Ohio History Journal

EXPLORATIONS OF THE SEIP GROUP OF PRE-

HISTORIC EARTHWORKS

 

BY HENRY C. SHETRONE AND EMERSON F. GREENMAN

CONTENTS

Prefatory Note

Introductory

The Earthworks in General

Structural Aspects of the Central Mound

The Primary Mound

The Retaining Walls

The Floor

Crematory Basins, Depressions, Pits and Post-molds

Burial Platforms

Burials and Deposits of Major Interest

The Great Multiple Burial (Burials 2-7)

The Burnt Offering

The Ceremonial Cache

Burials 1, 10, 19, 26, 28, 32, 34,42, 48, 49, 52, 58, 60, 66,

73, 79, 86.

Description of Artifacts

Inorganic Materials

Organic Materials

Complete list of Artifacts from Seip Mound Number 1

Other Burials of Mound Number 1

Burials 9, 11, 12, 14, 17, 22, 23, 24, 27, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38,

39, 40, 41, 43, 45, 46, 53, 57, 59, 61, 63, 64, 65, 67, 68, 71,

74, 81, 85, 88, 89, 90, 97, 98

Intrusive Burials

Grave south of Mound Number 1

Burials without Artifacts

Burials 8, 13, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 25, 29, 30, 31, 44, 47,

50, 51, 54, 55, 56, 62, 69, 70, 72, 75, 76, 77, 78, 80, 82,

83, 84, 87, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 99, 100.

Mound Number 3

Mound Number 4

Analysis of Burial Practices

Conclusions

Summary of the Hopewell Culture

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PREFATORY NOTE

 

Examination of the Great Central Tumulus of the

Seip Group occupied four successive summers from

1925 to 1928. Headquarters were established perma-

nently at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Zimmerman,

who occupied the Seip farm during the entire period of

exploration. The mound itself is but an eighth of a mile

distant from the farmhouse, which is situated upon a

part of the remaining portion of the great circle of the

Seip Group.

Henry C. Shetrone was in immediate charge of ex-

cavation during the first three seasons. Assisting him

during that period were Robert Redfield, of the Uni-

versity of Chicago; J. Arthur MacLean, of the Toledo

Museum of Art; Frank M. Setzler, of Ohio State Uni-

versity; Robert Goslin, of Lancaster, Ohio; and Frank

C. Hibben of Cleveland. Upon the death of Director

William C. Mills and the advancement of Mr. Shetrone

to his position, explorations of the fourth season were

concluded by Emerson F. Greenman, newly appointed

Curator of Archaeology, with the assistance of Robert

Goslin, Frank C. Hibben and Samuel T. Orton, Jr.

Mr. John Seip of Chillicothe and the members of his

family tendered constant assistance and cooperation to

the Survey, and deeded to the Society that part of the

eastern portion of the mound which was situated upon

their property, together with additional adjoining land

to provide space for continuation of a roadway around

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346      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

the Mound. For this valuable service the Society here-

with expresses its gratitude.

Mr. Albert C. Spetnagel and Mr. John Blosser of

Chillicothe rendered valuable assistance throughout the

four seasons of excavation and the thanks of the Society

are tendered to them at this time.

In view of the fact that most students of Ohio

archaeology are familiar with the details of the subject,

from previous reports on the Society's explorations, and

in this particular instance from that of Dr. William C.

Mills on the examination of Seip Mound number 2, it

is deemed unnecessary to inflict upon the reader of the

present report the minutiae of the investigation con-

tained in the Survey's field notes.  These of course

are available to those who may be interested in them.

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EXPLORATIONS OF THE SEIP GROUP

OF PREHISTORIC EARTHWORKS

 

BY HENRY C. SHETRONE AND EMERSON F. GREENMAN

 

 

INTRODUCTORY

For the benefit of those readers who may not have

found time and opportunity to acquaint themselves with

the fundamentals of Ohio archaeology, this brief outline

of the mound-building peoples of the State is offered.

Throughout the valleys of the lower Mississippi and

the Ohio rivers, together with many of their tributaries

and adjacent territory, there have been observed pre-

historic mounds and earthworks, popularly attributed

to the so-called Mound-builders. Exploration of these

tumuli and study of their burials and relics show that

they were constructed, not by a separate and distinct

race of people, but by various tribes and nations of

American Indians. In a word, the trait of building

mounds as monuments to the dead and of constructing

earthworks for religious, social and defensive purposes,

was almost world-wide among primitive peoples, and

the native American Indians were no exception.

Within the confines of the State of Ohio three or

more kinds or cultures of prehistoric inhabitants had

developed the trait of mound-building. Two of these

are of foremost importance. The people of the so-called

Fort Ancient culture were wide-spread and numerous

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350      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

and left behind them extensive village sites. Those of

the Hopewell culture, the most highly developed of all

the mound-building peoples, were responsible for the

erection of a score or more of great geometric earth-

works and accompanying mound groups, throughout

southern Ohio and contiguous territory.

Lack of space precludes mention of more than a few

of the outstanding characteristics of this and other cul-

tures of the State. Origin, antiquity and disappearance

are perhaps the three phases of the subject concerning

which information most often is desired. As indicated

above, the mound-building peoples belonged to the native

American race, so that the question as to their origin

becomes a part of the broader question as to the origin

of the American Indian. Most persons are aware that

scientific opinion now inclines strongly toward Asia as

the place of such origin.

While it is a recorded fact that in certain sections of

the country mounds have been built and used within

historic times, there is no evidence of contact between

the builders of Ohio mounds and white men; however,

there is no reason to believe that the building of mounds

in the Ohio area may not have prevailed well up to the

time of the appearance of Europeans in the territory.

The question of antiquity of the mounds, therefore, can-

not be specifically answered, since a given mound might

be not more than two or three centuries old while an-

other may have witnessed the lapse of ten or twenty

centuries.

There appears to be but a single historical incident

having a possible bearing upon the disappearance from

Ohio of the mound-building cultures: namely, the so-

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Explorations of the Seip Group     351

called Iroquoian invasion, which occurred about the

year 1650. While the mound-building trait in the terri-

tory in question obviously had reached and passed its

greatest development by that time, there is reason for

believing that it may not have been entirely obsolete, in

which case the Iroquoian conquest is a conceivable factor

in its extermination. Other possible causes are those

which have obtained throughout the history of human

society--social and physical decadence, famine and pesti-

lence, conquest and resultant assimilation or even anni-

hilation.  Archaeologists continue the search for evi-

dence that may link the mound-building peoples with one

or another of several historic cultures, but in so far as

the Hopewell culture is concerned there appears to be

little to indicate affinity with another stock.

The known facts with respect to these questions may

be found in the various publications of the Ohio Ar-

chaeological and Historical Society, particularly in the

Archaeological History of Ohio, by Gerard Fowke. A

comparative study of the several cultures is contained

in a paper entitled "The Culture Problem in Ohio Ar-

chaeology," by H. C. Shetrone, published in the Ameri-

can Anthropologist, (N. S.), Volume XXII, 1920. A

more recent study by the same authority is The Mound

Builders, embracing the various mound-cultures of

North America, published in 1930 by D. Appleton & Co.,

New York.

NOTE: The foregoing is reprinted from "Explorations of

the Hopewell Group," by H. C. Shetrone, Ohio Archaeological

and Historical Publications, Volume XXXV, 1926.

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352      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

 

THE EARTHWORKS IN GENERAL

The Seip Group of mounds and earthworks is situ-

ated 17 miles southwest of the city of Chillicothe, Ross

County, about at the center of a large bend of Paint

Creek. At low water this stream has an average width

of 70 feet. Its valley, nearly a mile wide at the point

selected by the builders, is bordered by hills many of

which attain an elevation of 500 feet above the creek.

This rugged topography covers southern Ohio and is

part of the foothill system of the Appalachian Moun-

tains. The Seip Group is within 12 miles of the north-

ern limit of these foothills.

Ross County contains a known total of 455 aborig-

inal earthworks,1 a larger number than is credited to any

other county in the State of Ohio. In the immediate

vicinity of the Seip Group are the Baum Group of

mounds and geometrical earthworks and Baum village

site, some three miles northeast in the valley of Paint

Creek; Spruce Hill Fort, a defensive inclosure of stone

covering the point of a hill which projects into the val-

ley of the Creek from the south; a conical mound 15

feet high four miles to the southwest; a square inclosure

on the opposite (west) side of Paint Creek, and a minor

system of earthen circles and walls on the edge of the

town of Bainbridge, three miles southwest. There are

in addition a score or more of small burial-mounds

within four miles up and down the valley.

According to the Squier and Davis map (Figure 1),

there were originally four mounds and a small circle

within the great circle of the Seip Group. During exca-

1 Mills, William C., Archaeological Atlas of Ohio, page 71.

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Explorations of the Seip Group    353 vation of the great central mound two small mounds not listed by Squier and Davis were discovered within the great circle west of the central mound. They were ex- cavated and are described in this report as Numbers 3 and 4. The two small mounds and the small circle noted on the Squier and Davis map all have been destroyed by cultivation.

Of the remaining mounds the largest lies at the cen- ter of the circular inclosure on a terrace about 15 feet above the low-water level of Paint Creek. The next largest mound of the group, about 200 feet to the northeast, was excavated by Dr. William C. Mills dur- ing the seasons of 1906 and 1908. In the report upon Vol. XL--23.

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354      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

these excavations2 this mound was called "The Seip

Mound," as it lay upon land belonging to the Seip fam-

ily of Chillicothe. The central and largest mound, with

all but the eastern 40 feet lying upon the Pricer farm,

was referred to as "The Pricer Mound," from the name

of the owner of that farm at the time. In the present

report the great central mound is designated as Seip

Mound Number 1, while the mound excavated by Dr.

Mills will be called Seip Mound Number 2.

The report on Seip Mound Number 2 by Dr. Mills

contains a description of the group as a whole and in-

cludes abstracts from the accounts of the early ar-

chaeologists, Caleb Atwater and Messrs. Squier and Da-

vis who became familiar with the group during the fore-

part of the nineteenth centruy.

The walls of the earthworks, with the exception of

about 100 feet on the north, have been almost entirely

obliterated. This surviving portion, which can only be

traced by the experienced eye, is a part of the larger

circle and owes its preservation to the fact that it lies

within the farmyard beyond the reach of plow and culti-

vator.

Seip Mound Number 1 is by far the largest burial-

mound in the Paint Creek valley. The long axis does

not lie due east and west, but in a position pointing six

and one-half degrees north of east. From end to end the

measurement was taken as 250 feet. Owing to certain

low irregularities in the surface of the ground, the edge

of the mound could not at all points be determined accu-

2 Mills, William C., "Explorations of the Seip Mound," Ohio Ar-

cheological and Historical Society Publications, Volume XVIII, Columbus,

1909, page 269.

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356      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

rately, and this measurement, therefore, is correct only

within three or four feet. This is unimportant however

since the dimensions of the essential structural details,

the floor and the stone circumvallation, were definite and

easily determined. The width of the mound at center

was 150 feet. The greatest height, 32 feet, was main-

tained for a distance of 25 or 30 feet parallel to the main

axis in a strip about ten feet wide on top of the mound,

which therefore was approximately level within this

area.

The work of excavation was begun on August 10,

1925, and completed September 10, 1928. Three subse-

quent seasons were occupied in restoration of the mound

and about 200 feet of the circular wall between the

mound and the highway. The site is now a state park

ten acres in extent (Figure 77).

 

STRUCTURAL ASPECTS OF THE CENTRAL MOUND

The Primary Mound. Of first importance in under-

standing the structure of the interior of the mound is

the fact that there was a primary or original mound

consisting of three conjoined lobes.  This primary

mound was overlaid throughout its entire extent by

a stratum of heavy gravel varying from six inches to

two feet in thickness. Where this stratum met the

floor of the mound it spread out to a horizontal width

of eight or ten feet beyond the edges of the primary

mound (Figures 3 and 4). This layer of gravel on

the floor, the inner line of which delimits the extent

of the primary mound, is shown on the floor plan as the

second or inner circle of stones. The outer ring is a

pavement of flat angular slabs of sandstone and lime-

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358      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications stone. This pavement served as the base of the outer retaining wall of heavy gravel about ten feet thick at the bottom and extending with diminishing thickness three-quarters of the distance up the sides of the mound. A glance at the diagrammatical cross-sections of the mound, in Figure 5, will clarify the relative posi- tions of these strata in their vertical aspects.

Of the three lobes of the primary mound the one at the west end was the largest. Its highest point was 17 1/2 feet above the floor. The north and south di- ameter was 88 feet; east and west, 108 feet. Lobe 2, next eastward was 11 feet high with an east and west diameter of 40 feet. Lobe 3, at the east end, was about

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Explorations of the Seip Group    359 eight feet high and had an east and west diameter of 25 feet. Above the primary mound the earth was practically void of intentionally placed burials, excepting the up- per four or five feet, just beneath the surface, where several intrusive burials were found. The earth of the primary mound had a considerable content of clay and was of a lighter brown than that of the overlying portion. The entire mound above the stratum of clay over the primary was built up of dark brown earth profusely intermixed with humus, char-

coal and ashes and quantities of animal bones and other refuse material, including an occasional artifact. In view of the nature of the soil and of the artifacts found in it, this portion of the mound appears to have been removed from the surface in the immediate vicinity upon which the builders had lived. At the east end of the primary mound there was a delta about 30 feet long on the floor of the mound. This deposit of water-laid materials indicates a flow of

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360      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications water between the time of completion of this lobe of the primary and addition of the earth over it. Stratum 2 in Figure 6 represents the greatest volume of the flood, since it is the thickest of the five and contains the coarsest materials.  The section shown in this drawing runs east and west and the direction of the flow of water, as indicated by the gradual tilt of the strata, was to the right or eastward. While this is also the direction of the flow of Paint Creek,3 it seems prob-

3 Old residents of Paxton township tell of seeing the entire valley of Paint Creek flooded, and in the season of 1926, during excavation of the mound, the water came up to within a few inches of the level upon which the mound is situated.

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Explorations of the Seip Group    361

able that what is represented in this delta is a cloudburst

which occurred at a time when the mound was but par-

tially built, with an elevated area acting as a catch-basin

and overflowing on the east end of the mound.

In the 18-foot section in the drawing, the gravel at

the bottom of the primary mound is shown at the left

or west end, with the edge of the primary mound indi-

cated as (b). Stratum (a), lying directly over the gravel,

was composed of rich black earth. The inserted draw-

ing represents a close-up view of a foot-long section

three feet beyond the edge of the gravel of the primary

mound. The wavy lines in Stratum 1 were dark lenses

of sand about one-quarter of an inch thick. The four

lenses in Stratum 3 were about one-eighth of an inch

thick and were made up of reddish fine sand. Only a

part of Stratum 4 is shown in the insert and Stratum 5

is omitted.

The Retaining Walls. Both the primary mound

and the outer surface of the mound proper were over-

laid with a heavy deposit of gravel (Figure 5). The

purpose and manner of construction of these retain-

ing walls were easily apparent. In erecting both parts

of the mound, using ordinary soils and clays, erosion

was a factor to be met and disposed of. The builders

of the mound would have learned this from the wash,

ing down of the materials of the delta if from no

other source. Erection of the entire mound took sev-

eral seasons at the least, and the apparent function

of the retaining walls was to prevent washing both by

flood and storm during this period. The gravel wall

at the surface of the mound proper (C in Fig. 5) was

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362     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

related only to that portion lying outside and above

the primary mound. The gravel stratum lying di-

rectly upon the primary mound (D in Fig. 5) bore

the same relationship to the primary, and differed

from the outer wall only in lacking a base of flat stone

slabs. The erection of both of these walls was probably

a continuous process with the piling up of the earth

which they covered. For example, the primary mound

was not first entirely completed and then covered with

gravel, but the height of the gravel stratum probably

was kept equal with that of the primary mound to pre-

vent erosion. An effect, if not an intended purpose of

the gravel over the primary, seems to have been to keep

surface water from reaching the burials on the floor.

The spaces between the gravelstones were not complete-

ly filled with sand and it was apparent that water, seep-

ing downward, had been deflected by this gravel layer

down the sides of the primary to its edges. Just above

this gravel layer was a stratum of solid yellow clay. At

the top center of each lobe of the primary this stratum

was from 28 to 32 inches in thickness, tapering grad-

ually down to 12 inches at the depressions where the

lobes joined one another and then disappearing within

three or four feet of the edges of the primary on the

floor. The upper line of this yellow clay conformed to

the contour of the lobes and was overlaid directly by the

mixed earth of the upper portion of the mound.

The pavement of stone slabs forming the base of

the outer retaining wall was on the floor of the mound

at its outer margin. The slabs forming this base were

not all laid flat, and there was a tendency for those on

the outer edge to be in a perpendicular position. This

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Explorations of the Seip Group    363

pavement consisted for the most part of blocks of sand-

stone ranging from six to 100 pounds in weight. At

some points they were piled on top of one another to a

height of a foot or two. Above this base, forming a

retaining wall proper and conforming to the slope of

the surface of the mound, heavy gravel was piled. At

the base the thickness of this gravel was generally the

same as that of the stone pavement beneath, from eight

to ten feet; it decreased in thickness as it extended up

the sides of the mound and disappeared about 15 feet

from the apex excepting at certain points where it con-

tinued over the top of the mound to form a complete

covering. It is apparent that the gravel originally cov-

ered the entire mound and was partly washed down dur-

ing the centuries following its erection. This retaining

wall was covered at all points by a foot or two of earth

which was thicker at the base of the mound than at the

top, where at some points the gravel was at the surface.

There can be little doubt that the height of this retain-

ing wall, like that over the primary, was kept equal with

that of the earth above the primary as it was built up,

to prevent undoing by the elements of the arduous labor

of the builders. Doubtless the outer retaining wall had

the same effect as that over the primary in deflecting the

seepage of water, though to a lesser degree, for the earth

of the upper part of the mound was less compact than

the clay of the primary. The layer of clay over the in-

ner retaining wall offered further obstruction to the

downward course of surface water and lessened the

amount which would reach the floor of the mound.

The Floor. Before erection of the mound the sur-

face soil from the corresponding area had been removed

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364      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

to a depth of from six to 12 inches. This comparatively

level area was then covered with a layer of dark clay or

muck varying from six inches to a foot or more in depth.

It was firm in texture and throughout as solid as a fre-

quently used path in clay soil. Certain areas, moreover,

had been hardened by fire, which colored the surface

and the underlying three or four inches in reds, yellows

and browns. This hard-packed clay and muck under-

laid the entire mound, becoming mixed with the loose

surface soil of the site only beneath the pavement of

stone slabs encircling the primary at the edge of the

mound proper. The floor was the same beneath all three

lobes of the primary, without a break between one and

another. A lens of rather coarse water-washed sand

lay upon the floor, varying in thickness from a quarter

of an inch to an inch. While at times this lens could

not be distinguished it probably covered the entire area,

a characteristic and intentional feature of Hopewell

floors.

The only constructions extending beneath the floor-

level were the so-called crematory basins; holes formerly

occupied by posts and stakes of wood, which had de-

cayed; irregular depressions, apparently prepared for

the reception of offerings of a special nature; and pits

which contained refuse material, ashes and charcoal.

