Sandstone tablet engraved with stylized human faces on the heads of stylized birds. Has design resembling an arrow on side, reverse has “deeply worn hollows as though it had been used for sharpening some hard instrument with a round point”, consisting of five and three shallow grooves, Arrow encircles the edges of the tablet.

• Dr. L. B. Welch and J. M. Richardson and John W. Jones found on January 31, 1879. 3.5 miles from Wilmington, Ohio near turnpike leading to Harveysburg Dr. L.B. Welch and J.M. Richardson Wilmington pamphlet on Sparks Mound on the north side, 200 yards from the pike. Mound 40 ft north to south, 45 ft east and west, 6.5 ft height.

   

  Mound composed of yellow clay. Found at a depth of three feet, a layer of charcoal and ashes from four to six inches in depth, which covered the entire surface. Skeletons were placed with their heads at the center and skeletons radiating outward. At an elevation of about 6 inches above the original surface, and four or five feet from the center, embedded in charcoal and ashes, was found a piece of mica about 3/8 inch thick and ten by thirteen inches. Two feet below the original surface of the mound, a skeleton face down. Within the left hand of the skeleton was found clasped the tablet.

• L= 123.84mm, W= 98.44mm, T= 15.90mm

• Wilmington Mound, waverly sandstone

• A description of Prehistoric Relics found near wilmington, Ohio. By L. B Welch and J.M Richardson. AAOJ, Vol 1, pp 40-48

• An Illuustrated Description of Prehisoric Relics found near Wilmington, Ohio. L, B. Welch and J. M. Richardson, Journal Steam Print, Wilmington, 1879

• Collection Number:A 3490, Collection Title: A. T. Wehrle Collection Catalog Number: A 3490/000210, Image Number: AL05310

Wilmington Journal , Wilmington, Ohio, Wednesday, May 7, 1879. Volume XII, No. 8. “Mound Builders”

A Full Description of the Relics Found by J. M. Richardson --- A Neat Pamphlet issued by Dr. L.B. Welch and Mr. Richardson in the interest of Science.
 

Dr. L. B. Welch and J.M. Richardson have issued a neat pamphlet, which was printed at this office, giving a full description, accompanied with cuts, of the interesting relics now in their possession.  Through the kindness of those gentlemen, we are granted the privilege of reproducing the same in the JOURNAL.  The cuts are exact representations of the originals, in every particular.

The following is the descriptive matter:

The Mound is situated upon the road leading from Wilmington to Harveysburg, and known as the Wilmington and Waynesville Pike, and about three and a half miles from the former place, due west, upon the Sparks farm, and has long been known as the Sparks Mound.  It is on the north side, and perhaps 200 yards from the pike.  In shape, the mound is almost round, being forty feet north and south by forty five east and west, and in height six and half feet. 

 

As the timber was removed but almost four years ago, and the ground has never been plowed but once, the mound is perhaps near its original height.  The earth of which the mound is composed is of the same character as that mound in the fields adjacent, being the yellowish clay of the glacial period.  Upon the summit of the mound and about the center stood a large sugar tree (Acer saccharinum) stump; about fifteen or sixteen feet north of the center, stood another of same kind and size. 

 

There is nothing remarkable in the surroundings of the mound, save the evidence of an ancient roadway or approach leading up from the valley of Todd’s Fork, which by a gradual rise brings one to the mound which, after reached, is found to occupy a position from where a wide and extended view of the creek bottoms and hills beyond can be had.  Included in the landscape are other mounds.

The opening was made from east to west. After reaching a depth of three feet a layer of charcoal and ashes four to six inches in depth, and which covered the entire surface at the time the deposit was made, was struck, amidst which was found skeletons.  The bodies had been buried in regular order, each having the head to the center and the feet toward the outer edge of the mound, radiating from the center as the spoke in a wheel radiate from the hub. 

