USA > New York > The natural, statistical, and civil history of the state of New-York, v. 2 > Part 12
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The bare excavation was equal to six miles of ordinary canal excavation, allowing the canal to be thirty feet broad, and four feet deep. The wall made of the earth taken out of the ditch required more labor than three miles of canal. The em-
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bankments, then, had they been constructed by our people with ma- terials on the spot, would have required as much time and labor as nine miles of canal, of the width and depth above stated. But what was the labor in constructing the works of defence at Circleville, when compared with the labor of the other defensive works, mounds, watchtowers, &c. dispersed over the western states ? We might comparatively answer, no more than a drop of water in a bucket. The great tumulus at Kahokia alone contains upwards of four times the number of cubic yards that the works do at Circleville. The excavation alone, without taking into consideration the transporta- tion, and heaping, was at least equal to that of twenty-seven miles of canal. The works of defence at Licking are four in number, and contain over one hundred acres of land. The ramparts of one are nearly thirty feet high. These works, with their appendages, must have cost more than twice the labor that those did at Circle- 'ville.
ANTIQUITIES IN INDIANA.
In the state of Indiana are heaps of stones which contain human bones, charcoal, and ashes. The stones, in general, have been transported some distance. Considerable earth is interposed be- tween them ; this has, in a measure, preserved the bones from de- struction. Few of these heaps of stones have as yet been opened. Recently the stones were removed from one situated on a hill, in the town of Aurora, when, six stone coffins were discovered, side by side, in two rows. From the disposition of the stones composing the coffins, it appears that one body was interred in each. The coffins were made of flag stones, dressed and adjusted in such a manner that all the parts of each fitted, and constituted a close chest. In these chests, or coffins, the entire skeletons of six persons were found in pretty good preservation. The hill on which the heap of. stones containing the coffins is situated, overlooks the Ohio river, and bounds its valley. The bodies interred in the coffins were probably those of distinguished persons ; perhaps chiefs or priests. The heap of stones, with the earth interposed, was raised after the coffins containing the bodies were interred.
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The Toltecans, and Mexicans, made stone structures. The stones were dressed and adjusted, so that the concavity of the one suited the convexity of the other. The pyramid of Papantli is built of stones dressed in this manner.
Works of defence, mounds, &c. are of common occurrence in the state of Indiana. They are usually on good land. . In every respect they are analogous to those in Ohio, and the neighboring states. As our information is only general, we shall be unable to say any thing farther in respect of them.
ANTIQUITIES IN KENTUCKY.
There are works of defence in various parts of Kentucky, also mounds, &c. The first that we shall notice are the works of defence two or three miles above the mouth of Kentucky river, in the county of Gallatin. They are on an eminence about half a mile from the Ohio river, and occupy twenty-five acres of land. The wall con- sisted of stones brought from the neighboring hills.' Behind the wall there was a platform of earth, raised probably to near its height. Both are now in ruins. The former has fallen down ; the stones were not laid in mortar. The wall stood on the declivity of the eminence, and followed its windings all around. The hase, ex- cept in some places, rested on the earth. The platform, which was behind the wall, is from ten to fifteen feet broad. Where it became necessary to pass through rocks, marks of sledges, &c. are now to be seen.
Two slender ridges, the one stretching to the river alluvions, and the other to the hills in the vicinage, were the only practicable ave- nues by which it could be assailed. These ridges approach and leave it in opposite directions, and have less elevation than the emi- bence; they afforded egress and ingress to those in the fort. The defensive works seem to have been strongest where these ridges take their departure. The acclivity from the plain which surrounds the eminence to the wall is from thirty to forty degrees. The plain of the eminence, or the area within the wall, is nearly three hun- dred feet above the bed of the river. On each side of the two avenues leading from the works there are mounds of earth, that at- test that these points were fortified with the utmost care.
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At the time these works were erected, it is believed that the Ohio flowed at the foot of the ridge now ending at the alluvions, and that it afforded water to those in the works. The eminence commands a fine view of the river, and the adjacent parts. The tombs, or places where it is imagined the dead were interred, contain no remains.
It is the opinion of persons of veracity, that the stones lying around the platform would make a wall eighteen feet high, and twelve broad.
