DOCUMENT
THE SPRUCE RUN EARTHWORKS: A FORGOTTEN
ADENA SITE IN DELAWARE COUNTY, OHIO
by JAMES B. GRIFFIN
Director, Museum of Anthropology,
University of Michigan
The Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Society has
published many papers on Ohio
archaeology for the purpose of
preserving the history of the State's
first inhabitants. This short
paper is a contribution to that end. It
should perhaps be a joint
paper since the writer of the excavation
report was one of Ohio's
early historians and a member of the
faculty of Ohio State Uni-
versity in the last half of the
nineteenth century.
During the summer of 1945 I was able to
spend a few weeks
studying the collections from east
Florida of the Peabody Museum
of American Archaeology and Ethnology at
Harvard University.
It was my good fortune to come across
some pottery trays in the
Ohio section of the storage cabinets
which contained pottery
fragments which were immediately
recognized as Adena in type.
A surprising feature was that some of
these fragments bore a
concentric diamond design and represent
the only decorated
Adena vessels now known from the State.
Decorated Adena
vessels were first described from
southeastern Indiana and in the
last five years they have been excavated
in northern Kentucky.
The "rediscovery" of these
specimens from Ohio was thus of
some importance for it extended the
distribution of this pottery
into the State which has the greatest
number of Adena mounds
and where the Adena culture was first
recognized as a distinctive
prehistoric unit.
188
SPRUCE RUN EARTHWORKS 189
It was with great interest then that I
hurried to check the
accession data to find the specific
locality from which these sherds
were obtained. I believed that they were
probably the result of
the excavation of Professor Putnam, who
was so prominent a
figure in the Ohio archaeological field,
or of his field workers in
southern and southeastern Ohio. What I
found furnished another
pleasant surprise for this collection
was not one made by Putnam,
but by John T. Short. It was not from
southern Ohio, but was
instead from Delaware County. Even more remarkable was the
report on the excavations accompanied by
drawings of the site and
of some of the material. The covering
letter from John T. Short
to Professor Putnam implies that the
finds were considered to be
the property of the Peabody Museum as
well as the manuscript de-
scribing the excavations.1 This letter
and the report are repro-
duced below.2
Acc. #79-85
Columbus, O., Jan. 1, 1880
My dear Professor Putnam:
"A happy New Year."
Your hearty favor of the 29th inst. is
received.
Many thanks for the loan of the cut and
the offer of more. I have
just completed the revision of my book
and think I have improved it. I
sent you yesterday the report of my
mound exploration. The drawings
represent the decorations on the mound pottery, but the artist
drew the two
smaller vessels too tall for their
width. The large vessel is represented
correctly in all respects. The plan is
also correct. If you publish the
report and drawings reduce the height of
the smaller vessels.
I sent Mr. Hills a letter--press copy of
the entire report, advising him
however of the necessity of giving full
credit to the Peabody Museum.
Trusting that you received my paper in
time for use in your next report,
I am
Very sincerely yours,
John T. Short.
1 Grateful acknowledgment is hereby
made to Prof. Donald Scott who granted
permission to publish this data and
to Mr. F. P. Orchard for his
excellent photograph
of the specimens.
2 Peabody Museum, Harvard University, accession data 79-85.
190 |
SPRUCE RUN EARTHWORKS 191
MOUND EXPLORATIONS IN DELAWARE COUNTY,
OHIO
by
John T. Short
In the month of August 1879, the writer
in company with Mr. Eugene
Lane and Mr. David Dyer opened three
mounds in Delaware County, Ohio.
Two of these formed part of a system of
mound works situated on the
estate of Jacob Rhodes, Esq. in Genoa
Township. The general arrangement
of the works will be seen by reference
to plate I.
The peninsula or tongue of land situated
between Big Walnut Creek
and Spruce Run is an elevated area
having nearly perpendicular sides
washed by the streams, over a hundred
feet below.
Fig. I, Pl. I indicates the scene of our
exploration. The central
figure, the mound A stands within a
perfectly circular enclosure (B) meas-
uring 570 feet around. Now it is but
about three feet higher than the nat-
ural level, but formerly was ten feet
higher. Its present owner reduced it
by plowing it down. The trench is inside
of the enclosure and no doubt
furnished the earth for both the
embankment and the mound. Its present
width is 27 feet and it was formerly
about seven feet deep. The circle
has an opening (E) about twenty feet in
width on the east from which a
graded way (G) of about the same width
and probably 400 feet in length,
no doubt of artificial construction,
affords a descent at an angle of about
30° to the stream below.