Occasional areas were found where the clay and

muck fill of the floor was two feet or more in depth. A

view is shown in Figure 8 of one of these areas near

the east end of the mound, after its excavation in ter-

races showing the different levels. Six levels were found

at this point, each separated from the others by a very

thin lens, light brown in color, which appeared to con-

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Explorations of the Seip Group       365 sist partly of weathered vegetable matter. These extra thick fills of clay apparently were supplied to fill depres- sions in the natural surface. Beneath the floor was the coarse clay and gravel subsoil characteristic of the general region. Crematory Basins, Depressions, Pits and Post molds. There were five of the so-called crematory basins. These are rectangular receptacles in the floor of the

mound, generally with rounded corners, sides sloping inward and downward to a flat base, and having a depth of less than    a foot.4    They are usually very carefully prepared from clay and are symmetrical and smooth on the surface of the sides and bottom. They are al- 4 Dimensions of Crematory Basin Number 1: 36 by 47 inches, five and one-half inches deep. Number 2: 19 by 26 inches, four inches deep. Num- ber 3: 27 by 38 inches, five inches deep. Number 4: 29 by 41 inches, seven inches deep. Number 5: 26 by 40 inches, five inches deep.

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366      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

ways baked to a degree of hardness about that of the

utility type of pottery found in the mounds. The clay

is generally a coating not more than three inches

thick, lying in and exactly conforming to a corresponding

depression in the hard-baked mixture of muck and gravel

forming the floor. As the name indicates, it is believed

that these basins were connected with the process of

cremation, but in just what manner is not understood.

Their surfaces are usually colored bright red or yellow

by the action of heat, supposedly incidental to cremation.

While they are generally devoid of contents, cremated

remains and artifacts have been found in them. By some

early writers they were termed "altars."

Crematory Basin Number 1 was very symmetrical

and carefully made. It was filled to the brim with clean

charcoal, mostly portions of limbs and twigs up to one

and one-half inches in diameter, which had apparently

been burned in situ. Mixed with the charcoal were

numerous shell and pearl beads and 30 canine teeth of

the bear, both the native black bear and the grizzly.

These teeth were perforated in the usual manner and

several were set with pearls. All artifacts were badly

burnt.

Crematory Basin Number 2 was the smallest ever

found in Ohio. No artifacts were found in it, but at the

southwest corner on the adjacent floor was a mass of

charred grass and twigs covering about a square yard,

in which were found fragments of woven fabric and a

flint-flake knife. This basin, very beautifully made,

was removed intact and taken to the Museum.

Crematory Basins Numbers 3, 4 and 5 were devoid

of contents.

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Explorations of the Seip Group      367 Depressions.  One-hundred and thirty feet from the west end of the mound and about 40 feet south of center three small depressions in the floor were filled with charcoal, fragments of pottery and marine shells, mica and flint-flake knives of Flint Ridge material. The exact nature of these deposits is somewhat obscure.

They were roughly circular, about a yard in diameter and from six to ten inches in depth. Probably they were ceremonial in nature, the artifacts contained in them having been symbolically "killed" by burning or break- ing them. A similar deposit containing fragments of obsidian spears occupied an oval area nine by five feet on the floor adjacent to the platforms of Burial 60.

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Pits. Two pits, four feet apart, extended beneath

the floor just north of Burials 95 and 96, one of them

lying directly beneath Burial 93. Their positions are

indicated on the floor plan. The outline of Pit 1 can

be seen in the background in Figure 8. It was 30 inches

in diameter and 25 inches deep. It contained, mixed

with a fill of clay and gravel, a flint flake, a few pot-

sherds and two pieces of animal bone. Pit Number 2

was 27 inches in diameter and 30 inches deep, and con-

tained a quantity of potsherds. Another pit containing

the remains of Burial 77 will be described later.

Post-molds. The molds of more than 200 posts and

stakes were found in the floor of the mound, usually

adjacent to platforms and occasionally piercing them.

They varied in diameter from one to 15 inches and in

depth from two to four feet. The solid mixture of clay

and muck comprising the floor preserved the shape of

these posts and in some instances even the impressions

of the bark. Plaster casts of several revealed blunt,

crudely chopped ends which were not sufficiently pointed

to admit driving the posts into the ground by the use of

mauls. The builders of the mound must first have dug

holes for the posts and then packed the dirt around

them. One post at the southwest corner of the platform

of Burial 43, 11 inches in diameter, was held in position

by several split stakes wedged in around it at the ground

level. Most of these post-molds extended above the

floor to a height not ascertainable since the loose earth

of the mound had given way in every instance. There

were large post-molds at each corner of the platforms

of Burials 39 and 50, the only two instances of orienta-

tion or symmetrical arrangement. While these may

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Explorations of the Seip Group       369

have been the remains of the support for structures, the

greater majority of the post-molds, particularly those

in or adjacent to burial platforms, appear to be the re-

mains of posts upon which trophies or tributes to the

dead were hung, before erection of the primary mound.

This practice prevailed among certain aboriginal groups

in historic times.⁵ The smaller holes were the remains

of stakes which supported the timbers of the log cribs

around the burial platforms.

Burial Platforms. The great majority of burials

were on small platforms built up a few inches above the

floor, of clay, sand, charcoal and occasionally of gravel.

With one exception these platforms were quadrilateral

and all were bordered by the imprints of horizontal logs

in one, two or three vertical tiers. These log-molds were

the remains of small log cribs which originally sur-

rounded the platforms, over which there had been a roof

of logs or bark (See Figures 75 and 76). In several in-

stances the platforms were surrounded by both log-

molds and angular blocks of stone placed vertically in a

circle or rectangle. Covering the original log cribs and

platforms were small individual primary mounds two to

three feet in height, of sand or gravel.

 

BURIALS AND DEPOSITS OF MAJOR INTEREST

The Great Multiple Burial. Six burials (Numbers 2

to 7 inclusive) were grouped together in a specially con-

structed chamber of logs covered with a canopy of

woven fabric. This chamber lay at the west end of the

 

5 See "Native Cemeteries and Forms of Burial East of the Mississippi,"

by David I. Bushnell, Jr. Bulletin 71, Bureau of American Ethnology,

Washington, 1920, pp. 24, 41.

Vol. XL--24.

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370      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

western or largest lobe of the primary mound, and at

the time of its discovery was completely filled with earth

owing to a cave-in shortly after the completion of the

primary mound over and around it. In size, in the va-

riety of materials used in its construction and in the

complicated nature of the structure, this chamber ex-

ceeded all other inclosures around burials in the entire

mound.   This fact, together with the richness and

abundance of the artifacts which were placed with the

burials, points to the conclusion that the individuals here

represented were of extraordinary importance in the

lives of those who built the mound.

All of these burials were inhumations, of which there

were only 11 in the mound, excluding the intrusive

burials. Of the six under discussion four were the

skeletons of adults. These lay side by side in the ex-

tended dorsal position, heads to the east, on a level ele-

vation four feet above the floor of the mound. The

skeletons of Burials 6 and 7, both infants under one

year of age, lay just east of Burials 4 and 5.

The burial-chamber, originally constructed perhaps

to keep the earth from crushing the six skeletons, meas-

ured 12 feet east and west and 15 feet north and south.

The height was indeterminable. The chamber had been

constructed of logs placed above one another and se-

cured in place by large stones, both outside and inside;

most of the stones however were inside, placed thus to

assist the logs in withstanding the pressure of the earth

around the sides and from above. The original vault

could not have been more than two feet in height. The

evidence for this statement lies in the interpretation

of the strata resulting from the collapse of the roof

• 28
 

Explorations of the Seip Group     371 shortly after it was covered over by the builders with the earth of the primary mound. In the diagram in Figure 10 the 1ine AB represents the fabric canopy which rested upon the primary mound immediately over the vault. (See also Fig. 16). The dotted line just above is the probable surface of the primary be- fore it caved in and immediately overhead is the thin gravel layer over the surface of the primary as it was

rebuilt, that is, as the depression due to the cave-in was filled. Since the distance from the bottom of the sag to the top of the reconstructed primary was two feet, the height of the hollow space within the vault could have been no more. The crosses on the surface of the plat- form at the base of the primary indicate Burials 2, 3, 4 and 5. The dotted line over them indicates the prob- able position of the roof and sides of the log structure which formerly surrounded the platform and inclosed the burials. It is interesting to note that a second can- opy of woven fabric was not placed over the rebuilt crest of the primary.

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372      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

The canopy, perhaps intended as a ceremonial

shroud, was secured in place by a hundred or more bone

skewers, embedded peglike through the fabric to their

heads. One of them had been broken in penetrating

the earth. The broken piece, about two inches of the

"handle" end, still attached to the rest by strands, lay

horizontally on the fabric line. These skewers or pegs

were from six to 12 inches long and were made of the

leg-bones of the deer (Figure 63).

Where the canopy terminated at the surface of the

primary mound its place was taken by a thin line of red-

dish sand intermingled with a slight organic material

resembling disintegrated bark. This line of sand and

bark, if such it was, no more than one-eighth of an inch

thick, connected with the gravel covering which form a

thin line of gravel at the top, terminated at the lower

or outer margin of the primary mound in a heavy layer

more than a foot thick, consisting of gravel stones vary-

ing in size up to four inches in diameter.

The four adult burials (Figure 11) at the west end

of the vault were not upon small clay platforms as were

the great majority of burials, but lay directly upon the

top of the clay and gravel platform which rose between

three and one-half and four feet above the floor. This

eminence may itself be regarded as a common platform

for the four interments, differing only in size from the

usual type of platform found in Hopewell mounds. The

four skeletons lay parallel and each was separated from

the next by a small log, of which nothing remained but

the mold or impression in the clay and a thin layer of

white ashlike material.

All six skeletons were in a very poor state of preser-

• 30
 

Explorations of the Seip Group      373 vation. Detailed measurements and sex determinations were for the most part impossible. The four adult skel- etons apparently represented individuals under the age of thirty at the time of their deaths. Burial 2 was the best preserved and at death this individual, so far as was indicated by the teeth, was in the early twenties. The pelvic bones were too far gone to afford a safe in-

dication of the sex, but the long bones, muscular attach- ments and pieces of the jaws and skull suggested the female. Removal of the body of the mound above the Multi- ple Burial revealed five large ceremonial pipes of mica- ceous steatite about three feet above the burials in the earth of the reconstructed primary. Two are in effigy of birds, a squatting owl (Figure 42), and a bird with

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374      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

outspread wings resembling the whippoorwill (Figure

43, upper). The others are in effigy of animals. One

portrays a dog eating a human head (Figure 40), one

represents another dog or perhaps a wolf (Figure 41,

middle), and the other is a tubular specimen the front

end of which is fashioned into the head of what is prob-

ably the bear (Figure 41, lower). These five pipes, to

be described later, were unaccompanied by human or

other remains.  Apparently they were intentionally

placed in the position in which they were found as offer-

ings or symbols of guardianship, subsequent to the seal-

ing of the communal sepulchre.

All four adult skeletons of the Multiple Burial were

outlined from head to foot with pearl beads of all sizes

and shapes, the total number running into thousands.

Burial Number 2 (Figure 12) was the northern-

most of the four adult skeletons. Around and beneath

the skeleton and at the neck and head were many hun-

dreds of pearl beads, ranging from seed pearls to very

large and shapely specimens; at the left foot, the image

of a swan cut from tortoise-shell (Figure 57); at both

hands and opposite the right humerus, portions of tor-

toise-shell engraved with the figure of a bird (Figure

59) ; between the femurs, three tubular beads, two cover-

ings for stone buttons, three small boat-shaped objects

and part of another object, all of meteoric iron (Figure

37, B, C, D, E); opposite the left hand but possibly be-

longing to Burial 3, the cut jaws of a wolf; extending

from beneath the skull on either side down to the ster-

num, were poker-shaped rods of copper on which the hair

braids had evidently been secured (Figure 34, C, D); on

the skull was a pair of imitation copper nostrils (Figure

• 32
 

U Explorations of the Seip Group    375 33). The nostrils and hair-ornaments, if such they were, resemble others found with a double burial in the large central mound of the Hopewell Group.6 Beneath the head of this skeleton lay a large copper breastplate under which, preserved by the chemical action of the copper, was a portion of woven fabric bearing a colored design (Figure 65).

Burial Number 3 (Figure 12), the next skeleton to the south, was massive and apparently a male. It was accompanied by four grizzly bear canines, drilled for suspension, at the neck and, in the same position and practically encircling the skeleton, hundreds of pearl 6 Shetrone, H. C., "Explorations of the Hopewell Group of Prehistoric Earthworks."  Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society Publications, Volume XXXV, Columbus, 1926, p. 65.

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376     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

beads. At the pelvis were several button-shaped ob-

jects of clay and stone covered by copper foil. At the

position of the heart there was an arrow-point of an un-

usual type, of light-colored flint (Figure 48, right end,

lower row).

Burial Number 4 (Figure 13), probably that of a

female, occupied the third position from the left in the

burial-chamber. It was accompanied by numerous pearl

beads, at the neck and encircling the skeleton, and be-

neath the head and neck reposed a large copper breast-

plate. Beneath it was a portion of fabric or burial-

shroud bearing a design in color.

Burial Number 5 (Figure 13), of unusual size and

apparently that of a male, lay extended on the back in

a position similar to the others of the Multiple Burial

Beneath the bones of the skull, which in the photo-

graph are laid to one side, lay a large rectangular cop-

per breastplate underneath which, preserved by the

chemical action of the copper, was a corresponding por-

tion of fabric bearing colored designs (Figure 66). At

the neck and in a thin line encircling the skeleton were

numerous pearl beads.

Burials Number 6 and 7, the skeletons of two in-

fants, lay on the southeast side of the burial-vault just

east of the four adult skeletons. Burial 6, the northern-

most, lay in a prepared depression seven inches deep and

17 inches in diameter. Burial 6 was on a small plat-

form raised a few inches above the main platform. Both

were almost entirely decomposed but several fragments

of the long bones and pieces of the skulls and jaws

showed them to be but a year or less in age at death.

With Burial 6 were about a quart of small pearl and

• 34
 

Explorations of the Seip Group      377 shell beads and four bear canines, each set with two pearls. With Burial 7 were several unusually large pearl beads, six small mica designs and a copper button. The Burnt Offering. Toward the west end of the mound was an irregularly oval depression in the floor which contained a large quantity of artifacts in vari- ous stages of reduction by heat. The outline of this

deposit is shown on the floor-plan. Its greatest depth was nine inches. Apparently the artifacts found there- in had been burned in an intense fire, as they lay im- bedded, on and a few inches above the floor of the de- pression, in a mass of mingled charred vegetable mat- ter and ashes, the whole covered over with clay. The bottom of the depression was thoroughly baked and re- sembled that of a crematory basin. The platforms of

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378      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

Burials 13, 14 and 15 rested upon the surface of this de-

posit above the clay covering, but were not otherwise

related to it.

Nearly all the materials found elsewhere in the

mound were represented in this deposit, as ornamental

and symbolical objects: fragments of carved and cop-

per-banded sections of the os penis of the raccoon, claws

of the bear, beads, ear-spools and other objects of cop-

per; articles made from diorite, flint, obsidian, crystal

quartz, shale, steatite and chlorite; fragments of mica

designs (Figure 38); potsherds, both utility and cere-

monial; thousands of shell beads; uncounted perforated

canine teeth of the raccoon, opossum, fox, mountain

lion and other animals; alligator and shark teeth; bones

from the spadefish (Figure 64); pearl beads, woven

fabric, and several fragments of a wooden bowl. At

one point there were five flaked flint knives of Flint

Ridge material, one carefully laid over another in a pile.

There were in addition many objects burned beyond

recognition.

Among the objects of major interest which were not

damaged by heat are two hollow effigies of the owl and

the vulture, carved out of black steatite (Figure 44);

another effigy, apparently of the pupa of an insect, of

about the same size as the others but not hollow, carved

out of shale (Figure 47); five steatite spheres about the

size of marbles with designs incised on their surfaces

(Figure 45); three plummets, one of copper, one of

chlorite (Figure 39) and one of diorite; 28 spherical

chlorite beads (Figure 39); an unnotched obsidian

blade (Figure 49), and tubular beads of copper.

About five feet directly north of Burial 15 (see

• 36
 

Explorations of the Scip Group      379

Floor-plan), and included within the area of the Burnt

Offering, was a pile of objects, mostly of shell, which

had apparently been cast into the fire together. They

were fused to one another and imbedded in an indurated

calcareous matter mixed with clay and gravel, this ma-

trix so resistant that it was impossible to lift or separate

the objects. A section of the floor-earth on which they

lay was removed intact and the specimens worked out

in the laboratory. A large part of this pile, which was

about ten inches high, was covered with a film or layer

of tough calcareous ash up to three-quarters of an inch

in thickness.

Most of the objects in this deposit were plummet-

shaped, probably used as talismans or charms. Twenty-

two of them are made from the columellae of large sea-

shells (Figures 55, 56). The plummets of chlorite, cop-

per and diorite previously mentioned were found in this

deposit. Other artifacts in the lot were three pearl

beads, a small copper disc, several flint-flake knives, per-

forated raccoon canines and one-half of a boat-shaped

object of crystal quartz. All but the last-named three

plummets were damaged by fire.

With this great variety of artifacts, the only objects

of a strictly utilitarian nature were a few pieces of flint,

some potsherds of the utility type and possibly the un-

notched obsidian blade. An interpretation of the mean-

ing of this deposit must take into consideration the

abundance of artifacts, the artistic excellence of many

of them and their situation on the floor of the mound

only a few feet from the Multiple Burial. Apparently

it was intended that all the objects in the deposit should

be destroyed by fire, thus ceremonially "killing" or de-

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380      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

stroying them that they might accompany the spirits

of the dead.

The Ceremonial Cache. This was a deposit of arti-

facts of an unusual type on a platform without human

remains. The platform was typical in every way and

measured four feet square. The log structure over it

had been of considerable size as was indicated by a cave-

in larger than those usually found over burial plat-

forms. This platform lay nearly four-square with the

cardinal points. Toward the west end lay a deposit

consisting of 12 copper breastplates and a copper celt

nearly 20 inches long, weighing 28 pounds (Figure 28).

Covering the surface of the platform was a reed mat,

of which the portion beneath the copper celt had been

preserved in good condition (Figure 67, E), while the

remainder was blackened and fragile through disintegra-

tion. Covering the celt the 12 breastplates were piled in

a gable, six on a side overlapping one another at the

ends. Beneath the breastplates and between them where

they overlapped were layers of woven fabric, as many

as 13 in one instance, preserved, like the portion of the

reed mat, by the copper. With these objects were sev-

eral large pearl beads and three bear canines, each set

with a pearl.

