Tropical nature, and other essaysWallace, Alfred Russel
History
Tropical nature, and other essays
Wallace, Alfred Russel
Ecology -- Tropics; Natural history -- Tropics; Tropics
The first class--the camps or fortified inclosures--resemble in
general features the ancient camps of our own islands, but far
surpass them in extent. Fort Hill, in Ohio, is surrounded by a
wall and ditch a mile and a half in length, part of the way cut
through solid rock. Artificial reservoirs for water were made
within it, while at one extremity, on a more elevated point, a keep
is constructed with its separate defences and water-reservoirs.
Another, called Clark’s Work, in the Scioto valley, which seems
to have been a fortified town, incloses an area of 127 acres, the
embankments measuring three miles in length, and containing not
less than three million cubic feet of earth. This area incloses
numerous sacrificial mounds and symmetrical earthworks, in which
many interesting relics and works of art have been found.
The second class--the sacred inclosures, may be compared for extent
and arrangement with Avebury or Carnak, but are in some respects
even more remarkable. One of these at Newark, Ohio, covers an area
of several miles, with its connected groups of circles, octagons,
squares, ellipses, and avenues on a grand scale, and formed by
embankments from twenty to thirty feet in height. Other similar
works occur in different parts of Ohio; and by accurate survey it
is found, not only that the circles are true, though some of them
are one-third of a mile in diameter, but that other figures are
truly square, each side being over 1,000 feet long; and, what is
still more important, the dimensions of some of these geometrical
figures in different parts of the country and seventy miles apart,
are identical. Now this proves the use, by the builders of these
works, of some standard measures of length; while the accuracy
of the squares, circles, and, in a less degree, of the octagonal
figures, shows a considerable knowledge of rudimentary geometry
and some means of measuring angles. The difficulty of drawing such
figures on a large scale is much greater than any one would imagine
who has not tried it; and the accuracy of these is far beyond what
is necessary to satisfy the eye. We must therefore impute to the
builders the wish to make these figures as accurate as possible;
and this wish is a greater proof of habitual skill and intellectual
advancement than even the ability to draw such figures. If, then,
we take into account this ability and this love of geometric truth,
and further consider the dense population and civil organisation
implied by the construction of such extensive systematic works, we
must allow that these ancient people had reached the earlier stages
of a civilisation of which no traces existed among the savage tribes
who alone occupied the country when first visited by Europeans.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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