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 4
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The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky
Sterling, in Montgomery County, and which was cut down many years ago, had a height of over twenty feet and a diameter of more than one hundred at its base. It contained but a single skeleton, buried near the center. The rich deposits of relics of primitive art accompanying this burial proclaim the dead one of no mean rank among his people, while the immense amount of labor necessary to build his sepulchre speaks the love and veneration in which he was held, and that no outlay of time or labor was begrudged in erecting a monument which would proclaim to all generations his fame, to be a memorial forever of his greatness among the early men of Kentucky.
In August, 1897, the author was permitted to examine what is known as the Moberly Mound, in Madison Coun- ty, six miles east of Richmond. As this was one of his earliest excavations, he was not able to remove the mound with as much care, skill, and patience as has marked subsequent explorations. This was a burial mound. It contained approximately three thousand cubic yards of earth, and it was calculated that it would have required one hundred men forty days to have erected this monu- ment. It contained six burials, evidently made at the same time. Five of these were men, probably past the meridian of life. The sixth was a younger person, not more than twenty years of age. These six bodies had been laid upon the natural surface of the ground and over them had been placed cloth or skins of some kind, and on the top of this, earth, which had been brought a distance of two hundred and fifty feet. About three feet from the center line was a skeleton lying east and west, with head to the west. The skull was in a good state of preservation. The body was lying upon its back,
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The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky
face upward, hands lying close to the sides, feet straight out. The teeth indicated a man advanced in years, being much worn, two of the lower molars being gone. On the breast there was a beautiful grooved syenite ax, and beside it a scraper with a perfect edge which had been produced by a whetstone, and this whetstone lay close to the scraper. On the inside of the leg was a remarkable wound, which fixed the cause of death of this man -whose remains we were so ruthlessly removing after his sleep of ages. In the shaft of the left femur was a large flint spear- head driven entirely through the bone. It required no wide sweep of the imagination to carry one back across the hundreds of years intervening between the construction of this mound and the present day, and to clothe in living forms the warrior and his companions, and to understand how, on the fateful day when he received the death-wound, he was engaged in combating with his country's enemies. He had not died by accident, but had come to his end by violence when in conflict with some foe quicker and more powerful than himself. The position of the flint spearhead in the bone showed that the struggle had been a very close encounter; that he and his antagonist, face to face, eye to eye, and hand to hand, had fought out to the death the contest which ended his life. It was apparent from the angle of the weapon in the bone that the combatants had been very close together, and that the Mound Builder who was wounded and died had fought a right-handed man. The size of the spearhead demonstrated beyond question that it could not have been driven from a bow, and that only a spear handle could carry it with sufficient force to cut through the flesh and bone; and the direc- tion of the blow made it certain that at the time of the
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The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky
infliction of the wound the antagonists could not have been separated more than two or three feet. Probably the thrust had been directed at the heart, but in the encounter the aim of the antagonist had been diverted, and instead of striking the heart had glanced downward and passed through the bone of his leg, a short distance below and in close proximity to the femoral artery, in- flicting an injury which caused death from loss of blood.
This unfortunate victim had been carried away by his comrades to this place of sepulture. From above his body were alternately removed layers of clay and black loam. These, in the form of a cube, continued for four feet above the body, being four feet in width and eight in length. Around him were found arrowheads and spearheads, and a bone from some fish similar to the gar. A piece of graphite was close to his right hand, and near by was found his pipe, made of clay. In order to ren- der it more brilliant and beautiful, it had been most artistically and skillfully ornamented. It was a type of pipe which in clay is very rare and unusual, tubular in form, and the surface had been plated with a thin coat- ing of mica, put on with great care and skill so as to form a complete covering. The brilliant effect of it in the eyes of the ancient Kentuckian, who knew the use of neither gold nor silver, would make it a thing of beauty. No electroplate of the present time could have given a more distinctive or artistic effect than this covering of glistening mica. White, red, and pink ochre in abun- dance had been arranged about this body, as well as the other five. Near by was an earthen vessel filled with red ochre of very fine quality, and so well was it preserved that if the man with whom it had been buried five hundred
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The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky
years ago had been resurrected, he would have found it ready for use for decoration in war or peace.