On the north side of the entrance and
continuous with the embankment
is a small mound marked C. measuring 10
feet in diameter and four feet in
height. It may have served as a point of
outlook into the deep ravine
below, as from it alone the entire
length of the graded way is at once visible.
A shaft six feet in diameter was sunk in
this mound to a depth of four
and a half feet but we discovered
nothing that could be removed. Charcoal,
a few calcined animal bones and burnt
clay were all that was found.
The large mound A. situated in the
centre of the enclosure measures
75 feet through its major axis and 68
feet through its minor axis. Its pres-
ent height is about 12 feet above the
natural level though the distance to the
bottom of the trench is three or four
feet or more. It is probable that the
mound was perfectly round as its symetry
has no doubt been destroyed in
part by the removal from its surface of
about twenty-five wagon loads of
flat sand stones (each a foot square,
more or less and about 3 inches
thick) for the purpose of walling
neighboring cellars. These stones were
brought from the ravine below and made a
complete covering for the mound.
Extending out from the mound on the west
the remains of the low crescent
shaped platform 25 feet across at its
greatest width are still visible. A
small excavation was made four years ago
in the top of the mound by the
192
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
son of the present owner, but the
digging was abandoned before any depth
was reached or anything was discovered.
I excavated the mound by causing
a trench four feet wide to be dug from
the northern side of the mound to
its centre. The trench was started on
the natural level and continued along
the surface of the undisturbed clay
until the centre was reached where it was
enlarged into a circular shaft 10?? feet
in diameter. The section thus made
revealed the structure of the mound to
be as shown in Fig. 1, Plate II. The
dark shading in the Fig. indicates the
section made by the trench. A single
layer of flat stones like those on the
outside of the mound was found to start
at the base and to cover what at one
time must have been regarded as its
finished surface. At the centre this
inner layer of stones was situated about
three feet below the present surface of
the mound. This was the only trace
of stratification observable in the
structure and is suggestive of the section
given by Squier and Davis to illustrate
stratification in Altar mounds.
Aside from this, the indications were
distinct that the earth had been
dumped down in small basket or bagfulls.
This is confirmitory [sic] of the
observations of Prof. E. B. Andrews in
the mounds of southern Ohio.*
The mottled appearance of the earth seen
on the vertical face of the
section precludes the supposition that
the builders thought of stratification
other than that resulting from the
introduction of a layer of stones.
On the undisturbed surface of the ground
at the centre of the mound
I uncovered a circular bed of ashes
eight feet in diameter and about six
inches in thickness. These ashes were of
a reddish clay color except that
through the centre of the bed ran a seam
or layer of white ashes--no doubt
calcined bones--as at the outer margin
of the bed in one or two instances
the form of bones were traceable but so
calcined that they possessed no
consistency when touched or uncovered.
Ranged in a semicircle around
the eastern margin of the ash-heap were
several pieces of pottery, all broken,
probably in the construction of the
mound or by its subsequent settling. The
pottery was exceedingly brittle and
crumbled rapidly after exposure. It
was almost impossible to recover any
fragments larger than the size of
the hand, though a couple of pieces were
taken out which indicated that the
vessel to which they belonged was much
larger than any which to my knowl-
edge has been taken from Ohio mounds. It
was probably 12 or 14 inches
in height.
This vessel was ornamented with a double
row or border or lozenge
or diamond shaped figures and when
intact probably resembled fig. 3, Pl. II
both in form and decoration. Smaller
fragments having a single border of
lozenges were also taken out. The vessel
of which they were a part prob-
ably belonged to the style represented
in Fig. 2--Pl. II. Although the
decoration on these vessels (produced by
a pointed tool before the clay was
baked) indicate an attempt at art of a respectable
order--the material em-
* 10th An. Rept. of P. M. p. 57.
SPRUCE RUN EARTHWORKS 193
ployed was nothing more than coarse clay
and pounded sandstone--instead
of pounded shells, as is more frequently
the case. However, numerous frag-
ments of finer workmanship bearing an
ornamentation similar to that indi-
cated in Fig. 4. were taken out.
Evidently an attempt had been made to
glaze the vessels.