 

Here reposed, side-by-side, infancy, manhood, and old age, as evidenced by the fact that here was found that least perishable part of all the human anatomy, that portion upon which the ravages of time make slowest inroads – the teeth. Side by side with the nearly crownless teeth of old age we find the undeveloped teeth of youth and the fully developed teeth of middle age.

After penetrating the layer last described the same characteristics marked the next three feet as did the first three.  When the original surface of the ground was reached and within eight feet of the center of the mound, two square holes were found, one south east and the other north east of the center.  These holes were near eighteen inches deep and twelve by twenty inches, and were filled with charcoal and ashes with bits of bone.  At an elevation of about six inches above the original surface, and four or five feet from the center, embedded in charcoal and ashes, was found a piece of mica three-eights of an inch thick and ten by thirteen inches in width. 

 

When the center of the mound was reached a truncated cone shaped mass, about two feet high and four feet in diameter, composed of clay that had evidently been mixed and burned until it assumed the color of a salmon brick was found.  Directly west, and one foot from the base of the cone was discovered a vault nine feet long and three feet wide, this head and foot of which was plainly marked by a wall of round, smooth boulders.  The vault was filled with charcoal and ashes, which, after being removed to a depth of near two feet disclosed the skeleton of a man who had been buried face downward and in a horizontal position. 

 

The body had been buried two feet below the original surface or level of the ground.  The walls of boulders extended no farther than to the shoulders on either side of the head, and those at the feet no farther than to the ankles.  Upon a removal of the bones of skeleton, within those of the left hand was found clasped the tablet marked figure 1.  This tablet is of Waverly sandstone, three and seven-eighths inches wide, four and seven-eighths long, and five-eighths of an inch thick ; the obverse being shown in Plate No. 1, it is only necessary here to speak of the reverse, which is unmarked save by five deep and three shallow grooves, and of those markings we have but this to offer as to their significance or meaning: 

 

Those acquainted with the character of the Waverly sandstone know that it possess a fine, sharp grit, and is well calculated for polishing purposes, and therefore we have no hesitancy in saying that so much of this stone as is missing was removed to be used in polishing the surface or drilling holes in some object of interest to the people or person to whom they belonged.

Plate No. 2 is an exact representation of the arrow that encircles the tablet, reduced to one-fourth its real size.

This relic was found by Mr. J. M. Richardson on the 31st day of January, 1879, and is named the “Richardson Tablet,” in honor of the discovery.  He was assisted in his labors by John W. Jones.

After a thorough investigation of the vault was made, and nothing further of interest was found, the opening was filled up.  Extremely cold weather setting in, nothing more could be done at the time, but, on the 12th day of the month following, another excavation was commenced and continued in a southwesterly direction from the vault.  Scarcely two feet from the edge of the vault, and about the same distance from the base of the cone-like center of the mound, was encountered a circle of round stones similar to those forming the extremities of the vault. 

 

The circle was on the original surface of the ground, and in diameter was about thirty inches and was built up to a height of twenty inches.  The space enclosed by these stones was filled with charcoal and ashes, and during their removal the piece shown in Plate No. 3 was found standing upon edge near the center of the pit, the bottom of which was formed of two stones, lying in a trough-like shape.

By reference to the engravings, Nos. 3 and 4, the reader will no doubt admit that this last piece found is perhaps the most interesting relic of that age about wich so little is known and so much is speculatory – the Mound Builders Period – that has ever yet been found.  Probably the most notable object in Plate No. 3 is the figure of a man – large, well formed, and of excellent proportions.  The features are bold, massive, and are of such a character as a student of ethnology would expect to find in a man of the race that constructed such almost imperishable monuments as the Mound Builders have left throughout the Middle and Western States. 

 

“The head is of the brachycephalic, or short-headed type ; it is squarely set on a neck and shoulders that are indicative of strength.  These facts are all apparent, however, and need no further explanation from us.  In connection therewith we find an illustration of the use that was made of a certain half moon shaped stone implement that is frequently met with in archaeological collections, viz., an ornament, hand hold or finish to the spear and axe handle. 