Burial Number I. This burial (Figure 14) lay ten

feet beyond the western border of the primary mound

and was the only one on the floor of the mound situated

outside the interior structure. The remains were those

of a young adult, partially cremated, with the vertebrae

and pelvis in normal articulation. These, with the upper

ends of the femurs and tibias, lay over seven copper

artifacts neatly arranged in a row parallel to the long

• 38
 

Explorations of the Seip Group      381 axis of the platform. At the south end of this row was a copper celt. In the second position was a copper breastplate with two perforations. Copper celts were in the next two positions followed by a copper breast- plate. Next and last were two breastplates, one lying over the other. Directly on top of the upper end of the spinal column were two circular, slightly cupped copper disks about two and one-half inches in diameter,

one lying partly over the other. Four flint-flake knives lay together on the surface of the platform at the south- east corner and six others were found in a pile 18 inches above the southwest corner. All these six knives were from the same piece of chalcedony, which was violet in color. They ranged from two to two and one-half inches in length. This burial was typical of the seven partially cre-

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382      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

mated burials in the mound with the exception that it

was accompanied by more artifacts than any of the

others. In five of the seven, however, the upper ends of

the long bones, the pelvae and the spinal column were

unaffected by fire and the vertebrae lay in their natural

order either in a reversed curve, as in Burial Number 1,

or in a loop surrounding some of the cremated bones of

the skull and other parts of the skeleton. In most cases

the partially cremated remains represented individuals

of unusual size and this raises the question whether the

great size of these individuals may not have offered such

resistance to total incineration that the process was left

uncompleted.

Burial Number 10. This burial (Figure 15), the

best example of stone-lined grave in the entire mound,

lay between Burials 9 and 11 immediately east of the

platform of the Multiple Burial, underneath the caved-in

portion of the primary (Figure 16). The platform of

Burial 10 was surrounded by large slabs of sandstone

and shale with a covering of the same nature which had

collapsed. The cremated remains comprised the bones

of an adult and a child. These bone fragments were

rather sparse and badly burnt and were scattered about

on the surface of the platform. There were quantities

of small stones at the northern and southern ends of

the platform, inside the inclosure of stone slabs. The

artifacts accompanying the remains were: a diorite celt,

finely polished; two copper ear-spools; a few barrel-

shaped shell beads; a fragment of tortoise-shell; a cop-

per head-plate in fragmentary condition (Figure 36);

part of a copper breastplate, and a pair of well-pre-

served lower jaws of the wildcat, cut and drilled for

• 40
 

Explorations of the Scip Group      383 suspension and decorated by black, white and tan lines (Figure 60). These, with the copper ear-spools and the stone celt, are shown in the photograph (Figure 15). Burial Number 19. (Figure 17.) The platform, of the usual size, was seven feet above the floor of the

mound, outside the primary mound and well above the gravel layer on its surface. The remains, those of a male of unusual size, were only partly cremated. The bones of the central portion of the skeleton were intact while the arm-bones and those of the lower legs had been burned away. A few fragments of the skull were

• 41
 

384      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications found, burnt at the edges. Just above them was a cop- per breastplate one corner of which was cut into a sim- ple scroll (Figure 30), with a coarsely woven piece of reticulate fabric adhering to the under surface, pre- served by the chemical action of the copper. Lying on this breastplate, as may be seen in the photograph, was

a copper crescent. Another breastplate, plain and rec- tangular, lay above the pelvic bones. An interesting feature of this burial and one somewhat difficult to explain, was the position of the fragments of the leg- bones as well as a few pieces of cremated bone in and across the eastern log-mold. Apparently the platform

• 42
 

Explorations of the Seip Group    385 was not large enough to hold the remains with the ac- companying artifacts in the form in which they were deposited and the log at the eastern end must have been laid over the projecting portion of the skeleton. Burial Number 26. This burial was unusual in several respects. The rectangular log crib inclosing the platform had been higher than those of most burials in the mound, with three tiers of log-molds. The logs on the east side had been held in place by two stakes, driven

in against them, while stones supported the logs at the south end. There was another stake-hole in the middle of the north side of the platform, outside the log-mold. The position of these three stake-holes has been indicated in the photograph (Figure 18) by the insertion into them of small wooden stakes, probably of about the same size as the originals. At the northwest corner of the platform was a large post-mold 11 inches in diameter. The log crib originally had a roof of seven split poles about four inches in Vol. XL--25.

• 43
 

386      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications diameter which had caved in onto the surface of the platform, giving it the transversely corrugated appear- ance shown in the illustration. These puncheons or split poles lay with their flat sides down. The linear di- mensions of the platform were three feet three inches by four feet eight inches and the center was three

inches higher than the edges. There were three piles of calcined bones probably representing the remains of that number of individuals.   Lying across the west end were the remains of a male, partly cremated. A portion of the pelvis and both femurs were untouched by fire. With this burial was a copper celt about four inches in length. Another burial lay at the east end, with the bone fragments of the third in a pile extending

• 44
 

Explorations of the Seip Group    387

therefrom toward the center of the platform. These

two piles merged into one another and the arrangement

of the artifacts gave no clue to the number of individ-

uals represented. The calcined bones at the end of the

platform lay upon a sheet of mica ten inches in diameter

and at each corner of the platform was a chunk of

galena or lead ore, each weighing about three pounds.

On and among the bones of this pile were a few pearl

beads and 24 barrel-shaped shell beads; a copper celt, a

pair of copper ear-spools, several imitation eagle-claws

made of bone and two copper objects resembling the

bowls of teaspoons, with small perforations at each end.

Burial Number 28. The platform    measured five

feet, five inches by five feet, seven inches. It was bor-

dered by unusually large log-molds. Eight smaller log-

molds encircled the structure, apparently the remains of

supports to the original log crib. Adjacent to the west

log-molds was the imprint of fabric which had origi-

nally covered part of the platform. Despite the unusual

size of this platform it contained the remains of only a

single adult individual, cremated, and placed at the cen-

ter. Part of a wooden disk and a portion of a tubular

object of the same material, both reduced to charcoal,

were found among the bone fragments. These articles

had apparently been burned when the body was cre-

mated. Other artifacts were eight imitation alligator

teeth of copper, fragments of imitation bear claws made

of bone, a copper breastplate, and two pieces of the jaws

of the wildcat, finely carved in a geometrical pattern

(Figure 56).

Burial Number 32. The platform of this burial was

fairly large, measuring three by five feet, and was sur-

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388      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

rounded by three tiers of log-molds. Covering the cre-

mated bones were several strips of bark, probably the

remains of the caved-in roof of the log crib. These

strips ran in the opposite direction to the puncheons

on the platform of Burial 26, that is, with the long axis.

It is possible however, that they were a covering for the

human remains and the artifacts with them, in which

case they lay in their original position when uncovered.

Within the northeast corner of the grave was a small

post-mold and others were near-by outside the log-

molds.

The cremated remains were those of a large adult,

probably a male. Toward the southwest side of the plat-

form were six small flaked knives; intermixed with the

calcined bone fragments were three burned bear canines,

all drilled; a few barrel-shaped shell beads, and frag-

ments of a wooden object reduced to charcoal. The

bones rested directly on two overlapping copper breast-

plates of the usual plain type but rather small. Beneath

the breastplates were preserved, in an area coextensive

with them, some finely woven fabric and three pieces of

leather. Beneath the fabric, resting directly on the clay

surface of the platform, were two copper ear-spools.

The platform of this burial was constructed of coarse

charcoal and charred fragments of limbs, in which was

intermixed charred grass and other burnt vegetable

matter. A small arrowhead was found with this ma-

terial and at the northeast corner of the platform adja-

cent to a large post-mold were portions of a large plain

pottery vessel.

Burial Number 34. The cremated remains of an

adult lay at the center of the platform (See Figure 19).

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(389)

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390      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

On the pile of cremated bones lay four pearl beads, a

diminutive copper crescent, a small hollow hemisphere

of the same material and two unique copper objects re-

sembling andirons (Figure 32). These unusual objects

bear some resemblance to an insect known as the pray-

ing mantis, of which they may be effigies.

Burial Number 42. This platform contained the un-

cremated skeleton of a child from eight to ten years of

age, lying extended on the back with the left leg slightly

flexed. The skull was in fragments but the rest of the

skeleton was in fair condition. At the neck were sev-

eral canine teeth of the black bear, perforated for at-

tachment. Each canine tooth was set with a pearl. The

platform measured six by three feet and was three feet

above the floor of the mound, just within the north edge

of the primary mound and so near its top that decay of

the enclosing logs had permitted the heavy gravel cover-

ing to drop to the level of the skeleton and cover it. The

primary mound seems to have been carried out beyond

its usual limits for the purpose of including this burial

(See Floor-plan).

Burial Number 48. The platform, elevated four

feet above the floor, contained the skeleton of a child

about five years of age extended along the east side, the

long axis of the platform lying north and south. Be-

neath the shoulders of the skeleton was a copper celt.

At the west edge of the platform lay the skull of an

adult male about 25 years of age, on a pile of cremated

bones which probably were a part of the body to which

the skull belonged. At each side of the skull, in the ear

position, was a copper ear-spool. Beneath the remains

of these two individuals lay a pile of cremated bones up-

• 48
 

Explorations of the Seip Group     391 on a copper breastplate. In the illustration (Figure 20) the bones have been removed from the breastplate and lay in the background. With both the skeleton and the

partial cremation were several large spherical shell beads. The single skull proved upon examination to have had an application of red pigment and apparently a small amount of silvery white substance, possibly pow-

• 49
 

392      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications dered galena, about the teeth and jaws. No perforations such as would suggest a trophy skull were found. Burial Number 49.    The platform   was square, measuring four feet, five inches in each direction. The upper part consisted of clean granulated charcoal, from

three to five inches deep. The log-molds were three in height. The cremated remains of two individuals were in two piles, one across one side of the platform and the other from the middle to the other side at center. With the former were 12 flint-flake knives, several of which had been broken by heat. With the other were two cop- per ear-spools, a breastplate and a unique object resem-

• 50
 

Explorations of the Seip Group     393 bling in size and shape the old-fashioned butcher's steel (Figure 34). It is a copper rod about 12 inches long, tapering to a point at one end in a handle of bone or ant- ler. Midway between the two piles of cremated bones was a mass of burnt leather and fabric embedded in which was an ornament made from the lower jaws of the mountain lion striped with black and white pigment. Beneath this mass were a copper breastplate and a celt of the same metal, and near-by were two copper ear- spools. Burial Number 5.. The full, uncremated skeleton of a female in early middle life lay on a platform meas- uring five feet two inches by 33 inches. The skeleton, which was five feet four inches in length, was too long for the platform and had been deposited only by forcing

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394      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

it into place diagonally. The skull rested on the north-

east corner and the feet were at the southwest. While

it had apparently been intended to place the body on the

back, the cramping due to lack of space forced the arms

akimbo, with the fingers of both hands doubled under.

At each wrist were half a dozen large pearl beads which

had apparently been strung together, bracelet-like. At

the right side of the head and neck were several hundred

seed-pearl beads which seem to have been deposited un-

strung. There was evidence of considerable heat on the

surface of the platform, particularly at the north end.

Burial Number 58. This burial had a well-prepared

platform 40 inches by 25 inches. The log-molds were

three in height. With the cremated remains of an

adult were the following objects: three finely chipped

obsidian ceremonial knives, two of which were highly

curved in two planes, and notched (Figure 49, A, B, D);

a unique chipped obsidian specimen, roughly butterfly

shaped, 3 3/4 inches long (Figure 49, C); a drill punch of

meteoric iron about the size and shape of a lead pencil

(Figure 37, A); 18 bear claws, several with perforations

at the proximal ends; 10 flaked knives of Flint Ridge

material; fragments of bone needles, four pearl beads

and a small button-shaped object.

Burial Number 60. The platform was nearly square,

measuring about four feet in each direction. It was

well prepared and the surface consisted of a layer of

fine clean charcoal two inches thick. The cremated

remains of an adult lay in a slight depression in the char-

coal at the center of the platform.  The artifacts were

as follows: One small bar-shaped gorget of chlorite with

an incomplete perforation at the center and a finished

• 52
 

Explorations of the Seip Group     395 one at either end (Figure 39); near this lay a boat- shaped ceremonial, deeply hollowed out at the base, made of steatite. This piece is fashioned in the image of the duck with the head and bill reposing backward over the shoulders and back (Figure 44). It is one of the most artistic effigies yet recovered from a Hopewell mound. Toward the northeast corner of the platform lay a corroded copper crescent measuring seven inches from tip to tip. Two copper ear-spools were also found.

Burial Number 66. The extended skeleton of a large male was somewhat flexed on this platform, which nevertheless was long enough to receive it at full length. During life this individual stood about five feet, seven inches in height. At his death he was in the early twen- ties. Several of the bones of the skeleton were disartic- ulated, particularly the right arm at the elbow and the right leg at the knee, showing either re-burial or burial some time after death when the bones were disarranged

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396      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

by decomposition. The head of the skeleton lay to the

south. The lower jaw-bone pointed downward in line

with the axis of the body, the skull resting on the right

side. The vertebral column was much twisted. At the

neck were four small bear canines, each set with a pearl;

at the right side was a medium-sized copper breastplate

with two large pearls at the perforations. Traces of fab-

ric indicated that the body had been covered by a shroud,

which had been pegged in place by large bone awls, one

at each corner of the platform. The platform was com-

posed entirely of earth and measured seven feet by 32

inches. Small stake holes at each corner were the re-

mains of supports to the log crib. The log-molds were

unusually wide. The edge of Crematory Basin Number

3 was disclosed beneath the north end of this burial

platform.

Burial Number 73. The foundation of the platform

of this burial was clay, covered with charcoal at the sur-

face. The log-molds were three in height and were or-

iginally supported by stakes at the west end.  Sev-

eral large granite boulders lay on the floor at each end

of the platform. The cremated remains, at the center,

were those of an adult. The following artifacts were

found: 12 undrilled bear teeth, one cut mountain lion

jaw (Figure 60, B), one circular and three rectangular

shell gorgets (Figure 54, A, B), nine flaked knives of

flint, one sea-shell container, one platform pipe in effigy

of a bird (Figure 50), 17 small bone awls (Figure 61),

and about 200 pearl beads, seed pearls predominating.

Burial Number 79. This was the only stone vault

burial in the mound whose roof of stone slabs had not

caved in (Figure 24). Three of the flat slabs in the fore-

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Explorations of the Seip Group     397 ground of the photograph were taken from positions at the borders of the log-molds. The illustration shows the vault in cross-section, half opened, with the edges of the two top stone slabs, still hanging in place, imme- diately above the cremated bones.  The contour and thickness of the individual primary mound over this vault, as well as portions of the log-molds on two sides

of the platform, and the south end of the platform itself, are clearly brought out in this photograph. The rec- tangular stone slab second from the left end in the fore- ground lay over the cremated remains. It could not be determined whether this stone had fallen down from the top of the vault or whether it had been purposely laid over the burial. Since there was originally a log crib within this vault, doubtless roofed over with split logs, it

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398     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications is probable that the stone in question lay originally on the roof of the log crib, falling down when it caved in, to which accident its weight contributed. This vault can hardly be regarded as indicating a knowledge on the part of the builders of the principle of the arch. It was probably built over and upon the log crib and when the latter caved in most of the stone slabs were held in place by adhering to the clay of the individual primary, the overlapping ceiling-stones slowly sinking down upon an upright slab in the manner shown in Figure 25. The

cremated remains, lying at the center of the platform, were those of an adult male. With them were two cop- per concavo-convex disks and two burnt bone beads. The platform was three and one-half feet by two feet five inches and the individual primary was three and one-half feet in height with a diameter of eight feet. Burial Number 86. This burial presented an un- usual and interesting feature in having three log-molds lying horizontally side by side on the east and two simi- larly placed on the west side. At the north end of the platform there was a single log-mold; at the south, two.

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Explorations of the Seip Group     399 On the sides the log-molds measured 70 inches in length while the two at the ends were 34 inches long. In the middle of the southernmost log-mold, adjacent to its outer edge, was a post-mold nine inches in diameter and inside, on the slope of the platform, was another two inches in diameter. Both were about two feet in

depth. There were also three stake-molds an inch in diameter just inside the log-mold on the north end, one at each corner and one at the center. The plat- form contained the cremated remains of three indi- viduals. With Cremation 1, which lay at the center, was a copper celt. The remains were probably those of an adult male. Cremation 2, at the north end, was

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400      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

identified as an adult female. Just to the west of the

charred bones lay a sea-shell container on each side

of which was a copper ear-spool. About two dozen pearl

beads were found beneath the shell container. Several

pieces of burnt cane and four potsherds were taken from

beneath the human remains. It was impossible to ascer-

tain the sex of the adult individual represented in Cre-

mation 3, which lay at the south end of the platform.

Two inches to one side of the pile of bone-fragments

lay a copper breastplate beneath which had been pre-

served the fragments of a pattern in yellow and red on

woven fabric. Between the breastplate and the bone

fragments lay two copper ear-spools.

 

DESCRIPTION OF ARTIFACTS

 

INORGANIC MATERIALS

Of the 188 copper artifacts from the mound, 122

were celts, breastplates and ear-spools. Of this number

23 celts and one chisel are utilitarian in purpose. The

large ceremonial celt is not included herein. The celts

are all of the same general type shown in Figure

27. They range in length from one and five-eighths

to eight and three-eighths inches; in width from one

to four and one-eighth inches. The ceremonial celt,

shown in Figure 28, measures 19 1/8 inches in length; the

greatest width is four and one-eighth inches and the

thickness at center is 1 11-16 inches. The specimen

weighs 28 pounds, obviously too heavy and cumbersome

for practical use. It gives some idea of the high regard

of the Hopewell people for copper, alike for its useful-

ness in making tools and for its bright color.

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Explorations of the Seip Group      401 In figure 29 are shown the several transverse and longitudinal cross-sections exhibited by as thorough an examination of the celts as the incrustations of copper oxide would permit. The only correlation brought out by these sections seems to be between (6) in Figure 29 and length. Two celts over seven inches long and the ceremonial celt all have this type of transverse cross- section. These same three celts also show the longitu-

dinal cross-section (11) in Figure 29 with the immaterial exception that the cutting edge of one of the seven-inch celts is blunt. The forms (1) and (13) occur but once, and both in the same specimen. Many of the celts show the imprint of woven fabric, as is true of most of the copper pieces. This fabric im- print is possibly the "fossilized" remains of cloth wrap- pings in which the objects were deposited with the dead. Because of their thickness none of the celts have Vol. XL--26.

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Explorations of the Seip Group     403

been destroyed or broken by weathering. On most cop-

per objects the layer of verdigris is rarely more than a

fortieth of an inch thick, although on many of the celts

there are large irregular flakes a quarter of an inch or

more in thickness. The middle celt in Figure 27, from

Burial 35, shows part of the layer of verdigris in which

it was completely encased. Such incrustations probably

result from the replacement of pieces of bark or other

material surrounding the copper rather than from ex-

foliation directly from the surface.

The breastplates are all plain with the exception of

one, which has a scroll in one corner (Figure 30). This

plate, from Burial 19, is the longest one taken from the

mound. The 46 breastplates vary in length from five

and one-fourth to ten and seven-eighths inches; in width

from three to six inches. Most of them have the usual

two holes, the purpose of which seems to have been to

facilitate suspension from the neck by a cord or attach-

ment to clothing. Many specimens of woven fabric,

several bearing colored designs preserved by oxidation

of the metal, were found on both sides of these cere-

monial pieces. All but 12 breastplates were found in

graves.

