USA > Kentucky > The prehistoric men of Kentucky : a history of what is known of their lives and habits, together with a description of their implements and other relics and of the tumuli which have earned for them the designation of Mound builders > Part 3
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These mounds were grim with age when Marquette, in 1693, in his bark canoes, glided down the Mississippi, and when La Salle, in 1669, starting from the Lakes, pushed his boats to the head of its tributaries, across a narrow portage to the Allegheny, and floated with its current to where that stream joins its waters with those of the Monongahela, and then on the bosom of the "Beautiful River" to the present site of Louisville.
It is not difficult to demonstrate that these remains are pre-Columbian. How many hundreds or thousands of years they antedated the period of the discovery of America can only be conjectured. The clay soils of Ken- tucky were especially adapted for the building of the earthworks and for the retention of their forms when erected. They washed but little, and the rank vegetation which at once sprung out of the fertile soils insured a grassy covering which rendered erosion slow and ineffec-
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tual to wear away the embankments. To these concurring causes the world is indebted for the substantially com- plete preservation of these witnesses to the past of the ancient men of the State. These are the calendars from which we make the calculations which figure out the cen- turies that have elapsed since these patient and industrious people tilled the soil and builded homes within the bor- ders of the Commonwealth.
STONE GRAVE BURIALS.
Stone grave burials are found over the greater part of Kentucky. More frequently remains of this kind occur in the south-central and the western parts of the State, though they have been found as far east as Greenup County. They occur in connection with almost every large mound group, and in and about every fortified vil- lage site. We find them grouped in large cemeteries and small family burial grounds, and single isolated graves are not uncommon. Nearly every large farm along the fertile valleys of the Cumberland, Tennessee, Green, and Barren rivers has its quota of stone graves.
The prevailing type consists of a rude stone box or cist of rectangular form. The graves are usually shallow, not exceeding three feet in depth. After the earth had been removed, stone slabs of more or less regular form were placed in the bottom of the excavation, and similar slabs arranged on edge about the sides and ends, and these, after the body had been laid within, were covered with slabs of like shape. Frequently the bottom stones were omitted and the body probably laid on a mat or
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skin, or upon the earth. The slabs used were of irregular shape, and show no attempt at dressing other than having been roughly blocked into form with stone hammers. Usually they were rudely fitted together, about as care- fully as the stone pavements which were laid along the streets of towns in Kentucky one hundred years ago. Through the crevices between the stones, the earth, during the centuries of interment, has filtered, entirely filling the grave. In rare instances the slabs were nicely joined, the cracks and crevices being closed with smaller stones so as to effectually guard against the silting. When the ex- ploring rod of the relic hunter strikes one of these cists, the hollow sound emitted gives certain promise of the reward of seeing a prehistoric man of Kentucky just as he was laid away centuries ago, minus only the flesh and the more perishable materials which were enclosed within his sepulchre.
These depositories of the dead have been found to be rich in remains of all kinds, such as vessels of pottery, pipes, gorgets, beads, pendants, paints, tools of the artisan, and implements of war and the chase. All these bespeak the high degree of skill attained by these people in the arts and industries of aboriginal life. These objects, placed with loving care beside the dead, indicate a belief in another state of existence. If the dead were really dead, with no future life before him, why place within easy reach the well-filled vessel of food, or string about his neck glittering beads of copper and shell, and upon his breast wonderfully wrought gorgets? Why deposit by his side implements of war, the chase, or the tools of the workman? The custom of thus storing the graves with things which were beautiful and helpful to the living,
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bespeak plainer than can words the deep-seated convic- tion that death is not the end, that in other spheres from that which he had departed the dead would live again the scenes of this life, accompanied and served by the spirits of the inanimate objects interred with his remains.