 

Another mooted question is also settled; that of the manner of fastening the spear and axe upon their handles; and another important matter is set at rest certainly: beyond all doubt and that is that the sol called Indian battle axe is not of Indian origin, but belongs to a people who evinced skill in the formation of implements devoted to warfare or the chase far in advance of the red man, who only made use of the labor of other hands.  The next thing in order is the costume, of which but little need be said, for all can see it and study it; but we are greatly of the opinion that it is conclusive evidence that the wearer thereof was an inhabitant of a warm climate.  As to the central figure we can say but little ; but, as it suggest to us the union of two bodies, might it not be typical of marriage?

In the square or tablet upon the left wing of the butterfly is the center of interest, to us at least.  And of this what can we say?  What mean those mysterious angles, curves, circles, and squares?  How much of history is hidden in these strangely wrought figures; how much that science has sought for, and how much of the origin, the habits, the life, language, and possibly the destiny of the people who are only known to us as the Mound Builders.

In Plate No. 4 we have a representation of the reverse of Plate No. 6, and in it we find the most difficult part of our task.  So much is suggested by the figures here represented.  Of what is the scene here presented emblematic? Does it represent an act of worship, propitiation, or is it sepulchral in its significance?  The animals here represented have all been, at some time, objects of worship to a people that have not yet entirely passed away.  As slabs of mica are almost invariably found in connection with human remains in ancient mound, may not the object in front of the recumbent figure be a mica mirror?

 

As to the reptile in the rear of the female figure we need say but little.  It is plainly a rattlesnake, on of the species now known as the Crotalus horridus, and is in an attitude of antagonism to the animal upon the extremity of the plate. Here, again, we are presented with good evidence that the person represented is an inhabitant of a warm climate, as shown by the costume; which, in ornamentation, at least, resembles the one worn by the male figure on the obverse of the stone.

The last described relic has been named by Mr. Richardson the “Welch Butterfly,” in honor of Dr. L.B. Welch, of Wilmington, O.

Plate No. 5 is a reproduction of the tablet on the left of Plate No, 3, enlarged two and a half diameters, for the purpose, if possible, of rendering it more legible.

We well recollect the cry of fraud that was raised against the Cincinnati tablet when it was found, and that the circumstances connected with the discovery of it was of such a character as to possibly throw some discredit upon its genuineness, we do not dispute; but as to the circumstances attending the discovery of the relics herein described we are free to say that no chance for doubt exists, and having enjoyed a privilege no others have, that of seeing the Richardson Tablet and the Cincinnati Tablet (through the kindness of Dr. H>H. Hill, of Cincinnati.) placed side by side, we do most unequivocally pronounce the Cincinnati Tablet genuine. 

 

Further ; we do unhesitatingly say that in these tablets we have the fact well established that pre-historic man, upon this continent possessed a written language; not a pictorial language, but a language composed of different and distinct characters, well and plainly written.

Wilmington Journal, Wilmington, Ohio, Wednesday, May 19, 1879. Volume XII, No. 1. “Mound Builders”

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The discovery of several Indian relics by J. M. Richardson, a few miles west of town, several days ago, has created quite a sensation in these parts.  The correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial in this place has taken a good deal of pains to investigate the matter ad wrote it up in full for last Saturday’s issue. 

We, therefore, reproduce his article, which is worth reading:

“Considerable excitement has been created among our citizens here by the exhibition of those relics of the mound builders mentioned in last Sunday’s Commercial.  Even those who have heretofore been indifferent to anything connected with what they are pleased to style “Indian relics” have shown a considerable amount of curiosity in regard to this discovery.  Believing that it would be of interest to the readers of the Commercial to know something of the construction of the mound from which these unique relics were taken, your correspondent concluded to take a stroll to its vicinity and view the mound for himself.  It lies four miles west of Wilmington.