Two only of the 52 ear-spools merit special com-

ment. These are the miniature pair shown in Figure 30,

on the breastplate of corresponding size, the smallest

from the mound. These three pieces were found in

Burial 36, quite curiously that of an adult rather than a

child. The remainder of the ear-spools, a few of which

are covered with a thin foil of silver, are of average

size, from one and one-half to two inches in diameter.

The imprint of woven fabric was found on some of them

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406      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications and in a few instances preserved cord encircled the con- stricted stem connecting the two disks. A typical copper ear-spool is shown in Figure 31, (A). These ornaments are frequently found at the ear- positions of skulls, and on the Adena pipe, a pipe in effigy of a human being taken from the Adena Mound7 the distended and elongated ear-lobes are pierced by objects which closely resemble the copper ear-spools in shape, and proportionately in size.

Some of the terra-cotta figurines from the Turner Group in Hamilton County8 also have these ornaments at the ears. 7 Mills, William C., "Excavations of the Adena Mound." Ohio Ar- chaeological and Historical Society Publications, Volume X, Columbus, 1902, page 477. 8 Willoughby, C. C., "The Turner Group of Earthworks, Hamilton County, Ohio." Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Volume VIII.--No. 3, p. 74.

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Explorations of the Seip Group     407 Several ear-spools from the mound, sawed in two parts for examination, reveal two methods of construc- tion, (B and D) in Figure 31. (B) is made up of five different pieces of copper while only three were used in (D). In the latter, cord was probably wrapped around the central connecting piece to keep the two disks apart. In the sawed cross-section (C) the bright native cop- per shows up only in two very thin strips, each about a quarter of an inch long. Elsewhere the conversion by weathering into the oxide and carbonate of copper has been complete and the different lamina of copper have become so fused with one another as to make it appear that this ear-spool was made in one piece. In its present state this specimen consists principally of copper oxide, (cuprite) surrounded by a thin covering of copper car- bonate (malachite). There is no evidence of the pres- ence of iron or its minerals.9 The two objects resembling andirons, in Figure 32, were taken from Burial 34, the cremation of an adult.

It is to be regretted that neither the manner of deposi- tion on the burial platform (see Figure 19) nor the pe- culiar shape of these copper rods reveal their purpose. The guess may be hazarded, however, that one would 9 Analysis by Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, Ohio.

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408      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

have been regarded as inadequate without the other, by

their aboriginal owner. In other words, apparently they

are a pair, like ear-spools, which are very rarely found

in odd numbers. The possibility of dividing these two

objects into head, legs, neck and body suggests the effigy

motive, perhaps of the praying mantis. Effigies identi-

cal in shape have never been found in pairs, although

this circumstance does not necessarily invalidate the in-

terpretation. On both pieces there is an expansion of

the top of the "head," giving a diameter about an eighth

of an inch greater than that of the "neck" for a distance

of a quarter of an inch.

The pair of copper effigy nostrils in Figure 33 is the

only one taken from the mound. It was found on the

crushed skull of Burial 2 of the Multiple Burial. Burial

2, it will be recalled, was an inhumation, apparently the

skeleton of a female in the early thirties. The copper

nostrils are one of three pairs which have been found

in Hopewell mounds. The other two were discovered

in position in the nasal cavities of both skulls of Burials

6 and 7, Mound 25 of the Hopewell Group.¹⁰ One of

these skulls was that of a male and the other a female.

These nostrils consist of two cones closed at the small

ends and fastened together at the open ends. Whether

they were originally separate, becoming fused by corro-

sion, cannot be said. The specimen from the present

mound is two and one-eighth inches in length.

Effigy nostrils are an interesting feature of Hope-

well culture inasmuch as they apparently represent the

only purposeful extension of the cult of the dead to the

manufacture of objects. Presumably these objects were

10 Shetrone, H. C., Op. cit., p. 65.

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Explorations of the Seip Group      409 made specifically as mortuary tributes in contrast to other artifacts, most of which could be and probably were, used by the living. The motive behind them seems to have been that of providing the deceased with perma- nent turbinal bones, which in the skull itself are very

thin and subject to rapid disintegration, or perhaps to furnish them with noses proper, since the fleshy portions of these so quickly decompose after death. In all three of the burials accompanied by copper nostrils, rods of the same material lay on either side of

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410     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

the skulls extending from just below the ears downward

to the sternum. The two rods from Burial 2 in the

mound under discussion, shown in Figure 34 as (C) and

(D), are nine and one-fourth and eight and five-eighths

inches in length. Both are square in cross-section. The

shorter of the two has been bent, possibly by the collapse

of the sepulchral chamber of the Multiple Burial. Both

rods taper to a blunt point at one end. Two other rods

were found (Figure 34, A and B), each with what ap-

pears to be a handle, cylindrical and made of bone and

horn. Both taper to a blunt point at the end opposite

the handle. It is something of a puzzle whether to class

them with utilitarian, ceremonial or decorative objects.

The larger of the two was found with one of the two

cremations in Burial 49. The other lay three feet be-

neath the surface of the mound unaccompanied by hu-

man remains.

Eight effigy copper teeth of the alligator were taken

from Burial 28. Three of them, falling apart on re-

moval, reveal the method of construction. Sheet cop-

per, about one thirty-second of an inch thick, probably

cut according to a pattern devised from previous expe-

rience, was folded around wooden cores of the same gen-

eral shape as alligator teeth but somewhat smaller, the

difference in size being made up by the copper. The

wood cores are black and show unmistakable signs of

heat.

In Figure 35 is a copper object with an open-work

pattern which must be classed with those of an orna-

mental or symbolical nature. It was taken from the

Burnt Offering.

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412      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications The only copper beads found in the mound, eight in number, are cylindrical and about half an inch long. These also were found in the Burnt Offering. Burials 19, 24, 34 and 60 each contained a copper crescent. The largest of these (Figure 30) measures ten inches in a straight line from one square end to the other. The crescent from Burial 34 measures only two and one-half inches from tip to tip. It lay near the end of one of the andiron-like bars, as may be seen in Fig- ure 19. The other two crescents were removed in a frag- mentary state. Both were about seven inches from tip to tip.

The hollow disks of copper were probably used as pendants, possessing no doubt a symbolical value. Most of these shallow saucer-shaped objects are heavily incrusted with verdigris but a few show a single small perforation near the rim. The average diameter is an inch and a quarter. The disk from Burial 34 (Figure 19) is of different proportions from others found, being more cup- than saucer-shaped. This piece lay near the small crescent on the platform of Burial 34. Figure 36 shows a reconstruction of a copper head- plate removed in fragments from Burial 10. Originally it was curved in the long axis, to fit the curve of the

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Explorations of the Seip Group     413 head, like the nine head-plates from the Hopewell Group.11 Most of the latter have small holes at one or both ends similar to the four in the piece under dis- cussion. An appreciable degree of skill in embossing is observable on this head-plate as the "stem" connect- ing the several parts of the design is raised slightly above the rest of the surface, and on the opposite side there is a corresponding depression which at one end follows the outlines of the two scrolls on each side.

Six specimens made from the os penis of the rac- coon, taken from the Burnt Offering, are encircled with thin copper bands about a quarter of an inch in width. Thirty-two objects of other metals than copper were taken from the mound. Comprising this number are 21 sheets of thin silver, covering stone or wooden but- tons; three chunks of galena with a total weight of 20 pounds, and nine objects of meteoric iron. Of this rare material there are three boat-shaped objects one and 11 Shetrone, H. C., Op. cit., pp. 175-178.

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414      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications one-fourth inches long (Figure 37, D), one punch, (A), two small saucer-shaped disks, probably coverings for buttons (B), three tubular beads (E) and the fragment of an unidentified object (C). The rod or punch (A) was taken from Burial 58 and the rest are from Burial 2.

About 200 small geometric designs in mica are rep- resented in Figure 38. Most of these came from the Burnt Offering, from a depression in the floor on the 130-foot line and from an ash deposit on the floor. At the top in Figure 38 are the three mica links from Burial 53. Without including uncut fragments, and cut frag- ments exhibiting no particular pattern, 207 worked pieces of mica were found. In addition to the pieces already described there were roughly circular sheets of mica and one effigy bear canine.

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416      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

Of the 30 artifacts made of chlorite, 28 are spherical

beads found in the Burnt Offering. One of them, split

in half, reveals a micaceous structure which shines like

silver in contrast to the present surfaces of the beads,

which as a result of weathering and subjection to heat

are dull gray in color. These beads are all of the same

size and shape, slightly flattened spheres seven-six-

teenths of an inch in diameter in the direction of the

perforation and nine-sixteenths of an inch in the other

diameter (Figure 39). Also from the Burnt Offering

was taken the green micaceous chlorite plummet in Fig-

ure 39. This piece is three inches long and has a shal-

low groove at one end. The bar-shaped gorget in the

illustration, of the same material, was taken from Burial

60. It has an incomplete perforation at each end and a

completed one at center.

Steatite forms the material of 14 objects, all of

which are of exceptional interest.

Five large effigy tobacco-pipes made of steatite

were found above the Multiple Burial. Three of the

pipe are animal effigies and two are effigies of birds.

The pipe in Figure 40 represents a dog in the act

of eating a decapitated human head, held between

the fore-paws. The same animal apparently is por-

trayed in the pipe in Figure 41 (middle). Originally

something was held in the mouth of this piece, possibly

the same object. All four feet of this effigy were broken

off when found and perforations through the legs indi-

cate that the broken parts had been re-united. These

minor parts, unfortunately, were not recovered, so the

exact nature of the specimen can only be surmised. The

sculptural finish of this pipe is somewhat better than that

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Explorations of the Seip Group        417 of the one with the human head. In the latter the legs are square, or nearly so, in cross-section, while in the other they are rounded and realistically executed. The fore-legs of the effigy with the human head are grossly

out of proportion, upper and lower limbs being of nearly the same length. If it were possible to straighten them the body would be nearly perpendicular. Two holes about three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter perforate the lower ends of the fore-paws of the specimen in Fig- Vol. XL--27.

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Explorations of the Seip Group     419

ure 41, just above the broken ends. Another hole of

about the same diameter extends three-quarters of an

inch into the mouth, or more precisely, into the frag-

ment of the object which is held in the mouth. This

effigy represents a female. There is no mark of sex on

the other.

The pipe in Figure 41 (lower) resembles the bear

more closely than any other animal. The fore-paws are

executed conventionally. Raised little more than a thirty-

second of an inch above the surface, they extend down

to within an inch and a quarter of one another and then

disappear. This pipe, like the others, shows consider-

able wearing down of the surface, but there is no break-

age.

The two bird effigies show an even greater difference

in conception and execution than those representing ani-

mals. On the owl (Figure 42, upper) the tertiary and

covert feathers are brought out in considerable detail

by incision. Only the forward edges of the folded

wings are in relief; elsewhere the outline of the wings

is defined by a narrow incised line. A symmetrical con-

ventionalized arrangement of the feet and claws of the

owl, portrayed on the under side of the pipe, is shown

in the lower view. Traces of a similar design are to be

found on the bottom of the other bird effigy.

The broad flat head and short beak on the effigy in

Figure 43 (Middle and upper) both favor identification

of the model as a whippoorwill or night-hawk. The

only incised lines on this pipe, with the exception of in-

cisions on the face, represent the spaces between the tips

of the primary feathers. The effigy does not occupy the

entire pipe; three inches of unembellished "stem" pro-

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Explorations of the Seip Group      423

trude beyond the tail-feathers. The broken wing, the

detached part of which was not recovered, shows the

method by which the piece was mended.

The material of the owl effigy contains considerable

quantities of yellow mica in the form of small flakes.

A micaceous structure is observable in the other four,

but the flakes in them are silver-colored. The eyes of

both bird effigies, of about the same diameter and one-

eighth of an inch deep, show the remains of a red pig-

ment.

In The Antiquities of Tennessee,^l2 six pipes are il-

lustrated and described which resemble closely in major

features these five pipes from above the Multiple Burial.

All but one are made of steatite; the material of the ex-

ception is talcose schist. The Tennessee pipes are in

effigy of the duck, a bird resembling the toucan, an un-

identified flying bird, a bird represented in the act

of walking on the ground, and an animal, described

by the author as a wolf or fox. In size, in the posi-

tion of the bowls of the pipes and in style, these pipes

are identical with those from Seip Mound Number 1.

In fact it would be difficult for a casual observer of illus-

trations of the flying bird and the wolf or fox pipes to

distinguish them from those in Figures 43 and 41. It

is very evident that the five effigy pipes from the Seip

Mound do not pertain to the Hopewell culture, and that

they are typical of the Tennessee-Cumberland region.

In view of the fact that the Hopewell peoples drew

largely upon the southland for supplies of raw materials,

it is not surprising to find that they at times availed

12 Thruston, Gates P. The Antiquities of Tennessee, Robert Clarke &

Co., Cincinnati, 1890,

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424      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

themselves of finished specimens, obtained through bar-

ter or in any manner from peoples of that region.

The three bird effigies in Figure 44, representing the

owl, duck and vulture, are of black steatite. The duck

(C) was found with Burial 60 and the other two are

from the Burnt Offering. All three are hollow, the owl

and vulture from end to end and the duck only in the

portion representing the body. The latter, in effigy of

the roseate spoonbill, or perhaps the shoveler duck, dif-

fers further in having a plain surface. On the vulture

(B) incised lines representing primary, secondary and

tertiary feathers are very shallow and are not more than

a sixty-fourth of an inch in width. The incisions mark-

ing the eye and those for the nostrils are about twice as

wide and a little deeper. All three sets of wing-feathers

in addition to those on the breast are brought out in low

relief on the owl (A). The incisions for the feathers on

the top and sides of the head and on each side of the

beak are shallow and narrow. Two holes about one-

eighth of an inch in diameter perforate the body of the

owl.

The five steatite spheres shown in Figure 45 were

found in the Burnt Offering, adjacent to Burial 13,

which was the cremation of a child on a poorly con-

structed platform. This coincidence suggests that these

engraved spheres were used as marbles and that they

had been intended for the remains of the child. The

design on the piece to the left in Figure 45 appears to be

a conventionalization of the human face.

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426       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

The only entire manu- factured receptacle found in the mound, aside from shell containers, is the steatite "cup" in Figure 46. This was taken from Burial 74. Only two artifacts were made of shale.   Both are effigies, one of the human head, so broken up as to show only one eye and a portion of the nose, from

Burial 36; the other is an effigy of a lizard, or perhaps the pupa of an insect. The latter is shown in Figure 47. Resembling in size the three steatite hollow effi- gies, this piece was taken from the Burnt Offering. Un- like them however it is not hollow on the ventral side.

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Explorations of the Seip Group       427 There is one perforation, countersunk, near the middle of the back.  The maker of this effigy probably re- frained from hollowing it out because of the refractory brittleness and laminated structure of the material. A total of 136 flint artifacts comprises 16 arrow- points, 11 knives, 106 flaked knives of Flint Ridge ma-

terial and three blanks. Fragments giving no indica- tion of the shape of the original, and chips, spalls and rough flakes are not included in these figures. The series of arrow-points in Figure 48 contains all the types found in the mound. All but two were found either on the floor of the mound or in the earth above. The "fish- tail" type is from Burial 3, and is the only one of this

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428      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications type ever found in connection with a Hopewell burial in Ohio. The specimen at the left end of the lower row is from Burial 59 and represents the type usually found. The only objects made of diorite were a celt and a plummet, the latter from the Burnt Offering. The celt, from Burial 10, is shown in the photograph of that burial, Figure 15.

In obsidian there were four blades, one small scraper, an object of problematical use and the frag- ments of 18 spear-heads.   Three of the blades are curved (Figure 49, A, B, D). A fourth of a similar character from Burial 17, (E) in the illustration, is of blue-gray flint. The curved obsidian blades are from Burial 58. Two of them are curved in two planes (A and D). This double curvature was effected by the selection of large flakes which were already curved in one plane. One side of each is a smooth, unchipped sur-

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Explorations of the Scip Group      429 face. These curved blades are reminiscent of certain Mexican forms in obsidian. All three obsidian pieces, it will be noted, have the same type of notch and stem. The piece resembling a butterfly (C) was found with Burial 58. It is partly damaged by heat, and recalls certain slate forms found on the surface of the ground

in Ohio and adjoining states. The unnotched obsidian blade (F) was found in the Burnt Offering. Sandstone and quartz are the only remaining inor- ganic materials other than clay from which artifacts of Seip Mound Number 1 were made. In the former ma- terial there are 34 pieces; one broken ear-spool of stone, resembling a pulley-wheel in shape; 31 buttons from

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430      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications one-half to one inch in diameter and metal-covered; and two plain platform pipes from Burial 89 (Figure 50). The effigy pipe in the illustration is from Burial 73. It is made of Ohio pipestone and apparently represents the quail. The piece is either unfinished or very poorly exe- cuted. The front of the bird is toward the smoker. There was no attempt on this pipe to depict the legs or the feather-markings either by incision or relief. The only incisions represent the eyes and the meeting-line of the upper and lower mandibles.

In quartz there was a broken boat-shaped gorget and a roughly spherical piece of garnetiferous quartz. Both were taken from the Burnt Offering. Quantities of broken pottery were taken from the floor of the mound, from the three refuse pits, the Burnt Offering and the platforms of several burials.  The pottery is of the two kinds commonly distinguished as ceremonial and utility. The ceremonial ware is superior

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Explorations of the Seip Group      431

to the other artistically and technically. A description

of this ware follows:

Paste. The texture of the clay is fine and uniform.

The tempering materials are quartz, hornblende, felspar

and mica, all obtainable from granite, gneiss or schistose

boulders. The pieces are graded in size from very fine

up to the size of the head of a pin. The color of the

paste ranges from light to dark brown or gray and is

not always uniform throughout the entire thickness of

a sherd. Both surfaces are generally light brown but,

particularly on the inner surface, patches of dark brown

and black show up in irregularly circular areas. These

patches are not mere discolorations of the surface but

have some depth, extending halfway to the center on

some sherds. On others the area between the surfaces

is entirely black while both inner and outer surfaces are

light brown and together equal the thickness of the inner

layer. This differentiation in color of the surfaces is

probably due to contact directly with fire. In a few

sherds the paste contains a high content of fine sand.

The paste of the ceremonial ware is fairly hard. A

drop of water applied to the surface is absorbed in about

twenty seconds. The fracture is straight or slightly

curved.

Surface finish. Undecorated inner and outer sur-

faces are very smooth and reflect light. The smoothing

was apparently intentional and was probably accom-

plished by rubbing with wet leather or similar material.

Both surfaces exhibit a slight checking due to the resist-

ance of the tempering materials to the process of con-

traction in drying. There is no evidence that a coating

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432      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

or slip of clay was applied. Signs of use in cooking,

such as layers of grease and carbon, are lacking.

Decoration. Rim-sherds are decorated for the most

part with the cross-hatch, a diamond-checker pattern

formed by crossing series of incised lines at an oblique

angle. Beneath this cross-hatch pattern, on the shoulder

of the vessel, a punctate pattern is usually found. The

body-sherds show the typical Hopewell decorative

motives, consisting of broadly-incised parallel curved or

straight lines, alternate pairs of which define spaces

which are either smooth or filled in with a zigzag pat-

tern.