Small stone cists measuring not more than two feet in length by fifteen inches and even less in breadth, are frequently unearthed. In these the bones of the dead, after having been disarticulated, were placed in a mass. The small size of these graves in former days gave rise to the belief that the valleys of the Cumberland and Green rivers were once the home of a race of pygmies. We are of the opinion that many of these small cists contain bones which were brought from a distance, probably from some battlefield. The intense reverence of the red man for his dead lends plausibility to the idea that these skeletons may have been borne from some distant section to be given sepulture among their own people. In Chris- tian County, near a village site on Little River, these small burial cists occur in large numbers in immediate prox- imity to larger stone graves; and the indications from the bones and crania are that they were the same people, who buried their dead under different conditions. Very seldom do implements of any kind accompany this form of burial. These graves are found chiefly in Allen, Barren, Edmonson, Trigg, and Christian counties. Occasionally, in the stone grave cemeteries, are cists of large size con- taining the remains of two or more persons. In some the position of the skeletons indicate that the dead were buried side by side in the flesh; in others the bones of many dead are intermingled.
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In Clark County, on what is known as the Devil's Back- bone, a few miles north of Winchester and in contiguous territory, are stone graves measuring about three and a half feet in length by two feet in breadth, in which bodies were buried in a sitting or squatting posture, the knees drawn up against the breast and arms down by the side. In many of these graves were found deposits of pottery and implements of various kinds.
In the northern portion of the State were formerly seen stone graves of a most peculiar and interesting type. Northern Kentucky, together with the extreme southern portion of Ohio, present certain features in common, which indicate that they were once occupied by the same people. Doctor Cyrus Thomas, in speaking of this region (Twelfth Annual Report of Bureau of Ethnology, page 576), says: "There is strong evidence of an intrusive element, or as appears more likely, a preceding and inde- pendent element." In Brown County, Ohio, Mr. Fowke, connected with the Bureau of Ethnology, explored and described several burials enclosed by a circle of flat stones set on edge, the body or bodies being placed on a pave- ment of stones near the center, and covered with a mass of rock or earth. Not far from Ripley, in the same county, he examined another grave which had been previously opened, but enough remained to show that it had been constructed by placing around the body, which lay upon the earth or floor of rock, several rows of stone slabs on end slightly inclined inward, the rows forming an ellipse. These slabs were supported on the under side by a mass of small rocks tightly wedged in. Upon these stones were placed others which were forced in between the edges of those of the lower tier. Upon this second tier
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The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky
a third tier was similarly placed, the edges likewise being forced in between those of the second tier, and this was evidently continued, each tier having a greater inclina- tion than the one below, until an arch was formed entire- ly enclosing the space about the body. Just across the Ohio River, on the Kentucky side, near the town of Dover, in Mason County, there was formerly a large group of these graves, also others to the westward in Bracken County. However, Mr. Fowke, who conducted extensive explorations in that neighborhood, was unable to find any which had not been torn up by white men to get the stone, which was used in the construction of roads, in building outhouses, residences, and chimneys, and even in furnishing lime.
Several stone graves of unusual form were discovered many years ago by Professor N. S. Shaler upon the summit of one of the river bluffs on the bank of the Ohio River four miles above Newport, in Campbell County. In a letter to Professor Jeffries Wyman, under date of Decem- ber 18, 1868, he describes them as follows: "These were formed by placing a curbing of regular fragments of con- siderable size, so as to form a circle ten feet in diameter, from which flat stones were inclined outward, shingled one over the other so as to form a band about six feet wide. Beneath the stones of this band, or in the crevices between them, were placed a great number of detached human bones which had evidently been deposited there in the fragmentary state in which they were found." Pro- fessor Shaler thought these graves quite recent, but the probability is that they antedated the stone grave cists of Central and Southern Kentucky.