“Just after crossing the little stream yclept Todd’s Fork, and mounting the bluff which forms it western bank, we turn to the right from off the roadway, and , threading a little strip of woods, came to a cleared field, in the southwestern corner of which is what is known as the Farquhar Mound.  It is oval in shape, and at its top on either side is an old, decayed stump, marking the points where, in the years agone, twin monarchs of the forest had raised their great shafts in air and entwined their leafy branches, sheltering and guarding, as sleepless sentinels, the secret of this grave which had seen long centuries pass away ere the seeds from which they sprung had dropped to earth. 

 

For years the farmer has furrowed its sides, planted there his grain and reaped from above it the harvest of his labors, little dreaming of the wonderful mysteries which lay beneath his ploughsharp, and which shall, perhaps reveal to the world the language and customs of the race of human beings who were so thoroughly exterminated from the face of the earth, and whose history has been so completely concealed, that of them not even a dimly remembered tradition has been handed down to the people of these later centuries. 

 

The questions of greatest interest in regard to this race, and over which ethnologists have so long puzzled their brains in the vain endeavor to find their solution, are: “ Whence came they?” “What were their life habits?” and “What caused their disappearance?”  Are these questions about to be answered by means of the relics discovered in this little mound? Who can tell?

“The mound is forty by forty-five feet in diameter, its greatest length lying east and west, and about five feet in height.  The first three feet of its outer portion is of earth, then comes five or six inches of ashes and charcoal, in which are mingled a great number of human bones.  The remainder of the mound is of earth.

“Mr. J. M. Richardson. A man who has spent a great deal of his time in searching for ‘relics’ and geological ‘specimens,’ and whose son is now out on a tour through Florida, examining the shell mounds of that State, opened this mound on the 31st day of January last, and after excavating a space of some twelve by eighteen feet, came across a vault, two and half feet in breadth by nine feet in length, sunk twenty inches below the original surface of the ground, and having a row of stones both at its head and foot.  In this vault, face downward, lay a single human skeleton buried in ashes, and clasping in its fingers of bone a stone tablet.  On the 12th day of February, Mr. Richardson, assisted by John Jones, Made another excavation in the mound, and, a few feet to the south of the vault, discovered a small circular hole dug in the ground, and walled with rocks to the height of five or six inches. 

 

At the bottom of this hole was a flat stone, broken in two pieces, and placed in such a manner as to form a V shaped basin, in which, buried in the ashes which filled the hole, and standing on edge, he discovered the second and most interesting of the two relics.  These two relics were deposited at the office of Dr. L. B. Welch, a gentleman who is well posted in such matters, and who has one of the finest private collections of relics and specimens in this part of the state.  Mr. Welch is now making complete drawings of the relics and the figures which they contain, for publication in an Ohio Journal.

The tablet found in the hand of the skeleton is of Waverly sandstone, with a flat surface of 3 7/8 inches by 4 7/8 inches in diameter and is about one-half inch thick.  On the edge of this stone is carved an arrow, its shaft, which is embellished with ornamentations, beginning at the upper right hand corner, extending toward the left entirely around the stone, and ending with a double barb at the place of beginning.  One side of the tablet is filled with deeply worn hollows, as though it had been used for sharpening some hard instrument with a rounded point.

 

The other side of the stone is covered with hieroglyphs in relief, the interstices being very deeply and clearly cut.  This surface is divided into four distinct and equal squares.  In the right hand lower division is the representation of the face of a human male, and in the left hand lower division that of a human female.  Both have bodies attached which resemble those of tadpoles; both are in a reclining position and their heads are at the opposite corners of the stone. 

 

Above them are variously shaped figures, beautifully curved lines, scrolls and hieroglyphics, joined together and interwoven in an indescribable manner, yet in the whole forming a perfect ness of design which shows not a little artistic genius and skill in its composition.  At the top of the stone, on this surface, are twenty notches, then over each of the supposed human figures.  Those above the male are inside a border line which extends around the stone near its edge, and those over the female are outside the line, on the extreme edge of the stone.  All these notches are in conjunction with the border line.