The Toltecans, Acolhuans, Tlascalans, and Mexicans, construc- ted walls of stone as well as of earth. Sometimes the stone walls were dry, and sometimes not .- See the History of Mexico, by M. Clavigero, and Robertson's History of America.
May not this have been a Toltecan, Acolhvan, or Mexican town? May not villages have adorned its environs?
The numbers of old fortifications and mounds found in Kentucky, have excited the admiration of travellers. They are large and small, and of various forms. The mummy, and the body of the pecari found in this state, are not amongst the least remarkable curiosities.
ANTIQUITIES IN TENNESSEE. 1
In the state of Tennessee there are many vestiges remaining of ancient dwellings, towns, and fortifications, with mounds, barrows, utensils, images, &c. wherever the soil is of prime quality, and con- venient to water. The growth of forest trees over these venerable remains, demonstrates that the country was evacuated more than five hundred years ago.
In the county of Bedford there is a stone fort; the wall is ten feet high, and from sixteen to twenty feet broad at the base, and from four to five at the top. Other works adjoin it. On the 7th of Au- gust, 1819, Col. A. Erwin caused a white oak tree which grew on the top of the wall to be cut down. The annular grains on being counted, amounted to three hundred and fifty-seven. This tree was then seventy-eight years old when De Soto landed in Florida, and thirty when Columbus first visited America .- See Haywood's Hist. of Tennessee, Vol. 2.
Defensive works are very common in Tennessee, but to describe
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more would, we fear, weary the reader's patience. We shall, how- ever, say something in relation to the mounds, mummies, &c.
A few miles south of the Muscle Shoals, in Tennessee river, there is a square mound which faces the cardinal points; it is one hundred feet in length, and as many in breadth at its base, and bas an elevation of sixteen feet. Its summit is flat. A ditch and ram- part once enclosed several acres around this mound. Within the enclosure there is also a small oval mound, and some graves.
Many other mounds are now seen near the Tennessee, in this section of the country, which have elevations of from fifteen to twenty-five feet. They are round, as well as square. The sum- mits of some are flat, and others round. Ditches surround some, and all have graves around then.
Near Nashville, and a few rods from the left bank of the Cum- berland river, there is an artificial elevation of twelve feet, with a level summit fifty feet broad. Mr. Haywood, the historian of Ten- nessee, caused a cut to be made through the centre, where he found some bones, ashes, and charcoal. Near this mound he informs that there are several graves from fifteen to thirty feet in diameter, and rounded on the top. The bodies, from the structure of these graves, seem to have been placed on the original surface, and then covered with earth. Bones are found in all these graves from six to eighteen inches below the surface of the earth. Stone casements are always seen where the graves are near quarries ; but, in other cases, only a hillock of earth. Upwards of one thousand stone casements might have formerly been seen around the latter mound before the ground was ploughed.
On the Ohio, mounds are found from twenty to sixty feet high. Near the Looshatchie there is one of regular form and large di- mensions, which contains so many fragments of bricks as to induce the supposition that it was faced with those materials.
The temple of Cholula, in Mexico, was built of alternate layers of brick and earth. Hereafter we shall have occasion to say more about this temple. We have barely noticed it here, to show the analogy between the Tennessean and Mexican temple. The flat- topped mounds, with regular sides in the Mississippi valley, it is conjectured, amounted to some hundreds.
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Mounds, and other works, are found in the states of Mississippi, and Georgia, but we shall barely notice them. One of the most extraordinary works in the former state, is a mound near Washing- ton, one hundred and forty-six feet high, made of earth. Those in the latter state are at the Oakmulge fields, and consist of mounds, defences, &c. &c.
