CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
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Cornell University Library 
 E 74.03C59 
 
 Pre-historic remains which were found on 
 
 3 1924 028 714 776 
 
Cornell University 
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 the Cornell University Library. 
 
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 http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924028714776 
 
THE CIl^TCIIsTNATI TABLET. 
 
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THE 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC REMAINS 
 
 WHICH WERE FOUND 
 
 On the Site of the City of Cincinnati, Ohio 
 
 VINDICATION 
 
 "CINCINNATI TABLET" 
 
 By ROBERT CLARKE 
 
 CINCINNATI 
 1876 
 
CPre-hisioric (Remains at Cincinnati. 
 
 face of the earth, with the head toward the setting sun, and at the 
 southwest side of, or about fifteen feet from, an extensive mound of 
 earth, raised probably for the purpose of a burial-ground, upon 
 the margin of the second bank of the Ohio river (suddenly rising 
 fifty feet above the first), and now elevated, in the extreme, eight 
 feet from the general level of the same, with a gradual slope in the 
 various directions, and a base of about one hundred and twenty 
 feet by sixty. One of the main streets of the town passes through 
 the western part of this grave, and in the frequent repairs of 
 the acclivity, human bones have often been found. ... I 
 should not omit to mention to you, that upon this mound are 
 stumps of oak trees seven feet in diameter." 
 
 This mound was, however, merely an appendage to 
 the general works on the upper plain, mentioned by 
 Colonel Sargent, but not described. The first descrip- 
 tion of them is given by Dr. Daniel Drake in his Picture 
 of Cincinnati, published in 1815. This I will use 
 freely in endeavoring to give an idea of the character of 
 the works. 
 
 Cincinnati is built on two levels or benches of an 
 alluvial plain, surrounded on the east, north, and west by 
 hills of the lower silurian limestone — on the south is 
 the Ohio river. On the lower level, or " bottom," no 
 works of the mound-builders existed. Of this, how- 
 ever, we have only negative evidence ; if any works 
 existed on it, they may have gradually been obliterated 
 by the overflow of the Ohio river, to which th^ bottom 
 is subject. The "hill," as it was called in early days, 
 rose from fifty to seventy feet above the bottom, and in 
 its natural state was quite abrupt, but is now, of course, 
 graded down to suit the exigencies of a city. It com- 
 menced near Deer Creek, in the eastern part of the city, 
 about two hundred feet distant from the Ohio. Thence 
 
<Pre-historic (Remains at Cincinnati. 5 
 
 westward, following about the course of Congress and 
 Third streets, it receded from the river till the bottom 
 attained a width of from eight hundred to twelve hun- 
 dred feet, when it gradually merged into Mill Creek 
 bottom on the west, facing which the bank became 
 more irregular and more gradual in its slope. 
 
 The central work, a large, broad ellipse, was located 
 about three hundred and fifty feet from this bank, and 
 extended from the west side of Race street nearly to 
 Walnut, and from a little above Fifth street to a little 
 below Fourth street. It was about eight hundred feet 
 from east to west, and six hundred and sixty feet from 
 north to south. It consisted of an embankment three 
 feet high, with a base of thirty feet, and was composed 
 of loam, evidently taken from the neighborhood. There 
 was no ditch on either side, and, within the wall, the 
 ground had its natural uneven or waving surface, with 
 nothing to indicate manual labor expended in leveling 
 or grading. On the east end, there was an opening or 
 gateway of about ninety feet, and on each side of this, ex- 
 terior and contiguous to the embankment, was a broad 
 elevation or parapet of an indeterminate figure. From 
 the southern one, a low embankment one foot high with 
 a base of nine feet extended southward to within a short 
 distance from the top of the bank, which it then fol- 
 lowed eastward until it connected with the mound, men- 
 tioned by Colonel Sargent, on the corner of Third and 
 Main streets, over five hundred feet distant. 
 
 From the parapet on the opposite side of the gate- 
 way, no bank of this kind could be traced ; but imme- 
 diately north of it, at a short distance, were two shapeless 
 and insjilated elevations more than six feet high. 
 
6 (Pre-hisioric (Remains at Cincinnati. 
 
 About four hundred yards east of this central work, 
 between Sycamore and Broadway, was another embank- 
 ment, apparently the segment of a large circle, of the 
 same dimensions as the last mentioned, one foot high, 
 with a base of nine feet. It could be traced from Sixth 
 street to near the edge of the hill above Third street. Dr. 
 Drake says : 
 
 " From near the southern end of this segment to the river, a low 
 embankment, it is said, could be formerly traced, and was found 
 to correspond in height, direction, and extent with another, more 
 than half a mile distant in the western part of the town, but 
 neither of these are now visible." 
 
 I think this is doubtful, as it would extend the works 
 to the bottom land, on which mound-builders' works 
 are seldom anywhere found. It is more probable that this 
 embankment turned westward and joined the other em- 
 bankment at the mound. 
 
 On Fifth street, east of Broadway, and about four hun- 
 dred feet from this segment, was a circular bank inclosing 
 a space sixty feet in diameter, formed by throwing up the 
 earth from the inside. It was not more than a foot in 
 height, but twelve to fifteen feet wide. 
 
 In the northern part of the town, between Vjne and 
 Elm streets, and the Miami Canal and Twelfth street, 
 at a distance of about six hundred yards north of the. 
 central work, there were a couple of convex earthen 
 banks, seven hundred and sixty feet long and less than 
 two feet high, connected at each end. They were e^t- 
 actly parallel and forty-six feet apart, measuring from 
 their centers for two-thirds of their distance, after which 
 they converge to forty feet. In the southern, about 
 the point where their inclination to each other com- 
 
(Bre-historic (Remains at Cincinnati. 
 
 mences, there was an opening of thirty feet wide. 
 The direction of these elevations, as ascertained by the 
 compass, did not vary two degrees from a true east and 
 west line. 
 
 " Of excavations, we have but one. It is situated more than half 
 a mile north of the figure first described, and is not perceptibly 
 connected with anj' other works. Its depth is about twelve feet ; its 
 diameter, measuring from the top of the circular bank formed by 
 throwing out the earth, is nearly fifty. Popular speculation could 
 not fail to make it a half-filled well, but no examination has yet 
 been undertaken." 
 
 This work was near the southwest corner of Liberty 
 and Plum streets. 
 
 The mounds found on this plain were four in num- 
 ber. The one already mentioned, on the corner of 
 Third and Main streets, was the only one connected by 
 embankment with the central work. Dr. Drake says : 
 
 " It was about eight feet high, one hundred and twenty feet long, 
 and sixty broad, of an oval figure, with its diameters lying nearly 
 in the direction of the cardinal points. It has been almost ob- 
 literated by the gra;duation of Main street, and its construction 
 is, therefore, well known. Whatever it contained was deposited 
 at a small distance beneath the stratum of loam which is com- 
 mon to the town. The first artificial layer was of gravel, consid- 
 erably raised in the middle ; the next, composed of large pebbles, 
 was convex, and of an uniform thickness ; the last consisted of 
 loam and soil. "These strata were entire, and must have been 
 formed after the deposits in the tumulus were completed." 
 