The second relic is called the ‘butterfly’ relic, from its shape.  It is made from banded slate-stone, and is seven and one-quarter inches broad.  A hole is drilled through its center, evidently intended for the insertion of a rod or handle.

“This butterfly relic is shaped like the insect after which it is named, having two wings and a thick body in the center.  On one side of this relic, and covering probably one-half of the left hand wing, is a rectangular figure, almost a square in fact, divided evenly between twenty smaller squares or divisions.  Each of these smaller squares contains a different hieroglyphic, the larger being surmounted by five others making twenty-five in all.  Right and left these divisions number four in each line, and vertically five. In one of these squares is the representation of a strange dual figure, also found in an enlarged and more perfect state on the body of the relic.  In another square is represented a bird, in similar style to the hieroglyphic of that figure found on the obelisks of Egypt.  In another are the phases of the moon.

 

Within the representation of the first quarter are seven dots, extending in a single semicircular line from one horn to the other; in the half-moon shaped figure are two dots placed near each other in the center, and in that wherein the moon approaches almost to its full are two dots, one at each edge.  In another division is a tree with six branches, three on each side of the trunk, each branch bearing a single lobe of fruit, with one larger lobe at the top of the tree, making seven in all.  In another is the last quarter of the moon, containing seven dots arranged as in the first quarter mentioned above; and still another contains a square with two lines running from the opposite corners and crossing each other in the center. 

 

The remaining divisions are filled with strange symbols, of which it would be impossible to give an intelligent description in writing.  On the center of the relic is carved the dual figure heretofore mentioned.  Covering almost the entire right of the relic is the well proportioned figure of a man facing toward the right.  His lips are thick, his nose straight, and formed in direct line with his low, shelving forehead.  His hair is long, falling to his shoulders. He is in the act of taking a step, his weight resting on the right foot, which is thrown forward and set firmly upon the ground, and on the toe of his left foot.  His dress consists of a jacket of buckskin, reaching to the waist and the wrists, and trousers fitting his little form closely and reaching to the instep.  At neck, waist and ankle are plainly seen the fringe of the buckskin. 

 

His head is surmounted by a hat of some soft material, fitting closely to the skull at the sides and top, shaped something like an inverted canoe, and ending at each point, front and rear, in pendant tassel.  In his right hand, which is elevated and thrown forward, he carries stone axe, grasping the long pole to which it is attached, near the end, and swinging the axe a little above the ground before him. In his left hand he carries a spear, with the point held forward at a ‘charge’.  As a finish to the end of both the axe and spear pole, and doubtless intended as a firm grasp for the hand, is one of those quarter moon shaped relics, perforated in the center and smoothly rounded, and whose use has heretofore been unknown. 

 

Their points are turned inward, toward axe and spear.

“Now, turn the ‘butterfly’ over, and on its other side at the extreme left of the wing we find the figure of an alligator, rampant, the outline of its back following the curve of the stone, and its fore feet raised in the air and supported by some artificial construction.  At the lower feet of the alligator begins a line forming the found base for the other figures, rising to the shape of a mound in the body of the relic and sinking to the ground level angina when it reaches the opposite wing, to the extreme edge of which it extends.  Just in front of the alligator, a male human face appears to be emerging from the side of the mound and looking upward toward the animal. 

 

Filling the center of the relic, and standing on the top of the mound, is a full length figure of a female, also facing toward the alligator, to which she appears to be offering homage by the performance of a religious rite, with both her hands she is holding a vessel shaped like a chemists retort, from which she is pouring a liquid into a hollow or trough in the mound immediately back of the face at her feet, the liquid, as it falls, being represented by eight dots arranged in a single line from the retort to the trough. 

 

Her clothing consists of a single loose garment, in the shape of a dress, which fits closely about the neck, reaches to the thigh in front, falling somewhat lower in the rear, where it ends in a point, seeming to be blown backward by the wind.  Her head dress consists of a skull cap of some kind, with a pointed rim in front, and her hari is woven in one plait intermingled with some foreign substance, and falls half way down her back. 