Fig. 5 represents, full size, one of a
number of flints picked up on the
surface of the mound by its present
owner. I could not help being impressed
with the thought that the mound marked
the cite where cremation or possibly
sacrifice had been performed. It was
evident that a large quantity of wood
had been placed upon the ground and a
corpse or sacrifice laid upon it as
the seam of bone ash and the outlines of
bones at the margin of the heap
indicated. Upon this again after
combustion was partially completed even
greater quantities of fuel were added
and while the bed of coals was still
aglow the clay was heaped on burying the
ashes of the sacrifice or cremated
subject and breaking the vessels which
had been appropriately arranged for
the ceremony. Whether any portion of the
bone ashes had been collected
and placed in the vessels we were unable
to determine, About 300 yards
south west of the mound just described
are the remains of a circular en-
closure 300 feet in diameter, see Fig.
2. Pl. II.
The embankment has been reduced by
plowing until it is now scarcely
two feet in height. The precipitous
sides of both the Big Walnut and
Spruce Run render an ascent at this
point impossible. The circle is visible
from the mound and is possibly an
intermediate link between the mound
and another system lying west at a point
two miles distant.
On the estate of E. Phillips Esq. one
mile south of Galena in the same
county I opened a mound 165 feet in
circumference and about four feet in
height. The mound was excavated
completely by cutting a trench through
it, 14 feet wide and to a depth of one
foot below the natural surface.
Nothing was found but the remains of two
hearths indicated by heaps
of wood ashes, charcoal and burnt clay.
No bones nor pottery were found.
The human bones which I sent you were
donated by Mr. Jay Dyer of
Galena Delaware county, O.
Mr. Dyer is an old resident, a graduate
of West Point and a gentleman
whose statement concerning the history
of the relics is perfectly reliable.
Mr. Dyer states that a couple of years
ago a large mound--measuring
75 feet in diameter and 15 feet in
height--constructed entirely of stone and
situated on the farm of Isaac Brinberger
Esq., three miles south of Galena
was partly removed by its owner for the
purpose of selling the stone.
Immediately under the centre of the
mound and below the natural level
a vault was discovered. The sides and
roof of the vault consisted of oak
and walnut timbers averaging 6 inches in
diameter and still covered with
bark, though some of the timbers had
been split from large logs. One of
194 |
SPRUCE RUN EARTHWORKS 195
these timbers now in the possession of
Eugene Lane Esq. of Columbus, O.
bears the marks of what must have been a
stone axe. The timbers were
driven perpendicularly into the ground
around the quadrangular vault while
others were laid across the top for a
roof. Over all the skin of some animal
had been stretched. Inside of the vault
were the remains apparently of three
persons, one a child, and fragments of a
coarse cloth made of vegitable
fibre and animal hair. With the
exception of the relics which I sent you
the contents of the vault were all
destroyed or scattered by the superstitious
owners of the mound who regarded them as
dangerous property. The
preservation of the wood is due probably
to the presence of water with
which the vault seems to have been
filled.
In the Thirteenth Annual Report of
the Peabody Museum
there is the following brief statement
included in the additions to
the Museum and Library for the year
1879:
20388-20391. Fragments of earthen vases,
and human bones with char-
coal, ashes and clay from mounds in
Delaware County, Ohio. Exploration
of Prof. John T. Short conducted for the
Museum.3
On page 721 of the same report Prof.
Putnam presented a
short statement of these excavations for
he evidently planned to
have the report published at a later
date. This desirable outcome
has been postponed for 66 years. I have
not found any further
notices of these excavations in the
literature of Ohio archaeology.
However, in the Archaeological Atlas
of Ohio, Delaware
County has recorded two inclosures in
Genoa Township which
are no doubt those excavated by Short
and his party.4
With the history of the site now
presented we can turn to a
more detailed examination of the data in
order to see how far we
can go in determining the cultural
relationships. There has re-
cently been published by William S. Webb
and Charles E. Snow
a comparative analysis of the Adena
culture with a comprehensive
list of Adena traits.5 The following
features of the Rhodes sites
are all known Adena characteristics:
"Sacred Circle"; Sacred Circle
with embankment exterior to
3 Frederic Ward Putnam, "Additions to the
Museum," in Peabody Museum.
Thirteenth Annual Report, 1879 (Cambridge, 1880), bound in Peabody Museum,
Reports, II, No. 4 (Cambridge, 1880), 743.
4 William C. Mills, Archaeological
Atlas of Ohio (Columbus, 1914), 21-22.
5 William S. Webb and Charles E.
Snow, The Adena People (University of
Kentucky, Reports in Anthropology and
Archaeology, VI. Lexington, 1945).