We are indebted to Professor F. W. Putnam, of the
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Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, for first exploring and publishing an account of an unusual type of grave found in Barren and Monroe counties. Professor Putnam says: "These graves were nearly cir- cular, between four and five feet in diameter, and about three feet deep. One was carefully opened and the con- tents taken out. These consisted of portions of fifteen human skeletons, and fragments of pottery. The bones showed that the bodies buried were those of persons of various ages, from three children who had not lost their first set of teeth to one person of old age. The grave had been formed by digging a hole nearly circular and about three feet in depth. Slabs of limestone, about three feet long and from one foot to two feet wide, brought from some distance, had then been placed on end around the hole, and the bottom had been carefully covered with thin shale brought from the creek a quarter of a mile away. The bodies of the adults had evidently been ar- ranged in a sitting posture against the upright slabs, and all at one time. Only fragments of the skeletons of the three children were found, and the position in which they had been buried could not be determined. The earth had been thrown over all, and a few small, flat stones placed above. The fragments of pottery found were near the surface, and may indicate that vessels and per- haps other articles had been placed on the surface over the grave, and not buried with the bodies, as is more commonly the case."
At the time of the examination of these graves by Professor Putnam many had been plowed over, and human bones from them whitened the field for half an acre in extent. He observed about thirty of these graves, and
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thought that a large number must have been destroyed by cultivation of the land about them. In an account of these researches given at a meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History, in 1875, he says of these sepulchres: "The fact that all the bodies must have been placed in the grave at the same time, and that they were those of persons of various ages, from three children who had still the first set of teeth, as shown by fragments of jaws found, to a person quite advanced in age, while the majority were evidently of middle age, -and also the peculiar hole in one of the arm bones, per- haps indicating a blow with some pointed instrument- give opportunity for speculations which can not be proved or disproved by these silent relics of a once populous race inhabiting the beautiful country where their bones were laid so long ago that tradition of the more recent Indian tribes gives no clew to them-whence they came or whither they went, all is lost in the great mystery of the past, and only their empty skulls and wonderful monuments of industry, with their implements of skill, are left to tell us of their former power. We know not if these burials indicate famine, pestilence, war, or the unholy sacrifice. We can only conjecture that they were not the graves of persons who had died a natural death."
In various parts of Kentucky burials were made under piles of stone or cairns. These have been found quite frequently in Nelson and adjoining counties. At least one has been observed in Union, and many in Greenup. It was evident that in this class of burials there was a slight excavation, half a foot to a foot deep, and over the body, after it was deposited on the ground, were laid piles
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of stone varying from two to four feet in height and running from six to twelve feet in diameter. These stones were laid with some appearance of care, and while they were not put in courses, it was apparent that the struc- ture had been carried upward by regular deposits of stone, and when completed a sort of arch was formed over the top of the ground. As these stones were penetrable by rains and melted snows, there was little to indicate the nature and character of the skeletons placed beneath. A fragmentary bone here and there, and the always dis- tinguishable dust which is created by the dissolution of the body, were the only evidences that remained of those who were thus laid away in the long past.
In Clark, Montgomery, Madison, Union, and some parts of Fayette County, and along the banks of the Cumberland, Tennessee, Green, and Barren rivers, thou- sands of burials were made without the use of either stone or wood as a protection to the bodies. They may have been wrapped in skins or bark, and thus protected by some temporary covering. About six miles from Louis- ville, on the Bardstown Turnpike, on a place owned some years ago by Mr. Armstrong, was a very large cemetery. The ground which contained the bodies had been long cultivated; a few strokes of the spade or the grubbing hoe at any point would bring up human bones, accom- panied by arrowheads and fragments of pottery. About four miles southwest of Richmond, on a farm formerly owned by John D. Harris, from the indications it appeared that a cemetery covering one hundred acres had been practically filled by graves of this description. At almost any point in a large field which had been cultivated for many years, and at the time of the author's investigation
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was in tobacco, a few strokes of the spade would exhume numbers of bones, accompanied by flints and here and there fragments of mica. The same is true in parts of Wolfe County, and some parts of Clark and Montgomery. It is undoubtedly true, as we have said, along the Cum- berland and Tennessee, in the bottoms, without reference to mounds or stone excavations or any protecting element, immense numbers of these people were buried.