It was evident that all six bodies had been buried at the same time, as they were all on the same level, and that this monument which was so ruthlessly demolished by the writer had been builded over these nameless peo- ple in recognition of the valiant service which they had rendered for their country's defense. It may be that they had been borne from some distant battlefield to be given sepulture with those whom they loved or whom they had honored by their courage, or that on the fertile plain had been a great struggle in which these gallant soldiers had perished. Possibly victory had crowned their efforts, and so, close to the scenes of their heroism, they had been laid, and over their remains had been erected this mound to tell those in ages to come how they died and where reposed the ashes of the brave.
Mounds containing stone-cist burials similar to those of the stone-grave cemeteries occur largely in the southern portion of the State. These often contain numerous burials, the graves being arranged in layers or tiers, one above the other, and mounds containing as many as three tiers of graves are known.
In Christian County, ten miles east of Hopkinsville, a small mound- was explored several years ago which contained two stone-grave burials. It measured six feet in height by thirty feet in diameter. When cut down, the burials were encountered near the center, and were those of an adult of advanced years and a child. The elder person had been laid at length upon the surface of the earth, and about him a cist of rough stone erected. The earth was then heaped above the grave until the
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The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky
mound rose a foot above the top of the burial. Here the body of the infant, similarly enclosed in rough slabs of stone, was placed directly above the body of the adult, and the process of raising the mound continued until this grave too was covered with a foot of earth. Here a layer of charcoal and ashes, intermingled with bones of fish and game animals common to that section, together with fragments of pottery, indicated that when the mound reached this point fires were kindled upon its surface and funeral rites, perhaps a feast, held before the last stage of the mound was builded, which arose a foot and a half above the ashes.
The mounds of Union County were first systematically explored by the late Sidney S. Lyon, under the patron- age of the Smithsonian Institution, the report of which for the year 1870 gives the result of his researches. Mr. Lyon, in a private letter, said of this region that he has seen the work of the Mound Builder in many States, but nowhere had he observed anything to compare in extent and importance with those at this point. "If the ash beds, bone heaps, et cetera, are evidence of a formerly populous and settled country, it is to be found here. In my examinations I found nearly one hundred mounds in an area of a hundred acres." A single group on Lost Creek, examined by Mr. Lyon, contained forty-eight tumuli.
What is known as the Lindsay Mound, on Buffalo Creek, four miles from Raleigh, explored by Mr. Lyon, revealed many interesting features in regard to burial customs. The bodies were placed in a circle upon their backs, with head directed toward the center and faces turned upon the left side, the arrangement being similar
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The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky
to the spokes of a wheel. There were no burials at the exact center of the mound. This circle of burials was extended toward the circumference by one or more addi- tional circles. Above the lower burials were other tiers of graves, the mound on the west side containing as many as five layers. Three distinct kinds of burial were ob- served; first, those of the lower tier, which had been placed upon the natural surface of the earth, it having been first scraped clean of all vegetable matter. With these skeletons, the bones of which were so tender that they could not be removed, were found no vessels or imple- ments of any kind, nor was there any indication that bark or any other substance had been used to cover and protect the bodies. These lower burials were covered with yellow sandy loam from a pit near by. Three or four superimposed layers of burials of a later date were covered with clay and accompanied by burial urns and other implements of prehistoric make. The third class of burials had been made by digging irregular holes or pits into the mound down to the original surface and depositing the bodies therein, and filling the excavation with earth. The mixed or discolored material in these pit burials revealed that they were intrusive, that is, made after the mound had been completed, but even they are of ancient date. In 1860 a large poplar tree standing on the margin of the mound was felled. The rings, which were counted at the time, indicated an age of two hundred and forty-nine years. A root of this tree over a foot in diameter ran across the mound, pass- ing through the excavation of one of these intrusive inter- ments, conclusively showing that this burial was of greater age than the tree. Mr. Lyon termed this mound "a
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The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky
common burial place, or burial place of the common people."
Interesting questions arise as we study the contents and structure of this mound. How are we to account for the three divergent methods of burials? Were the more ancient of the lower tier a different people from these of the upper? Had they no implements or vessels of clay, no conception of a future life where the spirit of the dead would require those things he most used in this life? Who were those of the intrusive burials, the friends of whom were willing to desecrate the graves of others to give them sepulture?