 The articles found in this mound and in the graves 
 around it exhibit a high degree of skill in cutting and 
 polishing the hardest rocks. Of those before mentioned 
 as figured in the Philosophical Transactions, Vol. 4. 
 Figs. I to 5 represent plummet-like objects, " finished 
 
8 CPre-historic (Remains at Cincinnati. 
 
 as If in a turning-Jathe." These are supposed to have 
 Been used in weaving, or as sinkers in fishing, 
 asserted by some observers that they are never found 
 except near deep rivers. Judge Turner gives the ma- 
 terials of which they are composed as follows : Fig. i 
 greenish-gray porphyry; Fig. a, jasper; Fig. 3, pure, 
 transparent crystal ; Fig. 4, granite ; Fig. 5, a fer 
 ruginous stone, perhaps of volcanic origin (hematite?) 
 Fig. 7 is a circular ring figure, made from cannel coal 
 with a wide and deep groove in the outer edge ; Fig. 8 
 similar to the last, but smaller, made from a fat, argil 
 laceous stone, capable of a fine polish ; Fig. 6 repre- 
 sents a finely carved head and beak of an "eagle, or 
 other rapacious bird, the upper mandible having a cul- 
 trated point, the distinguishing mark of birds belong- 
 ing to this class;" this figure shows considerable skill in 
 the art of carving ; Fig. 9, a small piece of thin copper, 
 with two perforations; Fig. 10, a sheet of copper, bent 
 into a tube, corrugated on one side, evincing some pro- 
 ficiency in the manipulation of the metal ; Figs. 1 1 and 
 12, the two sides of a bone, with " hieroglyphics " on 
 each; this is but a fragment — the design is so curious 
 that it is a matter of regret that it was not found more 
 perfect. 
 
 Besides the above, Dr. Drake mentions, as having 
 been found in the mound, a mass of lead ore {galena), 
 lumps of which have been found in other tumuli ; a 
 quantity of mica; a number of beads, or sections of 
 small hollow cylinders, apparently of bone or shell ; the 
 teeth of a carnivorous animal, p/obably those of a bear; 
 several large marine shells, belonging to the genus buc- 
 
(Pre-hisioric (Remains at Cincinnati. 9 
 
 cinum, cut in such a manner as to serve for domestic 
 utensils, and nearly converted into a state of chalk. 
 
 " Several copper articles, each consisting of two sets of circular 
 concavo-convex plates ; the interior of each set connected with the 
 other by a hollow axis, around which had been wound a quantity 
 of lint, the whole encompassed with the bones of a man's hand. 
 Several other articles resembling this have been dug up in other 
 parts of the town. They all appear to consist of pure copper, 
 covered with the green carbonate of that metal. After removing 
 this incrustation of rust from two pieces, their specific gravities 
 were found to be 7.545 and 7.857. Their hardness about .that of 
 the sheet copper of commerce. They were not engraved or 
 embellished with characters of any kind." 
 
 There were also 
 
 " Human bones. These were of different sizes ; sometimes en- 
 closed in rude coffins of stone, but oftener lying blended with the 
 earth, generally surrounded by a portion of ashes and charcoal. 
 The quantity of these bones, although much greater than that 
 taken from the other mounds of the town, was small in proportion 
 to what was expected — the whole tumulus not having contained, 
 perhaps, more than twenty or thirty skeletons. With a view of 
 comparing these bones with those of the present Indian tribes, I 
 endeavored to collect and preserve them ; but they were generally 
 in such a state of decay that nothing more could be inferred than a 
 sameness in the height of the two races. At length I was so for- 
 tunate as to procure the skull, nearly entire, of a middle-aged 
 man, and have compared it with that of a Wyandot Indian pre- 
 sented to me by John Johnston, Esq. The facial angle of the 
 ancient, which- may be termed the fossil skull, is 74°, that of the 
 Wyandot 76°, and in their length and breadth there is but little 
 difference. On placing and examining them, however, in the 
 manner directed by Blumenbach, it is seen that a section made 
 through the forehead and the occiput would exhibit in the fossil 
 skull almost a regular oval ; in the Wyandot, the figure of an egg 
 cut lengthwise, after being flattened at its smaller end. The face 
 of the Indian head, moreover, is shorter and broader than that of 
 
lo (Pre-historic (Remains at Cincinnati. 
 
 the fossil ; the upper jaw projects less, and the cheek-bones are 
 more distant, broad, and prominent. Those of the fossil skull 
 are, however, of greater height than the cheek bones of most 
 European faces. But what little reliance is to be placed on a 
 single comparison appears from this — that the upper part of 
 another skull found in this tumulus exhibits the same horizontal 
 section with the Wyandot, except that the forehead is remarkably 
 convex, instead of being flatted. The fossil teeth which I have 
 seen were generally sound, and had nothing peculiar in their 
 figure." 
 
 Like so many others, this was, doubtless, a mixed 
 mound, and Dr. Drake supposed all the human remains 
 found in it were those of the mound-builders. 
 
 The largest mound stood near the intersection of 
 Fifth and Mound streets, about five hundred yards 
 west of the central work, but not connected with it by 
 any embankment. Dr. Drake says (in 1815) : 
 
 " Its present height is twenty-seven feet. About eight feet were 
 cut off by General Wayne, in i794) to prepare it for the reception 
 of a sentinel. It is a regular ellipsis, whose diameteis are to 
 each other nearly as two to one. The longer runs seventeen 
 degrees east of north. The circumference at the base is four 
 hundred and forty feet. The earth for thirty or forty yards 
 around it is perceptibly lower than the other parts of the plain, 
 and the stratum of loam is thinner, from which it appears to 
 have been formed by scooping up the surface — which opinion is 
 cotlfirmed by its internal structure. It has been penetrated nearly 
 to its center, and found to consist of loam gradually passing into 
 soil, with rotten wood. The fruits of this examination were only 
 a few scattering decayed human bones, a branch of deer's horn 
 and a piece of earthenware containing muscle shell." 
 
 The opening here referred to may have been the one 
 still in the mound in 1840, when I first saw it. It was 
 about five feet wide, seven feet high, and entered the 
 mound about ten feet, on the southern end. A portion 
 
(Pre-historic (Remains at Cincinnati. 1 1 
 
 of this end had,- however, been destroyed before this 
 time, as it was then nearly round and smaller than the 
 size given by Dr. Drake. 
 
 In 1 841, Mound street and the alley running west 
 from that street between Fifth and Longworth streets, 
 were graded, and in this operation the mound was al- 
 most entirely cut away. It was during this work that 
 the stone known as the " Cincinnati Tablet" was found, 
 as will be more particularly related hereafter. 
 
 Of the other two mounds. Dr. Drake says : 
 
 "At a distance of five hundred feet from this pyramid, in the 
 direction of north eight degrees east, there is another about nine 
 feet high, of a circular figure and nearly flat on the top. This 
 has been penetrated to the center of its base, without affording 
 any thing but some fragments of human skeletons, and a handful 
 of copper beads which had been strung on a cord of lint." 
 