A vessel was found on the forks of Cumberland river, in alluvial earth four feet below the surface. It was composed of fine clay of a light amber color, rendered hard by fire. Parts of it were painted with vermillion, which were very brilliant. The vessel con- tained about a quart, and was of the following figure : the top was a hollow stem of three inches in diameter, and swelling in size down- ward like a gourd shell. Against the bulge there was the accurate resemblance of three human heads, joined each one to the vessel by the back of the head, and each face outward in a triangular form, and all of the same dimensions. The workmanship of the faces was excellent, even a modern artist might be proud of the performance. Another of these vessels was found in a tumulus near Nashville, in the same state. It is formed of fine clay like the preceding. It exhibits three views of a man's head and body to the middle, with the arms cut off close to the body. It gives a side view of one of these heads, with strong and well formed features. It gives a front view of another of them, and a view of the back side of the head and shoulders of the third. Each head has upon it a fillet and cake, with the hair plaited.
Well made, burnt and ornamented vessels of clay have also been found in Kentucky.
See Haywood's History of Tennessee, Vol 2, from pages one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty-eight.
ANTIQUITIES IN ILLINOIS.
In a tract of alluvial land, extending along the Mississippi from the Kaskaskia river to the Kahokia river, a distance of eighty miles, with an average breadth of five miles, numerous vestiges of an an- cient and dense population are still to be seen. The tract is called the American bottom, and but little subject to inundation. The VOL. 11. 17
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vestiges consist of excavations, mounds, defences, earthen-ware, flints, &.c.
Among the mounds or tumuli, those most remarkable, are two groups; the one about ten miles above Kahokia, and the other ucarly the same distance below, which in all, exceed one hundred and fifty of various sizes. They are mostly of a circular form, and at a distance, resemble large stacks of hay, scattered through an extensive meadow. One of the largest of these tumuli, is about two hundred yards in circumference. Its form is nearly square. The summit is flat, with an area sufficient for several hundred men to stand on.
At the distance of three miles along the Kahokia, there is the largest assemblage of these tumuli. The principal one is a stupen- dous hill, or heap of earth. Its shape is that of a parallelogram, standing from north to south. On the south side, there is a broad apron or step, about midway between the base and summit; below this, there is another projection of about fifteen feet, which leads down to the plain on which the tumulus stands. The circumference of this tumulus, is nearly eight hundred yards at the base, and its perpendicular elevation about one hundred feet. This mound, as well as all the others in its vincinity, stands on alluvial ground. Several of these tumuli are almost conical, and at regular distances from each other. Flints and fragments of earthen-ware, are found strewed or scattered over the ground around them. Since the set- tlement of the country, astonishing quantities of human bones have been dug up. The whole face of the bluff or hill, which bounds the bottomn land, appears to have been one continued cemetery. These groups of mounds, probably occupy the sites of two cities. In the city of Mexico, there were a great number of mounds. Around the great temple alone, there was upwards of forty. Had Mexico been deserted some centuries, the only vestiges remaining to point out the site of the towns, would have been the walls, ditches, Inounds, and causeways.
Many of the excavations in the alluvial flat, exhibit the traces of deserted villages, towns, and cities. An eye witness avers, that were the city of Philadelphia and its suburbs, and the adjacent country, deserted for some centuries, there would not be more nu-
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merous traces, apart from stone edifices, of human existence. Sce views of Louisania by H. M. Breckenridge Esq.
On clearing out the saline below St. Genevieve some years ago, waggon loads of earthen-ware, (some fragments of which, bespoke vessels as large as a barrel, and proving beyond all question, that these salines had been worked before they were known to our people,) were found.
The base of the great mound at Kahokia, comprises an area at its base of about nine acres of ground, which is more than the great pyramid in Egypt covers. This mound in some respects, re- sembles that of Cholula in Mexico. Buildings of wood, it is highly probably, were erected on this mound, and the others found in our western country of large dimensions. The Abbe Clavigero, in his history of Mexico, has given a drawing of the great temple, which was in the city of Mexico at the time of the Spanish con- quest, and of two wooden buildings which were on its summit, to- gether with their size. The Mexicans called the tumuli teocalli, from the name of one of their gods. Teocalli means temple, or house of God. The tumuli of the United States, were designed for the same purposes that the Mexicans were.
Defensive works, mounds, &c. are common in various parts of the state of Missouri. In shape, materials, structure, and dimen- sions, they correspond with those in other parts of the western country, and were undoubtedly constructed by the same people, who constructed those we have treated of. The number of tu- muli or mounds, in the western country, it is confidently believed, exceeds four thousand. They alone demonstrate a population, in former times, no way inconsiderable-and a population settled down, and under the government of laws.
