Page:Anthropology.djvu/73

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72
MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY.

former times. The author excavated it in 1877, and found it a veritable mound containing fragments of human bones and of charcoal. Being encased with large sandstones, and composed of stone and earth, it is very difficult to excavate. As there has been a central depression for a great many years, what remains the mound V contained of a perishable character have probably been destroyed by the collecting of water. This site also commands a fine view of the Black Fork Valley.

S.—The settlers of 1808-'09-'10 found here a village of Delawares, the remnant of a Turtle" tribe. Their chief was a white man, taken in infancy—Capt. Silas Armstrong. They removed to Piqua, Miami County, Ohio, in 1812, the site of the old burying-ground, now almost entirely obliterated by cultivation. It is located a few rods north of the Black Fork, upon a gentle eminence, in the southwest part of northeast quarter-section 18, Green Township. The southern portion of the site is still in woods, and the depressions that mark the graves are quite distinct. Henry Harkell and the author exhumed several of the skeletons in the summer of 1876. In some cases the remains were inclosed in a stone cist; in others small, rounded drift-bowlders were placed in order around the skeletons. The long bones were mostly well preserved. No perfect skull was obtained, nor were there any stone implements found in the graves. At the foot of one a clam shell was found. The graves are from 2½ to 3 feet deep, and the remains repose horizontally. A few relics, such as stone axes, arrow-heads, and a few bits of copper, have been picked up in the immediate vicinity. They are in the hands of the author. On the opposite side of the stream and some distance below, near the south line of southeast quarter section 18, Green Township, there are ancient fireplaces. They are about 15 inches below the present surface, and are formed of bowlders regularly laid. The earth is burned red. Great numbers of stones have fallen into the streams during its incursions upon the west bank. Some three or four of these fireplaces are yet plainly visible, but in a few years they will be swept away by the current. About half a mile east of the graves marked S is a small circular earthwork almost razed. It contained about 1½ acres, and had a gateway looking to the river, which is westward. It is situated upon the nearly level bottom land of the beautiful valley.

T.—Upon the high ridge separating the valleys of Black Fork and Honey Creek is a depression filled with large and small bowlders. J. Freshwater and the author removed them to some depth, but as the stones were heavy we desisted from further investigation. This point would command a view of the valley of the Black Fork, overlooking, as it does, the old village of Greentown; and by walking a few rods eastward on the same eminence a view of the valley of Honey Creek might be had. Most of the trees on this height are less than 100 years old. It may have been timberless during the occupation of this work. The excavation appears to have been about 15 feet in diameter.