Butler County, Ohio - Chapter 54: Advancement in the Sciences, 1879

Chapter 54: Advancement in the Sciences

Intelligence - Geometrical Knowledge - Comparison of Earthworks - Works at Portsmouth - Standard of Measurement - How Formed - Works at AlexandersviUe - Butler County - Piketon Graded Way - Bridging - Macadamized Roads - Art of Brick- Making - Making Stone Implements - Art of Mining - Position of the Mound Builders.

We can only judge of the condition and civilization of a lost race by the remains which they have left. Nor is it to be supposed that these will give perfect representations, for many things, especially in the fine arts, must necessarily sooner or later perish. The coarser works, made of durable material, the stupendous monuments, are not easily effaced, even by the wearing influence of time.

The intelligence of the Mound Builders has been variously rated. That they were superior to their Indian successors, perhaps no one would dispute. That they were a settled people, every evidence clearly shows. A wandering people, or a people who lived simply by the chase, never could have erected these structures, even in the condition in which they are now found. Their erection would have required an acquaintance with the mechanic arts by a permanently settled people. Nor is it just to rank them much below the ancient people of Mexico and Central America. To the Mound l^uilders we assign a much greater antiquity, and long ages ela])sed from the time of the desertion of these mounds until their discovery and investigation by tlie Europeans. Hence they were not found in the same condition in which they were when left by their makers.

Advanceme5It In The Sciences

If the earthworks of Central America had been exposed to the action of the elements as long as the mounds of the Ohio, we probably would see but little difference in their general appearance. But for the present we must content ourselves to judge simply by such evidences as are afforded in the general features of these remains.

The tumuli above named aiford us no conception of the advajicement of the people. Ancient barrows are found in Europe belonging to savage races, and in order to understand them properly we must not only judge by their contents, but other things must be taken into consideration. AYe judge the Mound Builders not so much by the mounds, but by the enclosures. The domestic implements also enter largely into forming a proper estimate of their makers.

Geometrical Kiioroledge. - No one can look over the plans of the Sacred Enclosures without particularly noticing their great regularity of form. By comparing them together he will notice that in many instances the dimensions of some at different points are the same. They cannot be merely striking coincidences, for they must have been made with the view that the one should represent the area of the other. The " Hopeton Work," in Ross County, Ohio, has the square, circle and parallel lines in combination. Both the square and the circle contain an area of twenty acres each, and the parallel lines twenty-four hundred feet in length. At IN'ewark the first circle mentioned in the description (page 32), has an area of twenty acres, as also has the square. The circle of the " High Bank Works " (see page 36) also contains an area of twenty acres. The octagon and circle of these works very much resemble the octagon and circle, in combination, at Newark. It would appear that the '^ Hopeton " and '' High Bank Works '^ were either modeled after those at Newark, or else the last was a combination of the other two. There is certainly a wonderful similarity, however it may be regarded. Other combinations might be noticed, where different squares have the same dimensions accompanied by one

At Portsmouth, Ohio, is a complicated series of works containing tliree groups, and extending for eight miles along the Ohio Kiver, and connected by parallel lines of embankment. Two of these groups are on the Kentucky side of the river; the remaining one, together with the greater portion of the connecting embankment, is on the Ohio side. Almost opposite Portsmouth is a square whose sides are each eight hundred feet. This square has two outworks consisting of parallel walls leading to the northeast and southwest, or parallel with the course of the river. They are exactly parallel to the sides of the main work, and are each twenty-one hundred feet long. The other works, on the Kentucky side, consist of four concentric circles, and cut at right angles by four broad avenues. In the center is a large truncated mound. It is terraced and has a graded way leading to the summit. From this work is an avenue leading to the Ohio River one and one-half mile distant. The avenue begins again immediately opposite on the Ohio side. These parallel walls, equal outworks, and concentric rings, denote an accurate knowledge of measurement, and prove that the plan must have been made before the work was undertaken, or else enlarged after the work w^as begun.

It is not to be presumed that they had the improved instruments of the present, but used rude methods, and with such skill as to accomplish the same ends as the the modern does with the use of the transit and the gunter's chain. That their work was marked out before commencing the same we have every reason for believing. Of the three, or rather four, sacred enclosures at Alexandersville, not one is complete. These incomplete remains prove that all of these works were commenced at the same time, all abandoned before being finished, and all show what method was pursued in their construction. To appreciate the last remark, we must not rely on the plan of these works as given in the

In company with two gentlemen, I traversed almost the entire line of embankments. The three mounds of the smaller circle, on the west of the Miami canal, which are figured as being on a nearly straight line, we found not to be mounds at all, but intended to form component parts of the intended circle, and were not placed in a straight line to the circle, but located on the line of the curve. The fact here brought to light is that the whole line was established before the work was begun, and work was performed on different parts of the line at the same time. This fiict is also true of the square a short distance removed from the circle.

A work in Butler County, which will be described in its proper place, also confirms the fact that the works were outlined before the work was begun. In that way w-e have four mounds of the circle at regular distances apart and connecting at their base thus giving the workmen the line of the curve. This shows a high degree of proficiency and one that approaches the modern idea of planning before constructing. It is, however, to be supposed that many of the works are growths, enlarged as the necessity of the case demanded.

