Burial Mound Being Excavated Here Brings to Light Man's Ancient Past

The Marietta Daily Times, September 18, 1956

By Shirley Guinta

In 1936 Reed Hallock and friend dug haphazardly into a mound. They finished their job, "dragging a skeleton behind."

Reed Hallock and friends are still digging into mounds but in a much more scientific manner.

Today Hallock and other excavation enthusiasts are organized into the year-old Marietta Archaeological Society. Since July 1 the major project of four of the society's eight members has been the excavation of a mount on the Chester A. Ralston Farm in Oak Grove.

With whisk brooms and small trowels in hand, the diggers have already uncovered six cremation burials (evidenced by skull, jaw or teeth fragments), flint points, stone axes and scraps of pottery in the small four feet high, 45 feet in diameter mound.

For Information Only

However, Hallock stresses, the mound is being excavated strictly for the sake of archaeological information and not for art effects [artifacts].

All members of the digging crew have learned the proper methods of digging so that no vital information which might be uncovered will be destroyed. The area has been staked off into five-feet squares, the standard staking procedure for working on such a site.

Notes are being kept on all findings of the group. Notations are made on the depth at which any material was found. The society will publish a book on its work after the excavation is completed.

"Of course," Hallock added, "we wouldn't be digging into any of these historic mounds if they weren't going to be destroyed anyhow."

"This particular mound on the Ralston farm was going to be plowed under by Mr. Ralston to make way for more farming area. He gave us permission to excavate before he leveled off the land."

Mound's Discoverer

Richard Patterson, 15-year-old Marietta High School junior, is responsible for having discovered that the Ralston mound was going to be destroyed. An archaeological enthusiast, he notified Hallock of the situation and opened the road for the interesting and informative excavation.

"Dick has been our foreman in the field, we might say," laughed Hallock, president of the society. "He spent his entire summer working on the mound. He even worked in the rain to further the job along."

All workers on the mound are volunteers. Hallock and Edward Williams, the third crew member, donate their time after daytime work hours and on weekends. Paul Byrd, Marietta College senior, spent several of his free afternoons working at the site during the summer.

A few other workers, one of whom was David Ray, have helped out at the site at various times during the past three and a half months. These volunteers, Hallock hopes, will eventually become members of the Marietta Archaeological Society.

Rigors of Excavation

Circumstances under which the men have worked are discouraging enough to daunt the initiative of any but the most enthusiastic group. The mound was completely covered with poison ivy in July and, in clearing the foliage from the site, all the workers were stricken to some degree with the uncomfortable rash.

A huge hickory tree standing in the center of the mound added to the group's worries. The 115-year-old tree had been struck by lightening several years ago but continued to stand as a towering protection over the mound.

After cutting the tree off level with the ground, the men dug into the ground around the trunk, little by little cutting out the roots of the aged tree.

The remains which the crew has found tell an interesting story. Hallock explained that the people who buried their dead in the mound were of the Adena culture (1000 B.C. to 100 B.C.), ancestors of our historic Indians. Hallock explained that Indians did not build the mounds as present-day beliefs would lead us to understand.

The fact that the ancient people buried their dead indicates their belief in preservation of the body for a Hereafter. Because of the presence of items found in the mound which had to come from areas other than this locale, the archeologists believe that the Adena people had developed a trading system with people in other areas.

Agriculturists

Known as existing in the "Early Woodland" period, the Adena people hunted (as proven by the flint points and stone axes found in the mound) and had agriculture.

Pieces of pottery vessels which were found indicate that the Adena people were the first to make pottery vessels rather than stone vessels. All of their pottery was very crude and was not grit tempered. No indication of decoration is shown but the Adenas did develop lug or knob-type handles on the vessels.

Charcoal found in the mound will be sent to a university to undergo tests to determine the age at which the mound was built.

"Actually," Hallock said, "man probably came into this area 8000 years before the Adena culture began."