A mound near Uniontown contained the body of a man buried in a sitting posture, accompanied by numerous relics, among which were a beautiful notched flint imple- ment twelve inches in length, three bi-concave discs of stone one and a half inches in diameter and one half inch thick, the margin being grooved, and each having a central perforation about which were arranged five smaller holes, a copper awl, a copper disc covered with woven fabric, and a pottery vessel.
Another mound contained three skulls without the bodies, and some parcels of bones which had evidently been dismembered before burial. A mound near Lost Creek, like the Lindsay Mound, showed a remarkable blending of different modes of sepulture. Many of the early burials were not enclosed in stone coffins nor accom- panied by relics. Others were covered with stone slabs set on edge and inclined inward, meeting over the body, and enclosing it in a triangular or roof-shaped cist. Many vessels of pottery accompanied these remains. Six feet beneath the surface of the mound was a stone pavement
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The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky
made of rough limestone slabs weighing from twenty to one hundred and fifty pounds. This mound also con- tained intrusive burials. One occupied a pit five feet deep, in making which the skeletons or parts of skeletons of three bodies had been removed, and the intrusive inter- ments made as deep as the third or fourth layer of origi- nal burial. The bones removed in making this grave were carelessly thrown into the grave above the newly buried body, but not in contact with it. Two copper bells, evidently of European origin, were found in this grave, and indicated that those who so ruthlessly cast aside the bones of the builders of the mound to make way for their own dead were Indians of the historic period who had come in contact with the Spanish or French traders, probably Shawnees, who were in the western part of the State as late as 1662.
Another mound explored by Mr. Lyon appeared to contain a vault or wooden chamber, from the presence of charred logs, some in an upright and some in a hori- zontal position. Remains of a similar wooden structure have been observed in a mound in Fulton County, and another in Bell County, in the southeastern portion of the State.
Mr. R. B. Evans, of Glasgow, opened a very remark- able mound in Allen County many years ago. It contained a well-like vault ten feet deep and eight feet in diameter, walled up with stone. The bottom was made of flat stones placed on edge close together, and keyed in with smaller stones. At every two feet in this vault was a layer of large flat stones, and between these were numerous human remains.
Pyramidal or truncated mounds are common over
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The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky
the greater part of the State. They are usually to be seen in connection with other remains, often occupying a cen- tral position within earthwork enclosures, or standing out conspicuously as the leading feature of a mound group. Though the typical pyramidal mound is rectangular in form, yet many have bases circular, oval, or polygonal. Some are broad and low, being rather raised platforms of earth than true mounds. Collins, in his "History of Ken- tucky," mentions a very remarkable example of this sort of structure in Ballard County, on the Ohio River bot- toms opposite Mound City, Illinois. It has a base area of fifteen acres, and measures five or six feet in height. Upon one end is a conical mound forty feet in height, containing half an acre, and in the center of this big mound field rises another mound twelve feet in height. One in Montgomery County has an inclined way leading to the top, and a mound in Gallatin County (see page 33) has traces of a similar approach, apparently designed to afford means of easy ascent to the summit. Excel- lent examples of the rectangular pyramidal mound occur in Fulton County on the Bayou de Chien, five miles east of Hickman. One of these measures eighty-five by fifty feet, and is twenty feet high, the sides being very abrupt. Others appear within an old fortification in Ballard County, on the Punckney Bend Road south of the mouth of May- field Creek, still others in Marshall County on Jonathan Creek. On page 34 are illustrations of two very unusual forms of the truncated mound. These cuts are redrawn from "Monuments of the Mississippi Valley," Smithsonian Contribution Number One, and are from surveys made by Rafinesque in 1818. The upper mound, or rather terrace, is described by Rafinesque as being located
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The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky
near Lovedale, in Woodford County. "It is octagonal in form, measuring one hundred and fifty feet on each side. It has three graded ascents, one at each of the northern angles, and one at the middle of the western side. It is but little more than five feet in height. Upon it are two conical mounds, as shown in the plan, also the dwelling house of the proprietor." This, one of the most remarkable remains ever discovered in Kentucky, has unfortunately been practically destroyed by cultivation, and the most diligent inquiry fails to locate Lovedale, but investigation throughout Woodford County shows that long since practically all visible traces of this won- derful structure have been eliminated. On the same page is shown another extraordinary mound, and Squier and Davis say of it: "The plan of this mound or terrace sufficiently explains its character. It is situated three miles from Washington, Mason County, Kentucky. Its height is ten feet." This was also from Rafinesque's Manuscript, 1818.