Form.   Reconstructed portions of vessels of the

ceremonial ware generally show a flat base with a

rounded shoulder and straight or slightly flared rim.

Some of the vessels have four short, thick and bluntly

pointed legs protruding from the flat bottom. The small

pot (B) in Figure 51, somewhat unusual in form, was

found in three pieces in the Burnt Offering, while (C)

represents a partial restoration from 25 sherds. This

vessel is typical of the ceremonial ware, with its cross-

hatched rim above a line of punctate marks. It lacks

the characteristic combinations of incised parallel

straight and curved lines on the body however, where

the only modification of the smooth surface is a very

shallow pseudo-roulette pattern, a series of shallow

square impressions in a zigzag pattern.

Numerical relationships. Of the 593 sherds of cere-

monial pottery found in the mound, 14 are unusual.

They appear to consist almost entirely of fine sand inter-

mixed sparsely with flakes of micaceous material not

much larger than a pin-point. Both surfaces are light

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Explorations of the Scip Group      433 gray and of the same texture. Four rim-sherds, seven body-sherds and one showing a foot were taken from the depression on the floor on the 130-foot line. One of the rim-sherds and the seven body-sherds, the latter ap- parently pieces of the same vessel, are plain. The other

three rim-sherds bear the cross-hatch and punctate pattern, (A) in Figure 52. One body-sherd, also from the depression in the floor, shows what appears to be a molded rather than an incised curvilinear pattern, (B) in Figure 52. The paste of these 14 sherds is fine in texture and resembles sandpaper to the touch, while the ware is superior in quality to the typical. Vol. XL--28.

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(434)

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Explorations of the Scip Group      435

The cross-hatch pattern on the ceremonial ware, con-

sisting of lines more deeply incised in proportion to their

width than the decorative lines on the body-sherds, is in

most cases rather carelessly done (H in Figure 52).

Only three or four sherds show the exercise of care in

making the oblique lines parallel to one another. In

some cases, whether accidental to use before complete

hardening of the vessel, or otherwise, the edges of the

cross-hatch incisions are depressed and bent toward one

another, a smoothing-over process similar to that char-

acterizing some of the body-sherds with a small, shal-

low check in parallel rows. One sherd (D) in the il-

lustration, found on the floor of the mound and similar

in paste, finish and so forth to the rest, has a series of

oblique rows of small rectangular depressions, chevron-

like in their arrangement, occupying the same area on

the rim as the usual cross-hatch.

The punctate pattern (A, D, H, J in Figure 52)

found invariably just beneath the cross-hatch was made

by impression at the end of an instrument, probably a

stick, held in a semi-tangent position with reference to

the circumference of the vessel. In some instances the

end of this instrument was cleft, gouge-like, and the

"gouge" was always applied upside down, leaving a

swallow-tail mark, deeper at its sides than at the center

in transverse cross-section. Of the 51 sherds showing

the punctate pattern the deepest point of the mark is to

the right on 43; that is, the instrument with which the

mark was made was held in the left hand providing the

vessel was held in an upright position. On five sherds

the deepest point of the mark is to the left. The remain-

ing sherds lack the punctate mark either intentionally

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436      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

or as a result of breakage, and in two instances the posi-

tion of the deepest point cannot be determined. On the

three sherds of the gritty type showing the punctate pat-

tern the deepest point of the swallow-tail mark is to the

right.

On body-sherds showing decoration the prevailing

motive is that of curved or straight parallel or concen-

tric shallow, incised lines, the areas between which are

smooth or embellished either with the check-mark pre-

viously mentioned, the pseudo-roulette pattern or

scratchy modifications of the surface with no determin-

able pattern (E, F, H, I, J in Figure 52). Two sherds,

(G) and (F), show a crescent-shaped mark and on an-

other body sherd concentric lines are slightly raised

above the surface in a diamond-shaped motive (C).

Willoughby says of the pseudo-roulette pattern (that

between the two parallel lines on H) on pottery vessels

from the Turner Group in Hamilton County, Ohio, that

it was made with a tool "having a plain or notched edge,

which was pressed against the soft clay with a rocking

motion, each opposite corner being raised and slightly

advanced alternately, the tool not being wholly lifted

from the vessel."13

A total of 235 fragments of utility ware were found,

many of them mingled together in pits or on platforms

with sherds of the ceremonial ware. There is a very

sharp difference between these two kinds of pottery.

The ceremonial ware seems to have its nearest affinities

in certain pottery types of the lower Mississippi Valley,

while the utility ware suggests Algonkian pottery both

in decorative technique and motive.

 

13 Willoughby, C. C., Op. cit., p. 92.

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Explorations of the Seip Group      437

Paste. The paste of the utility ware is coarse and

irregular in texture. The color is generally gray or

brown. This pottery is broken easily between the fin-

gers in a rough and jagged fracture, and as removed

from the mound the fragments were generally small in

comparison to those of the ceremonial ware. A drop

of water applied at the end of a match is absorbed in-

stantaneously. The tempering, of the same materials as

those employed in the ceremonial ware, is much coarser,

occasional pieces attaining a length of a quarter of an

inch.

Surface Finish. Both inner and outer surfaces are

rough and unpolished when unmodified by the barklike

roughening which on Algonkian pottery is usually called

"fabric marking". Most of the sherds have this mark-

ing on the outer surface. Both surfaces are generally

of the same color as the paste of the interior, light brown

with irregular areas of dark brown or black. The color

of the surface, in other words, varies with the color of

the paste. A few sherds show signs of use in cooking

but the majority are clean.

Decoration. Of the 75 rim-sherds 29 are those of

bowls or pots. Twenty-four of these are plain; three

show the fabric-mark extending to the edge of the rim;

one is decorated with narrow vertical incisions extend-

ing a quarter of an inch down the outside (K in Figure

52), and one shows a series of punctate marks made by

impression at the end of a round stick. In Figure 52

(L) represents a section of a plain rim.

The other 46 rim-sherds are fragments of flat, plate-

like vessels (M in Figure 52). Twenty-nine of these

plate-sherds are plain and the rest show a fabric-mark

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438      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

of parallel roughly incised or stamped lines. Plate-

sherds have been found in other Hopewell mounds, but

no entire vessels of these types have been recovered.

Neither has it been possible completely to restore a

"plate".14

Form. While a few sherds of utility ware were

matched, enough of a vessel to show the original shape

could not be reconstructed.  Most sherds are much

thicker than those of the ceremonial ware. (L) in

Figure 52 has a cross-section three-eighths of an inch

thick. The small pot (A) in Figure 51, was taken from

an intrusive burial and does not represent a type in-

digenous to the mound.

In an excavation in a portion of the great wall of the

Seip Group 80 potsherds were found at a depth of two

feet in an ash deposit. Seven of these are ceremonial

in type, all rim-sherds. Four are plain and three show

the cross-hatch on the rim. The paste of these three is

very gritty, but reddish in color rather than gray like

the samples of gritty pottery from the mound. The 73

sherds of utility ware are similar in paste and surface

finish to the utility sherds from the mound. Sixty-two

are body sherds of which 12 have a cord-mark which

has in most instances been slightly compressed by some

sort of smoothing process. Of the 11 rim-sherds, six

are plain; three show a horizontal fabric-mark of trailed

parallel lines and on two a similar fabric-mark is ver-

tical.

 

14 A form intermediary between the pot and the plate, resembling the

modern platter, was found in the Edwin Harness Mound.

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Explorations of the Seip Group      439 ORGANIC MATERIALS Artifacts of organic materials far outnumber those made of inorganic materials. This is to be expected since the former usually are more readily obtainable, often as by-products of food-gathering processes, as in the case of bone and shell. The greatest number of arti- facts or organic materials consists of beads, perforated shells and animal teeth. Approximately 15,000 pearl beads of various shapes and sizes (Figure 53) were

taken from the mound, most of them from the Multiple Burial. Several hundred, some set in bear canines and at the perforations of copper breastplates, were found in the Burnt Offering and with 17 burials as intentional offerings. Some of the larger beads have two perfora-

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440      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

tions, parallel, at right angles or at an oblique angle to

one another.

About 3000 shell beads were mixed with the calcined

and charred material of the Burnt Offering and others

were found in crematory basins and with six burials.

The greater number of those from the Burnt Offering

are the fresh-water varieties marginella and leptoxis.

There are eight sea-shell containers, all found with

burials. They range in capacity from a pint to a quart

and a half. These containers, fairly common in Hope-

well mounds, were made by cutting away the margins of

the shell and removing the columellae and contiguous

parts. Historical notice of the use of sea-shell drinking

cups was made by a French artist, Jacobo Le Moyne,15

who visited villages of the Timucuan Indians on the

east coast of Florida in the year 1564. He made a

drawing of a burial ceremony in one of these villages,

in which a sea-shell container lies at the apex of a small

mound a foot or so in height surrounded at the base by a

picket of arrows placed with the heads in the ground.

In a circle around this small burial mound sit the

mourners in various attitudes of grief.

A different sort of shell container is the mussel-

shell (C) in Figure 54, from Burial 53. This shows

use as a paint-cup. The inner surface is coated with

dark red pigment and the fine lines made by the brush in

the wet paint are still observable.

The columellae of large sea-shells were utilized in

making 40 plummet-like objects taken from the Burnt

15 Le Moyne, Jacobo, Brevis Narratio. Part II of de Bry, 1591. Reprint,

Boston, 1875. Quoted in "Native Cemeteries and Forms of Burial East of

the Mississippi," by David I. Bushnell, Jr., Bulletin 71, Bureau of American

Ethnology, p. 118.

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Explorations of the Seip Group      441 Offering. No doubt other fragments from the same source were used in making beads, and the three gorgets in Figure 54 (A and B). These plummets (Figures 55, 56) are damaged by heat and several were fused to- gether when removed, as are the two in Figure 55. Seven of them are short and wide, like the effigy of the

duck in Figure 56, and the rest are elongated, of the same general shape as the two that are fused. Sixteen are in a fragmentary state, cracked and scaled by heat. The unbroken specimens all have a groove around one end beyond which the termination is generally pointed. Two of the shorter pieces show a spiralled groove three-

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442       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

• 100
 

Explorations of the Seip Group       443 sixteenths of an inch deep, running in an oblique direc- tion with reference to the main axes. This groove is a natural feature of the columellae. The effigy swan in Figure 57, cut from tortoise-shell, lay at the left foot of the skeleton of Burial 2. The lower edge is serrated, representing the suture-line of the tor- toise-shell from which it was made. This is one of the few effigies of the trumpeter swan found in burial mounds. This bird, with another species, the whistling swan, was numerous throughout the eastern part of the United States in early historic times. While the latter are relatively common at the present time, only a few flocks of the species represented in this effigy are in ex- istence.

Two combs of tortoise-shell from  Burial 11 are shown in Figure 58. The lower one consists of two pieces, comb and handle. The comb is fitted into the tubular handle or socket of the same material by means of a longitudinal groove through the curved face in such a manner that only the teeth protrude. This comb is especially interesting as it is one of the few implements from the mounds made up of more than a single piece. No doubt there were many such, ornaments as well as implements, of which only the imperishable parts re- main. The upper comb in the illustration was fitted into a similar handle, which was in fragments.

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444      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications Three additional pieces of tortoise-shell were found with Burial 2. They appear to be fragments of the same sheet of tortoise-shell and are inscribed with a bird-design. Only the wings, and on one, a portion of the body, are traceable (Figure 59).

The Burnt Offering yielded about 2000 canines of small mammals, including those of the raccoon, opossum, wildcat and mountain lion, nearly all perforated for at- tachment or suspension.  Like most of the articles taken from the Burnt Offering the majority were frag-

• 102
 

Explorations of the Seip Group      445 mentary, burnt and coated with a calcareous deposit. Raccoon and opossum canines, perforated, were also found with several burials and at other places on the floor of the mound.

Forty-four canine teeth of the black and grizzly bear were taken from Crematory Basin Number 1, all perforated and several set with pearls. There are from one to four perforations in single specimens. In many instances pairs of holes are drilled at an angle to the

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446      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications center of the tooth where they meet. A few were origi- nally set with pearls, as is indicated by circular depres- sions an eighth of an inch in depth. In the center of these depressions are small holes which extend to the opposite sides. These were intended to accommodate cords or perhaps pegs to hold the inset pearls in place. Twelve canines of the black bear, unperforated and in good condition were taken from Burial 73, with which

they had been deposited as an offering to the dead. Three others were taken from Burial 32, and four, each set with two pearls, from Burial 6; from Burial 66, four, each set with a pearl. Of bone artifacts there are 139, including the "han- dles" on copper rods and the copper-banded bones al- ready described. Cut and decorated lower jaws of some of the smaller mammals had a place of importance in the symbolism

• 104
 

Explorations of the Seip Group     447 of the builders of Hopewell mounds. They are gen- erally found in the larger mounds, and those in Figure 60 were taken from graves in the mound under discus- sion. Of great interest are the two pieces of the lower jaw of the wildcat in Figure 56, with a typically Hope- well design carved in relief of about one sixty-fourth of an inch. It will be noted that the bottom and rear end of the larger piece are both cut squarely across.  Both pieces, apparently parts of the same jaw, are blackened by heat. They were found on the platform of Burial 28. In Figure 61 is illustrated the manner in which 37

fragments of thin bone awls were found, lying between two small plates of sandstone in Burial 73. The piece of sandstone to the right lay over the other, with the fragments of the awls between the two. There are 17 points, indicating the number of complete awls, which apparently were broken or "killed" ceremonially.

• 105
 

448      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications A series of characteristic perforators is shown in Figure 62. The long needle at the top was found on the floor of the mound just outside the log-molds of Burial 30. It is finely polished.

The objects in Figure 64 were identified by E. N. Gueret of the Field Museum as portions of the first in- terhaemal bone of the spade-fish (Chaetodipterus fa- ber), a species common on the Atlantic coast from Cape Cod to Brazil. A score or more of these were found in the Burnt Offering. All of them show a modifica- tion of the surface due to intentional abrasion and on the four exhibited there are incised bands about three- sixteenths of an inch wide around the middle. A few

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Explorations of the Seip Group       449

worked deer astragali were also found in the Burnt

Offering. Each has been ground down on one or more

sides, but there are no perforations or incisions.

Artifacts of wood are rarely found, and then gen-

erally in a fragmentary state, preserved either as char-

coal or by close proximity to copper. This is not the

case, however, with one double-pointed awl, which prob-

ably owned its preservation to a perfectly dry situation.

A total of 37 pieces of wood was found, some of which

were in sufficient state of preservation to enable recog-

nition of the original object. Among these are several

fragments of a wooden bowl or plate, from the Burnt

Offering, and a few pieces of cane, unworked, from the

pit surrounding Burial 77. Two small wooden rings

half an inch in diameter were found on the platform of

Burial 71, each discovered among the pieces of a dis-

integrated copper ear-spool in the construction of which

they were used. The eight copper effigy alligator teeth

from Burial 28, previously mentioned, were formed

around wooden cores, all of which have been reduced to

charcoal.

Fragments of cloth and leather accompanied many

of the remains on platforms, and other pieces were

found in the Burnt Offering. Most of the copper breast-

plates show the imprint of woven fabric and it seems

apparent that they were deposited with the remains

wrapped in cloth. Certain objects, for example the

cut jaws of the mountain lion found with Burial 49,

seem to have been deposited on platforms in leather

bags. In Strachey's History of Virginia,16 it was said

16 Publications of Hakluyt Society, 1849. Quoted in "Mortuary Cus-

toms of the North American Indians," by H. C. Yarrow, Annual Report,

Bureau of American Ethnology, 1879-'80, p. 125.

Vol. XL--29.

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450      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications of the Indians of that region that "Their inwards they stuff with pearle, copper, beads and such trash, sowed in a skynne." This reference to skin bags, however, may result from Strachey's misinterpretation of Captain John Smith's account of the Indians of the Powhatan Confederacy.17   He wrote of their burial customs:

"Their bodies are first bowelled, then dryed upon hur- dles till they bee verie dry, and so about the most of their jointes and necke they hang bracelets or chaines 17 Smith, John, A Map of Virginia, with a description of the Countrey. Oxford, 1612. Reprint Birmingham, 1884. Quoted in "Native Ceremonies and Forms of Burial East of the Mississippi," by David I. Bushnell Jr., Bulletin 71, Bureau of American Ethnology, p. 27.

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Explorations of the Seip Group     451 of copper, pearle, and such like, as they use to weare; their inwards they stuffe with copper beads and cover with a skin, hatchets, and such trash. Then lappe they them very carefully in white skins, and so rowle them in mats for their winding sheets. And in the Tombe, which is an arch made of mats, they lay them orderly." One thing to be gained from this description is the con- tempt with which the early colonists regarded the tools and ornaments and "such trash" of the Indians.

Leather and tanned skins were in evidence with many burials of the mound, usually badly decomposed, but in a few instances fragments several inches across were surprisingly well preserved between copper breast- plates. Fabric bearing colored designs, mostly frag- mentary, was found beneath copper breastplates in Burials 2, 4, 5, 9, 11, 28 and 86. Those from Burials 2 and 5, characteristically Hopewell designs, are shown in Figures 65 and 66. The weave of the cloth is not observable in the illustrations, but it is the same as that shown in Figure 67 (A). The incompleteness of these two patterns seems to indicate that the breastplates were originally fastened to larger pieces of fabric upon which

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452      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications was painted the entire pattern. The background is maroon, with the tan designs outlined in black. The designs are not the result of weaving colored threads into the fabric but were effected by means of staining or dyeing with mineral pigments, possibly by the use of stamps. The print of these designs was transferred to the copper plates, on which they are still to be seen

clearly. The colored design on the breastplate in Burial 86 could be made out only in part. It had some resem- blance to the body of a fish, in red pigment on a back- ground of dark brown. The fabric canopy covering the primary mound over the Multiple Burial was of a simple open weave corre- sponding closely to a thin quality of modern burlap. Six different techniques in the weaving of spun or

• 110
 

Explorations of the Seip Group     453 twisted vegetable fibres were found. The most common is that shown in Figure 67 (A). This represents the finest, most densely woven cloth found in the mound and all fragments found beneath or adhering to copper breastplates were of this type. The weft (perpendicu- lar threads in the illustration) is made up of two ele- ments twisted or twined upon one another and at the same time over and under pairs of warp-elements (hor- izontal threads in the illustration). Each element of

both warp and weft is made up of two groups of threads twisted around one another for the most part. In some instances the warp consists of a single flat strand of threads. The threads are probably made of the Swamp Milkweed, Asclepias incarnata, and must have been specially prepared, perhaps by treatment in water. The color is light gray, almost white, except where stained green by contact with copper. Both elements are in most cases flattened slightly, as if by intentional pres- sure. In all specimens of this type of fabric the weft

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454      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications threads are placed from one-sixteenth to three thirty- seconds of an inch apart and the warp elements are much closer; to the naked eye, adjoining. The identity of the pairs of warp-elements is not kept throughout the length of the fabric but, after passing through one loop of the weft, they are separated, one strand going through the next loop to the right and above (in the illustration), where it forms a pair in the loop with an-

other single warp-element, and the other doing the same thing in the loop next to the right and below. In Figure 67, (B) is a plain or checkered technique wherein the two elements, not distinguishable from one another, pass alternately over and under. Occasionally, however, two of the strands of one series are paired, as is shown at the lower edge of the section illustrated. Both elements are made up of two twisted strands of thread, which are from one-sixteenth to three thirty-

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Explorations of the Seip Group      455

seconds of an inch across. The weave is dense and com-

pact.

