Subject: More About Who Made The Mounds.                 May 18, 2002.

  I will now put down the rest of the material about the Mounds found
in the USA.  The original two postings were on Mar. 19, and 20th of
2002.

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  Cave burials occur in this district in the following counties: In
Grayson, Hart, Edmonson, Barren, Warren, and Fayette counties;
Kentucky; Smith, White, Warren, Giles, Marion, and Fentress counties,
Tennessee, and Bartow county, Georgia. These localities lie mostly
in a belt extending in a north and south direction through the
center of the district. In most of these caves, both in Kentucky and
Tennessee, the bodies appear to have been laid on the floor of the
cave, sometimes in beds of ashes, sometimes on a pavement of flat
stones. There are, however, some instances in which the bodies have
been found incased in stone slabs, and afterwards imbedded in clay
or ashes. In Smith and Warren counties, Tennessee, and in Warren
and Fayette counties, Kentucky, the flesh of the bodies was
preserved and the hair was yellow and of fine texture. In some cases
the bodies were enveloped in several thicknesses of coarse cloth
with an outer wrapping of deer skin. Some of the bodies were wrapped
in a kind of cloth made of bark fiber, into which feathers were
woven in such a manner as to form a smooth surface. In two cases the
bodies, placed in a sitting or squatting posture, were incased in
baskets. In one of the caves in Smith county the body of a female is
said to have been found, having about the waist a silver girdle,
with marks resembling letters. 12th Annual Report of the Bureau of
Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1890-1891
(published in 1894) (explorations in the Tennessee District). 
  Armed with a self-created doctrine powered by ample funding, and
with a little help later from the one-way door to the Smithsonian's
inaccessible catacombs, the years that followed saw Powell and his
underling nearly succeed in the obliteration of the last notions of
the legendary, mysterious, and antique class of mound building
people, and for that matter, any people that didn't fit into the
mold of his theory. Did Powell intentionally overlook some of the
archaeology so as to focus on his own special agenda? 
  Powell and his associates at the Bureau were quite certain that
people had arrived in the Americas only sometime after the first
Egyptian dynasty - less than 4500 years ago! They also believed that
the Mississippi Valley was sufficiently isolated from the Ohio
Valley to warrant the simultaneous flourishing of quite distinct
cultures over a long period. Since carbon dating was not yet
discovered, Thomas used stratigraphic (after Lyell) analysis and,
following the rest of the mandate, included detailed record keeping
and documentation whenever appropriate. His findings were broadly
accepted, and are still referenced. 
  Underneath the layer of shells the earth was very dark and
appeared to be mixed with vegetable mold to the depth of 1 foot. At
the bottom of this, resting on the original surface of the ground,
was a very large skeleton lying horizontally at full length.
Although very soft, the bones were sufficiently distinct to allow
of careful measurement before attempting to remove them.
  The length from the base of the skull to the bones of the toes was
found to be 7 feet 3 inches. It is probable, therefore, that this
individual when living was fully 7+ feet high. At the head lay some
small pieces of mica and a green substance, probably the oxide of
copper, though no ornament or article of copper was discovered. 12th
Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the
Smithsonian Institution 1890-1891 (published in 1894) (explorations
in Roane County, Tennessee). 
  But Thomas' time was limited because of the large territory he
was to explore.
  Under such working conditions, anomalies were put aside for future
research - to be, as it has turned out, forgotten. Thomas was
forced to rely on the accounts of operatives in many cases.
Evidently, some of these people discerned between "Indian" burials
and the burials of the Mound Builders, perhaps challenging the
patience of Powell. 
  No. 5, the largest of the group was carefully examined. Two feet
below the surface, near the apex, was a skeleton, doubtless an
intrusive Indian burial...
  Near the original surface, 10 or 12 feet from the center, on the
lower side, near the original surface, 10 or 12 feet from the center,
on the lower side, lying at full length on its back, was one of the
largest skeletons discovered by the Bureau agents, the length as
proved by actual measurement being between 7 and 8 feet. It was
clearly traceable, but crumbled to pieces immediately after removal
from the hard earth in which it was encased.... 12th Annual Report
of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian
Institution 1890-1891 (published in 1894) (mounds at Dunleith,
Illinois) Mound Group, Dunleith, Illinois. "Near the original
