Several striking coincidences between the details of these works and
others of the same class are worthy of notice. The diameter of the
circle, the perfect form of which has been noted, is nearly identical
with two others forming parts of remarkable groups in the Scioto valley,
one of them seventy miles distant. The square has also the same area as
a rectangular enclosure belonging to the “Hopeton Works,” where it is
attached to a circle 1050 feet in diameter, and to an avenue constructed
between two parallel embankments 2400 feet long, leading to the edge of
a bank immediately over the river-flat of the Scioto. A like coincidence
in the precise extent of the area enclosed has been noticed in the
octagon of a group, called the High Bank Works, on the same
river-terrace; and in another, at the junction of the Muskingum and Ohio
rivers. The authors of the elaborate surveys embodied in the Smithsonian
Contributions to Knowledge, remark generally that the figures of the
Scioto valley earthworks are not only accurate squares and perfect
circles, but are in most cases of corresponding dimensions; each square
being 1080 feet a side, and the diameter of each of the larger and
smaller circles a fraction over 1700 and 800 feet. This they observe is
“a coincidence which could not possibly be accidental, and which must
possess some significance. It certainly establishes the existence of
some standard of measurement among the ancient people, if not the
possession of some means of determining angles.”[84] It is no less
important to note that it establishes the use of instruments. A standard
of measurement could not otherwise exist, still less be applied, on so
large a scale in geometrical construction; and the very simplest
instruments that we can conceive of, constitute no less certain evidence
of a condition of intellectual development attained by this ancient
people very different from anything achieved by the most advanced Indian
tribes. Varied, moreover, as the combinations of their singular groups
of earthworks are, traces are clearly discernible that certain
well-defined plans of construction, and a proportionate scale of parts,
guided their builders. Justly estimating the importance of such
coincidences, and the still greater value of the evidence of the
construction of geometric figures on so large a scale, the authors of
the surveys have detailed their method of procedure, in order “to put at
once all scepticism at rest, which might otherwise arise as to the
regularity of these works.” This important point rests accordingly on
the most satisfactory evidence;[85] nor are even the imperfections
observed in the construction of some of the rectangular figures without
their significance, as a test of the extent to which geometry had been
mastered by the ancient builders.
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