In Greenup County, near the Old Fort earthworks, in connection with the Portsmouth Group is a small effigy mound representing a bear, and the only well-defined one of its kind in the State. With the exception of two in Ohio, including the noted serpent mound, and two bird mounds in Georgia, it is said there are no others out- side the Wisconsin district. The proximity of this mound to those in Ohio would show that there was some tribal or social intercourse between the people on the south side of the Ohio River with the people on the north side, and scientists have been puzzled by the appearance of this unusual structure at the point where it is built. Mr. T. H. Lewis, who was the first to observe this structure,
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The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky
and so far as the writer knows the only one who had published an account of it, describes it as follows: "This effigy probably represents a bear which seems to be lean- ing forward in an attitude of observation. It is not very large, being but fifty-three feet from the top of the back to the end of the foreleg, and its utmost length is one hundred and five and one-half feet from the tip of the nose to the rear of the hind foot. The greatest vertical height is at the fore-shoulder, where it is three and one- half feet. The bear effigy described here has never been mentioned in print before and seems to have escaped the notice of inquiring scientists-indeed it was unknown even to the residents of the neighborhood. Its value is mainly in that it was the first imitative mound constructed of earth discovered south of the Ohio River, and that it is an important addition to the scanty list of such works already brought to light in Ohio, the nearest of which is but a few miles away from this one, being the peculiar three-legged animal (in profile) on the Scioto River just above Portsmouth, surveyed by Colonel Whit- elsy in 1846 and mapped in 'Ancient Monuments.'"
One of the most unusual mounds in Kentucky is on the farm of Mr. Wilson Tate, near Moberly Station, on the railroad between Richmond in Madison County and Irvine in Estill County, and close to the turnpike con- necting these two towns. It is one hundred and ninety- two feet in diameter and fifteen feet high. It is surrounded by a moat thirty-five feet in width and ten feet in depth, and the indications are that this moat was once filled with water. Although a part of this moat has been plowed over for fifty years, it still retains its form. The writer ran a trench eight feet wide into the mound, beginning
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The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky
on the western side, to its center, and found nothing but a spearhead about three inches long. Occasional beds of charcoal were widely distributed, but nothing could be argued from their presence. The earth had been taken from the trench or moat surrounding the mound, and on the outside of the moat had been thrown up an em- bankment some two or three feet in heigth. The soil did not indicate, except in one spot, that it had been con- structed for burial purposes. From a cursory examina- tion of the excavation one would be unable to determine the purpose for which this mound had been erected, whether for the protection of the surrounding people from sudden invasion, or as a residence of some great chieftain.
A similar mound was formerly to be seen in Greenup County in connection with the Portsmouth Group of earthworks. It consisted of an embankment of earth five feet high by thirty feet base, with an interior ditch twenty-five feet across by six feet deep, enclosing an area ninety feet in diameter, in the center of which rises a mound eight feet high by forty feet base. A narrow gateway through the parapet and causeway over the ditch leads to the enclosed mound. A sketch of this mound will be found on page 34.
Kentucky was abundantly supplied with mounds, as before stated, along the streams, and these reach almost every county in the Commonwealth. The ordinary coni- cal mound excites no surprise. Oftentimes it was not sufficiently elevated to attract unusual attention. As these mounds occurred in the valleys, where the best land was found, they readily became the prey of the plow- share, and long before their value scientifically and his- torically was fixed at all, the vast majority of them had
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The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky
been substantially destroyed, or at least so far changed as to affect their value from a scientific viewpoint.
Among the Central Kentucky counties there are more well-preserved mounds in Madison County than any other. Around Berea, Kirksville, along Silver Creek, and along the line of the railroad leading from Lancaster to Rich- mond are found numerous and well-preserved specimens, among the very best in the State. The earth in these localities is largely yellow or red clay, and this, together with the vegetation which readily grows upon this char- acter of soil, has preserved these mounds in a very remark- able way.