 This mound was near the northeast corner of 
 Seventh and Mound streets. 
 
 " Northeast of the last, at a distance of a few hundred yards, is 
 another of the same figure, but not more than three feet in height, 
 which upon being partially opened has been found to contain a 
 quantity of unfinished spear and arrow heads of flint." 
 
 This mound was on the east side of Central Avenue, 
 opposite Richmond street. 
 
 T-he above are all the works noted by Dr. Drake, as 
 found within the old limits of the city ; he adds, how- 
 ever: 
 
 " The site of the town exhibits many other inequalities of surface, 
 which are no doubt artificial ; but they are too much reduced, 
 and their configuration too obscure, to admit of their being de- 
 scribed." 
 
12 fPre-historic (Remains at Cincinnati. 
 
 General Harrison, in an address before the Historical 
 and Philosopiiical Society of Ohio, in 1837, says: 
 
 When 1 first saw the upper plain on which that city stands, it 
 was literally covered with low lines of embankments. I had the 
 honor to attend General Wayne two years afterwards in an excur- 
 sion to examine them. We were employed a greater part of a 
 day, in August, 1793, in doing so. The number and variety of 
 figures in which these lines were drawn, was almost endless, and, 
 as I have said, almost covered the plain. Many so faint, indeed, 
 as scarcely to be followed, and often for a considerable distance 
 entirely obliterated, but by careful examination, and following the 
 direction, they could again be found. Now, if these lines were 
 ever of the height of the others made by the same people (and 
 they must have been to have answered any valuable purpose) or 
 unless their erection was many years anterior to the others, there 
 must have been some other cause than the attrition of rain (for it 
 is a dead level) to bring them down to their then state. That 
 cause I take to have been continued cultivation ; and as the people 
 who erected them would not themselves destroy works which 
 had cost them so much labor, the solution of the question can only 
 be found in the long occupancy and the cultivation of another 
 people, and the probability is that that people were the conquer- 
 ors of the original possessors. — Transactions, Vol. i, Part 2, 
 p. 227. 
 
 It is as great a mistake to suppose that no relics be- 
 longed to the mound-builders but those found in the 
 mounds, as that all found in them were placed there by 
 that race. As a general rule, a mound was built over a 
 single grave, that probably of a chief. The later In- 
 dians, however, very frequently buried their dead, and 
 with them deposited various articles, in the ancient 
 mounds ; but such burials were usually made near the 
 surface, and the remains were found in a much better 
 state of preservation than those contained in the origi- 
 nal grave of the mound. It is doubtless true, also, that 
 
(Pre-historic (Remains at Cincinnati. 13 
 
 the Indians, in adopting these mounds for sepulchral 
 purposes, enlarged them by fresh deposits of earth, 
 which, with the care they would naturally give to the 
 resting-places of their own dead, would tend to the pre- 
 servation of the mounds so used. This was evidently 
 the case with the Mound street mound, such a succes- 
 sion of deposits being plainly visible during the progress 
 of removal. Mr. Williams thus describes its compo- 
 sition and structure; 
 
 " The earth of the mound is composed of light and dark col- 
 ored layers, as if it had been raised, at successive periods, by 
 piling earth of different colors on the top. This appearance might 
 have been produced by successive layers of vegetation and 
 freezings, which were allowed to act on each layer before the 
 mound received a succeeding addition to its height. In some 
 parts, the layers are completely separated by what appears to have 
 been decayed vegetable matter, such as leaves and grass, as the 
 earth is in complete contact, except a very thin division by some 
 such substance. In some places through the mound there are 
 vacancies, evidently occasioned by the decay of sticks of wood, 
 leaving a most beautiful, impalpable powder. Throughout the 
 mound there are spots of charcoal, and in some places it is in beds. 
 In one or two places which we observed, the action of fire upon 
 the clay has left marks of considerable intensity."— American 
 Pioneer, vol. 2, p. 196. 
 
 There were, however, other mounds not used and pre- 
 served in this way. Being composed largely of soil col- 
 lected in the neighborhood, and exposed to the denud- 
 ing action of rains, perhaps for centuries, they were 
 gradually washed away until they were little above the 
 level of the surrounding surface. They are generally 
 recognized by the loose, flat, rough stones, which were 
 used in making a receptacle and covering for the dead, 
 projecting from the ground ; these were sometimes in 
 
i4 (Pre-historic (Remains at Cincinnati. 
 
 sufficient, quantities to form a low stone mound. 
 It is unusual in such tumuli to find any well preserved 
 human remains ; a few teeth, with the offerings and 
 implements deposited with the bodies, being all that re- 
 main to indicate the character of the place. The relics 
 found under such circumstances are more likely to be 
 the undoubted work of the true mound-builders than 
 many of the articles found in the better preserved 
 mounds. 
 
 Such remains of sepulchral mounds are quite distinct 
 from the Indian graveyards, as they are called, which 
 are so numerous in the western country. The latter 
 are usually on level ground, contain large numbers of 
 skeletons in a more or less well preserved condition, 
 and evidently were never covered by mound structures ; 
 they doubtless belonged to the later Indians. The 
 former are usually single or in small groups, and the 
 human remains found in them are generally so com- 
 pletely decayed, that they crumble to dust on being 
 disturbed. In the neighborhood of Cincinnati many 
 isolated collections of relics have been plowed up, which 
 were evidently the remains of denuded mounds of this 
 character.. 
 
 Sometimes, however, mixed mounds— those contain- 
 ing the remains of both the mound-builders and the 
 later Indians — were denuded in this way, especially 
 when they were located on high hills where they were 
 much exposed. To this class, I think, belongs the 
 group of graves discovered in 1874, by Dr. H. H. 
 Hill, on the point of Brighton hill, to the east of Mill 
 Creek valley and overlooking the city from the north- 
 west. This point was, until some thirty years ago, 
 
(Pre-historic Remains at Cincinnati. 15 
 
 covered with dense woods, and on it was a considerable 
 collection of loose stones, in groups, so that it was 
 supposed to be the remains of an old stone fort. When 
 the trees were cut, many of these stones were hauled 
 away. I can not hear of any exploration ever having 
 been made of it, till the practiced eye of Dr. Hill 
 recognized, in the artificial arrangement of the few stones 
 left protruding from the ground, its true character. On 
 turning some of the stones and digging around them, 
 he found a few flint implements. He shortly after- 
 ward spent several days in making a thorough explora- 
 tion of the locality, and found that the remains were 
 distributed over a circular space of about forty feet 
 in diameter, on the extreme point of the hill, with 
 the ground sloping in every direction. The few 
 human bones found were so much decayed that they 
 crumbled to powder on exposure. Most of them were 
 quite near the surface, but may have been covered four 
 or five feet with the stones which had been taken away 
 from the place. This, however, could not be definitely 
 determined. Some appeared to have been buried in a 
 sitting position, as the teeth were found near the thigh 
 bones— these were evidently of the later Indians, as 
 mound-builders' skeletons have seldom been found m 
 that position. 
 
