Indiana's Iowa, Omaha, Osage Oneota Hopewell Sioux Mound Builder Pipes

   Disk pipes of the heavy type have found in the ceremonial bundles of the Iowa, Omaha, and Osage ( Siouan tribes), provided with stems fitted in such a manner that the disks were used for the bowls. This same type of pipe is characteristic of the Oneota culture centering in Nebraska and Iowa and strongly suspected of Siouan identity. We in Indiana are particularly interested in this form, for it was the characteristic one of the celebrated site near the Wabash dug in 1898 by Clifford Anderson. More on the Oneota and Osage IndiansThese pipes, together with coiled-copper ear ornaments, cylindrical copper beads, and a small triangular arrow points, suggest Siouan relationships.

   This is considered a very old type of pipe, no file marks having been found on any specimens examined. Since pipestems were considered so important for decorative and symbolic purposes at the time of discovery, and since the oldest of these disk pipes probably had no stems, it is quite probable that they are very old form. The disk pipe found in the Upper Mississippi and Ohio Valleys and in the western parts of the Middle Atlantic States.

Hittite Tablet Discovered in Iowa Burial Mound

Hittite Tablet Discovered in Iowa Burial Mound

There are other striking facts which seem to prove that the ancient Britons first peopled this country. Ancient mounds, walls, embankments, and parallels, such as are found in this country, exist throughout England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. The Picts painted themselves in different colors, like the aborigines of this continent. The ancient British Druids were buried in mounds. Among the ornaments worn by the British Druid was one like the ordinary plummet-stone of the Indians. In our mounds, grates or fireplaces are discovered containing charcoal and partially burnt human bones. The British Druids burnt human beings in the performance of their rites.", condensed. The author then goes on to describe Welsh, Scandinavian, and Roman remains found in various parts of North and South America, even stating that "many fragments of Roman armour have been found here." One author is satisfied that the inscriptions accompanying the "Cremation Scene" on the Davenport tablets are Hittite; but naively adds " It may be some time yet before our knowledge of the Hittite language will enable us to arrive at perfectly accurate translations of the inscriptions." — Campbell.

Iowa Cremation Burial Mound

Iowa Cremation Burial Mound

A. S. Tiffany describes what he calls a cremation-furnace, discovered within seven miles of Davenport, Iowa.

*** Mound seven miles, below the city, a projecting point known as Eagle Point. The surface was of the usual black soil to the depth of from 6 to 8 inches. Next was found a burnt indurated clay, resembling in color and texture a medium-burned brick, and about 30 inches in depth. Immediately beneath this clay was a bed of charred human remains 6 to 18 inches thick. This rested upon the unchanged and undisturbed loam of the bluffs, which formed the floor of the pit. Imbedded in this floor of unburned clay were a few very much decomposed, but unburned, human bones. No implements of any kind were discovered. The furnace appears to have been constructed by excavating the pit and placing at the bottom of it the bodies or skeletons which had possibly been collected from scaffolds, and placing the fuel among and above the bodies, with a covering of poles or split timbers extending over and resting upon the earth, with the clay covering above, which latter we now find resting upon the charred remains. The ends of the timber covering, where they were protected by the earth above and below, were reduced to charcoal, parallel pieces of which were found at right angles to the length of the mound. No charcoal was found among or near the remains, the combustion there having been complete. The porous and softer portions of the bones were reduced to pulverized bone-black. Mr. Stevens also examined the furnace. The mound had probably not been opened after the burning.

Mound Builders Crematory Furnace Found in Iowa

Mound Builders Sioux cremation-furnace, discovered within seven miles of Davenport, Iowa.

 Mound seven miles, below the city, a projecting point known as Eagle Point. The surface was of the usual black soil to the depth of from 6 to 8 inches. Next was found a burnt indurated clay, resembling in color and texture a medium-burned brick, and about 30 inches in depth. Immediately beneath this clay was a bed of charred human remains 6 to 18 inches thick. This rested upon the unchanged and undisturbed loam of the bluffs, which formed the floor of the pit. Imbedded in this floor of unburned clay were a few very much decomposed, but unburned, human bones. No implements of any kind were discovered. The furnace appears to have been constructed by excavating the pit and placing at the bottom of it the bodies or skeletons which had possibly been collected from scaffolds, and placing the fuel among and above the bodies, with a covering of poles or split timbers extending over and resting upon the earth, with the clay covering above, which latter we now find resting upon the charred remains. The ends of the timber covering, where they were protected by the earth above and below, were reduced to charcoal, parallel pieces of which were found at right angles to the length of the mound. No charcoal was found among or near the remains, the combustion there having been complete. The porous and softer portions of the bones were reduced to pulverized bone-black. Mr. Stevens also examined the furnace. The mound had probably not been opened after the burning.