Undoubtedly the graded way at Piketon is only a part of an ancient work originally designed to be a great and complicated structure. Here we have the cluster of mounds not yet enclosed by the circle. One arm of the graded way is extended to these mounds, thereby forming a communication between them. The other arm of the way was never completed. Three sides of the rectangle were finished, and then left in order to first form the diverging line which is two hundred and forty feet in length. Then the main line diverges four hundred and twenty feet; and if the other had been extended still farther the two lines would have come together. The probability, however, is, that this was not designed, but the intention Avas to throw a circular line around the mounds, beginning at the end of the minor line. There is another peculiarity here; the walls of the graded way are each ten hundred and eighty feet in length, and in the works in Liberty Township, Ross County, each side of the square is the same distance. Extensive plans a-re certainly indicated, and that the square and circle should accompany them may be inferred from the Newark Works. It is not to be presumed that the last named were completed, for it may be noticed that two of the avenues (enclosed by ])arallel walls) end abruptly, as though left in an unfinished condition. These walls and those at Piketon were carried out with some definite purpose in view. It is probable that then as now the ground was first staked off, and these stakes were placed by the engineer a,nd under his direction the work was carried on.

It appears that in certain localities the works were completed as they proceeded - that is, w^orking upon one line until it was finished before beginning on another - while on others they worked on all the parts at the same time.

Bridging. - Men that were thus skilled in geometrical knowledge might have gone farther and understood the art of bridging. The parallel lines at Portsmouth indicate an intimate relation between the Avorks on the Ohio and Kentucky sides, and where the main line is broken by the Ohio River there must have been some method of crossing. But the width of the river, and the inferiority of the tools then possessed would pi'cclude the idea of a bridge. There must have been a ferry, the boats of which must have been flistened to either shore by means of ropes. It should bo noted that the parallel walls are not carried down to the water. This defect may have been remedied by two lines of fences formed of palisades connecting the walls with the water.

It is more than probable that the graded way at the fort on Big Twin was continued over the stream by means of a wooden structure. Still there is a possibility or even a ])robability of this way haviug been made to protect their gardens at the foot of the bluff, although

We read of buried macadamized roads having been discovered in West Virginia, cut by streams, which would indicate some particular mode of crossing a stream.

Art of Mahing Brich. - It has already been stated that brick was used in the mound at Seltzertown. Some of the earthworks made of clay - with none of that material in that vicinity - would prove that this clay had been moulded into brick. A people who could erect such stupendous structures, and understood the art of moulding as well as they did, Avould not hesitate to perform any undertaking within their power. They had the perseverance and the will. It is more than probable that all their enclosureSj and many of their mounds were faced with brick. It is true that mapy of the works are composed of surface material, and there no clay has been observed. A wall faced with brick fdled in with surface material, after a great lapse of time, would hardly show the traces of clay. Walls, thus regularly laid up, would present a more pleasing apjDearance to their sacred enclosures, while to their forts it would add strength by preventing the enemy from scaling the walls.

Process of Maim f act ar big. - The copper implements found in Ohio have been hammered out cold. There is evidence that either the Mound Builders, or else a contemporaneous race understood the art of smelting copper. Daggers, knives, chisels, spear-heads, and awls have been found in Wisconsin upon which the markings of the mould are clearly defined.

While the stone axes required much labor in their finish, yet the Mound Builders in completing them were governed by the shape of the stone. They first found a stone somewhat in the shape of the axe they desired to make, and then by a process of grinding, whetting, or rubbing it was finally brought to the desired form. I have seen quite a number of axes formed by water, and never retouched by man. I possess a piece of limestone six inches long by three and three-fourths in breadth at the widest part, shaped in every particular like a spade, including the grooves for fastening the shaft; and yet it was entirely formed by the action of water. Advantage was taken of what nature aiforded, and what was naturally a long and slow process Avas thus diminished. Axes are frequently found ranging in incompleteness from the stone in the rough to the finished jDroduction.

The flint instruments are not made by blows, but by pressure. By striking the flint it will be broken irregularly, but by strong pressure the flakes are easily disengaged.

Art of llining. - A rude and savage people would not have made long journeys and toiled in the mines for the more precious minerals, but would have contented themselves with implements made from such stones as could be picked up in surrounding localities. When we consider the extreme extent of country traced to obtain mica and copper, added to the earthworks of Ohio, and other States, and when we remember how extensively these mining operations Avere carried on, the Mound Builders must appear to us to have been a great and mighty nation. They must have been strong, industrious, and far superior to the aborigines who inhabited the land when it was discovered by the European. It jiresents the fact that they could discover and utilize what the Indian failed to observe, although he passed over the same land. When the French first came among the Indians of Lake Superior, the latter possessed neither co])per kettles nor axes, but only rudely-fashioned copper knives made from water-worn lumps which had been deposited by the glaciers along with the sand, gravel and other loose material.

An industrious })eople, well settled and extensively engaged in mining operations and various other mechanical pursuits, must have been well skilled, and far from a state of barbarism. Hence, from the foregoing enumeration, in Avhich is imperfectly repre- sented the great skill displayed, it is evident that the Mound Builders were somewhat advanced in the arts and sciences, and occupied no mean position in life. For their time and surroundings they had made great strides towards a permanent civilization, and must be ranked as one of the great people of ancient times.