 Besides human teeth, a large number of teeth and 
 tusks of various animals were found, with fragments 
 of deer horns, bone awls, and bone awl-cases. The 
 latter were made by splitting the lower leg bones of the 
 elk or buflfalo, scraping out the inside and straightening 
 the edges, so that, when bound together, they formed 
 a case. Some of them contained the bone awls, or 
 
1 6 (Pre-historic (Remains at Cincinnati. 
 
 needles, when found, but all more or less broken. 
 There were also pieces of mica, stone-hammers, and 
 gorgets, three stone pipes, flint spear and arrow heads, 
 some copper awls, fragments of shells, on one of which 
 were traces of carving. These articles Dr. Hill has 
 now on exhibition at the Centennial Exposition. The 
 whole space where these remains were found was prob- 
 ably covered with a mound of earth, which the rains of 
 centuries had washed away, leaving only the stone foun- 
 dations. It is a bold point of the hills, fully exposed 
 to the west, south, and east, and commanding an exten- 
 sive view, one probably of a connected series of out- 
 looks, or signal stations, which Judge Cox, who has 
 made a careful enumeration of the mounds in this re- 
 gion, says can be traced up the Mill Creek valley, as 
 well as up and down the Ohio to the Little and Big 
 Miami rivers, and thence up their courses. There are 
 several mounds also on the Kentucky hills opposite? 
 which may have been connected with the same series. 
 
 It may be of interest here to examine these pre- 
 historic works in the light of Lewis H. Morgan's 
 " pueblo " theory, as set forth in his article in the 
 North American Review for July of this year. The 
 great central work, an ellipse eight hundred by six 
 hundred and sixty feet, corresponds with his pueblo or 
 village. Its position gave it a measure of security, being 
 on the upper plain, three hundred and fifty feet from its 
 edge, and could be completely screened from view from 
 the river by a belt or grove of trees. The embankment, 
 three feet high (possibly originally higher) with a base 
 of thirty feet, afforded sufficient foundation for their 
 buildings, occupying the circumference of the ellipse, 
 
(Pre-historic (Remains at Cincinnati. 17 
 
 facing inward, presenting a solid timb'er wall on the out- 
 side, with no entrance but by the gateway on the east,which 
 may have been protected by a palisade of round timber, 
 with proper-openings for ingress and egress, and by some 
 structures of the nature of block-houses on the higher 
 embankments attached externally at each side of the en- 
 trance. From the lower of these block-houses, it will be 
 remembered, ran the low embankment, one foot high with 
 nine feet base, southward nearly to the edge of the declev- 
 ity, and then east to the mound on corner of Third and 
 Main streets. This may have been occupied by a high 
 timber palisade, or a covered-way leading to the mound, 
 which was so situated as to command a full view of the 
 Licking river, which enters the Ohio on the opposite 
 shore, and was doubtless an important approach, which it 
 was necessary should be watched. If I am right in sup- 
 posing that the embankment, of the same dimensions 
 as the last, noticed east of Sycamore street, running from 
 Sixth street to near Third street, turned there and joined 
 the other embankment at the mound, and was built 
 upon in the same manner, we would thus have the 
 whole front so defended that It would have to be forced 
 or flanked by any enemy coming from the direction of 
 the Licking river. 
 
 East of this the high hill. Mount Adams, overlook- 
 ing the Ohio, and giving a clear view up the river for 
 miles, would be a natural outpost on which it would 
 not be necessary to erect a mound structure. I have 
 never heard of any remains having been found on this 
 
 hill. 
 
 To the west, the hill next the river was too distant, 
 and from its position did not command an extensive 
 enough view of the river, to serve as an outlook, so a 
 
[8 (Bre-historic (Remains at Cincinnati. 
 
 position was selected near the edge of the plain, about 
 five hundred yards west of the closed end of the village, 
 and a large mound thirty-five feet high was erected, from 
 which could be had an extensive view of the Kentucky 
 shore and of the Ohio river to the bend below the 
 mouth of Mill Creek. The Brighton Hill mound 
 would give an extensive view of the whole of Mill 
 Creek valley. The whole, as before mentioned, being 
 part of an extensive series of signal stations. 
 
 The minor mounds and other works on the upper 
 plain may have been connected with the supervision and 
 care of their agricultural operations on the rich land be- 
 tween the village and the northern hills. 
 
 Thus we have a village judiciously located on a fine 
 fertile plain, and well guarded by the nature of the loca- 
 tion, and the artificial works erected on a carefully 
 arranged plan. 
 
 Mr. Morgan's theory will apply to a large number 
 of the Ohio works. In one particular, however, I think 
 the facts will not support him (and it is not essential to 
 the validity of the theory) ; that is, his supposition 
 that the outside of the pueblos, or buildings, was cov- 
 ered with a thick layer of plastic clay mixed with gravel. 
 I believe I am correct in saying that there is no clay in 
 Ohio which could be applied in this way, and resist for 
 any length of time the washing rains and sudden winter 
 changes of temperature of our climate. If they had 
 such a tenacious clay, as for instance that found in 
 southern Colorado, which alone would answer for such 
 a purpose, there would have been no necessity for them to 
 change their mode of building — they would still have con- 
 tinued to make their adobes, and have erected dwellings 
 
(Pre-historic (kemains at Cincinnati. 19 
 
 similar to those they had been accustomed to. Nor do 
 I think that there are at any of the embankments scat- 
 tered through Ohio any vestige of such a deposit at the 
 surface, as would result from the destruction or decom- 
 position of buildings thickly covered with clay and 
 gravel, as there would have been had such a covering 
 been in use. It seems more probable that timber alone 
 was used in their buildings and fortifications. 
 
 But, to return from this digression, the two larger 
 mounds were so situated that we can hardly avoid the 
 conclusion, though it is only a supposition, that one 
 object of their erection was to serve as outlooks for 
 watching the approaches to their village from the Ken- , 
 tucky side of the river by the Licking, and from the 
 west by the Ohio. From the description of the struc- 
 ture of the mounds and the remains found in them, it 
 is quite certain that they were also grave-mounds. They 
 may have been originally placed on these commanding 
 points so as to be seen from a distance (just as we place 
 monuments in prominent positions), and afterward used 
 as outlooks. Dr. Drake, a,s quoted above, gives suf- 
 ficient details of the structure and contents of that at the 
 corner of Third and Main streets to warrant this con- 
 clusion as to that mound. The larger one, on Fifth 
 and Mound streets, was entered in his time, and some 
 human remains found. Afterward it was partially cut 
 away on the southern side, perhaps at the opening of 
 Fifth street, and was almost entirely demolished in the 
 fall of 1 841, on the opening of Mound street and the 
 alley running west from it. The work was commenced 
 at the top, the earth being thrown down until it was not 
 more than eight or ten feet high, when it was dug down 
 
ao (Pre-hisloric (Remains at Cincinnati. 
 
 perpendicularly and the material carted off. Several 
 skeletons, in good state of preservation, were found 
 near the surface, evident depositions of the later Indians, 
 and with them stone axes, arrow-heads, mica, etc. The 
 principal grave, however, that for which the mound was 
 commenced, was found nearly on a level with the orig- 
 inal surface, and contained a much decayed skeleton, of 
 which a portion of the skull is still in the possession of 
 Mr. Gest, who was the owner of part of the ground on 
 which the mound stood. Under this skull was found 
 the stone known as the " Cincinnati Tablet," with two 
 polished, pointed bones about seven inches long, char- 
 coal, and ashes. 
 
