Arizona Indian Pictographs

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY—— SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XCIII

ARIZONA BOWLDER WITH PICTOGRAPHS NEAR WOOD'S RANCH

Few pictographs were found in the immediate neighborhood of the cavate dwellings; indeed the rock in their vicinity is too soft to preserve for any considerable time any great number of these rock etchings. Examples of ancient paleography were, however, discovered a short distance higher up the river on malpais rock, which is harder and less rapidly eroded. A half-buried bowlder (plate xciii) near Wood's ranch was found to be covered with the well-known spirals with zigzag attachments, horned animals resembling antelopes, growing corn, rain clouds, and similar figures. These pictographs occur on a black, superficial layer of lava rock, or upon lighter stone with a malpais layer, which had been pecked through, showing a lighter color beneath. There is little doubt that many examples of aboriginal pictography exist in this neighborhood, which would reward exploration with interesting data. The Verde pictographs can not be distinguished, so far as designs are concerned, from many found elsewhere in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona.

An instructive pictograph, different from any which I have elsewhere seen, was discovered on the upturned side of a bowlder not far from Hance's ranch, near the road from Camp Verde to the cavate dwellings. The bowlder upon which they occur lies on top of a low hill, to the left of the road, near the river. It consists of a rectangular network of lines, with attached key extensions, crooks, and triangles, all pecked in the surface. This dædalus of lines arises from grooves, which originate in two small, rounded depressions in the rock, near which is depicted the figure of a mountain lion. The whole pictograph is 3-1/2 feet square, and legible in all its parts.

The intent of the ancient scribe is not wholly clear, but it has been suggested that he sought to represent the nexus of irrigating ditches in the plain below. It might have been intended as a chart of the neighboring fields of corn, and it is highly suggestive, if we adopt either of these explanations or interpretations, that a figure of the mountain lion is found near the depressions, which may provisionally be regarded as representing ancient reservoirs. Among the Tusayan Indians the mountain lion is looked on as a guardian of cultivated fields, which he is said to protect, and his stone image is sometimes placed there for the same purpose.

In the vicinity of the pictograph last described other bowlders, of which there are many, were found to be covered with smaller rock etchings in no respect characteristic, and there is a remnant of an ancient shrine a few yards away from the bowlder upon which they occur.

Indian Cave Burial Described in Calveras County, California

An interesting cave in Calaveras County, California, which had been used for burial purposes, is thus described by Prof. J. D. Whitney:

The following is an account of the cave from which the skulls, now in the Smithsonian collection, were taken: It is near the Stanislaus River, in Calaveras County, on 129a nameless creek, about two miles from Abbey’s Ferry, on the road to Vallicito, at the house of Mr. Robinson. There were two or three persons with me, who had been to the place before and knew that the skulls in question were taken from it. Their visit was some ten years ago, and since that the condition of things in the cave has greatly changed. Owing to some alteration in the road, mining operations, or some other cause which I could not ascertain, there has accumulated on the formerly clean stalagmitic floor of the cave a thickness of some 20 feet of surface earth that completely conceals the bottom, and which could not be removed without considerable expense. This cave is about 27 feet deep at the mouth and 40 to 50 feet at the end, and perhaps 30 feet in diameter. It is the general opinion of those who have noticed this cave and saw it years ago that it was a burying-place of the present Indians. Dr. Jones said he found remains of bows and arrows and charcoal with the skulls he obtained, and which were destroyed at the time the village of Murphy’s was burned. All the people spoke of the skulls as lying on the surface and not as buried in the stalagmite.

Indian Mound in North Carolina Reveals Contact With Masons

The grave was situated due east and west, in size about 9 by 6 feet, the line being distinctly marked by the difference in the color of the soil. It was dug in rich, black 122loam, and filled around the bodies with white or yellow sand, which I suppose was carried from the river-bank, 200 yards distant. The skeletons approximated the walls of the grave, and contiguous to them was a dark-colored earth, and so decidedly different was this from all surrounding it, both in quality and odor, that the line of the bodies could be readily traced. The odor of this decomposed earth, which had been flesh, was similar to clotted blood, and would adhere in lumps when compressed in the hand.

This was not the grave of the Indian warriors; in those we find pots made of earth or stone, and all the implements of war, for the warrior had an idea that after he arose from the dead he would need, in the “hunting-grounds beyond,” his bow and arrow, war-hatchet, and scalping-knife.