196 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the ditch; Sacred Circle with entrance
on east; Sacred Circles in
group of two to eight; Conical mounds;
Mound within the sacred
circle; Mound on the site of a burned
house. This interpretation
might be given to Short's observations
on the basis of Webb's
investigations; Mound shows individual
earth loads; Fired area
at mound base; Primary purpose of mound
to cover burials; Con-
structional use of stone; Cremated
remains; Pottery vessels asso-
ciated with burials (Prof. Webb chooses
not to accept the evi-
dence from the Morgan Stone and Adena
mounds); Adena Plain
pottery; Diamond design incised pottery;
Corner-notched pro-
jectile point with convex base
(this type is apparently not too
common in Adena sites but is included on
the basis of its appear-
ance in the Nowlin Mound, Indiana;6
at four Adena sites in Ken-
tucky: Wright Mounds,7 C & O
Mounds,8 Crigler,9 and the Peter
Village site;10 and the Schwartz and Orr
sites in Ohio11).
The graded way running from the circular
enclosure to the
creek is not often found in association
with such small mound
groups and in fact has rarely been
found. The most notable
graded ways were at Marietta and the
Turner site. Gerard Fowke
took a very dim view of these graded ways especially those
lead-
ing down to water. In the literature
neither Shetrone,12 Green-
man,13 nor Webb have discussed the
graded ways as an Adena trait.
In Setzler's review of Ohio Valley cultures published six
years
ago,14 he did not include enclosures as
an Adena characteristic and
6 Glenn A. Black, "Excavation of
the Nowlin Mound," in Indiana History Bulle-
tin, XIII (1936), 197-342.
7 William S. Webb, The Wright Mounds: Sites 6 and 7,
Montgomery County,
Kentucky . . . (University of Kentucky, Reports
in Anthropology and Archaeology, V,
No. 1. Lexington, 1940), 63.
8 William S. Webb, The C. and
O. Mounds at Paintsville: Sites Jo 2 and Jo 9,
Johnson County, Kentucky . . . (University of Kentucky, Reports in
Anthropology and
Archaeology, V, No. 4.
Lexington, 1942), Fig. 15-3f.
9 William S. Webb, The Crigler Mounds: Sites Be 20 and
Be 27 and the Hart-
man Mound: Site Be 32, Boone County,
Kentucky (University of Kentucky Reports
in Anthropology and Archaeology, V, No. 6. Lexington, 1943) Fig. 12, A and C.
10 William S. Webb, The Riley
Mound: Site Be 15 and the Landing Mound: Site
Be 17, Boone County, Kentucky (University of Kentucky, Reports in
Anthropology and
Archaeology, V, No. 7.
Lexington, 1943), Fig. 26A.
11 Barbara Herman, "An Analysis of Two Adena Sites in
Ohio," in Michigan
Academy of Science, Arts, and
Letters, Papers [1947], XXXIII (in press).
12 Henry C. Shetrone, "The Culture Problem in Ohio
Archaeology," in American
Anthropologist, n. s. XXII (1920), 144-172.
13 Emerson F. Greenman,
"Excavation of the Coon Mound and an Analysis of
the Adena Culture," in Ohio
State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, XLI (1932),
369-523.
14 Frank M. Setzler, "Archaeological Perspectives in the Northern
Mississippi
Valley," in Essays in Historical Anthropology
of North America Published in Honor
of John R. Swanson (Smithsonian Miscellaneous
Collections, C, Washington, D.
C.,
1940), 253-290.
SPRUCE RUN EARTHWORKS 197
they were not definitely regarded as a
part of Adena culture until
Webb's recent work. Is it possible that
sufficient evidence would
remain of the Spruce Run site to provide
field data on the re-
ported association of the graded way
with an Adena site?
From the drawings of the pottery
provided by Prof. Short's
artist it is evident that he believed
there were three vessels. One
might also think from these drawings
that the vessels were com-
plete when found but the excavation
report speaks of them as
"several pieces of pottery, all
broken." In Putnam's report it is
also stated that the pottery was in
fragments. My examination of
the sherds in the Peabody Museum
indicates that there was at
least one vessel, and perhaps two, with
a plain exterior surface
without incised decoration and without
the impressions of a cord-
wrapped paddle. Some of the lips of the
plain rim sherds are
rounded and some are flattened. They
vary in width from 5 to 7
mm. As can be seen in Plate III, Figs. 1
and 3, the rim just below
the lip is thickened and projects
slightly over the lower rim sur-
face, thus forming a slight collar. This
thickened rim is 11 mm.
wide while the lower rim is but 6.5 mm.