 This stone, as I will show hereafter, immediately ex- 
 cited a good deal of interest and attention. A few weeks 
 after it was found, it was exhibited at a meeting of the 
 Western Academy of Natural Sciences (December yth, 
 1 841), and John P. Foote was appointed a committee 
 to report on it. At the next meeting (December 14) 
 he made a report, the minute of which is thus entered 
 on the records of the society : 
 
 "A paper was read from the committee to which the curious 
 Indian relic was referred. The reporter appears to think that the 
 relic possesses internal evidence of its genuineness, and there is no 
 doubt that it was really disinterred from the mound, by whomso- 
 ever deposited." 
 
 In the Cincinnati Gazette, of December 12, 1842, an 
 engraved representation of the stone appeared, with a 
 communication from Mr. Gest, the owner, and some 
 comments by the editor, occupying over a column of 
 the paper. These were of no special value, being spec- 
 
(Pre-historic (Remains at Cincinnati. 21 
 
 uktions as to its use, etc., but it was a public declaration 
 of iis genuineness. 
 
 It was next described and figured by John S. Williams, 
 in the American Pioneer of May 1843, an antiquarian 
 and historical magazine of some note, commenced at 
 Chillicothe the previous year, but removed to Cincin- 
 nati and published there in 1843. 
 
 Mr. E. G. Squier, an acknowledged authority in 
 archaeological matters, next described and figured it in 
 the Transactions of the American Ethnological Society 
 (Vol. 2, pp. 197-199), in an article on the Aboriginal 
 Monuments of the Mississippi Valley. He says: 
 
 " The circumstances under which this relic was discovered are 
 such as to leave little doubt of its authenticity, or that it pertained 
 to the race of the mounds." 
 
 Mr. Squier had a most intimate knowledge of such 
 remains, and was not likely to be deceived. In the same 
 article he devotes eight pages to a searching investiga- 
 tion of the celebrated Grave Creek stone, fully exposing 
 it as an imposition. 
 
 Mr. Squier, the same year, 1848, repeats his descrip- 
 tion and comments on the "Cincinnati Tablet," as given 
 in the Transactions, in the joint work by himself and 
 Mr. E. H. Davis, The Ancient Monuments of the 
 Mississippi Valley, the first volume of the Smithsonian 
 Contributions to Knowledge. I can not convey a better 
 idea of the tablet than by quoting his description and 
 comments in full, as follows ; 
 
 " The material is a fine-grained, compact sandstone, of a light 
 brown color. It measures five inches in length, three in breadth 
 at the ends, and two and six-tenths at the middle, and is about 
 half an inch in thickness. The sculptured face varies very slightly 
 
22 (Pre-hisioric (Remains at Cincinnati. 
 
 from a perfect plane. The figures are cut in low relief (the lines 
 being not more than one-twentieth of an inch in depth), and 
 occupy a rectangular space four inches and two-tenths long, by 
 two and one-tenth wide. The sides of the stone, it will be ob- 
 served, are slightly concave. Right lines are drawn across the 
 face, near the ends, at right angles and exterior to these are 
 notches, twenty-five at one end, and twenty-four at the other. 
 Extending diagonally inward are fifteen longer lines, eight at one 
 end and seven at the other. The back of the stone has three 
 deep, longitudinal grooves, and several depressions, evidently 
 caused by rubbing — probably produced by sharpening the instru- 
 ment used in the sculpture. 
 
 "Without discussing the ' singular resemblance which the relic 
 bears to the Egyptian cartouch,' it will be sufficient to direct 
 attention to the reduplication of the figures, those upon one side 
 corresponding with those upon the other, and the two central 
 ones being also alike. It will be observed that there are but 
 three scrolls or figures — four of one description and two of each 
 of the others. Probabh' no serious discussion of the question, 
 whether or not these figures are hieroglyphical, is needed. They 
 more resemble the stalk and flowers of a plant than anj' thing 
 else in nature. What significance, if any, may attach to the 
 peculiar markings or graduations at the ends, it is not undertaken 
 to say. ThS sum of the products of the longer and shorter lines 
 (24X7+25X8) is 368, three more than the number of days in the 
 year ; from which circumstance the suggestion has been advanced 
 that the tablet had an astronomical origin, and constituted some 
 sort of a calendar. 
 
 "We may perhaps find the key to its purposes in a very humble 
 but not, therefore, less interesting class of Southern remains. 
 Both in Mexico and in the mounds of Mississippi, have been 
 found stamps of burned clay, the faces of which are covered 
 with figures, fanciful or imitative, all in low relief, like the face 
 of a stereotype plate. These were used in impressing ornaments 
 upon the clothes or prepared skins of the people possessing 
 them. They exhibit the concavity of the sides to be observed in 
 the relic in question — intended, doubtless, for greater convenience 
 in holding and using it— as also a similar reduplication of the 
 
(Pre-historic (Remains at Cincinnati. 23 
 
 ornamental figures, all betraying a common purpose. This explan- . 
 ation is offered hypothetically as being entirely consistent with 
 the general character of the mound-remains ; which, taken to- 
 gether, do not warrant us in looking for any thing that might not 
 well pertain to a very simple, not to say rude, people." 
 
 Here, then, we have a mound-relic, examined and re- 
 ported on by a scientific society immediately after it was 
 found ; described and figured in a local newspaper 
 and in a popular magazine shortly afterward ; in the 
 transactions of a learned society, and in the first pub- 
 lication of the Smithsonian Institution, a few years 
 subsequently by one of the highest archaeological au- 
 thorities in this country — all agreeing in considering it 
 a genuine relic of the mound-builders. No doubt is 
 cast upon it for thirty years, and then by a gentleman 
 of some scientific reputation, who was living in Cincin- 
 nati when it was found ; knew? of the publications in 
 the Cincinnati Gazette and American Pioneer, which he 
 mentions in his statement, and must have known the 
 opinion of Mr. Squier, as published in 1848, yet he 
 never attempts to deny its genuineness for thirty years ; 
 and when, in 1871, he does do it, it is in so peculiarly 
 an unscientific manner, that it was only accidentally 
 brought to light and published. 
 
 The statement he makes appears in Historical and 
 Archceological Tract number nine, of the Western Re- 
 serve Historical Society, published at Cleveland, Ohio, 
 in February, 1872. This tract is entitled, Archaeologi- 
 cal Frauds — Inscriptions attributed to the mound-builders — 
 Three remarkable Forgeries. By Col. Chas. Whittlesey. 
 The " three remarkable forgeries " are the Grave Creek 
 Stone, the Cincinnati Tablet, and the Holy Stoneof 
 
24 fPre-historic (Remains at Cincinnati. 
 