A sample of the weave shown as (C) in Figure 67

was taken from Burial 49. A peculiar feature is that the

warp and weft elements are at an oblique angle to one

another. The warp is made of two parallel strands of

stringy fiber which are not twisted, either around one

another or upon themselves, but lie parallel without in-

termingling. A similar weave with the warp-element

much wider, consisting apparently of the same mate-

rials, was taken from the platform of Burial 36.

Pieces of a loosely woven netted fabric adhered to the

larger ceremonial celt taken from the ceremonial cache

(D). This sample, one of the few with a selvage, is

made up of fine twisted strands which were probably

taken from the inner bark of a tree. (E) represents

the fabric found beneath the ceremonial copper celt.

This is a twilled pattern of matting done in split reeds

in which each element is passed beneath two of the

other, over either three or four, then beneath one, and

so on.

 

MATERIALS OF ARTIFACTS FROM SEIP MOUND NUMBER1

Inorganic

1. Chlorite

28 beads

1 plummet

1 gorget

 

30

2. Copper

2 "andirons"

24 celts

1 chisel

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456       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

46 breastplates

52 ear-spools

5 rods

6 bands

8 beads

14 coverings for stone buttons

4 crescents

13 disks, saucer-shaped

8 effigy alligator teeth

1 pair of effigy nostrils

1 ornament, open-work

1 head-plate

1 plummet

1 leaf-shaped piece

 

188

3. Diorite

1 plummet

1 celt

 

 

2

4. Flint

16 arrow-points

11 knives

106 flaked knives

3 blanks

 

136

5. Galena

3 chunks

6. Iron

3 boat-shaped objects

1 punch

2 saucer-shaped disks

2 fragments

 

8

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Explorations of the Seip Group           457

 

7. Mica

200 geometrical designs

3 sheets

3 links

1 effigy bear canine

 

 

207

8. Obsidian

18 spearheads, fragmentary

4 blades

1 scraper

1 butterfly-shaped ceremonial

 

 

24

9. Ohio pipestone

1 effigy platform pipe, bird

10. Quartz

1 boat-shaped gorget, broken

1 roughly round piece, garnetiferous

 

 

2

11. Sandstone

2 platform pipes, plain, one broken

1 ear-spool, pulley-wheel type

31 buttons, covered with copper or silver

 

34

12. Shale

1 effigy of human head, fragmentary

1 effigy of lizard or insect pupa

 

 

2

13. Silver

21 thin sheets, over stone or wooden buttons

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458       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

14. Steatite

5 large effigy pipes

3 hollow effigies

5 spheres or marbles with incised patterns

1 cup

 

14

15. Clay

908 potsherds18

2 pots

 

 

910

 

Organic

1. Antler

4 deer antler tips

2. Bone

2 knives

2 jaws of wildcat, worked

2 jaws of wildcat, painted

1 jaw of beaver, upper

3 jaws of mountain lion, worked

1 jaw of mountain lion

5 os penis of raccoon

7 deer astragali

87 awls

2 "handles" on copper rods

2 beads

2 pendants

3 effigy eagle claws

4 effigy bear claws

16 pieces of bone from the spadetish

 

139

18 Not inclusive of small fragments.

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Explorations of the Seip Group            459

 

3. Claws

18 bear claws

18 unidentifiable

 

36

4. Pearls

15000

5. Marine shell

4 gorgets

8 containers

30 fragments

6 plummets, carved

18 plummets, fragmentary

1 plummet, effigy of head of wild duck

3 fragments, incised

15 cylindrical plummet-like objects

 

85

6. Fresh-water shell

100 small shells

1 mussel shell, with mother-of-pearl

3000 shell beads, approximately

 

3101

 

7. Tortoise-shell

1 effigy swan

5 fragments, incised with bird-design

2 combs

1 leaf-shaped piece

1 fragment

1 carapace of land-turtle

 

 

11

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460      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

8. Teeth

65 bear canines

2000 canines of small mammals

13 alligator teeth

3 shark teeth

 

 

2081

9. Wood

1 awl

6 pieces of wooden bowl

1 tubular object

1 disk, fragmentary

1 piece, charred, worked

2 rings, from copper ear-spools

8 cores, in copper effigy teeth

17 pieces of charred cane

 

37

 

OTHER BURIALS OF MOUND NUMBER 1

Burial Number 9. The cremated remains of an

adult male lay on a bark layer covering the surface of

the platform. A copper breastplate bearing the imprint

of woven material lay beside the pile of bone fragments.

The log-molds of this burial were somewhat smaller

than usual.

Burial Number 11.     Adult cremation, sex indeter-

minable. With the remains were a small copper breast-

plate, a shell container made from a Fulgur shell, and,

in the south log-mold two combs made of tortoise-shell

(Figure 58). There were stone slabs at each end of

the platform.

Burial Number 12. The platform of this burial was

larger than usual, measuring five feet three inches in

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Explorations of the Seip Group       461 length inclusive of the log-molds, and about half that width. The log-molds, also of unusual size, had rows of small stones placed along their outer margins, pre-

sumably to hold the logs in place before the earth was thrown up covering the burial. At the center of the platform lay the cremated remains of an adult with two

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462      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

copper celts. The smaller of the two bore the imprint

of woven fabric. An area of one square foot at the

northwest end of this grave was covered with the im-

print of woven fabric of the flat splint type.

Burial Number 14. The cremated remains were so

badly burnt that it was impossible to tell the age or sex

of the individual represented. With the calcined bones

were a few shell beads and the decomposed fragments

of a copper plate.    The log-molds were two in

height on all sides. Burial 14 lay within the area cov-

ered by the Burnt Offering and the platform was found

to be made up of charred grass, wood and other vege-

table matter, mingled with artifacts. These artifacts ap-

peared to belong with the deposit on the floor and have

been described therewith.

Burial Number 17. A medium-sized platform with

the cremated remains of a single individual at the cen-

ter. It was impossible to determine the age or sex.

At the eastern end of the platform lay a flint blade,

notched at the base and curved in the plane of the blade

(Figure 49).

Burial Number 22. The cremated remains of an

adolescent, aged 15 or 18 years at death, on a platform

of the usual type. With the remains were a small cere-

monially "killed" copper celt with a bark covering, and

two copper breastplates in fragments.

Burial Number 23. The cremated remains were

probably those of an adult female. The platform was

small and rather indifferently prepared. The only arti-

facts were six small flaked knives of Flint Ridge ma-

terial. At the northwest corner of the platform was a

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Explorations of the Seip, Group    463

post-mold 14 inches in diameter and nearly four feet in

depth.

Burial Number 24. The cremated remains of an

adult. With the bone fragments were a plain rectan-

gular copper breastplate and a copper crescent, the

latter in fragmentary condition.

Burial Number 27. A small and unpretentious plat-

form with a pile of cremated bones. Age and sex were

indeterminable. At the southwest corner of the plat-

form was a finely preserved shell container made from

the shell of Fulgur perversum.

Burial Number 33. A cremated burial accompanied

by a copper breastplate and four copper ear-spools. The

bones were thoroughly burnt and no determination of

sex or age was possible.

Burial Number 35. A typical cremated burial with-

out special features. No identification of age or sex

could be made. A copper celt seven inches long ac-

companied the remains.

Burial Number 36. The platform, four feet long

and two feet five inches wide, was composed mostly of

charcoal and other burnt organic matter which extended

well out onto the floor of the mound. A small individual

primary mound with two distinct gravel strata covered

Burials 36 and 39. Each burial had its own separate

platform however, both presenting unusual features.

As in the construction of typical crematory basins, a

considerable quantity of fine clay had been dumped on

the floor and this in turn spread out, "trowelled" flat,

and the platforms carefully shaped up. Over the de-

posit of bones on each platform there was gravel in-

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464      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

stead of the usual mound of earth. The cremated re-

mains in Burial 36 were those of an adult, probably past

middle age. Sex could not be determined. On the bark

covering, directly over the calcined bone fragments, was

an effigy of a human head about the size of a man's fist.

Made of shale, this effigy was so burnt and cracked that

few fragments of any size remained. Beneath the bark

covering were a small rectangular breastplate of cop-

per, two very small copper ear-spools (Figure 30) and

four copper-covered stone buttons. The breastplate

was the smallest taken from the mound, measuring only

five by three inches (Figure 30).

Burial Number 37. At the northwest end of the

platform were the cremated remains of an adult ad-

jacent to which, toward the center, reposed a typical

copper breastplate, beneath which was a small strand of

pearl beads in the position they had occupied when

strung, the remains of cloth and leather, and a small

copper celt. With the cremated remains of a youth at

the opposite end of the platform was another breast-

plate, smaller than the first.

Burial Number 38. The platform of this burial was

small. The cremated bones appeared to be those of an

adult. Accompanying artifacts were a copper breast-

plate of the usual type under which were preserved flat

woven fabric or matting and portions of a bone needle

about six inches long.

Burial Number 39. This burial lay four and one-

half feet above the floor of the mound. The platform

measured three and one-half feet in each direction; the

log-molds were three in height.    Large slabs of

shale were set up around the platform inside the log-

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Explorations of the Seip Group    465 molds. The top of this burial lay just below the yellow sand and clay stratum surmounting the primary mound, and the dropping down of this into the grave presented an interesting phenomenon. The cremated bones were those of an adult of middle age. With them were five copper celts, placed toward the west end of the platform; two copper ear-spools and a copper breastplate.

Burial Number 40. The cremated remains of three individuals were disposed in separate piles on a large platform measuring four and one-half by seven feet. With the pile of bones near the northwest corner were two finely made copper celts; with those at the middle of the north side, no artifacts; with the remains extend- ing in an irregular pile from the middle to the south edge of the platform was a large lump of galena weigh- ing 20 pounds; a very thin copper celt eight inches in length; portions of a stone ear-spool of the "pulley- Vol. XL--30.

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466      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications wheel" type and several pearl beads. The platform was constructed mostly of charcoal and sand. Burial Number 41. A platform     without special features, containing the cremated remains of a young adult (Figure 75). With the bones were a pendant made

from the upper jaw of the beaver (Figure 60, C), a large pearl bead and a few globular shell beads. Burial Number 43. The cremated remains of an adult lay near the center of a platform bordered by three tiers of log-molds. Within the platform, toward the southwest corner and extending just through its sur- face, was a large post-mold 11 inches in diameter, with the molds of split stakes which had been driven in

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Explorations of the Seip Group     467

around it. With the remains were a copper breastplate,

beneath which was preserved some woven fabric and

leather; several copper beads and an effigy tooth of

copper.

Burial Number 45. The loz-molds were three in

height and the platform measured three and one-half

feet by four feet. The cremated remains of an adult

were accompanied by a small ocean-shell container, a

copper breastplate, two copper ear-spools and 50 pearl

beads. The platform was built up of fine clean charcoal

on a foundation of heavy dark earth. In the charcoal,

beneath the surface of the platform, were found three

hollow copper hemispheres, about an inch in diameter.

This burial lay almost directly beneath the platform of

the elevated burial, Number 39.

Burial Number 46. The platform measured four

feet five inches by 19 inches. The cremated bones of an

adult were accompanied by two copper ear-spools and

the fragments of 11 bone needles, nine of which have

responded to restoration. Two of these have perfora-

tions for holding the thread, one has a slight groove for

the same purpose and the remainder are plain double-

pointed specimens.

Burial Number 53. The cremation of an adult on a

platform of the usual shape and size. The remains were

accompanied by two bone needles, a mussel-shell paint

cup (Figure 54, C) and three mica links (Figure 38).

The last-named lay flat on the platform to the south of

the cremated bones and were displayed in the form of

a letter U. A large post-mold pierced the burial plat-

form at the northeast corner.

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U (468)

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Explorations of the Seip Group     469

Burial Number 57. This burial lay well out toward

the southern margin of the mound on the top of the outer

slope of the primary mound, elevated three feet above

the floor. The cremated remains of an adult were ac-

companied by a small copper celt.

Burial Number 59. The platform, of medium size,

contained the cremated remains of an adult. The ac-

companying artifacts were a copper breastplate, two

copper ear-spools, four flaked knives and an arrow-

point of drab flint thre inches long (Figure 48, lower

row, left end).

Burial Number 61. The cremated remains of an

adult on a small platform. The only artifacts were three

small flint blanks of nodular flint.

Burial Number 63. A small carefully made plat-

form held the cremated remains of an adult accom-

panied by a pair of copper ear-spools.

Burial Number 64. The platform, measuring three

and one-half feet by four feet four inches, was com-

posed entirely of earth and contained the remains of

two individuals in one pile at center, representing an

adult and a child. The only artifacts were two copper

ear-spools.

Burial Number 65. The platform was four feet

long by two feet wide. Covering the cremated remains

of an adult was a considerable quantity of charred fab-

ric. There were also portions of the carapace of a land

turtle and the head of the humerus of a deer.

Burial Number 67. The cremated remains of an

adult lay on a platform measuring three feet by three

and one-half feet. A dozen large angular blocks of

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470      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

granitic stone surrounded the log-molds, apparently em-

ployed originally to hold the logs of the burial chamber

in place. The only artifacts were two copper ear-spools.

Burial Number 68. The platform contained no hu-

man remains. It measured three feet four inches each

way. It had been carefully prepared and covered over

in the usual manner, with a bed of bark on its surface.

At the center on the surface was a small fragment of

mica, unworked.

Burial Number 71. A platform made of clay and

gravel, with log-molds two in height, contained the cre-

mated remains of an adult and an adolescent, in a single

pile about at the center. At the edge of the calcined

bone fragments was a pair of large ear-spools and near-

by was another smaller pair. At the southwest end were

two sea-shell containers, one at each corner.

Burial Number 74. A platform measuring three

feet ten inches by two feet three inches contained the

cremated bones of an adult, accompanied by a small

cup of steatite about two inches in depth and of the same

diameter (Figure 46).

Burial Number 81. That platform contained a cre-

mation and the full skeleton of a child less than one year

of age. The skeleton, which measured 27 inches in

length, lay on the back with the face turned toward the

east. At the head was a sea-shell container.

Burial Number 85. The surface of this platform

was three inches beneath the level of the floor of the

mound. Among the cremated bones, which were those

of an adult, were two perforated canines of the raccoon,

and two small flint flakes lay at the northwest corner of

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Explorations of the Seip Group     471

the platform. One of these was notched at one end for

suspension.

Burial Number 88. This burial was on the gravel

above the primary mound, the top of which was only

three feet above the floor of the mound at this point. The

platform measured six feet three inches by two feet

eight inches. Near the center was a partially cremated

skeleton of a large adult male. The pelvis and most of

the vertebrae were intact but the two femurs had been

broken and burned off about eight inches from their

heads. The vertebrae lay in their natural order in an

oval loop between the two broken femurs. At the upper

end of this loop, that is at the atlas vertebrae, were three

calcined fragments of the skull. The heads of the fe-

murs were at their proper positions in the sockets of the

pelvic bones. A fragment of the proximal end of the

left tibia lay in the abdominal position, beside which

were two bone pendants. Within the loop formed by

the vertebral column were two copper ear-spools, lying

side by side four inches apart. Between the upper por-

tion of the vertebral column and the fragments of the

right femur were calcined bones, including three pieces

of the skull. A separate pile of cremated bones was at

the southeast corner of the platform. With this pile

were two ear-spools, three pearl beads and a claw-

shaped pendant of bone. In view of the two sets of ear-

spools, one with the partially cremated remains and the

other with a separate pile of cremated bones, it seems

probable that two individuals were here represented.

Burial Number 89. The platform     measured 50

inches by 28 inches. The cremated bones of two indi-

viduals were scattered from one end to the other and at

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472      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications each end of the pile was a plain platform pipe (Figure 50). At the center of the platform was found a per- forated bone awl in two pieces. The remains were those of adults. Burial Number 90. The platform measured six feet by three feet. There were two piles of cremated bones, both of adults, one at each end of the platform. There were no artifacts with the pile at the west end. With the other was a copper breastplate, on the top of which lay two pearl beads. This breastplate lay on a rush mat which had been covered with a piece of leather about a foot square, the remains of which were in a pow- dery condition.

Burial Number 97. The platform was surrounded by a number of vertically placed stone slabs, at the inner edges of the log-molds, with indications that there had been at least a partial roof of stone. There were two piles of cremated bones, both the remains of adult indi-

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Explorations of the Seip Group     473

viduals, one on each side of the platform at the center.

With those on the west side were a small copper celt

and half a dozen pearl beads. With the other burial

were two flaked knives of Flint Ridge material. A piece

of the tooth of a shark was found imbedded in the sur-

face of the platform between the two piles of calcined

bones.

Burial Number 98. A platform 26 by 15 inches

contained the cremated remains of an adult about at the

center. Mingled with the cremated bones were nine

pearl beads. A copper ear-spool lay on the small pile

of bone-fragments over pieces of the skull, and another

of the same size was at the edge of the pile, beside half

of a cut panther or mountain lion jaw.

Intrusive Burials. The remains of at least seven

individuals were found just beneath the surface of the

mound. None of these burials was Hopewell in type

and all were probably placed either after the Hopewell

people had withdrawn to another locality or had ceased

to exist as a tribal entity. About 15 feet north of the

main central axis of the mound 50 feet from the west

end, were found the remains of two individuals, a child

and an adult. The bones, which had apparently been

thrown into the grave without order and devoid of flesh,

lay at a depth of four feet and seven inches beneath the

surface. With them was a small earthenware pot (Fig-

ure 51, A). Eighty-five feet from the west end of the

mound a badly decomposed skeleton of a female was

uncovered three feet south of the main axis and 15

inches beneath the surface. The skeleton measured

about five feet in length, but it was evidently a re-burial,

as many of the bones were disarticulated. The head of

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474      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

the skeleton lay to the east. One hundred and sixty-five

feet from the west end of the mound and 25 feet south

of center, the fragmentary skulls of two adults, with the

scattered bones of these and at least two other individu-

als, were found at a depth of one foot beneath the sur-

face. Mingled among the bones were four worked tips

of deer antler.

Grave South of Mound Number 1. During recon-

struction of Mound Number 1 a grave was disclosed 72

feet south of the west end. A small pile of cremated

bones lay in a pit two and one-half feet deep. Accom-

panying this cremation were two copper ear-spools and

the broken half of a human mandible which had been

perforated artificially five-eighths of an inch inward

from the gonion, by a hole one-eighth of an inch in

diameter. The jaw is that of a male of middle age at

the time of death and is undoubtedly a trophy or a family

relic.