“On the right wing of this side of the relic are a rattlesnake and a panther, apparently just beginning a combat, the rattles of the serpent are plainly shown.  It has turned upon its assailant, and its forked tongue protrudes from its mouth.  The panther resembles, in its treatment, those ancient representations of the tiger found in India. It is crouching backward, its fore feet being pressed rigidly against the side of the mound as though it was in hesitancy about springing upon the snake. These figures are spirited and well drawn, the antagonism between the serpent and panther being well shown.

“All the lines upon this relic are clearly and deeply cut into its surface, the drawings were not executed by the Indians, for the characteristics represented in the features and clothing of the human figures are entirely different from those existing in that race, and could not even have been imagined by them.

“If these relics are genuine, and the have been declared to be so by Dr. Hill, of Cincinnati, as high an authority as any in the West, and others competent to judge, then will the wildest dreams of our archeologists be realized.  The hieroglyphs they contain will solve the mysteries of the origin, language, and customs of this lost race in regard to whom so many theories have been promulgated, and yet of whom so little is definitely known. “

Last week Mr. Richardson opened another mound, about a quarter of a mile from the one in which the first relics were discovered.  The mound last opened is located on the old Seth Linton farm, on the east side of Todd’s Fork. In digging, Mr. Richardson came across tow copper spools, upon which was wound thread made of sea grass. The spools are very much decayed – one of them falling in two pieces when picked up, and one end crumbling to atoms.

The thread is quite well preserved, taking everything into consideration. One end of the spool, which was gotten out in a perfect state, rested on the breast of a skeleton, and even the fabric of the goods is imbedded in it.  The relics are great curiosities, and have been carefully examined by Dr. Welch, who says he is unable to account for the presence of such specimens in this county. He suggests, however, that ‘from their appearance, the have been buried several weeks!’.

The assistance of scientific men will be courted to solve these mysteries.

Cincinnati Commercial. Vol. XXXIX,  No. 163 – Triple Sheet, Five Cents. Saturday Morning. February 22, 1879., February 21, 1879
Wilmington Journal, March 5, 1879. Vol. XI, No. 51. page 1.
Wilmington Journal, March 19, 1879. Vol. XII, No. 1. page 1.
Wilmington Journal, May 7, 1879. Vol. XII, No. 8. page 5

An intriguing and excellent description of such forms is as follows according to J.G. Frazier in his book entitled The Belief in Immortality from pages 96-104;
 

"The way in which these spiritual preserves originated is supposed to be as follows. In the earliest days of which the aborigines retain a tradition, and to which they give the name of alcheringa or dream times, their remote ancestors roamed about the country in bands, each band composed of people of the same totem. Thus one band would consist of frog people only, another of witchetty grub people only, another of Hakea flower people only, and so on.

 

Now in regard to the nature of these remote totemic ancestors of the alcheringa or dream times, the ideas of the natives are very hazy; they do not in fact clearly distinguish their human from totemic nature; in speaking, for example, of a man of the kangaroo totem they seem unable to discriminate sharply between the man and the animal: perhaps we may say that what is before the mind is a blurred image, a sort of composite photograph, of a man and a kangaroo in one; the man is semi-bestial, the kangaroo is semi-human.

 

And similarly with their ancestors of all other totems: if the particular ancestor, for example, had the bean-tree for their totem, then their descendants in thinking of them might, like the blind man in the Gospel, see in their minds eye men walking like trees and trees perambulating like men. Now each of these semi-human ancestors is thought to have carried about with him on his peregrinations one of more sacred sticks or stones of a peculiar pattern, to which the Arunta give the name of churinga: they are for the most part oval or elongated and flattened stones or slabs of wood, varying in length from a few inches to over five feet, and inscribed with a variety of patterns which represent or have reference to the totems.