Studies have shown that Washington County was part of a huge lake around 9000 B.C. when a glacier covered the land north of here (the glacier probably started in this area near Pittsburgh, circled around northern Ohio and then met what is now the Ohio River near Cincinnati). After this Ice Age had passed, man undoubtedly came into this area, as Hallock explained.

"Marietta is resting on archaeological remains and our society is trying to educate the people as to the wealth that they have here."

Uselessly Destroyed

"The last survey taken of mounds in Washington County was completed in 1914 but most of the 102 mounds indicated in that survey are no longer in existence, proving that the people are uselessly destroying these mounds that can tell so much about our past," Hallock said.

At present, the group is about half done in its excavation venture. Barring setbacks, such as more poison ivy maladies, they hope to complete the task before freezing weather sets in. This time a wiser Hallock and friends will finish their job with a set of informative notes to accompany the "skeleton" they'll drag behind.

Extract from the Journals of Congress, August 24, 1786

 Massachusetts Centinel (Boston), October 14, 1786

Resolved, That the Secretary at War give orders to Lieutenant-Colonel Harmar, that he signify to the Moravian Indians, lately come from the river Huron to Cayahoga, that it affords pleasure to Congress to hear of their arrival, and that they have permission to return to their former settlement on the Muskingum, where they may be assured of the friendship and protection of the United States; and that lieutenant-colonel Harmar supply the said Indians, after their arrival at Muskingum, with a quantity of Indian corn, not exceeding five hundred bushels, out of the publick stores on the Ohio, and deliver the same to them at Fort McIntosh, as soon after next Christmas as the same may be procured; and that he furnish the said Indians with twenty Indian axes, twenty corn hoes, and one hundred blankets; and that the board of treasury and secretary at war take order to carry the above into effect.

Prehistoric Indian Camp Is Uncovered Near Reno

 The Marietta Daily Times, May 15, 1968

Earth moving equipment being operated along Ohio 7 near Reno, several days ago cut into what may have been the site of a small prehistoric Indian camp or village, almost completely destroying the archaeological find.

According to Richard P. Patterson, regional collaborator for Ohio State Archaeological Society and editor of the magazine, "The Ohio Archaeologist," what was left after the machinery dug into the earth along the river was chiefly "just a pile of useless bones."

Patterson, who examined and retrieved what he could from the discovery, said a small number of refuse pits had been disturbed by the blade of the machine, the pits having contained debris in the form of broken animal bones; fire-cracked river stones broken by the heat of the Indian campfires; flint debris; charcoal and mussel shells and a few small bits of broken pottery sherds. The pottery bits, he said, are representative of the most diagnostic artifact type, providing information about the group of people that lived at this location.

The pottery, tempered with crushed shell, indicates the Late Prehistoric Time Period, roughly after 12 A.D. to 1650. Patterson pointed out that the clay of the riverbank was mixed with crushed shell to temper it, or keep it from shrinking when it was baked.

He also indicated the destroyed site may have been a larger camp or village at one time, one that could have been destroyed largely by the river cutting into the banks. The portion uncovered and crushed by the machinery probably represented what was left of the original camp.

Size of the parts of human bones examined by Patterson suggest they may have been from two bodies, an adult male and an adult female. He said it was reasonable to assume they had been buried in a flexed position (knees tightly against chest) in a small space and that apparently no burial offerings had been placed in the graves with the bodies.

In fact, he noted, the bodies may have been buried in the refuse pits, which were usually quite near the Indian dwellings. These, he said, were often built in a circle inside a palisades, possibly for protection against warring tribes. Bodies were generally buried on their side or back in as small a space as possible, since these Fort Ancient Culture Indians had very little in the way of digging tools, only sticks or the shoulder bone of an animal.

The broken bones and the debris within the pits are the same types as those uncovered last year at the boat launching facility at the fairgrounds.

"It is regrettable," stated Patterson, "that it was not possible to halt the operation once the machinery dug into the pits until properly qualified persons could make careful excavations and prevent damage."