The facts set forth will doubtless convince every Mason who will carefully read the account of this remarkable burial that the American Indians were in possession of at least some of the mysteries of our order, and that it was evidently the grave of Masons, and the three highest officers in a Masonic lodge. The grave was situated due east and west; an altar was erected in the center; the south, west, and east were occupied—the north was not; implements of authority were near each body. The difference in the quality of the beads, the tomahawks in one, two, and three pieces, and the difference in distance that the bodies were placed from the surface, indicate beyond doubt that these three persons had been buried by Masons, and those, too, that understood what they were doing.

Will some learned Mason unravel this mystery and inform the Masonic world how the Indians obtained so much Masonic information?

The tomahawks, maxillary bones, some of the teeth, beads, and other bones, have been forwarded to the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, D.C., to be placed among the archives of that institution for exhibition, at which place they may be seen.

Should Dr. Spainhour’s inferences be incorrect, there is still a remarkable coincidence of circumstances patent to every Mason.

In support of this gentleman’s views, attention is called to the description of the Midawan—a ceremony of initiation for would-be medicine men—in Schoolcraft’s History of the Indian Tribes of the United States, 1855, p. 428, relating to the Sioux and Chippewas. In this account are found certain forms and resemblances which have led some to believe that the Indians possessed a knowledge of Masonry.

Indian Mound Excavation at Pensacola Florida

The next account relates to the grave-mounds near Pensacola, Fla., and was originally published by Dr. George M. Sternberg, surgeon United States Army:

Before visiting the mound I was informed that the Indians were buried in it in an upright position, each one with a clay pot on his head. This idea was based upon some superficial explorations which had been made from time to time by curiosity hunters. Their excavations had, indeed, brought to light pots containing fragments of skulls, but not buried in the position they imagined. Very extensive explorations, made at different times by myself, have shown that only fragments of skulls and of the long bones of the body are to be found in the mound, and that these are commonly associated with earthen pots, sometimes whole, but more frequently broken fragments only. In some instances portions of the skull were placed in a pot, and the long bones were deposited in its immediate vicinity. Again, the pots would contain only sand, and fragments of bones would be found near them. The most successful “find” I made was a whole nest of pots, to the number of half a dozen, all in a good state of preservation, and buried with a fragment of skull, which I take, from its small size, to have been that of a female. Whether this female was thus distinguished above all others buried in the mound by the number of pots deposited with her remains because of her skill in the manufacture of such ware, or by reason of the unusual wealth of her sorrowing husband, must remain a matter of conjecture. I found, altogether, fragments of skulls and thigh-bones belonging to at least fifty individuals, but in no instance did I find anything like a complete skeleton. There were no vertebræ, no ribs, no pelvic bones, and none of the small bones of the hands and feet. Two or three skulls, nearly perfect, were found, but they were so fragile that it was impossible to preserve them. In the majority of instances, only fragments of the frontal and parietal bones were found, buried in pots or in fragments of pots too small to have ever contained a complete skull. The conclusion was irresistible that this was not a burial-place for the bodies of deceased Indians, but that the bones had been gathered from some other locality for burial in this mound, or that cremation was practiced before burial, and the fragments of bone not consumed by fire were gathered and deposited in the mound. That the latter supposition is the correct one I deem probable from the fact that in digging in 120the mound evidences of fire are found in numerous places, but without any regularity as to depth and position. These evidences consist in strata of from one to four inches in thickness, in which the sand is of a dark color and has mixed with it numerous small fragments of charcoal.

My theory is that the mound was built by gradual accretion in the following manner: That when a death occurred a funeral pyre was erected on the mound, upon which the body was placed. That after the body was consumed, any fragments of bones remaining were gathered, placed in a pot, and buried, and that the ashes and cinders were covered by a layer of sand brought from the immediate vicinity for that purpose. This view is further supported by the fact that only the shafts of the long bones are found, the expanded extremities, which would be most easily consumed, having disappeared; also, by the fact that no bones of children were found. Their bones being smaller, and containing a less proportion of earthy matter, would be entirely consumed. ***

Hopewell Sioux and Iroquois Mound Builders in Henry County, Indiana

HOPEWELL SIOUX AND IROQUOIS MOUND BUILDERS IN HENRY COUNTY, INDIANA

Historic Henry County,  map showing locations of burial mounds and earthworks in Henry County, Indiana with the exception that the small henge at the High School, on New Castle's south side, is not marked.  The red stick figures represent locations where giant human skeletons were reported.