It would be impossible to describe in detail every mound structure in the State, or to accurately locate all of them. It would require much more space than the limits of this publication will justify, and we shall therefore be content with giving the forms or divisions into which these mounds have been placed. Those interested in this subject can readily, in their own locality, examine and investigate all these structures, and with the general dis- cussion of the plans and uses of these mounds determine the purposes for which they were used.
EARTHWORK AND STONE FORTIFICATIONS AND ENCLOSURES.
In the use of earthworks for the purpose of fortifi- cation the prehistoric people of Kentucky exhibited a fair degree of engineering skill and great military acumen. The points selected were usually of strategic value and evinced, when we consider their advancement along other
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E.
N. North fork of Elkhorn-Width about 100 ft .~
Outside hight of parabet w
.from 4-5. ft. to 75 facing stream.
Earth
Putapet. Circumference 790 ft. Tre line circumference e
Wi
OakTi
Central Plateau.
Diameter . 150 ft.
S
Circumference about 450 ft .
Gate Way
33 ft.
es Cir.
-
W.
Location . Newtown Turnpike on land of Mis. Brant. 682 miles N. N.E. from Lexington - formerly part of the Moore farm ~.
EARTHWORK-FAYETTE COUNTY
Mississippi Bottoms.
Ditch-
Road.
Ditch_
Timbered Bottoms.
W
High
2
m
Byam's Creek.
From water line to Top of para pet 75 ft . 73
Moat . Cen Jidth be
ween plateau line lot
10 To parapet 40 ft.
ds with natural slant of land
from!
E. TOV
550 ft. Inside hight To top of parapets vera e-12-10-14 ft. Or adDa
O'BYAM'S FORT-HICKMAN COUNTY After Thomas
[ 51 ]
Bottom Land .
Rolling Fork River.
Bottom Land.
N
Rock Wall
W. __ E.
Old Fort
Area of Fort & & Acres.
1 S.
Height of Fort surface
from bottom land over 300 feet. $ ... Nearest access to water. Located in La Rue county, Kentucky.
STONE FORTIFICATION-LARUE COUNTY
Green River
OldWall Looftlong.
Line of high bluff 750 ft.long_ overlooking Green River.
N
1
İ
20 ft. wide. Pass into Fort
7/04
$ This land is now Under cultivation
200ft.long.
40ft.
Pass into Fort 20ft.wide.
old Wall
FORTIFICATION-WARREN COUNTY
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Flowing Spring
Line of perpendicular Bluff soft high
Traces of cut into rockt 60 ft.below.
Steps
tosp
Contents of Area About 10 acres.
M
2
Line of Bluff 60 ft high.
Gate into Fort
8 ft.wide.
Stone wall about
600 ft. long.
Ancient Fort
Near West Fork of Dondelson Creek S.W. part of Caldwell Co. Ky.
FORTIFICATION-CALDWELL COUNTY
Bottom
High Point"
+2
Drainage Ditch
Drainage Ditch
Ravine 50 ft wide 15 ft. deep.
Indian Fortification Two miles east of Hickman Fulton Co Ky.
FORTIFICATION-HICKMAN COUNTY
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Bayou De Chien Bottom
N
-
E
S
0
Ser
Sort
-
Contour Lines
Line of Cliff Lines of Fort
Spring
Indian Fort Hill, near Berea, Ky.
_PORTSMOUTH WORKS. AT THE MOUTH OF THE SCIOTO RIVER.
- Onio Canal.
Hills.
Scioto River.
Lines.
nes
L
An
of Embankment.
OHIO.
OHIO
RIVER:
Lines.
a
angle
Hills.
Kentucky-
High Hills.
Tiger Creek.
1
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Portsmouth.
The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky
lines, an astonishing knowledge of the art of war. The late J. R. Proctor, of the Shaler Geological Corps, in writ- ing of the fortifications along Green River, quotes the opinion of an acknowledged master of the military art in regard to one of these remains. " General Buell," he says, " who has been a resident of the Green River country for several years past, expresses the opinion that the Mound Builders exhibited a fine knowledge of defen- sive warfare, both in the selection and in the manner of fortifying the hill [Indian Hill] at the mouth of Bear Creek." A fortification on a spur of bluffs near the Punck- ney Bend Road south of the mouth of Mayfield Creek, in Ballard County, shows that these people understood the principle of constructing bastion-like extensions in the parapets of their fortifications so as to be able to deliver a cross-fire on the attacking force.
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