Whether these different forms of burial marked dif- ferent periods in the history of the prehistoric men of Kentucky it would be difficult now to say, but the con- dition of the bones would indicate that these burials in which neither stone nor mounds were used were of the more recent origin.
Here and there bodies have been found laid on the surface of projecting shelves in shallow caves, or "rock houses." Six miles northeast of Nicholasville, near the town of Keene, when a lad the writer observed skele- tons of the prehistoric people deposited in this way. Professor R. S. Robinson calls attention to burials in rock shelters near Hardinsburg, which he visited in 1874. In Central Kentucky, frequently in these -cave shelters num- bers of burial places have been found. These "rock houses," as the shallow depressions are called, are found principally in the region of the Waverly and sub-carbonif- erous sandstones, and are caused by the more rapid recession of the base than the summit of the cliff, under the wear of the elements. In some cases the excavations extend back fifty and even sixty feet, leaving overhanging roofs of solid rock. These overhanging cliffs afford protection from rain and snow, and became favorite resorts for stock and even people, and there are several
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instances in which the prehistoric people builded struc- tures with stone walls for purposes of habitation under these shelters, and in the large deposits of débris on the cave floors are found their places of burial. Similar ledges or projecting cliffs are found in the limestone region, and were much used by the prehistoric people.
In Southeast Kentucky there are frequent evidences of burials in these shelters. This is true of Wolfe, Estill, Breathitt, Clark, Madison, and Morgan counties. At one time in these particular sections there must have been quite a large population, as these counties contain numerous stone graves and cave burials-a population which was induced probably not so much by the gener- ousness of the soil as by deposits of flint, which were found, particularly in Wolfe County, with some degree of persis- tence. On one hillside in Wolfe County the writer exam- ined flint quarries where vast quantities of spalls had been piled, and from the largest pieces of material of which had been made great numbers of arrowheads, which con- tained a combination of red and white in the flint.
MOUNDS AND MOUND BURIALS.
Kentucky has a border on the Ohio River of seven hundred miles. Beginning with the Big Sandy, and with smaller intervening streams, it is entered by the Licking, Kentucky, Green, Barren, Cumberland, and Tennessee rivers. In this State the rivers almost entirely run from the south to the north, thus piercing the State with a vast mileage of waterway, and enabling the people either of the remote or the present time to travel into all por-
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tions along these water lines. The prehistoric man availed himself of these conditions by the very necessity of his surroundings. If he transported anything of considerable bulk he was forced to use these streams as a means of journeying from one point to another. This doubtless had much to do with fixing their habitations along the river margins. Fertility of soil had much to do with where they lived, but second to this, water transporta- tion controlled and determined the places of abode. Grow- ing out of this fact, the prehistoric people, or those who erected the mounds, inhabited almost every portion of Kentucky, always being measurably controlled by the courses of the streams. And wherever these people came or lived we find, scattered in almost every county in Kentucky, earthen mounds. For a long time they were known as Mound Builders, and this nomenclature grew out of the fact that they were the architects of these structures. It is estimated that up to this day, notwith- standing the erosive effects of time on these mounds, constructed almost entirely of earth, there remain several thousands, the location, size, and contour of which may easily be determined.
As in many other things connected with these people, there was a difference in the way and the purpose for which these mounds were erected, and they have been divided by the authorities into classes. Perhaps the simplest and most satisfactory division is that suggested and used by Mr. Holmes, who classified them according to form, as conical, pyramidal, elongate, and effigy mounds.
The great majority of mounds are of the conical form, small, and with an altitude of five to ten feet, though occasionally they reach a height of thirty or forty feet.
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TWO MOUNDS NEAR OHIO RIVER, JUST EAST OF WARSAW, GALLATIN COUNTY, KENTUCKY
MOUND Mason County
OCTAGONAL MOUND Woodford County
EARTHWORK ENCLOSURE Greenup County. Reproduced from Collins' History [ 34 ]
The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky
The conical mounds are mere artificial heaps of earth, having the general form of a broad low cone, the outline of the base being circular or oval. Occasionally those of pear-shaped base are seen. These tumuli occur singly or in groups, sometimes isolated, but more frequently in connection with other works. Perhaps ninety per cent are mortuary, erected as monuments to commemorate the life and service of some distinguished person of the stone- age people.