 Newark. Of the first, he quotes the opinion of Henry 
 R. Colcraft (Schoolcraft), of Mr. Tomlinson, the 
 owner of the mound, and some remarks by a Mr. Lev- 
 ering in the American Pioneer, and then dismisses it 
 with the remark that " this stone, thus verified and 
 commented upon with so much learning, is now univer- 
 sally regarded by archaeologists as a fraud." He gives 
 no reason, and gives no credit to Mr. Squier, who 
 twenty-four years previously had fully exposed it. 
 
 As to the " Cincinnati Tablet," he quotes from the 
 article in the Gazette, and from the description and 
 comments of Dr. Daniel Wilson, in the first edition of 
 his Pre-historic Man (London, 1865,) and then con- 
 tinues as follows : 
 
 ' Thus for nearly thirty years this ornamented stone was received 
 as genuine, though its hieroglyphic character was not generally 
 admitted. All illusions and all speculations on this relic are now 
 dissipated. Recently, looking over Professor Wilson's work in 
 our library, I perceived a written leaf pasted into the book, at 
 the place where it is noticed by the author, which proved to be 
 the following statement. It wipes out the last supposed record 
 of the race of the mounds. 
 '•'•'■ Comments of Dr. fared P. Klrtland, Cleveland, Ohio, 
 
 December, i'6i']i,onJigure \'j,fage 221, Wilson's Pre-historic 
 
 Man — Cincinnati Tablet : 
 
 " ' In early days, a high and regularly formed mound was located 
 in the western part of Cincinnati. General Wilkinson, at an early 
 time, placed upon it an observatory and sentries for watching the 
 Indians. In the year 1841, the corporation established a street 
 through this mound, and its destruction rapidly progressed. 
 
 " ' One morning while I was in the chemical laboratory of my 
 colleague in the Ohio Geological Survey, and in the Medical Col- 
 lege of Ohio, Professor John Locke, in the spring of that year, 
 an artful and sinister looking man rushed into the room, and as- 
 suming a high degree of excitement, stated that while excavating 
 
(Pre-historic (Remains at Cincinnati. 25 
 
 the center of the mound, he had dug out a curiously engraved 
 stone, which he could sell to us for $40 or $50, and handed out 
 the tablet figured on page 221. Prof. Locke took it, and calmly 
 examined the engraving through a magnifier. He, in a sarcastic 
 manner, said to the stranger, " I would advise you, before you at- 
 tempt to palm this off as a .piece of antiquity, to carefully brush 
 from the excavations in the stone, the fine grains of sand formed 
 by the cutting instrument." I then examined it in a similar man- 
 ner, and plainly detected the imposition. The fellow hastily 
 seized the stone, and made his exit without reply.' 
 
 " ' The next year, a figure and description of this stone appeared 
 in the American Pioneer. 
 
 " ' I afterward learned that this stone was cut and engraved in a 
 marble shop in that city, and was carefully buried the night pre- 
 vious in the mound, where it would be reached by the excavators 
 in the next day's labors. 
 
 "'J. P. KlRTLAND.' " 
 
 This was certainly rather a singular method for a 
 scientific man to expose, as a fraud, a relic which for 
 thirty years had been regarded by all archaeologists as 
 genuine — to write such a statement, paste it in a book 
 in a society library, and put it back on its shelf, with- 
 out calling any attention to it, leaving it to be acci- 
 dentally discovered by his friend Colonel Whittlesey, the 
 president of the society. Why did he not expose it 
 years before? And when he did write out his state- 
 ment, why did he not give it at once to the Society, to 
 be laid before the public in one of their tracts? 
 
 Believing this stone to be genuine, notwithstanding 
 Dr. Kirtland's statement, I have taken some pains to 
 collect all the evidence in its favor, and, even at this 
 distant day, have succeeded beyond my expectations. I 
 propose to show particularly that Prof. John Locke 
 could not have been present at any such interview as 
 
26 (Pre-hisioric (Remains at Cincinnati. 
 
 detailed by Dr. Kirtland, and if any such interview oc- 
 curred, it must have been some other stone which was 
 offered ; certainly not this one. 
 
 Here is the statement of Mr. J. L. Wayne, a gentle- 
 man well known in Cincinnati, who took the stone from 
 its position in the mound; 
 
 " When I was a boy I was much interested in what were com- 
 monly called Indian relics, and have only been prevented from 
 indulging my tastes in that direction by the unyielding demands 
 of my business. 
 
 " From my earliest remembrance until the year 1841, there stood 
 between Fifth and Sixth streets, in this city, a mound which was 
 removed during that year for the purpose of opening and grad- 
 ing Mound sti-eet. I frequently passed the mound on business 
 for my father, before and during its removal. I was present at 
 the time the one grave, which it contained, was opened. When 
 I first reached the mound, on that day, I was going on one of 
 these errands. The earth had been irregularly removed from the 
 top of the mound to within say ten feet from the level of the street, 
 and then cut quite regularly perpendicularly from the east side. 
 The workmen were digging carefully, or, more properly, shaving 
 off the side with shovels, as if they had been ordered to be cau- 
 tious, occasionally using the pick to loosen. I saw that they were 
 near the center of the mound, say five feet away, and made up 
 my mind that if there were any aboriginal remains in the mound, 
 they would soon reach them. I accordingly ran as fast as pos- 
 sible to the corner of Fifth and Mill streets, where my errand 
 called me, and back again to the mound. When I reached it 
 the workmen were considerably nearer the center, and still dig- 
 ging with care. I placed myself among them, though warned 
 away, and so continued until the grave was reached near an hour 
 afterward. The first warning that any thing different from the 
 earth they were removing was reached, was caused by the shovel 
 failing to shave the earth away without greater effort. When the 
 shovel broke through what proved to be the shell of a cavity, the 
 hardened crust fell away in pieces, not crumbling, from the side 
 
(Pre-historic (Remains at Cincinnati. 27 
 
 nearest us, leaving the other side and top intact. The cavity was 
 about two feet three or four inches in its highest part, about the 
 same breadth, and somewhat shorter than the average height of 
 men of our day. Its floor was about four and a half, perhaps a 
 trifle less, from the level of the street. Longitudinally it lay 
 nearly north and south. I remember distinctly the appearance of 
 the earth surrounding the grave at the time. It was compact and 
 coherent,, and had that look that the side of a loam-bank pre- 
 sents, and showed no traces of having been tampered with. It 
 would have been impossible to introduce anything into the grave 
 without disturbing the earth and breaking the crust. The work- 
 men had no chance to place anything in the grave, as I hardly 
 waited for the crust to fall away before my hand was groping 
 among the charred material it contained. The first article I raised 
 was a skull, which broke in several pieces, and was at once taken 
 from me by the workmen, except one piece which I managed to 
 get into my pocket. They gathered round the skull, and I then in- 
 serted my hand into the place left vacant b}' it, and beneath where 
 the back part had been, as if the skull rested on it, I found a carved 
 or engraved stone, from which I removed the earth on one side 
 and the charred matter on the other, and was examining it, when 
 some one whom I did not know, took the stone from me, with a 
 promise of its return as soon as he had examined it. While 
 waiting for him to return it, Mr. Gest, whom I had known from 
 the fact that an uncle of mine and he were acquaintances, came 
 upon the ground, and the stone was handed to him. Perceiving,, 
 after waiting some time, that there was no likelihood of his re- 
 turning it, I went back to the grave and again removed some of 
 the contents, and found some small pieces of bone, of what part 
 of the frame I did not know, nor if human. I preserved them 
 and the piece of the skull for many years, but, through frequent 
 change of residence, they have been lost or mislaid. 
 