   States that a five acre mound exists a few miles north of Kennert. In this mound were found giant skeletons with ivory beads.

     Letter to Frank Setzler, dated September 18, 1929 on file at the Indiana Historical Bureau, County Archaeological files, Indianapolis. Letter states a burial mound was excavated northeast of Shirley, in Henry County.

   There are 85 more mound and earthwork sites in Indiana. Many are some of Indiana's best tourists destinations. Get more histories, photos and directions to Indiana's ancient past with 'The Nephilim Chronicles: A Travel Guide to the Ancient Ruins in the Ohio Valley."  222 Burial mound and earthworks sites in Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky and Michigan. 






   Henry County; Past and Present: “A Brief History of the County from 1821 to 1871” by Elwood Pleas. 1871

Mounds, Earthworks, Etc.

       There are in the county many evidences of its having been the home of one or more races of people, now passes away. Numerous mounds and earthworks or fortifications are found in the county while flint, arrow and spear heads are found in almost every neighborhood, and it might be said on almost every farm in the county. Stone pestels, hammers, tomahawks or hatchets, and other implements and trinkets are found in portions of the county. Whether these belonged to the race of “red men” that immediately preceded the whites, or to a people they had displaced is perhaps an open question. It is into this part of the State, knew as little about the manufacture of these arrowheads and stone hatchets as we do today, and yet these very weapons have been the only implements used by their ancestors of two hundred years before. It would not have taken he of the “untutored mind” long to discover the superior murderous quality of a steel hatchet over the blunt implement of his sires, and of course, as the stone implement was superceded the art of manufacture was lost, and even a well defined tradition of its use soon passed away with people unused to letters.

This map is a revision from Eli Lillies orignal that puts the largest henge across the drive  that leads up to the site. The mounds and earthworks north of the drive are in an east west alignment and mark the yearly Equinox sunrise and sunset, along with the gateway of the largest henge.

     The most notable earthworks of the county are perhaps those on the “Hudelson place,” formerly the “Allen Shepherd farm.” Here are fortifications which have defied the ravages of the “tooth of time” for aught we know for a century, and the plowman’s share for half that time, and yet, in some instances from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the embankment is still four to six feet, though generally much less.  Several of them enclose near a half acre, and generally there is in the center a mound which was probably at one time much higher than the surrounding embankment and served as a sort of observatory and as well perhaps as a resting place for the dead. 

The significance of these measurements are the frequency in which they occur. The largest henge is 250 feet in diameter that shows up in many of the henges in the Ohio Valley, and especially around Chillicothe, Ohio. Gateways of 250 foot henges are generally aligned (as is this one) to the equinox.

This a map of just a few of the henges around Chillicothe, Ohio that were also 250 feet in diameter.

I discovered one of the 250 foot henges above Water Street in this lawn.  Henges that were 250 feet in diameter had smaller outer wall and ditches that surrounded the central platform.  

   There are one or more mounds without the surrounding ditch and embankments. One of the most noticeable is about two rods across at the base and near five feet in height although some body-snatcher has been thrusting his sacrilegious spade into it, with what result we know not. Like the famous general who “fit” in the Mexican war, these aboriginal engineers seemed to prefer having the ditch on the inside of the embankment, which probably served as a fence for the retention of stock as well as for defense from without. Some of the enclosures appear to have been circular, others quadrangular, one octagonal and some of irregular outline, though from the partial obliteration of the walls the exact state is not easily determined. Some of the walls were probably eight or more feet in h eight in early times and it is reported that some of them were surmounted with the remains of a stockade much less than fifty years ago.

A small section of the largest 250 foot henge can be seen on the north side of the drive leading up to the site.

Most of the largest mound with a fiddle back ditch and earthwork surrounding it  has been destroyed by Ball State archaeologists.  It measured 215 feet, which is significant because the fiddle shaped earthwork at Mounds State Park in Anderson, Indiana is also 215 feet, as is the large mound surrounded by an earthwork Marietta, Ohio.

   Even more astounding, without getting to deep in to the numerology and sacred measurements of the Adena Hopewell is that 215 was also used to make some of the largest earthworks in the Ohio Valley.

There were six of these earthworks constructed around Chillicothe, Ohio that consisted of a square 1080 feet per side (see Randolph county for their earthwork measuring 1080), a circle 800 feet in diameter and the large circle that was 1720 feet in diameter or 215 X 8 =1720!