surface, 10 or 12 feet from the center, on the lower side, lying at
full length on its back, was one of the largest skeletons
discovered by the Bureau agents, the length as proved by actual
measurement being between 7 and 8 feet." 
  Regarding the problem of "intrusive" Indian burials, what kind
of a time gap were these men looking at between the original
burials and the later ones? As his agents uncovered the physical
evidence for powerful men of towering stature, Thomas held the
position that any and all skeletal remains represented the direct
ancestry of the present day people. Was it not plausible to
consider an extended "family" or hierarchical group of very tall
folk who served with the people? Were they selective enough in
their s-xual associations to appear, overall, as a r-ce with its
own peculiarities and even physical characteristics? The findings
that didn't fit in to the guideline established by his superior
were summarily recorded and forgotten by Thomas' legacy we have
inherited today. 
  An old Indian mound has been opened on the farm of Harrison
Robinson, four miles East of Jackson, Ohio, and two skeletons of
extraordinary size and a great quantity of trinkets have been
removed. Some years ago a party of relic hunters, supposed to have
been sent out in the interest of the Archeological society visited
the Robinson farm, and after a few days search removed a great
collection of stone hatchets, beads and bracelets, which were packed
and shipped to an Eastern institute, and until this recent
accidental discovery it was supposed that everything had been
removed by the relic hunters. It is thought by many that more relics
are to be found and preparations are being made for a through
investigation. The Adair County News January 5, 1897 (Kentucky).
  What has become of all the evidence? Again and again, only a single
long skeleton or two was found among those of normal size. The
understanding of tall, ruling chiefs and their wives was not
developed at all, as is evident in these examples. 
  The other, situated on the point of a commanding bluff, was also
conical in form, 50 feet in diameter and about 8 feet high. The
outer layer consisted in sandy soil, 2 feet thick, filled with
slightly decayed skeletons, probably Indians of intrusive burials.
The earth of the main portion of this mound was a very fine
yellowish sand which shoveled like ashes and was everywhere, to a
depth of 2 to 4 feet, as full of human skeletons as could be
stowed away in it, even to two and three tiers. Among these were a
number of bones not together as skeletons, but mingled in confusion
and probably from scaffolds or other localities. Excepting one,
which was rather more than 7 feet long, these skeletons appeared to
be of medium size and many of them much decayed... 12th Annual
Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian
Institution 1890-1891 (published in 1894) (Pike County, Illinois) 
  No. 11 is now 35 by 40 feet at the base and 4 feet high. In the
center, 3 feet below the surface, was a vault 8 feet long and 3 feet
wide. In the bottom of this, among the decayed fragments of bark
wrappings, lay a skeleton fully seven feet long, extended at full
length on the back, head west. Lying in a circle above the hips were
fifty-two perforated shell disks about an inch in diameter and
one-eighth of an inch thick. 12th Annual Report of the Bureau of
Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1890-1891
(published in 1894) (Kanawha County, West Virginia) 
  Spring Hill Inclosure, Kanawha County, West Virginia. In the bottom
of Mound 11 (upper left) was found a skeleton "fully seven feet
long." 
  Spring Hill Inclosure, Kanawha County, West Virginia. In the bottom
of Mound 11 largest in the collective series of mounds, the Great
Smith Mound yielded at least two large skeletons, but at different
levels of its deconstruction by Thomas' agents. It was 35 feet in
height and 175 feet in diameter, and was constructed in at least
two stages, according to the report. The larger of the two skeletons
represented a man conceivably approaching eight feet in height when
living. 
  At a depth of 14 feet, a rather large human skeleton was found,
which was in a partially upright position with the back against a
hard clay wall...All the bones were badly decayed, except those of
the left wrist, which had been preserved by two heavy copper
bracelets... Nineteen feet from the top the bottom of this debris
was reached, where, in the remains of a bark coffin, a skeleton
measuring 7= feet in length and 19 inches across the shoulders,
was discovered. It lay on the bottom of the vault stretched
horizontally on the back, head east, arms by the sides... Each
wrist was encircled by six heavy copper bracelets...Upon the breast
was a copper gorget...length, 3= inches; greatest width 3> inches
... 12th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary
of the Smithsonian Institution 1890-1891 (published in 1894)
(Kanawha County, West Virginia) 

Part 1.

John Winston.    johnfwin@mlode.com



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