 " J. L. Wayne, Jr. 
 " Cincinnati, yune 19, 1876." 
 
 Mr. Wayne's father adds this note : 
 
 " I remember very distinctly most of the facts as related above 
 by my son, J. L. Wayne, Jr. It was impressed upon my mind 
 
a8 (Pre-historic (Remains at Cincinnati. 
 
 from the fact that he felt very much grieved because the stone 
 was taken from him, he thinking he was the rightful owner. 
 
 "J. L. Wayne. 
 " Cincinnati, June 19, 1876." 
 
 Mr. Erasmus Gest makes the following statement : 
 
 " The ' Cincinnati Tablet' was found in a large mound at Cin- 
 cinnati, Ohio, located where the alley between Fifth and Long- 
 worth streets now intersects the west side of Mound street. It 
 was, as near as can be remembered, about twenty-five feet high, 
 with a base of seventy-five feet in diameter. It was removed in 
 1841, in order to grade the street and alley. It was composed 
 entirely of surface alluvial of the vicinity. Near the center and 
 base of the mound were found this engraved stone, the major 
 part of a human skull, and two bones, probably seven inches 
 long, pointed at one end. At the place of deposit there were 
 unmistakable marks of fire. 
 
 " These relics, immediately after they were found, came into my 
 possession. I was then an amateur collector of Indian relics, 
 and then, as now, interested in every thing pertaining to the pre- 
 historic races. As I was the owner of one of the lots on which 
 the mound stood, and my father was then city engineer, under 
 whose direction the work of removal was done, I closely watched 
 the progress of the work. I was not present when the tablet was 
 found, but arrived soon afterward, when I took possession of it, 
 and it has been my property ever since, though I deposited it for 
 many years in the collection of the Western Academy of Natural 
 Sciences. 
 
 " The appeaimnce of the earth around the resting-place of the 
 tablet, the position of the bones, skull, charcoal, etc., as seen by 
 myself, and described to me at the time by others, showed con- 
 clusively that neither the ground nor any of the above-named 
 articles had been disturbed "previous to their removal, and that 
 the articles were found just as they had been placed at the time 
 the mound was erected. 
 
 " I showed the stone immediately to Joseph Clark, Dr. John 
 Locke, John P. Foote, and others interested in such remains, and 
 
(Pre-historic (Remains at Cincinnati. 29 
 
 exhibited it at several meetings of the Western Academy of Nat- 
 ural Sciences. 
 
 " It became the subject of much discussion and speculation 
 among the members, but I never heard its genuineness doubted 
 then, not since, till my attention was called to the ' comments ' 
 of Dr. J. P. Kirtland, as published by Colonel Charles Whittlesey, 
 which I saw and, read only a few days ago, though I had pre- 
 viously heard of them. So far from disbelieving in the genuineness 
 of the tablet, Dr. Locke, with whom I was well acquainted, took 
 a special interest in it. He asked the privilege of making a 
 mold of it, and I willingly loaned it to him for that purpose. He 
 made quite a number of casts, colored them, and distributed them 
 among those of his friends who were interested in such matters. 
 
 " Erasmus Gest. 
 
 " Cincinnati, Ohio, May 28, 1876." 
 
 Mr. Robert Buchanan, who was President of the 
 Western Academy of Natural Sciences at the time, and 
 present at the meetings of December 7 and 14, 1841, 
 at which the tablet was exhibited and reported on, writes 
 as follows : 
 
 " I was one of the original members of the Western Academy 
 of Natural Sciences at the time of its organization, in 1835, and 
 continued connected with it till it was merged into the presen 
 Cincinnati Society of Natural History. Dr. John Locke was also 
 an active and prominent member of the Academy in its early 
 years. 
 
 " I was absent from the city, on a visit to my old home in Penn- 
 sylvania, at the time the stone known as the ' Cincinnati Tablet' 
 was found, but saw it shortly after my return, and it formed for 
 some time a frequent topic of conversation at our meetings, it 
 being considered a unique and valuable relic of the mound- 
 builders, and many were our speculations as to its origin and use. 
 
 " Dr. Locke was quite a mechanical genius, and was very fond 
 of making plaster casts of any rare . fossils, etc., which were 
 brought before the Academy. He made a mold of the tablet, 
 and gave casts to some of his fellow members and others. In all 
 
30 (Pre-historic (Remains at Cincinnati. 
 
 the many conversations we had about the tablet, I never heard 
 its genuineness doubted or disputed by Dr. Locke or any one else ; 
 w^e all believed it a true relic of the mound-builders. 
 
 " R. Buchanan. 
 "Cincinnati, Ohio, June i6, 1876." 
 
 Mr. S. T. Carley, another member of the Academy, 
 writes; 
 
 " I am very glad you have undertaken to establish the genuine- 
 ness of the Fifth street mound tablet, of which I think there is 
 no good reason to doubt. I was present when it was before the 
 Academy ; it was an object of unusual interest, and was examined 
 particularly with reference to its genuineness as an Indian relic. 
 It had no appearance of being a recent production ; no tool mark ; 
 no smooth surface on face or figures, but the entire surface had a 
 slightly roughened appearance, as from the effect of time. The 
 figures, intended to match, though of the same pattern, were un- 
 like in size and proportion in all their pai'ts, and bore evidence, 
 as Mr. Foote stated in a subsequent report, that they were not 
 made by any tool now in use." 
 
 Mr. George Graham, Vice-President of the Academy, 
 who was also present at the meetings referred to, says: 
 
 "I recollect the mound as early as 1823 or 1824, and saw it fre- 
 quently from that time till 1841, when the remaining earth was 
 removed for the purpose of opening Mound street. During the 
 process of removal, I collected occasionally human bones, skulls, 
 charcoal, broken shells, and specimens of pottery. I recollect 
 when the tablet was found, which I think was discovered about 
 the middle of the work, or when about half of the earth was re- 
 moved. Mr. Joseph Gest at that time was engineer of the city, 
 and had supervision of the grading of the streets, his son Eras- 
 mus being his assistant, and became the owner of the relic. The 
 specimen was well known to the members of the Academy, and 
 a report on the relic was made by Mr. John P. Foote. I never 
 heard any doubt expressed by any person of the genuine char- 
 
(Pre-historic (Remains at Cincinnati. 31 
 
 acter of the relic, and every one familiar with its history appeared 
 to be perfectly satisfied that the specimen was made by the same 
 persons who erected the mound. 
 
