FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   >>  
the valleys, where numerous works are found. No doubt, this was a signal mound, where the appointed watchman, like the watchman of Scripture, could give the alarm of the coming foe, enabling the industrious people to reach the fortress in safety. On a hill 600 feet high, near Chillicothe, Ohio, there is a mound, which in the days of the Mound-builders must have been a signal mound. A light on this can be seen for twenty miles either up or down the valley. The great mound at Miamisburg, Ohio, which is 68 feet high and 852 feet in circumference at its base, served, no doubt, this important department of warfare, as a fire kindled on it could flash light into Butler county, near Elk Creek, where it would again be taken up by the watchman there, and light flashed in the direction of Xenia, and from one signal mound to another until it would reach the great works at Newark. Thus in the course of an hour the whole southern portion of the State of Ohio could be warned of danger and prepare for combat or shelter. Such a system has been used by all nations, both civilized and savage. We need not wonder that the Mound-builders with such sagacity and forethought, should establish such a system of alarm by which the inhabitants could be apprised of invasion. _Indefinite Mounds_.--Of this class there are many. Thousands of such indefinite mounds and squares and circles are to be seen scattered over the various States of the Union. Their structure, composition and contents, give us no clue by which they may be assigned a place. It is believed that many of the strange works that abound in Butler county, Ohio, and which cannot be classified, are among the incomplete works, that is, works left unfinished by the builders. IMPLEMENTS.--The people of Ohio have appropriated the implements of the Mound-builders to a large extent. Almost every homestead in Ohio is ornamented with some of those ancient implements and relics, yet tons have been taken away to grace private and public museums in all parts of this country, and even the museums of Europe and Asia. Among the implements are to be found spear heads, arrow heads; rimmers, knives, axes, hatchets, hammers, chisels, pestles, mortars, pottery, pipes, sculpture, gorgets, tubes, and articles of bone and clothing. Fragments of coarse, but uniformly spun and woven cloth have been found, of course not in preservation, but charred and in folds. One piece, near Middletown, Ohio, was
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   >>  



Top keywords:

builders

 

implements

 

watchman

 

signal

 

museums

 

Butler

 

county

 

people

 

system

 

ornamented


incomplete

 

homestead

 

classified

 

extent

 

Almost

 

unfinished

 

IMPLEMENTS

 

appropriated

 
structure
 

composition


States

 
squares
 

circles

 

scattered

 

contents

 

believed

 

strange

 

abound

 

assigned

 
knives

articles
 

clothing

 

Fragments

 

gorgets

 
mortars
 
pottery
 
sculpture
 

coarse

 
uniformly
 

Middletown


charred

 

preservation

 

pestles

 

chisels

 

private

 

public

 

country

 

ancient

 

relics

 

Europe