Indiana mound builder's giant race
Henge group in Henry County, Indiana.
Indiana Geological Survey, 1862
Henry County, Indiana
About seven or eight miles west of New Castle, a number of Indian skeletons were disinterred in the constructing a turnpike, and about the same distance south of town some remarkable humans bones and skeletons of giant size were dug out, with other relics, during the making of the road.
Yorktown henge, Deleware County Indiana
Indiana Geological Survey, 1881
Delaware County, Indiana
The Indians used many of the hills as burial places; bones have been discovered which from their size would indicate that they belonged to a race of giants.
History of Delaware County, Indiana, 1924
About one mile and a half south of Muncie, in Center Township is another class of these earthworks--a mound of considerable proportions which is said to have been dug into by some parties in search of relics. The excavation, however developed the fact that it contained, instead of relics, human bones. "One of these skeletons was of gigantic proportions. The jaw and thighbones were in a good state of preservation, and nearly complete. The jaw-bone was so large that it could be easily slipped over the jaw of the largest man of the party--a tall, big boned six footer, and the the thigh bone of the skeleton was three inches longer than his” The discovery of these numerous bones fixed the class under which this specimen should be arranged--the sepulcher--and would also warrant the presumption that there were specimens of some of the other classes not far distant, though investigation has not developed the fact.
Winchester Earthwork in Randolph County, Indiana
History of Randolph County, Indiana, by E. Tucker, 1882
There are many antiquities in Randolph County, mounds embankments, ect. some of which are described below:
One of the best known is to be seen (partly) in the fair grounds northwest of Winchester. It is an enclosure of forty-three acres in the form of an exact square. The embankment was from seven to ten feet wide, as also having a mound in the center of the area fifteen feet high. The whole enclosure and the embankment also, when found by the settlers, was covered with large forest trees exactly like the adjacent regions. The eastern opening was unprotected, the western one was surrounded outwardly by an embankment shaped like a horse shoe open toward the gate, joined on the north side to the embankment, but left open on the south side of the gate for a passage to the outer grounds.
The embankment has been considerably lowered throughout the greater portion of its extent by cultivation, by the passage of highways, ect., but it is still several feet high, and is very plainly traceable along its entire extent.
Some of the bank on the south side toward the southeast corner still remains, as it existed at the settlement of the county. That part is now some six feet high, and perhaps twenty-five feet wide. A large portion of the eastern bank has lately been dug away for the purpose of brick making, and it is said that charcoal is found scattered throughout the mass of clay composing the embankment.
On the side of the creek not very far distant were gravel banks containing great quantities of human bones, which are said to have been hauled away by wagonloads. These skeletons were many of them large, but bones were much decayed and crumbled readily when disturbed and brought out to the air.
Histories of Pike and Dubois Counties, Indiana, 1885
Pike County, Indiana
John Stucky, Mr. Osborn and a few others, whose names are forgotten, were digging a grave on top of a mound near Siple's, and reaching the depth of about three feet came upon the remains of three persons. The first was a huge being, the lower maxillary being large enough to pass over that of a living person, flesh and all. Mr. Stucky further says that the femur bone was several inches longer than that of an ordinary man. Unfortunately these remains have been neglected and lost. Of the remains of the other two, one seemed to have been a women, the other a child. The skeleton of the women was reclining between the legs of the huge man, and the child between those of the
Mounds State Park Henge Site
Lima Daily News, (Lima Ohio) July 27, 1892
May Buy The Mounds
Congress To Purchase Prehistoric Works
(Anderson, Ind., Letter)
The questions of converting the Indiana prehistoric mounds into a national park will be revived again this session of congress and more favorable action may be taken. As archaeologists continue the study of the mound builders they find that the Indiana mounds are most remarkable of all in the nation. Recent discoveries have added a great deal of interest to the Indiana mounds and they have again demanded the attention of the Smithsonian Institution, which was one of the prime movers some years ago in the attempt to have the grounds converted into a national park.
Dora Biddle of Anderson a collector of antiques has a skull, and another is on exhibition here, which has been severed just above the ears, in such a manner as to remove the crown of the head and lay the brain bare. These skulls were found with others under conditions, which would indicate that they were those of the mound builders. They are very large, show marked intellectually, and unlike skulls of the present day, or of the Indians, have a fifth skull bone in the back of the head. There can be no doubt that the purpose of removing the tops of these skulls was to remove the brain tissue. The skulls have been severed with some fine instrument, which did the work as precisely as the surgeon’s saw of today would do it.
Recently, while making an excavation near the mounds, workmen who did not appreciate the find suddenly came upon a composition, which resembled a baked cement or clay. It was round and secure. They broke into it and found they had opened a hermetically sealed cave, which resembles greatly our cisterns of the present day. It was dry as a powder-house, and the air, which came from its recesses, was sickening and tainted with great age. Here in this small receptacle, scarcely large enough to hold more, were found six skeletons in a sitting position. All six skeletons in a sitting position. All were propped up evidently when first put in. When the fresh air came rolling in they crumbled to pieces and but for a few bones which remain no trace is left of this remarkable find. The bones that are saved, however, indicate a people who were very large-decidedly larger than those of the present day. Parts of the skulls showed that the heads were very large also-the foreheads were very large.
There can be little doubt that this find is closely connected with the mounds and that the skeletons were those of mound builders. It is claimed a similar discovery was made some years ago near the mounds, and that this proves convincingly that mound builders were the occupants of the cells. This mode of burial could not have been that of the modern Indians who occupied this part of the country at the time of the landing of Columbus.
Francis Walker of this city, who has long advocated the converting of the Indian mounds into a national park, says that the mound builders of this section were far advanced in the arts and sciences. If the mounds were as supposed, built upon the shales which underlie the alluvial deposits, a reference to geological data would place the existence of these aborigines back as far as the time of the Pharaohs.
To the east of the mounds is a cave of artificial formation that leads in toward the great mound 150 feet distant, and is fully fifty feet below the present surface of the mounds. There is little doubt that here lies the solving of the great mystery. It is probable that following this would bring a person in the inner chamber of a work of primitive building that would solve the doubts now existing regarding the history of this remarkable people.