 " Dr. Locke w^as enthusiastic in collecting and describing the 
 fossils, botanical specimens, and minerals of the West, and would 
 criticize closely any new object of interest. If the mound relic 
 had been an imposition, he would not have allowed it to be ex- 
 hibited as genuine, without expressing his opinion to those who 
 were his intimate associates." 
 
 From these statements, made by gentlemen of scien- 
 tific attainments and well known integrity, we must 
 conclude that Dr. John Locke could not have been a 
 party to an interview such as described by Dr. Kirtland, 
 at which this stone was presented. If he gives the date 
 of the interview correctly, the spring of 1841, it could 
 not be this stone, as it was not found till November of 
 that year, and then in such a manner as to entirely pre- 
 clude the idea that it had been manufactured and intro- 
 duced into the mound, as he supposed it to have been. 
 After a lapse of thirty years, he doubtless confounded 
 this stone with some other which was offered for sale. 
 
 Dr. Locke, whom I knew very well, was a man of 
 rigid truthfulness, and had an impatient contempt and 
 hatred of imposture or fraud, especially If it were of a 
 scientific nature. Living at Cincinnati and keeping up 
 with the current scientific thought, he could not have 
 missed seeing the public statements with regard to this 
 tablet, and, as we are credibly informed, made casts of it 
 for distribution among his friends. Had he believed it 
 to be a fraud, he would have been the last man to dis- 
 seminate a knowledge of the tablet by means of casts, 
 and the first man instantly and constantly to denounce 
 it, not only to his associates, but in print whenever any 
 
32 ^re-historic (Remains at Cincinnati. 
 
 one dared to have mentioned it as genuine. Especially 
 would he not have let pass unchallenged Mr. Squier s 
 record of it in the first volume of the Smithsonian Con- 
 tributions, with which he was undoubtedly acquainted, 
 for he kept up his interest in all scientific matters to 
 the time of his death, in 1856, eight years after the 
 publication of that volume. 
 
 The tablet is so unique, so different in its conception 
 and execution from any modern work, and yet bearing 
 a certain generic resemblance to some of the remains 
 of the earlier races on this continent, that it is almost 
 impossible that it could have been produced even by an 
 " artful and sinister-looking man " in a " marble shop ;" 
 or that it could have been made by an ordinary day- 
 laborer, and deposited by him in the mound over-night, 
 with the risk of losing the benefit of all his labor by 
 having it found by one of his fellow-workmen, or 
 claimed at once by the owner of the property, as this 
 tablet was. If we accept the testimony of Messrs. 
 Wayne and Gest as to the manner in which this tablet 
 was found, it is impossible that it could have been made 
 and offered for sale, as Dr. Kirtland asserts. 
 
 Mr. Squier calls attention to the reduplication of 
 figures in the carved work on the tablet. The same 
 reduplication exists on a * stone found in 1870 in 
 a mound near Lafayette bayou in Issaquena county, 
 Mississippi, and now in the possession of W, Marshall 
 Anderson, of Circleville, Ohio. This stone* is of 
 similar material to the Cincinnati tablet, a fine-grained 
 
 *A wood-cut of this stone will be found in the third edition 
 of Dr. Wilson's Pre- Historic Man, vol. i, page 318. 
 
(Pre-hisioric (Remains at Cincinnati. 33 
 
 sand-stone. It is circular, eight and a Iialf inches in 
 diameter, and about an inch thick, with a smooth, 
 slightly convex surface, which is covered with regular 
 carved figures in low relief. The chief objects represented 
 are two bird-headed serpents, carved round the central 
 portion of the stone, the tail of each coming in behind 
 the head of the other — each with the markings around 
 it, being evidently intended as a counterpart of the 
 other. As in the Cincinnati tablet, however, the work- 
 man has failed to make them exactly duplicates. One 
 of the serpents has three rattles to his tail, the other 
 four, and there are other minor differences. On the 
 back is a circle, cut about half an inch from the edge, 
 and exterior to it the circumference is divided by fifteen 
 arcs, and from their intersections are notches dividing 
 the side of the stone into fifteen sections. It may be 
 noted, that the number of these arcs and sections cor- 
 respond with the number of oblique lines on the two 
 ends of the Cincinnati tablet. In the centre is a mor- 
 tice-hole, where a handle had been attached to it, or it 
 had been fixed on a pedestal. No one, I think, seeing 
 these two stones together, could avoid the conclusion 
 that they were made by the same race, though found so 
 far apart, and that neither of them are modern imposi- 
 tions. 
 
 I have already given Mr. Squier's observations on 
 the character of this tablet, and will close with an extract 
 from Dr. Daniel Wilson's Pre-Historic Man [third 
 edition, 1876, vol. i, page 274-5,] with reference to it; 
 
 " But the most remarkable feature of its graven device is the 
 series of lines by which the plain surface at each end is divided. 
 The ends of the stone, it will be observed, form arcs of circles of 
 
34 (Bre-historic (Remains at Cincinnati. 
 
 different dimensions. The greater arc is divided by a series of 
 lines, twenty-seven in number, into equal spaces, and within this 
 is another series of seven oblique lines. The lesser arc at the 
 opposite end is divided, in like manner, by two series of twenty- 
 five, and eight lines, similarly arranged. This tablet has not 
 failed to receive due attention. It has been noted that it bears a 
 ' singular resemblance to the Egyptian cartouche.' Its series of 
 lines were discovered to yield, in some of the products of the 
 longer and shorter ones, a near approximation to the number of 
 days of the year. An astronomical origin was accordingly as- 
 signed to it, and it has been surmised to be an ancient calendar, 
 recording the approximation of the mound-builders to the true 
 length of the solar year. Mr. Squier perhaps ran to an opposite 
 extreme in suggesting that it is nothing more than a stamp, of 
 which specimens have been found made of clay, both in Mexico 
 and the Mississippi mounds, and which were probably used in 
 impressing ornamental patterns on cloth or prepared skins. Such 
 clay stamps always betray their purpose by the handle attached 
 to them, as in the corresponding bronze stamps, common on Ro- 
 man sites ; whereas the Cincinnati tablet is about half an inch in 
 thickness, with no means of holding or using it as a stamp, and 
 bears on its unfinished reverse grooves apparently made in sharp- 
 ening the tools by which it was engraved. But whatever theory 
 be adopted as to its original object or destination, the series of 
 lines on its two ends have justly attracted attention, for they con- 
 stitute no part of the device, and can scarcely be regarded as an 
 ornamental border. Possibly in them we have a record of cer- 
 tain scales of measurement in use by the mound-builders ; and if 
 so, the discovery is calculated to add fresh interest to our study 
 of the geometrical structures, which, far more than their great 
 mounds, are the true characteristics of that mysterious people." 
 
 He then adds the following in a note ; 
 
 " Mr. Whittlesey has included this tablet among his " Archteo- 
 logical Frauds," but the result of inquiries made by me during a 
 recent visit to Cincinnati, has removed from my mind any doubt 
 of its genuineness." 
 
.