The Prehistoric World; Or, Vanished RacesAllen, Emory Adams
History
The Prehistoric World; Or, Vanished Races
Allen, Emory Adams
Archaeology; Indians; Prehistoric peoples
Square and Circle Embankment. The more usual combination was that
of a square and a circle. An example is given in this cut, which
is a plan on a very small scale, of works which formerly existed
in Circleville. One peculiar feature about this work was that a
double wall formed the circle, with a ditch between the two
walls. In the next cut we notice a peculiar combination of these
two figures. The square is inclosed within the circle. Whatever
we may ultimately decide as to the larger works, it would seem as
if this could only be explained as in the nature of a religious
work. We can see no reason for constructing a defensive work, or
inclosing a village, or erecting foundations for houses of such a
shape as this. They must have been in some way connected with the
superstitions of the people.
Square inscribed in a Circle.
Circle and Ditch. A peculiar feature is also noticed in reference
to some of the smaller circles in this section. The cut at left
illustrates it. The circle has a ditch interior to the
embankment, and also a broad embankment of about the same height
with the outer wall, interior to the ditch, running about
half-way around the circle. A short distance from the circle was
one of those elevated squares, one hundred and twenty feet square
at the base, and nine feet high.66 It may be that this square was
the foundation on which stood a temple, in which case the circle
might have been dedicated to religious purposes also.
The great geometrical inclosures are especially numerous in the
Scioto Valley. All the works we have described were in the near
neighborhood of Chillicothe, and works as important as these are
scattered all up and down the valley. We must also recall how
well provided this valley was with signal mounds. All indications
point to the fact that here was the location of a numerous
people, ready to defend their homes whenever the warning fires
were lit. Although Mound Builders’ works are numerous in the
valley of the two Miami Rivers, Cincinnati being the site of an
extensive settlement, yet they were not such massive structures
as those in the Scioto. This would seem to indicate that these
valleys were the seats of separate tribes.67 But this Eastern
tribe must have occupied an extensive territory, since works of
the most complicated kind are found at Newark.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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