This is part of the outer wall of one of the henges that are in the woods, south of the drive.

This is a photo of the equinox sunset looking from the fidleback mound west towards the henge and mound to the west, where they are in perfect alignment.  The sun falls in to visible notch in the distant hill.

This what the fiddleback mound looked just a few years ago, its outer earthwork with interior ditch visible in the photo.  It marked the equinox sunrise and sunset for 2000 years before being nearly destroyed by Ball State archaeologist. 

This is a photo of Ball State archaeologist destroying one of Indiana's and America's finest antiquities. Dark spots near the bottom are from cremations.  The Ball State archaeologist is shoveling the cremated remains of the Hopewell Sioux in to a wheel barrow where they will be taken to a sifter in search of artifacts. No effort was made by Ball State archaeologists to restore the mound and they make frequent trips to New Castle, slowly eradicating this historical treasure.  Oh yes, what did the archaeologist find? A piece of pottery with a zig opposed to a zag, and he declared it "The New Castle Phase." Somehow implying that is different than Mounds State Park,  You saw measurements, and so you know more than this clown, and didn't have to destroy anything.

      

     One of these old forts is on the premises and nearly in front of the residence of Mr. Joseph Dorrah, about one and a half miles north of New Castle, the New Castle and Northern Pike cutting it in two. There are two stumps in it, the remains of trees, probably more than one hundred and fifth years old. There are also similar relics in other portions of the county, all speaking to us of the trials, hardships and struggles of a race whose extinction seems near at hand. The hand of the “pale face” seems ever against them, even the sacred precincts of their burial grounds are invaded and their bones are not suffered to rest in peace.

     In constructing railroads and turnpikes their crumbling skeletons have been exhumed by scores and scattered to the four winds.

Historic Henry County, 1820-1849,Vol I. 

     Another Adena enclosure still remains in the city of New Castle. This is found at the west edge of Baker Park on S. Main St., immediately east of the Chrysler High School. Although its original use is problematical it is generally considered this type of enclosure was of ceremonial usage. It is an excellent example of the work of the Adena Culture although not as large as similar mounds found in the Mounds State Pak in Anderson. New Castle and Henry County residents will do well to see that these works of the earliest residents are preserved for future generations.

SSmall henge, similar to the henges in the woods and between the two burial mounds.  It ia aligned to the winter solstice sunrise.(?)

Indiana Geological Survey 1862:

      About seven or eight miles west of new Castle; a number of Indian skeletons were disinterred in constructing a turnpike; and about the same distance south of town some remarkable human bones and skeletons of giant size were dug out, with other relics, during the making of the road.

Artisans and Artifacts of Vanished Races, Theophilus Dickerson, 1915

PECULIAR GRAVEL MOUND IN HENRY COUNTY, INDIANA

This Isolated Monument of Nature at an Early Period Surrounded by Water-Two Roadways.

HUMAN SKELETON EIGHT FEET IN HEIGHT UNEARTHED TWELVE FEET BENEATH SURFACE-EIGHTY FOUR IVORY BEADS FOUND IN IVORY SAUCER ON THE BREAST OF GIANT.

A few miles north of Kennerd, in Henry county, Indiana, is a remarkable mound that covers an area of five acres.

Unlike other mounds found in Indiana and other states, it is composed primarily of sand and gravel and covered by a forest of native trees of a century’s growth.

There is not another deposit of sand or gravel in six or eight miles. The surrounding country is plain.

This pile of sand and gravel, as stated in above, covers an area of five acres and is of cone shape. When first known by white men it had a well defined ditch around it, and two made roadways, wide enough for a wagon, one from the north and the other from the south.

Farmers and road builders that needed gravel and sand found these glacial screenings to come handy in the building of public highways and for a small price per cubic yard paid to the owner of land found it more convenient than going to Springport or Mount Summit, a distance of eight miles.

After opening this deposit to a depth of 12 feet from the top of mound they unearthed a human skeleton whose framework measured nearly eight feet in height.

His skull would fit over the head of a large man; his jaws being massive and teeth in a perfect state of preservation.

On the breast of this big chief was a saucer-shaped vessel of ivory, about six inches in diameter, containing 84 ivory beads, that must have been made from the tusk of a mastodon.

We tried the persuasion of money on the old farmer in order to secure the ivory specimens, but he was invincible. We had no desire to become the possessor of human bones.