MUMMIES.
In the states of Tennessee and Kentucky, several human bodies , have been discovered in caves, by our people, in tolerable condi- tions of preservation. Those found, had before inhumation, been wrapped up in a kind of blanket, supposed to have been manufac- tured with the lint of nettles, afterwards with dressed skins, and then
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a mat nearly sixty yards in length. They were clad in a beautiful cloth, interwoven with feathers, such as was manufactured by the . Mexicans in 1521, at the period of the Spanish conquest. M :. Haywood, in the 2d volume of his history of Tennessee, gives the following description of two that were found, which we bes leave to insert. " In the year 1811, two human bodies were four d in a cave, in the county of Warren. The one was a male, and the other a female. They were entered in baskets made of care. They were both dislocated at the hip joints, and were placed erec: in the baskets. The flesh was entire. Around the female, Dex: to her body was placed a well dressed deer skin. Next to this was placed a rug, very curiously wrought, of the bark of a tree and feathers. The rug was woven into a cloth of a firm texture. The whole of the ligaments of the rug, thus framed of bark, was com- pletely covered by feathers, forming a body of the one eighth of an inch in thickness. The appearance was highly diversified, wits . green, blue, yellow, and black, presenting different shades of color. when reflected upon by light in different positions. The next cc- vering was an undressed deer skin, around which was rolled a plain shroud, manufactured after the same order as the one manufactured with feathers. The female had in her hand a fan, formed of the tail feathers of a turkey. The points fo these feathers were curi- ously bound by a buckskin string, well dressed, and were thu! closely bound for about an inch from the points. About three inches from the points, they were again bound by another deer ski string, in such a manner, that the fan might be closed or expanded. Her hair was yellowish, and of fine texture. The cave in which she and the male was found, abounded in nitre, alum, copperas, and salts. De Soto in 1539, and 1540, when he visited Florida, atd the interior, saw great numbers of these mantles." Pages 165. 164, and 165. In vol. 2, Mr. Haywood at p. 12, remarks: " That caves are very abundant on the sides of the mountains i= Tennessee. That many bones of the ancient inhabitants are found in them, and some skeletons in a state of preservation, in the nitrous dirt in them." Again at p. 72, he says ; " That in the big bore cave, a scoop-net made of bark thread, a moccasin, and a mat, en-
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reloping human bones, were found in saltpeter dirt, six feet below the ground."
The Mexicans, according to Clavigero, and others Spanish wri- ters, made feathered mantles, fans, &c.
A human body was found in the same state, in a similar cave, on the cane branch of Cumberland river. It was three feet below the surface, enveloped in copperas, common earth, and rock, and enclosed in a coffin or basket, made of canes, and shrouded in clothes and skins, similar to the preceding. The hair on the head was brown.
In 1814, a human body was discovered in a saltpetre cave, in the town of Glasgow, in the state of Kentucky, two hundred yards from the entrance, and nine feet below the surface. It was wrapped up in cloth, fabricated of a species of the lilly and papaw, and then with dressed deer skins, the hair being left on the skins. The body was in a sitting posture. The hair on the head was a dark brown, and rather of a fine texture. Most of the flesh was preserved, but it was dried and hardened, being charged with saltpetre, and the car- bonate of lime. This subject was presented to Mr. Scudder, by Mr. Bogard of New-York, and it is now to be seen in his museum. It was not an adult.
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These bodies when found, had been entered, perhaps, for cen- turies before the visiting of America by Columbus. They were of a different race from the modern Indians of the United States. Perhaps they belonged to the Toltecan, Acolhuan, or Aztec races, who in succession, arrived in Mexico, conquered, and peopled it. The Toltecans were banished from their country about the year 596, of our era, and arrived in Mexico or Anahuac, as it was called, before the Mexicans came there, about the year 700, having spent 104 years in their journeying. The Acolhuans and Aztecks came afterwards. The identity of the cloth in which the inhumed bodies were wrapped, with that made by the Mexicans in the sixteenth century, would seem to point out to us, that the original seats of some, or all of these people, were in the United States. But we shall pursue the subject farther, and introduce more evidence.