The typical pyramidal mound is a large quadrangular structure with flattened top; yet some are circular or oval, some polygonal, but all are truncated or flat on top. The altitude of these occasionally reaches forty feet. They generally occur in connection with other remains, as enclosures, fortifications, village sites, or mound groups. The most striking examples of this kind are to be seen in Adair, Gallatin, Montgomery, Hickman, Fulton, Greenup, Woodford, Mason, Trigg, and Ballard counties. 826093
Occasionally elongate or wall-like mounds are seen, but the instances are few, and it is probable that these are not the typical elongate mound, but detached or out- lying portions of a system of earthworks near which the few known occur. One of these wall-like structures is to be observed near the "Old Fort" in Greenup County, in connection with what is known as the Portsmouth Group. Near this wall is a small effigy mound, repre- senting a bear. It is a curious fact-a fact maintained by the authorities-that this is the only mound of its kind south of the Ohio River short of Georgia.
As soon as people began to have time to consider these tumular remains there was much conjecture and argu-
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ment as to the purposes for which these several classes were used. Some said they were monuments pure and simple; others said they were places of burial, some places of refuge, others temples of worship. Shortly after these inquiries began to pass through the minds of the people who saw the mounds, investigation and research were set on foot.
Pioneers paid little attention to these mounds for many years. They were denuded of the forests which had grown up on their sides, and the plowshare was set to work as a destructive agent in eliminating their con- tour as well as changing their form. The demands of agri- culture did not stop to inquire why these structures were builded. The great question was abundant yields of corn, tobacco, and wheat, not what lay beneath these earthen heaps with the hidden story of the past of a mysterious nation. It made no difference to the agri- culturist whether in the bosom of the mounds lay buried the ancient dead, or whether upon its sides he had stood in defense of his home, or whether upon its crown, with never-dying fires, he had sacrificed to his gods. When the time of the antiquarian came, he stood in the presence of these mute witnesses of the past and asked, Where had the builders gone, whence did they come, why these struc- tures? There were variant answers from those who under- took from the meager records to tell the story of the people who, so many hundreds of years ago, had builded them with a purpose definite enough to the builders, but which, through the lapse of ages, had become dim and uncertain to the interpreter of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It was no answer that, wherever the Mississippi and its tributaries had watered the earth
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with their currents these mounds are found, that they stand with sphinx-like form on the prairies of the West, upon the savannas of the Gulf, and along the productive valleys of the Ohio and the Licking, the Cumberland and Kentucky. Time has dealt gently with many of the larger mounds, but the people who builded them are nameless and their past is shrouded in almost impene- trable mystery. The watch-fires that once burned upon their summits are quenched and the ashes scattered to the four winds. Only these monumental heaps, without inscription, stand as silent sentinels to declare that the "Mound Builders" once lived, moved, and fought about these faithful guardians of the past; but they give no indication as to whither those have gone whose hands wrought and fashioned them.
The most distinguished form of burial among the primitive Kentuckians was that of the mound. The usual method was to place the bodies of the dead upon the surface of the earth with a covering of skins, cloth, bark, or stone, and then to erect over them earthen heaps varying in size according to the numbers and strength of the tribe or family of the dead, and the reverence and love they bore them. Some of these burial mounds meas- ure thirty or forty feet in height, with proportionate base. It was commonly believed that all mounds were burial places. Explorations show that this is not so. The true pyramidal mounds are not so likely to contain burials, though intrusive interments are not infrequent. To erect many of these monuments to the dead would require great expenditure of labor and almost endless patience, as there were no means of moving the earth except in baskets and skins. A large mound that existed at Mt.
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