricted areas. Tubular beads,

head-dresses, hoes, knives other than those of the flaked

type, needles and shell spoons were omitted because of

indefiniteness as to the meanings of those terms. Fabric,

and vessels of clay, including sherds, may be regarded

as Adena traits, but these are general terms, and noth-

ing is known of the type of pottery with the exception

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  479

of the sherds from Mound 53, in Illinois. For fabric,

the type of weave is described only for Mounds 1 and

12, both of which were in the same restricted area. As

to the two bone combs and the shell effigy of a raccoon

from Mound 1, these were omitted because nothing of

this nature was found in any of the other 69 mounds.

They may, in other words, represent merely a local de-

velopment, restricted entirely to the builders of the

Adena Mound. Complete adherence to the zoological

method of identification would require the inclusion of

these two types of artifact from the Adena Mound,

since it is the type specimen, but the looseness of the

method by which traits of culture are diffused from one

specific or generic unit to another, as compared to the

exactitude of the processes by which the physical traits

of living organisms are transmitted, is regarded as suf-

ficient justification for this departure.

Probably ninety percent of skeletons in the 70

mounds were extended. But extension has been listed

in neither Table A or Table C, because of the fact that

there are different degrees of extension and because,

while many of the authors of the original descriptions

of the 70 mounds probably intended that extension

should be understood unless other positions were ex-

plicitly described, there is no certainty that this was the

case in every instance.

Some of the traits listed in Table C are of impor-

tance because, although they are found in only one of

the 70 mounds, or in only one geographically limited

group, they also occur elsewhere in mounds which prob-

ably could be included among the 70 in this report if

their entire contents were known.

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One of these traits is the arrangement of skeletons

in a wheel-shaped formation. According to Table C

this feature was found in Mound 57. On the floor of

this mound at center was an extended skeleton with

head north. "Ten other skeletons, all buried in the

same manner, were found * * * arranged five on each

side in a semi-circle with the feet turned toward, but

not quite touching, the one just mentioned" (Report on

the Mound Explorations, pages 416-417). In the

Wilmington Mound (See Bibliography), three and one-

half feet above the ground level a number of skeletons

were "buried in regular order, each having the head to

the center and the feet toward the outer edge of the

mound, radiating from the center as the spokes in a

wheel radiate from the hub." At the center was a

"truncated cone-shaped mass, about two feet high and

four feet in diameter, composed of clay * * *" The

mound was 40 by 50 feet and six and one-half feet high.

It also contained a sub-floor stone vault, one skeleton,

the so-called Wilmington Tablet, the only genuine "tab-

let" in the mound, and one piece of mica.

The Kiefer Mound (See Mound Builders, Shetrone,

page 93), in Miami County, Ohio, had three features

in common with the Wilmington Mound. Twelve skel-

etons were arranged in a circle, heads to center, one

foot and two inches above the ground level, around the

top of what is described in a blue-print made by the

excavator, as a "fire-place" eight feet in diameter, ris-

ing from the floor. This fire-place appears to be anal-

agous to the truncated cone-shaped mass in the Wil-

mington Mound. As in the latter, an engraved stone

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Coon Mound--Analysis of Adena Culture  481

tablet was found, which will be discussed later. On the

floor of the Kiefer Mound, in a two-inch layer of ashes,

were five more skeletons arranged rather irregularly

around the central knob. Three of the skeletons in the

upper wheel-shaped layer had the skulls between the

knees. The other artifacts from this mound are as fol-

lows: 1 copper celt, 1 unperforated slate gorget (See

Stone Ornaments, Figure 201A), 10 round sandstone

discs, one of which has what appears to be red ochre on

one side.

Shetrone (Mound Builders, page 421) mentions a

mound with skeletons in a wheel-shaped arrangement,

heads to center, in the Lost Creek Group in Kentucky.

MacLean (Mound Builders, page 202) describes a

mound in Reily township, Butler County, Ohio, which

contained 24 skeletons "arranged in a circle with the

heads pointing towards the center."

One stone tablet with a design in relief on one side

and three grooves on the other is described for one of

the 70 mounds listed herein, Mound 26, the Cincinnati

Mound. In Indian Tribes, Schoolcraft illustrates this

tablet in Plate 23, Figure 5. On page 91 he says

wrongly that it was taken from one of the minor mounds

of the Grave Creek Group in West Virginia. The illus-

tration of the tablet in the American Pioneer is four

and three-quarters by two and three-quarters inches, but

the scale is not given. It is said in the same account,

page 195, that this tablet "has spots over it, both back

and front, as if it had been sprinkled with blood." This

may have been red ochre. The resemblance of the three

nearly parallel grooves on the back of the Cincinnati

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Tablet to those on the grooved stone from the Adena

Mound is very close.

The tablet from the Wilmington Mound bore a

raised curvilinear design on one side which is very sim-

ilar to those on the tablets from the Kiefer Mound and

from Mound 26. Some very crudely-made frauds are

reported in the original description of the Wilmington

Mound, but the tablet described as Number 1 is genuine

beyond question, with the possible exception of a design

resembling an arrow on one edge. It is unfortunate and

confusing that the term tablet has been applied to the

stones with raised conventionalized design, which are

genuine, and to objects which were placed with fraudu-

lent intent. The reverse side of the Wilmington Tablet

is not described in the original account, but in the Cin-

cinnati Commercial for February 22, 1879, there is a

description written by a reporter who visited the site

of the mound shortly after discovery of the tablet. In

this article, on page 1, it is said that "One side of the

tablet is filled with deeply worn hollows, as though it

had been used for sharpening some hard instrument with

a round point."

In the Kiefer Mound, one-half of a fine-grained

sandstone tablet was found, bearing a curvilinear design

on one side, similar in execution and in general concep-

tion to those on the tablets already described. This tab-

let, in the Museum of the Ohio State Archaeological and

Historical Society, is illustrated in Stone Ornaments,

Figure 187. The length, as restored, is three and eleven-

sixteenths inches; thickness, five-sixteenths of an inch.

On the side opposite the design is a roughly circular de-

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484      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

pression about three-sixteenths of an inch deep and one

and one-half inches in diameter,--a variety no doubt of

the grooves found on the reverse sides of the Cincinnati

and Wilmington Tablets. The design on the Kiefer

Tablet is in relief of about one thirty-second of an inch.

In June, 1876, the so-called Berlin Tablet was found

in a mound in Lick township, Jackson County, Ohio,

which is the same location as that given for Mound 21

of the present report (See Berlin Mound, Bibliography).

This tablet, in the Museum of the Ohio State Archaeo-

ological and Historical Society, is shown in Figure 25.

The same design, incised in narrow, shallow lines with

no attempt at bas-relief, is found on both sides, but the

execution is better on one side than on the other. On

the latter side (Figure 25, A) there are indentations or