In one of the saltpetre caves in Kentucky, the body of the Pe- cari, or Mexican hog, has been found in a good state of preservation.
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The Pecari, it is well known, is not a native of Kentucky, or those states bordering the Mississippi. It cannot endure the winters in the regions adjoining that river, much less that of Kentucky. It is an indigene of Mexico, and had been domesticated by the Tolte- cans and Mexicans. The Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, Moheakanneews, Hurons, &c. had no domestic animal ex- cept the dog. They were not in the habit of carrying animals from one place to another for shows ; nor were they, unless it might have been the Natchez, the ancestors of the Creeks, in the habit of making excursions to Mexico. They had no collections of beasts and birds ; but the Mexicans had when visited by the Spaniards in the early part of the sixteenth century. It may be asked, how did the Pecari come to Kentucky? We answer, that it was brought there by some of the Toltecans, Acolhuans, or Mexicans, either for a show, or for the purpose of propagation. All these nations had and spoke one common language. The migrations to Anahuac, , or Mexico, as we shall presently show, were made at different, and at distant periods. The whole body of the nation did not emigrate at one, or two, or even three periods. An intercourse must then
· have subsisted between the different and separate members of this nation, similar, only it was by land which has subsisted between the people of Great Britain and Ireland, and the people of the United States since the colonization. Some of those who had emigrated must then have visited their native country, while others must have gone from home to Mexico, either to see the country or settle in it. Such an intercourse must have existed in the very nature of things. We see such an intercourse practised among us. How many of the New England emigrants have revisited their native land in order to see their near and dear relations and friends? And how many of our people, and this very people, have returned from Ohio, Indiana, Il- linois, &c. for the same purpose ? And can it be questioned but what the Toltecans and Acolhuans practised the same? We an- swer not. In all ages, and among all nations, a correspondence has been kept up for a longer or shorter time between the colonies and parent states. We speak only of nations that have sent out colonies. Tyre corresponded with Carthage ; the Jews, after the Babylonish captivity, corresponded with their countrymen who re-
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mained beyond the Euphrates ; the Greeks corresponded with their colonies in Italy, Sicily, Egypt, &c .; the Romans and the Germans corresponded with their colonies. All the European nations who have planted colonies in America have corresponded with them. In all the instances cited the correspondence was mutual.
TOLTECAN AND MEXICAN ANTIQUITIES.
The Toltecan and Mexican antiquities are more numerous and diversified than those in the United States, consequences of their more recent origin, greater progress in civilization, attainments in the arts, &c. They consist of fortifications, tumuli, tombs, aque- ducts, canals, dykes, roads, sculptures, vases, earthen pots, jars, looking-glasses, stone and copper axes, pikes pointed with copper, silver and gold vessels, and other utensils of use and ornament.
The Toltecan and Mexican towns and cities were surrounded with walls of earth or stone, and ditches; most commonly with the former, and other defensive works. These towns were entered by gates. The cities of Mexico, Cholula, Tlascala, &c. were all for- tified with walls and towers. The Tlascalans, at the time the Span- iards invaded their country, resided in fortified towns. That side of their country most exposed to the invasions of the Mexicans, was defended by a wall constructed of stone and earth, seven or eight miles in length ; it had gates and towers, and was defended by sol- diers. The Spaniards invested Mexico for seventy-five days before they took it. All the approaches were fortified, independent of the wall surrounding it. The great temple in the city of Mexico was enclosed with a stone wall, the stones of which were laid in lime mortar. The enclosure contained enough of ground for five hun- dred houses ; it was entered by gates which were opened and shut on suitable occasions. Battlements, turrets, and other defensive works were appended to the wall. But, as enough has been said on the subject of fortifications, we shall not detain the reader any longer with them ; merely refering him for farther information to the Abbe Clavigero, and some other Spanish authors of an earlier date.
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TUMULI.
These consisted of three kinds, round, semiglobular, and square. or pyramidal ; they were large and small. The former were com- posed of three, four or five square or oblong bodies, of which the higher was less in amplitude than the lower. They had no hollow or cavity, unless it might have been in some few instances, but were solid masses of earth.
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