The tempering material
is crushed granitic rock, approximately
25 to 30 per cent by
volume and the texture is medium coarse.
The sherds are very
friable and have broken with jagged
uneven surfaces. There is
no evidence of the method of
construction although they were
probably made by coiling. The inner
surface has faint striations
which might have been produced by the
fingers of the potter, as
she shaped the vessel. The exterior
surface, which is more com-
pacted, may have been smoothed with a
river pebble. A crude
estimate of the lip diameter would be 25
cm. The only decorative
feature of the plain pottery from the
site is a small node, Plate
III, Fig. 4, which is a recurring trait
of Adena Plain pottery.
This particular knob is 1.9 cm.
wide and projects 1.7 cm. from the
outer surface. It was added to the
surface after the vessel was
shaped.
The decorated fragments also present a
problem as to the
number of vessels represented. The
drawings accompanying
Short's report illustrate three
decorated vessels. My examination
of the specimens suggested the presence
of two vessels. The first
198 |
SPRUCE RUN EARTHWORKS 199
of these is represented by the rim
fragments shown as Figs. 2 and
5 of Plate III. This vessel has a smooth
horizontal band I cm.
wide just below the lip. The lip of the
vessel is narrowed (3 mm.)
and flattened, while the rim thickness
is 7 mm. The incised lines
which form the pattern are narrow and
shallow to medium deep.
The edges of the incisions are uneven
and the lines are not straight.
The artist of Prof. Short has drawn a
design of a band of left to
right oblique lines but the lines on the
sherds I have illustrated
slope in the opposite direction as did
the lines on one of the other
two rim specimens belonging to this
vessel. The design then is
apparently not one of concentric
diamonds but a band around the
rim either of lines sloping in one
direction only (if two pots are
represented), or of groups of lines
sloping first right to left fol-
lowed by a group sloping left to right.
The second decorated vessel which could
be recognized has
the concentric diamond design which is
illustrated on Figs. 6-10
of Plate III. This design could be
distinguished from that on the
first decorated vessel described because
the incisions are medium
wide and medium deep. They were made
with a broader point
than the lines on the other vessel. The
lines were very crudely
made in the moist clay after the rim
area had been smoothed.
The design, which appears to be a five
to seven line concentric
diamond, has a single punctate mark in
the middle of the central
diamond. This vessel has the small rim
node characteristic of
Adena pottery. Just below the narrowed
and flattened lip which
is 5 mm. wide there is a smooth
horizontal rim band 15 mm. wide
around the vessel with the design placed
below it. The decorated
rim area has a thickness of from 8 to 10
mm.
Both of these decorated vessels have the
same type of temper-
ing material, texture, and surface
finish as the Adena Plain vessel.
The basal fragments in this lot
indicated a vessel with a rounded
base but its exact shape is, of course,
unknown. The shape is
probably close to that of Fig. 2, Plate II.
In Kentucky vessels of this type found
at the Morgan Stone
Mound, Wright Mound 6, and the C & O
Mound sites are lime-
stone tempered and are called Montgomery
Incised. It has been
already mentioned that a similar incised
vessel was found at the
200 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
Mound Camp site in southeastern Indiana
but at that site the vessel
had four small tetrapodal feet. In
another publication I have ex-
pressed the opinion that the incised
Adena pottery is probably
associated with a late Adena occupation
but this has not been veri-
fied by stratigraphy.15
Prof. Short also refers to two mounds
south of Galena. The
first of these was one mile south of the
town on land belonging to
Mr. E. Phillips but the data provided is
insufficient to indicate to
which cultural division it belongs. The
second mound which was
on the land of Isaac Brinberger three
miles south of Galena is,
however, almost certainly an Adena
structure. Constructed of
stone to a height of fifteen feet it contained
a log tomb which was
unusually well preserved.
Through the efforts of Prof. Short over
a half century ago,
the preservation of his material in a
museum, and the advance of
archaeological knowledge, we have been
able to provide an inter-
esting addition to the Adena culture
complex. Short's report is
the first record of Adena occupation in
Delaware County. It pro-
vides the first association of an Adena
site with a possible "graded
way" and the first record of
incised Adena pottery from Ohio.
15 James B. Griffin, "The Ceramic Affiliations of the Ohio Valley
Adena Culture,"
in Webb and Snow, The Adena
People, 244.