Burials Without Artifacts. Thirty platforms con-

tained the remains of single individuals unaccompanied

by artifacts. Four burials without artifacts had no

platforms and there were 13 individuals without arti-

facts on platforms containing the remains of more than

one individual. Of the burials in the second class Num-

ber 96 was the most interesting (See Figure 8). The

cremated remains of an adult were contained in a small

boxlike cist of shale slabs three feet by 14 inches and

about a foot in depth. They were at the bottom of the

cist on a floor of two nearly disintegrated pieces of

shale, in a pile about six inches long. Lying directly

upon the bone fragments was the central portion of a

piece of shale, loosely disintegrated into thin flakes,

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Explorations of the Seip Group     475

which had originally lain across the top of the cist as a

cover or roof. The end portions of this cover lay in an

inclined position against the sides of the cist. In Burial

77 the cremated remains of an adult lay 14 inches be-

neath the floor of the mound on a roughly circular clay

"post" or knob about a foot in diameter, which rose

from the bottom of a pit two feet four inches in depth

and four feet seven inches in diameter. In this pit were

a large number of deer bones, about a dozen potsherds

of both ceremonial and utility type and a sheet of uncut

mica, all intermingled with ashes, charcoal and black

humus. The remaining two burials in this class, Burials

99 and 100, were simply small piles of calcined bone

fragments lying near Burial 98. Number 99 lay on a

skin mat 18 inches by ten inches and Number 100 upon

the undifferentiated earth above the floor of the mound.

In the third class, single cremations on the platforms

of Burials 40, 81 and 90, with each of which there was

more than one cremation, have already been described.

The remaining five burials in this class, 91, 92, 30, 76

and 78, were unaccompanied by artifacts. On the plat-

form of Burial 30 lay the cremated remains of an adult

between the years of 45 and 50 and of a child about five

years of age, in a single pile. This burial lay on the

gravel immediately above the primary mound, well out

toward its southern margin. The platform of Burial

76, outside of the margin of the primary mound, was

poorly constructed. It contained the cremated remains

of two individuals, one pile of bone fragments at each

end. Burial 78 consisted of the cremated remains of an

adult and a child in the same pile. There were no arti-

facts with the calcined bones but two broken pieces of a

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476      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

bone awl were found in the earth beneath the surface of

the platform. In Burial 91 the cremated remains of an

adult and a child lay in the center of a small triangular

platform with a base of 26 inches and a hypotenuse of

47 inches. The single pile of bones occupied the greater

part of the platform, and was four inches in height.

The base of this triangular platform, the only one of

this type in the mound, was separated from the north

log-mold of Burial 90 by only eight inches. The cremated

remains of two adults lay in two long piles in Burial 92,

stretching the length of the nearly square platform,

which measured three feet four inches by three feet.

Sex criteria were lacking in all but three of the

burials without artifacts. The remains in Burials 8, 31

and 94 were identified as adult males.

Seven child burials out of the total of 14 were unac-

companied by artifacts. Of these seven, four were alone

on their platforms. These four, Burials 13, 18, 55 and

84, were all cremations. The remaining three, Burials

30, 78 and 91, were mingled with the remains of adults.

Five burials unaccompanied by artifacts lay on plat-

forms surrounded by large slabs of stone; they were

Burials 47, 54, 55, 69 and 83. All were adult crema-

tions with the exception of Burial 55 which was that of

a child, also cremated. Burial 96, without a platform or

log-mold, lay in a box-like cist of shale slabs. This has

already been described.

All burials unaccompanied by artifacts were crema-

tions. In two, however, Burials 31 and 94, the remains

had been only partly cremated. In each the pelvic bones,

vertebrae and the upper portions of the femurs were in-

tact. As was true of the partial cremation in Burial

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Explorations of the Seip Group     477 88, the lower ends of the femurs had been broken off and burned. Burials 31 and 94 also resembled Burial 88 in representing males of unusual size. The platform of Burial 31 was two and one-half feet above the floor of the mound, at the north margin of the primary mound, which had a lateral addition to receive it. Since

this addition was above the floor it does not show on the floor plan. Burials 87 and 93 were likewise above the floor, the former about 14 feet and the latter some 30 inches. The cremated bones of an adult male in Burial 8 lay on a bed of bark of the same dimensions as the plat- form; in Burial 18 the cremated remains of a child of five or six years lay on a bark layer and were covered by

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478      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

another of the same material. The log-molds of Burial

18 were two in height; in Burial 72, which was beneath

the same arch as Burial 73, the cremated remains of an

adult lay on the earth of the platform beneath a cor-

rugated bark covering of about the same dimensions as

the platform; a bark covering lay over the bone frag-

ments of Burial 75, the cremated remains of an adult.

Burial 16 is of special interest in that the platform

was surrounded by one set of log-molds within another.

The outer set measured three feet seven inches by four

feet, and the inner, two feet seven inches by three feet.

The dimensions of the platform itself were two feet by

three feet.

In general shape and size these platforms with burials

unaccompanied by artifacts resembled the others with

the exceptions of Burial 77, in which the remains lay on

a clay "post" rising from the bottom of a pit, and Burial

91, the platform of which was triangular. Both burials

are described elsewhere. The platform of Burial 13

was unusually long and narrow, six feet by 34 inches.

Nearly of the same dimensions was the platform of

Burial 90, six by three feet. Since the size and shape

of all platforms in the mound are shown in scale on the

floor plan the dimensions need not be given here in detail.

Burial 95 was of unusual interest in having a wall

or ridge of firmly packed yellow clay, from eight to 12

inches in height and about seven inches wide, around the

four sides of the platform outside the log-molds (See

Figure 8). The cremated remains of an adult occu-

pied a pile about a foot long at the center of the plat-

form. Two small stake holes were in each corner of the

east end.

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Explorations of the Seip Group     479 Of the thirteen burials without artifacts not yet dis- cussed, none possessed features of unusual interest. All were cremations, and nine were identified as the re- mains of adults.19 MOUND NUMBER 3. This mound lay 400 feet west of the edge of Mound Number 1 and at the time of its excavation was nearly flat. The details of this mound may be seen in the floor plan in Figure 74. A crematory basin and one burial

were found. The burial was a cremation, on a charcoal platform outlined by the usual log-molds. The only arti- fact was a copper bead. The floor had been specially prepared, like that of Mound Number 1, and was over- laid with a thin layer of sand. MOUND NUMBER 4. Nothing remained of this mound above the surface. A discoloration of the surface of the ground led to its 19 Burials 15, 20, 21, 25, 29, 44, 50, 51, 56, 62, 70, 80, 82.

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480      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

discovery, about 150 feet south of Mound Number 3.

One cremated burial was found, in an unprepared grave

15 inches deep. The remains were accompanied by two

copper ear-spools.

 

ANALYSIS OF BURIAL PRACTICES

The great majority of burials in Mound Number 1

were cremated and lay upon specially prepared earthen

platforms built up a few inches above the floor.20 All

platforms were quadrilateral excepting that of Burial

91, which was triangular. Five platforms were square

and the rest were rectangular. Most of them were made

of clay, gravel or sand with coverings of charcoal. This

fact, together with the abundant evidence of fire on

the floor of the mound, strongly suggests that cremation

was accomplished not far from the burial site. There is

nothing to show, however, that the fire was built over

the platforms although in a number of instances bodies

may have been cremated on the actual site before erec-

tion of the platform. For example, the charcoal of the

platforms of Burials 36 and 39 extended out onto the

floor beyond the log-molds. However the charcoal did

not in every case result from the fires of cremation;

there was charcoal on the platform of Burial 52, but

the remains were uncremated.

In linear dimensions the burial platforms varied in

width from one foot to five feet five inches; in length

from two feet to seven feet. Most of the platforms

rested on the floor of the mound, built up therefrom to

 

20 In discussing burial platforms the term "platform" does not apply to

the elevation supporting Burials 2-7, since this structure was of a special

nature designed to hold a number of skeletons at full length.

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Explorations of the Seip Group     481

a height of not more than 15 inches. The surface of

the platform of one burial, Number 85, was three inches

below the floor, the depression corresponding to the

shape of the platform and apparently dug out to receive

it. Ten platforms were more than one foot above the

floor, resting on the ordinary clay or gravel of the pri-

mary mound. The highest of these was Burial 87, the

platform of which lay 14 feet above the floor, well be-

yond the northern slope of the primary. Five of these

ten platforms were above the primary mound. The in-

dividuals buried on them apparently died too late to be

included in the original primary mound.

No platforms were without log-molds. The greater

number showed evidence of but one horizontal log on

each of its sides, but because of the ultimate collapse of

log cribs around the platforms it was often difficult to

determine the original number of logs. The log-molds

of three burials however were two in height, and those

of eight were three in height. Many of the platforms

as well as the surrounding molds or impressions of hori-

zontal logs were pierced with small vertical stake holes.

The arrangement of these holes suggests that they were

the remains of stakes so placed as to aid in the support

of the horizontal tiers of logs (See Figure 76). These

stake-molds varied from one to three inches in diameter

and from one to two feet in depth. Of apparent signifi-

cance is the fact that very few vertical stake-molds were

found in those platforms whose side-logs were originally

held up by stone slabs. These two methods of support-

ing the tiers of horizontal logs were used generally to the

exclusion of one another.

Vol. XL--31.

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482      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

It has already been suggested that many if not all

of the larger holes in the floor of the mound were the

remains of vertical posts upon which tributes to the

dead were hung.

The majority of burials were covered with thin lay-

ers of disintegrated bark. It was impossible to be cer-

tain in all cases whether this bark was actually intended

as a covering for the cremated bones or whether it was

the remains of a bark roof over the log crib. In four in-

stances the upper surface of the bark layer presented a

ridged or corrugated aspect, apparently the remains of

cross-logs or puncheons whose ends rested upon the

horizontal side-logs. Covering the platforms of Burials

8, 9 and 18 were layers of bark about three-eighths of

an inch thick, upon which lay the cremated bones and

accompanying artifacts.

All burial platforms, whether stones were used or

not, had their own individual primary mounds, as indi-

cated by the overlying strata; in other words there was

a break between the earth immediately above the plat-

forms and that constituting the true primary (See

Figure 24). These individual primaries were circular

with an average diameter of ten feet and a height of

from one to two feet. Some were made of fine, others

of coarse gravel, and several contained one or two

strata of sand, That of Burial 18 was made of clay

with a covering or gravel, while refuse material and

charcoal were found in the small primary over Burial

64. In a single instance a primary mound covered two

platforms.

Abundant evidence indicates the former existence of

flat roofs of logs or bark over the cribs or pens sur-

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Explorations of the Seip Group    483 rounding burial platforms. A typical log pen burial with its platform and log-molds is shown in Figure 75, which is a photograph of Burial 41. In Figure 76 is a reconstruction of a burial as it must have appeared just before the earth was thrown over it, with the intention of sealing it for all time. Each platform had what may be termed a "burial arch," a cone-shaped loosening

of the earth extending from one to eight feet above the platform. This loosening of the earth was caused by the caving in of the log structure. In excavating the mound, generally the first indication of a burial was the exposing to view of the lower outer margin of the burial arch. The platforms of Burials 72 and 73, whose adjacent log-molds were less than a foot apart, were both under the same arch, this relationship being of course purely accidental.

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484      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications Two main types of burial structure are distin- guishable; those in which the logs surrounding the plat- forms were bordered, either outside or inside, by stone slabs placed vertically, horizontally or in an inclined position, and those in which stones were not used. Of the former there were 13. In five instances the stones were placed circularly on edge without apparent at- tempts at overhead use. In four instances the stones were in rectangular position, with overhead slabs, per- haps originally supported by poles. In two instances

the stones were inside the log-molds, between the edge of the platform and the log-molds. Stone slabs covered the cremated bones only of Burials 8, 79 and 97; these may have fallen down after caving of the log crib. Stones lay flat at each end of the platform of Burial 11 and the log-molds at the south end of Burial 26 were similarly supported. The stones used in these burials, with the exceptions noted, were generally rough pieces of shale or sandstone up to two feet across and half a foot thick, and were ob- tained on the hills bordering Paint Creek valley. Gran- ite was used only in three instances. Little discrimina- tion was exercised in selecting the shale or sandstone

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Explorations of the Seip Group      485

pieces. Badly weathered and loosely textured slabs were

taken from the hillside outcrops and in many instances

the slabs laid across vertically placed pieces sank slowly

during the passage of years until they rested on the

burials beneath.

Out of a total of 90 platforms, 69 contained the re-

mains of single individuals; 30 of these were unaccom-

panied by artifacts. Of platforms with two burials

there were 14. Four of these had no artifacts whatever

and in two cases artifacts were found with one of the

burials. Four platforms contained the remains of three

individuals. All but one of these burials, one of the cre-

mations of Burial 40, were accompanied by artifacts.

The number of individuals represented on two plat-

forms, those of Burials 54 and 88, was indeterminable.

One platform, that of Burial 68, contained neither hu-

man remains nor relics.

There is some correlation between the size of the

platform and the number of burials placed thereon. The

largest of the platforms, that of Burial 40, contained

the cremated remains of three individuals. None of the

platforms with this number of burials was less than

four and one-half feet in length. Several platforms

containing only one burial, however, were larger than

two of those containing three burials. Only two of the

14 platforms with two burials had a length of more than

five feet. Both of these however were exceeded in size

by platforms with only a single burial.

In six instances the remains of two cremated individ-

uals were mingled together in the same pile. In one

of these, Burial 91, the triangular platform was the

smallest in the entire mound. Those of the other four

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486      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

were of average dimensions. In Burial 71 the remains

were those of an adult and an adolescent. In each of the

remaining five, the remains were those of an adult and

an infant, probably mother and child. If this is so the

mingling together of the cremated bones in the same pile

probably symbolized relationship.

Of eight burials representing the remains of two in-

dividuals occupying separate positions, four platforms

accommodated adults, one an adult and a youth, and one

a cremated adult and an uncremated infant. The ages

of the individuals on the remaining two platforms were

indeterminate.

A certain regard for symmetry or balance is observ-

able in the positions occupied by the piles of cremated

bones on the platforms. These deposits varied in height

from one to eight inches. Where there was but one lot

of cremated bones of a single individual, as in the ma-

jority of cases, the heap was at the center of the plat-

form, and generally was circular or oval in outline.

Where there were two piles representing the remains of

that number of individuals, they were usually placed a

few inches in from the middle of each end. A number

of burials offering exceptions to this rule are tabulated

below:

Burials 10, 30, 64, 71, 78: One pile at center (two individuals)

89: One long pile from end to end

92: Two long piles from end to end

97: One round pile at each side of center

37: One pile at northwest, another at

southeast corner

91: One pile covering entire surface of

platform

49: One long pile across one end, an-

other long narrow pile from mid-

dle to other end at center of plat-

form.

• 144
 

Explorations of the Seip Group    487

The platforms of Burials 26 and 88 each contained

a cremated and a partially cremated burial. In Burial

26 however there were three piles, probably represent-

ing three individuals; the partial cremation was ar-

ranged transversely at one end of the platform, with a

cremation at the opposite end and another inward there-

from toward the center of the platform. In Burial 88

the partial cremation occupied the central position on

the platform with the cremation in a separate pile at the

southeast corner. In Burial 81 the skeleton of a child

lay along the east side of the platform with a cremation

on the west side at the middle.

Four platforms held the remains of three individ-

uals, those of Burials 26, 40, 48 and 86. In Burial 40 a

heap of cremated bones lay on each side of one end of

the platform and another long ridge stretched from the

center to the other end. A partial cremation, the skel-

eton of a child and a pile of cremated bones lay upon the

platform of Burial 48. The skeleton was extended on

the east side of the platform, the long axis of which was

north and south; the partial cremation was on the west

side at the middle and the cremation occupied a position

between the two. In Burial 86 there was one pile at each

end with the third in the middle. The arrangement of

the three cremations in Burial 26 has already been de-

scribed.

A tendency to place certain artifacts in certain posi-

tions with regard to the edges of the platform and to the

remains thereon was observable. This tendency was

most apparent with reference to the flaked-flint knives,

small curved flakes of Flint Ridge material two or three

inches in length, generally delicate and beautifully col-

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488      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

ored. The remains on seven platforms were accom-

panied by these flaked knives. On four the knives were

at the corners, placed in this position with unmistakable

intent. In three instances conch-shell containers were

placed at the corners of platforms. At each corner of

the east end of the platform of Burial 26 was a chunk

of galena, accompanying cremated remains, which lay

between them.

As a general thing artifacts with cremations were

placed without reference to the edges of the platforms,

either on the pile of bone fragments, to one side or min-

gled with them. In one instance, Burial 26, the cremated

bones rested on a sheet of mica. The bone fragments

of Burial 32 lay on two overlapping copper breastplates,

while perforated bear canines, shell beads and the

charred remains of a wooden object were found min-

gled with the calcined bones. The vertebrae of the par-

tially cremated Burial 1 were extended in a reverse curve

upon three copper celts and four breastplates arranged

in a row parallel to the main axis of the platform. One

of the piles of cremated bones of Burial 48 lay upon a

copper breastplate.

With uncremated remains artifacts were found in

positions probably corresponding to their positions on

the body during life.  Perforated bear canines were

found at the necks of the skeletons of Burials 42 and 66;

one ear-spool was at each ear of the skull in Burial 48

and pearl beads were at each wrist of the skeleton of

Burial 52, that of a female.

Beyond the placing of artifacts at the corners of the

platforms, no consistent and purposeful orientation was

observable. The mound itself lay nearly east and west,

• 146
 

Explorations of the Seip Group     489

but it may be questioned whether the cardinal points de-

termined this position since the valley of Paint Creek

runs in this general direction at this point. The corners

of the platform of the Multiple Burial lay four-square

with the cardinal points but this arrangement may have

been intended by the builders to refer only to the main

axis of the mound. The four adult skeletons of the Mul-

tiple Burial lay with their heads east. The heads of both

infant skeletons were north. Of the remaining inhuma-

tions the heads of three skeletons, those of Burials 48,

66 and 81, lay to the south. Two of these skeletons

were those of infants and the other, Burial 66, was an

adult male. The skull of Burial 42, that of a child, lay

to the west, face down. The skeleton of Burial 52, that

of a female, lay northeast and southwest with the head

to the northeast. All skeletons were extended.

A total of 118 individuals were interred upon plat-

forms in three different conditions: inhumation, crema-

tion and partial cremation. These different methods of

disposal of the dead are presented numerically in the

following table. With the four burials not on platforms

and the seven intrusive burials the remains of 129 indi-

viduals were found in the entire mound.

On Platforms

Inhumations      2 males

2 females

5 children

2 adults

 

 

11

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490      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

Cremations       6 males

2 females

9 children

66 adults

17 indeterminable

 

111

Partial cremations  4 males

3 adults

 

118

No Platforms

Cremations       4 adults

 

 

122

Intrusive burials   7

 

129 individuals

 

 

CONCLUSIONS

The Seip Group of geometrical inclosures and burial-

mounds belongs to the Hopewell culture, the chief mani-

festations of which occur in southern Ohio in the valleys

of the Great and Little Miamis, the Scioto, the Mus-

kingum, and their tributaries. Paint Creek is a tribu-

tary of the Scioto. Three groups of Hopewell mounds

and earthworks which were excavated previously to the

mounds described in the present report are all situated

within 20 miles of the Seip Group; namely: the Hopewell

Group, the Mound City Group and the Harness Group.

