The masterpieces of the Ohio mound builders; the hilltop fortifications, including Fort Ancient

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916 Excerpt: ...by Cortez and other early Spanish writers. This form of gateway, with variations, is found in other works of the Mississippi and Ohio valley Mound Builders and leads to the inference that there was some ethnical relationship between the Ohio Mound Builders and the ancient Aztecs and Toltecs. Interior to the northern wall Interior of Fort, Butler County, Three Miles South of Hamilton, Author Standing in Remains of One of the Dug-holes." there is still evidence of a ditch, while at various points within the enclosure there were "dug-holes," from which it appeared a portion of the material was obtained for the walls. Some of these pits are yet clearly definable, indeed still "hold water," being doubtless originally used as reservoirs. Three or four hundred feet north of the fort on the level isthmus are the remains of a conical mound, thirty feet in diameter and now some ten feet high, surmounted by several trees of venerable and stately growth. It is recorded that years ago, the mound was partially excavated, the only result being the discovery of a quantity of stone which had been subjected to the action of fire. As our party approached the mound we were greeted by a couple of bareheaded, barefooted country boys who with youthful curiosity and energy had dug into the base of the tumulus and exhumed a skeleton, the bones of which lay heaped before the uncovered grave. The skull upon exposure had parted into fragments, the teeth falling into the cranium cavity. It was a comico-serio incident, the grewsomeness of it being no little enhanced by the moisture-sodden atmosphere that hung like a clammy cloak about us beneath the heavy threatening sunless clouds. The settings of the scene were cheerless, but the boys gleefully poked with thei...