Mound Builders(Probably a Marker)

Mound Builders is the name given to the race whose works, known as earthworks, are found in America, largely in the shape of mounds. There are many theories in regard to them, some believing them to be the same as the American Indians(Roma), the ancestors either of the more civilized Indians. found in the southern states, or of the Aztecs in Mexico, while others consider them to have been a superior race, of whom nothing is known, (to most people) except these curious remains. From the contents of the mounds they seem to have been passing from the stone age to the metal, having some copper, but weapons and tools of stone. Some of the mounds seem to have been used as burial places, and others as temple. They are found in the Mississippi valley, and in no other parts of North America, but most extensively in Ohio, (O High O) Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. They are usually mounds, from 6 to 25 feet high, though some of the temple mounds reach higher; one in Illinois is 90 feet high, and measures 700 by 500 feet at the base. They usually have a ditch around them, and are often in an enclosure, with low earth walls and connecting passages, as one at New.ark , Ohio, which coves more than two square miles and has about 12 miles of embankments from 2 to 20 feet high, and another at Marietta, Ohio, covering a large square, with double walls enclosing a passage to the river. When used as burial places the mounds rarely contain more than one skeleton. There are also curious figures of animals; one on the form of a serpent, 1,000 feet long and about five feet high, was discovered in Adams county, Ohio. The period when the mounds were built is variously estimated. The Indians found in North America, when settled by Europeans, were very much behind the mound builders in their arts of living, judging from the remains found. The large trees growing on the mounds are another indication of their age; and the fact that they are never built on the lowest formed river terraces, is thought to be another proof of their great age, which is estimated at from 1,800 to 2,000 years.

mound - An artificial hill; raise bank; a rampart. To fortify with a mound.