The other major groups which have been excavated are

the Turner Group in Hamilton County, 65 miles south-

west of the Seip Group, and the Tremper Mound in

Scioto County, about 45 miles to the south. These

• 148
 

Explorations of the Seip Group     491

mounds represent cemeteries of a people who lived in

southern Ohio in considerable numbers in prehistoric

times. The square, circular and octagonal walls of

earth which in several instances are joined to one another

and which as separate systems surround the mound-

groups, were probably of a symbolical nature rather than

actually defensive, although excavation has revealed

evidence of domestic activities in the walls.²¹ Three of

the mound-groups, the Seip, the Hopewell and the

Harness, were surrounded by conjoined squares and cir-

cles.  The remaining three, the Tremper Mound,

Mound City and the Turner Group, have simple circles

or squares with rounded corners.

The artifacts taken from Mound Number 1 of the

Seip Group, as well as the burial customs and other fea-

tures revealed by excavation, indicate that it was built

by members of the same culture-group to which the

builders of the other five systems belonged. Like all

mounds of the Hopewell culture which have been exca-

vated in Ohio, Seip Mound Number 1, as well as the Seip

Group as a whole, is prehistoric.

No intensive study of the relative chronology of the

six groups has been made, and it is doubtful if the data

made available by their excavation would reveal with

any certainty the relative periods during which each

group was erected. But considering the various types

of utilitarian artifacts taken from the mounds, in par-

ticular the copper celts, there has been no change in their

form such as would suggest experiment over a consider-

able period of time in methods of hafting. In compari-

son with the great variety of copper implements found

21 Willoughby, C. C., Op. cit., p. 10.

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492     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

on the surface of the ground in Wisconsin, Minnesota,

Michigan and occasionally in northern Ohio, the cross-

section and general form of the copper celts from

mounds of the Hopewell type exhibit very little variety,

the principle of the socket being entirely lacking. The

celts appear to have been fashioned with celts of stone

as models, representing the first stage in the develop-

ment of this type of tool in metal. The complete absence

of copper projectile points is also significant. We may

therefore tentatively regard the Hopewell people as

makers of copper implements for a relatively short period

of time. This conclusion is given a more definite out-

line by the fact that in Seip Mound Number 1, of the 188

copper artifacts found, all but 24 were ornamental or

symbolic in use. This condition prevails for the Hope-

well culture as a whole. Exception may be taken on the

basis that ceremonial or symbolical objects may have

been in greater favor as tributes to the dead than those

of a utilitarian nature, but since we are limited to the

contents of burial mounds for our knowledge of the

Hopewell culture the conclusion must stand as it is pre-

sented.

On the other hand certain designs in copper from

the Hopewell, Mound City and Turner Groups seem to

indicate either greater skill in working copper or a

greater demand for intricate effigy and geometric de-

signs than prevailed among the builders of the Seip and

the Edwin Harness Mound of the Harness Group. All

but one of the breastplates from Seip Mound Number

1 were plain and only a single head-plate with an open-

work pattern was found, whereas a great variety of

effigy and geometrical forms, in openwork and repousse

• 150
 

Explorations of the Seip Group     493

patterns as well as in the round were taken from mounds

of the Hopewell, Mound City and Turner Groups.

A similar specialization is observable in the effigy

platform pipes, mainly from the Tremper Mound and

Mound City.    Plain platform  pipes were found in

mounds of the other groups, similar in all respects to

certain plain types from the two last-named groups.

Only a single effigy platform pipe was taken from Seip

Mound Number 1 (Figure 50). This pipe comes the

nearest of any object from the Mound to providing a

clue to its chronological relationship to other Hopewell

mounds. It appears to be a clumsy copy, in general form

and conception, of the bird-pipes from Mound City and

the Tremper Mound. If this pipe represented an early

stage in the development of the effigy before its perfec-

tion one would expect to find more skillful delineation

of the head and neck of the bird, and something more

than irregular scratches defining the feather markings

and the eyes.

If we are justified in drawing any conclusion from

this state of affairs, the scarcity of complicated forms

in copper and of effigy platform pipes might be inter-

preted to mean that the Seip Group, as well as the Har-

ness Group, were built after the Tremper, Mound City,

Hopewell and Turner Groups. If Seip Mound Number

1 had not contained this bird-effigy platform pipe and

the single elaborately cut copper head-plate, no specula-

tion in this direction would be warranted. It is inter-

esting to note in this connection, as giving some further

substance to our suggested chronology, that the earth-

works of the Seip and Harness Groups are both of the

same complicated geometrical type consisting of con-

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494      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

joined squares and circles, while those of the Tremper

Mound and of Mound City are simple inclosures, and

those of the Hopewell and Turner Groups, while some-

what more complicated, do not compare in intricacy with

the squares and circles of the Seip and Harness Groups.

Neither elaborately cut copper pieces nor effigy platform

pipes were found in the Harness Mound. For the cri-

teria under consideration Mounds Numbers 1 and 2 of

the Seip Group are similar. Two breastplates from the

latter were cut at the ends in a simple scroll, and no

effigy platform pipes were found.

Mound Number 2 bears a striking similarity to the

primary mound of Mound Number 1. Like the latter,

Mound Number 2 was tri-lobate with the largest lobe at

the west end, 120 feet in diameter and 20 feet in height.

The next and central lobe was 70 feet in diameter and

12 feet high while the third, which was to the south of

the second, giving a curve to the main axis, was 40 feet

in diameter and only six feet high.²² The western or

largest lobe was covered with gravel like the primary

of Mound Number 1, and there was a wall of gravel

two and one-half feet high around the entire base of

the mound.²³ It seems apparent that this smaller mound

of the Seip Group represents a primary mound which

for some unknown reason was never covered with earth

to a height of 15 feet and more as was the primary of

Mound Number 1. If this is the case it points to the

erection of Mound Number 1 at an earlier date, unless

it be conceivable that the builders would finish one

mound while the other was left uncompleted

 

22 Mills, William C., "Explorations of the Seip Mound," Op. cit., p. 276.

23 Mills, William C., Op. cit., pp. 276, 278.

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496      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

SUMMARY OF THE HOPEWELL CULTURE

In view of the recent discovery and excavation of

Hopewell mounds outside of the state of Ohio it is ap-

propriate that a statement be made concerning the char-

acteristics of Hopewell culture as it is now known after

the excavation of six major groups. Since the culture

has its highest development in Ohio an analysis of its

manifestations as known to date is indispensable to the

correct interpretation of phenomena found in mounds

of the same culture occurring elsewhere, which for the

purpose at hand may be said to occupy a marginal posi-

tion and may therefore be expected to present the cul-

ture in a somewhat diluted form.

Outside of Ohio, mounds showing Hopewell features

have been excavated by McKern for the Milwaukee

Public Museum,24 by Cole for the University of Chica-

go, and by Coffinberry,²⁵ in Wisconsin, Illinois and

Michigan respectively. Hopewell-like objects have been

taken from burial mounds as far east as Westfield, New

York, and as far west as central Iowa26 and breast-

plates, ear-spools and celts of copper, as well as potsherds

with the familiar cross-hatch pattern around the rim

are found in the larger mounds of Mississippi, Alabama,

Georgia and Louisiana.

As a result of twenty-five years of concentration in

Ohio upon Hopewell mounds a terminology has been

developed which is adequate to those already familiar

 

24 McKern, W. C., "The Wisconsin Variant of the Hopewell Culture,

Milwaukee Public Museum Bulletin, Volume 10, No. 2, 1931.

25 Coffinberry, W. L., Proceedings of the American Association for the

Advancement of Science, 1875, pp. 293-297.

²⁶ Proceedings of the Davenport Academy of Science, I to V.

• 154
 

Explorations of the Seip Group        497

with the subject; owing to the fact, however, that until

recently this terminology has not been generally em-

ployed there is some uncertainty as to what may be called

"the percentage of purity" of certain mounds outside the

State, particularly in the lower Mississippi Valley.

Within the State itself this fact is reflected in the older

literature. Squier and Davis, for example, persistently

used the term "altars" with reference to what are now

termed "basins" and "platforms," a usage which was

followed by Willoughby in his account of the Turner

Group of Earthworks in Hamilton County; this how-

ever without any resultant confusion, since the signifi-

cance of the term first used by Squier and Davis had be-

come clear by the time the Peabody Museum Report was

published. In view of the prevalence of artifacts of the

Hopewell type in certain mounds of the lower Missis-

sippi Valley,²⁷ this heterogeneous terminology might be

thought to provide a basis for objection to the claim of

Ohio as the home of the highest development of the

Hopewell culture. This claim, however, rests securely

upon the number of mounds, both large and small, oc-

curring within a relatively small area; upon the exist-

ence of geometrical earthwork inclosures in conjunction

with them; and upon the high development of material

culture.  Only a single inclosure of the geometric type

has been recorded outside of Ohio.²⁸  This was in the

lower peninsula of Michigan within the limits of the

present city of Tecumseh.

27 Moore, C. B., Certain Aboriginal Remains of the Black Warrior River,

Reprint from the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadel-

phia, 1905.

28 Adam, John J., "Early History of Lenawee County, Michigan."

Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, 1877-1878. Volume 2, page

363.

Vol. XL--32.

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498      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

The name Hopewell was given to the culture by Dr.

William C. Mills, after the name of the owner of the

land upon which the Hopewell Group, the recognized

type-group, is situated, in Union Township, Ross

County, Ohio.

Earthworks of Hopewell culture in Ohio are found

in greatest numbers in the valleys of the two Miami

rivers, the Muskingum and the Scioto, and their tribu-

taries. Mounds of this culture occur in other parts of

the State but the geometrical earthworks and certain

interior features of the mounds are found only in the

valleys of these rivers in the southern half of the State.

This description of the salient characteristics is based

upon excavation of the following major groups and

mounds: the Turner Group of Earthworks, Hamilton

County; the Hopewell and Mound City Groups near

Chillicothe, Ross County; the Seip Group near Bain-

bridge in the same county; the Tremper Mound in Scioto

County and the Edwin Harness Mound of the Harness

Group in Liberty Township, Ross County.

The first published excavations of the Hopewell

Group were carried out by Squier and Davis, who de-

scribe the examination of four mounds.²⁹ After this no

work was done on the group until Moorehead opened a

number of mounds in 1891-1892 for the Department of

Anthropology of the World's Columbian Exposition.³⁰

Final and complete excavations were conducted by Shet-

 

29 Squier, E. G., and Davis, E. H., Ancient Monuments of the Missis-

sippi Valley. Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, Volume 1, pp. 24-29.

30 Moorehead, Warren K., "The Hopewell Mound Group of Ohio."

Publications of the Field Museum of Natural History, Anthropological

Series, Volume VI, No. 5, Chicago, 1922.

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Explorations of the Seip Group               499

rone for the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society

during the years 1922-1925.31

Squier and Davis describe excavations in all of the

24 or more mounds of the Mound City Group32 previous

to the year 1848. This group remained untouched until

1920, when Mills conducted excavations for the Ohio

Archaeological and Historical Society,33 which lasted

until 1922. The entire group was restored and con-

verted into a state park.

The first and only exploration of the Tremper Mound

was done by Mills for the Ohio Archaeological and His-

torical Society in 1915.34

Squier and Davis were again the first to examine

mounds of the Harness Group, before the year 1848.35

The Harness Mound was next explored by F. W. Put-

nam in 1885, for the Peabody Museum of Harvard Uni-

versity.³⁶   Subsequently the Ohio Archaeological and

Historical Society took over the work, first under the

direction of Moorehead in 189437 and finally under Mills

in 1903 and 1905.38

 

31 Shetrone, H. C., Op. cit. page 1.

32 Squier, E. G., and Davis, E. H., Op. cit., pp. 143-160.

33 Mills, Williams C., "Exploration of the Mound City Group," Ohio

Archaeological and Historical Society Publications, Volume XXXI, Colum-

bus, 1922, page 423.

34 Mills, William C., "Exploration of the Tremper Mound." Ohio

Archaeological and  Historical Society  Publications. Volume XXV.

Columbus, 1916, page 263.

³⁵ Squier, E. G., and Davis, E. H., Op. cit., page 178.

36 Putnam, F. W., Eighteenth and Nineteenth Annual Reports of the

Peabody Museum, Volume 3.

37 Moorehead, Warren K., "The Liberty Group." Ohio Archaeological

and Historical Society Publications, Volume V. Columbus, 1896, page 219.

38 Mills, William C., "Explorations of the Edwin Harness Mound,"

Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society Publications. Volume XVI,

Columbus, 1907, page 113.

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500       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

Examination of the Turner Group, for the Peabody

Museum, was begun in 1886 by F. W. Putnam         and con-

tinued at various times by M. A. Saville, Dr. Metz and

Earnest Volk until 1905.39

The first work on the Seip Group was done for the

Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society by Mills,

who excavated Mound Number 2, the smaller of the two

within the great circle, in 1906 and 1908.40 Mound

Number 1, the largest in the group, was begun in mid-

summer 1925 by Shetrone41 for the same institution.

The work of the last season was conducted by Green-

man⁴¹ during the summer of 1928. This Mound, with

a section of the original wall of the surrounding earth-

work, was restored and converted into a state park.

In the report on the excavations of the Hopewell

Group⁴² was included an estimate of the characteristics

of Hopewell culture on the basis of the six groups which

had been excavated up to that time. In this report the

first 14 items in the following list were described as

common to the six groups.

 

TABLE 1

1. Post-molds in the floor

2. Crematory basins

 

39 Willoughby, C. C., "The Turner Group of Earthworks, Hamilton

County, Ohio, with notes on the Skeletal Remains by Earnest A. Hooten."

Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology,

Harvard University. Volume VIII.--No. 3. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1922.

Published by the Museum.

40 Mills, William C., "Explorations of the Seip Mound," Ohio Archae-

ological and Historical Society Publications, Volume XVIII. Columbus,

1909, page 269.

41 The present volume.

42 Shetrone, H. C., Op. cit., pp. 219-227.

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Explorations of the Seip Group     501

3. Cremation

4. Woven fabric

5. Potsherds

6. Copper artifacts

7. Mica artifacts

8. Bone perforators

9. Flint-flake knives

10. Flint points or blades

11. Shell beads

12. Pearl beads

13. Copper ear-spools

14. Stone gorgets

15. Earthwork inclosures

16. Situation near streams

17. Specially prepared floors

18. Remains of more than one individual in

mounds.

With the addition of Seip Mound Number 1 to this

list it remains the same. The last four items are added,

making therefore a total of 18 items which are common

to all the seven mound-groups which have been exca-

vated to date. It is significant that artifacts made of

those materials found in all six groups, in addition to

those of a certain type such as copper ear-spools, are

found in comparatively large numbers in each group

separately, as a glance at Tables 3 and 4 will show.

While Table 1 conveys the degree of importance of

each of the 18 items in the Hopewell culture complex

as known by archaeological methods, it does not define

and set apart that culture from others. There are fea-

tures of sufficient quantative importance in individual

mound-groups to stamp them as representatively Hope-

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502     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

well wherever they may be found, for the reason that

they do not occur in other cultures, excepting perhaps

intrusively or in a much-diluted form, and not in any

case in many instances. These are as follows

 

TABLE 2

1. The burial platform, with its outline of log-

molds

2. Crematory basins

3. Gravel-covered primary mounds

4. Geometric earthworks

5. The platform pipe

6. Certain distinctive designs incised on pottery

and cut or incised in bone, copper, mica

and shell

7. Copper human effigy nostrils

8. Conjoined copper tubes

9. Copper rods with bone handles

10. Copper head-plates

11. Large ceremonial copper celts

12. Copper breastplates

13. Copper ear-spools.

The burial platform was found in four of the six

groups, this feature being absent in the Tremper Mound

and in the Turner Group.    Crematory basins were

present in all six groups, gravel-covered primary mounds

in three groups, the Hopewell, Mound City and Seip

Groups. Geometric earthworks characterize the Seip,

Harness and Turner Groups.   Mound City and the

Tremper Mound were each surrounded by an earthwork

but not of the complicated geometrical type.

The figures contained in Table 3 indicate the propor-

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Explorations of the Seip Group    503

tions in which the types of artifacts numbered five to 13

in Table 2 were found in the six excavated groups.

Platform pipes, of which there is a total of 425, were

found in each group. Excluding X-shaped gorgets and

similar articles, an estimated total of 994 geometrical

designs, mostly in mica and copper, were found in all

but the Tremper Mound. Of copper effigy nostrils there

were three, two from the Hopewell Group and one from

Seip Mound Number 1. The Hopewell Group yielded

four sets of conjoined copper tubes, the Turner Group

one. Copper rods with bone handles were found only

in the Seip Group, Mound Number 1. Nineteen copper

head-plates were found in the Hopewell, Mound City,

Harness and Seip Groups, in the proportions of 9, 6, 3

and 1 respectively. Only three large ceremonial copper

celts have been found, two in the Hopewell Group and

one in Mound Number 1 of the Seip Group. A total of

132 copper breastplates were taken from all but the

Tremper Mound, in which none were found. The Hope-

well Group contained the largest number, 62. The Har-

ness Mound yielded 11, Mound City four and the Turner

Group three. Ear-spools of stone and copper, with

those of the latter material in the great majority, were

common to all groups. The total number is estimated at

378. Reference to Table 3 will show the number for

each group.

In the summary appended to the report on excava-

tion of the Hopewell Group, the proportion of cremated

to uncremated burials for the six groups was given. Re-

vision of these figures by the addition of the data for

Seip Mound Number 1 does not materially change the

percentages. For the five entire groups and Mound

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504      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

Number 2 of the Seip Group, 74% were cremated and

26% uncremated. With the addition of Seip Mound

Number 1, 77% were cremated and 23% uncremated.

Exact figures regarding the proportion of flexed to

extended burials cannot be given, but it is certain that by

far the greater number of inhumations in Hopewell

mounds, probably 99% were extended.

With the exception of those of the Tremper Mound,

the great majority of cremations were placed separately

or in groups of from two to four. In the Tremper

Mound there was one large deposit of calcined bones

apparently representing the remains of a large number

of individuals. Besides this communal depository there

were two other separate cremations, the total number

of individuals represented being taken as three since it

was impossible to ascertain the exact number in the

large deposit. The degree of consumption by fire of the

human remains was very high in all six groups of earth-

works. In most cases the gelatinous content of the bones

is completely destroyed and the fragments, rarely larger

than a walnut, are completely calcined. Partial crema-

tion is only occasionally encountered. There were but

seven instances of it in Seip Mound Number 1.

The figures given in Tables 3 and 4 are not alto-

gether accurate. The data for the Turner Group were

taken from the Peabody Museum publication describing

excavation of that group, and since complete lists of all

objects found are not given, the figures taken therefrom

are incomplete. The same applies to the reports of exca-

vation by Squier and Davis and by Moorehead. It is

believed however that the figures in these tables give an

approximately accurate idea of the actual proportions in

• 162
 

Explorations of the Seip Group      505

which artifacts and materials were found. The data for

the groups excavated by the Ohio Archaeological and

Historical Society are taken from the official catalog

lists and are therefore precise.

• 163
 

506      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

• 164
 

Explorations of the Seip Group         507

• 165
 

508      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

• 166
 

Explorations of the Seip Group           509

• 167