PREGLACIAL MAN IN OHIO.
AT the meeting of the Boston Society of
Natural History2
for November 4, 1885, Mr. Putnam showed
an implement
chipped from a pebble of black flint,
found by Dr. C. L.
Metz in gravel, eight feet below the
surface, in Madisonville,
Ohio. This rude implement is about the
same size and shape
of one, made of the same material, found
by Dr. Abbott in
the Trenton, N. J., gravel, and is of
special interest as the
first one known from the gravels of
Ohio. This announce-
ment, coupled with a letter from Dr.
Metz, saying that he
had since found another such implement
at Loveland, led
me, on the 11th and 12th of November, to
visit the locali-
ties and see their relation to the
glacial deposits of the region.
The results I here detail.
Madisonville is situated eleven miles
northeast of Cincin-
nati, in a singular depression
connecting the Little Miami
River with Mill Creek, about five miles
back from the Ohio.
The Little Miami joins the Ohio some
miles above Cincin-
nati, while Mill Creek joins it just
below the city. The gen-
eral height of the hills in that
vicinity above the river is from
400 to 500 feet. But the hills just
north of Cincinnati are
separated from the general elevation
further back by the de-
pression referred to, in which
Madisonville is situated.
The depression is from one to two miles
wide, and about
five miles long, from one stream to the
other, and is occupied
by a deposit of gravel, sand, and loam,
clearly enough be-
longing to the glacial-terrace epoch.
The surface of this is
generally level, and is about 200 feet
above the low-water
mark in the Ohio. On the east side, on
the Little Miami
River, at Red Bank, the gravel is rather
coarse, ranging from
one to three or four inches,
interstratified with sand, and
underlaid, near the river-level, with
fine clay. There is here
a thin covering of loess, or fine loam.
On going westward
this loess deposit increases in
thickness, being at Madison-
1See Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. XXIII.,
p. 242.
257
258
Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.
ville, one mile west, about eight feet
thick. Farther west it
s much deeper, and seems to take the
place of the gravel
entirely. At several railroad cuttings,
compact glacial clay,
technically called "till,"
with scratched stones, appears
underneath all.
From this description it appears that
this cross-valley con-
necting Mill Creek with the Little Miami
back of Avondale,
Walnut Hills, and the Observatory, was
once much deeper
than now, and has been filled in with
the deposits made when
immense glacial floods were pouring down
these two streams
from the north. The Little Miami was a
very important line
of glacial drainage, as is shown by the
extensive gravel ter-
races all along its course. The
railroads transport this gravel
long distances. The coarser material was
naturally deposited
near the direct line of drainage, where
the current was strong.
Naturally, also, back from the river
towards Madisonville
there would be, as there is, an increase
of the fine deposit,
or loess, which is practically a
still-water formation. So
much for the true glacial character of
the formation. There
can be no doubt upon that point.
As to the implement, it is preserved in
the Archaeological
Museum in Cambridge, Mass., where any
one can examine
it and compare it with similar ones from
other parts of the
world. It is pronounced by Professor
Putnam and Dr. Metz
to be of the true palaeolithic type. It
is not smoothed, but
simply a rudely chipped, pointed weapon,
about three
inches long. Dr. Metz found it two years
ago, while dig-
ging a cistern. In making the excavation
for this he pene-
trated the loess eight feet before
reaching the gravel, and
there, near the surface of the gravel,
this implement was
found. There is no chance for it to have
been covered by
any slide, for the plain is extensive
and level topped, and
there had evidently been no previous
disturbance of the
gravel.
Subsequently, in the spring of the
present year (1887),
Dr. Metz found another palaeolith in an
excavation in a simi-
lar deposit near Loveland, Ohio.
Loveland is also on the
Little Miami River, in the northeast
corner of Hamilton
Preglacial Man in Ohio. 259
county. The river makes something of an
elbow here, open
to the west. This space is occupied by a
gravel terrace
about fifty feet above the stream. The
terrace is composed
in places of very coarse material,
resembling very much that
of Trenton, N. J., where Dr. Abbott has
found similar imple-
ments. The excavation is about
one-quarter of a mile back
from the river, near the residence of
Judge Johnson. The
section shows much coarser material near
the surface than at
the bottom. The material is largely of
the limestones of
the region, with perhaps ten per cent.
of granitic pebbles.
The limestone pebbles are partially
rounded, but are largely
oblong. Some of them are from one to
three feet in length.
These abound for the upper twenty feet
of the section on the
east side toward the river. One granitic
boulder was about
two feet in diameter. On the west side
of the cut, away
from the river, mastodon bones were
found, a year ago, in a
deposit of sand underlying the coarser
gravel and pebbles.
It was here, about thirty feet below the
surface, that Dr.
Metz found the palaeolithic implement
last spring. It was
an oblong stone about six inches long, four
and a half inches
wide, which had been here chipped all
around to an edge,
and is, in his opinion, unquestionably
of human manufacture.
By those familiar with the subject,
these will at once be
recognized as among the most important
archaeological dis-
coveries yet made in America, ranking on
a par with those
of Dr. Abbott, at Trenton, N. J. They
show that in Ohio,
as well as on the Atlantic coast, man
was an inhabitant before
the close of the glacial period. We can
henceforth speak
with confidence of preglacial man in
Ohio. Other observers
in the State should be stimulated by
this discovery. It is
facts like these which give
archaeological significance to the
present fruitful inquiries concerning
the date of the glacial
epoch in North America. When the age of
the Mound
Builders of Ohio is reckoned by
centuries, that of the pre-
glacial man who chipped these
palaeolithic implements must
be reckoned by thousands of years.
G. FREDERICK WRIGHT.