 

But the patterns are purely conventional, consisting of circles, curved lines, spirals, and dots with no attempt to represent natural objects pictorially. Each of these sacred stones or sticks was intimately associated with the spirit part of the man or woman who carried it; for women as well as men had their churinga. When these semi-human ancestors died, they went into the ground, leaving their sacred stones or sticks behind them on the spot, and in every case some natural feature arose to mark the place, it might be a tree, a rock, a pool of water, fully preserved and handed down from generation to generation by the old men, and it is to these spots that down to the present day the souls of the dead regularly repair in order to await reincarnation.

 

The Arunta call the places okanikilla, and we may call them local totem centres, because they are the centres where the spirits of the departed assemble according to their totems.

But it is not merely the remote forefathers of the Central Australian savages who are said to have been possessed of these sacred sticks or stones: every man and woman who is born into the world has one of them, with which his or her spirit is believed to be closely bound up. This is intelligible when we remember that every living person is believed to be simply the reincarnation of an ancestor; for that being so he naturally comes to life with all the attributes which belonged to him in his previous state of existence on earth.

 

The notion of the natives is that when a spirit child enters into a woman to be born, he immediately drops his sacred stick or stone on the spot, which is necessarily one of what we have called the local totem centres, since in the opinion of the natives it is only at or near them that a woman can conceive a child. Hence when her child is born, the woman tells her husband the place where she fancies that the infant entered into her, and he goes with some old men to find the precious object, the stick or stone dropped by the spirit of the infant when it entered into the mother. If it cannot be found, the men cut a wooden one from the nearest hard-wood tree, and this becomes the sacred stick or churinga of the newborn child.

 

The exact spot, whether a tree or stone or what not, in which the childs spirit is supposed to have tarried in the interval between its incarnations, is called its nanja tree or stone or what not. A definite relation is supposed to exist between each individual and his nanja tree or stone. The tree or stone and any animal or bird that lights upon it is sacred to him and may not be molested. A native has been known earnestly to intercede with a white man to spare a tree because it was his nanja or birth-tree, and he feared that evil would befall him if it were cut down.

Thus in these Central Australian tribes every man, woman, and child has his or her sacred birth-stone or stick. But though every woman, like every man, has her sacred birth stone or stick, she is never allowed to see it under pain of death or of being blinded with a fire-stick. Indeed none but old women are aware even of the existence of such things. Uninitiated men are likewise forbidden under the same severe penalties ever to look upon these most sacred objects.

 

The sanctity ascribed to the sticks and stones is intelligible when we remember that the spirits of all the people both living and dead are believed to be intimately associated with them. Each of them, we are told, is supposed to be so closely bound up with a persons spirit that it may be regarded as his or her representative, and those of dead people are believed to be endowed with the attributes of their former owners and actually to impart them to any one who happens to carry them about with him. Hence these apparently insignificant sticks and stones are, in the opinion of the natives, most potent instruments for conveying to living the virtues and powers of the dead.

 

For example, in a fight the possession of one of these holy sticks or stones is thought to endow the possessor with courage and accuracy of aim and also to deprive his adversary of these qualities. So firmly is this belief held, that if to men were fighting and one of them knew that the other carried a sacred birth-stone or stick while he himself did not, he would certainly lose heart and be beaten. Again, when a man is sick, he will sometimes have one of these sacred stones brought to him and will scrape a little dust off it, mix the dust with water, and drink it. This is supposed to strengthen him. Clearly he imagines that with the scrapings of the stone he absorbs the strength and other qualities of the person to whom the stone belonged.

All the birth stones or sticks (churinga) belonging to any particular totemic group are kept together, hidden away from the eyes of women and uninitiated men, in a sacred store-house or ertnatulunga, as the Arunta and Unmatijera call it. This store-house is always situated in one of the local totem centres or oknanikilla, which, as we have seen, vary in size from a few yards to many square miles. In itself the sacred treasure-house is usually a small cave or crevice in some lonely spot among the rugged hills. The entrance is carefully blocked up with stones arranged so artfully as to simulate nature and to awake no suspicion in the mind of passing strangers that behind these tumbled blocks lie concealed the most prized possession of the tribe.

 

The immediate neighborhood of any one of these sacred store-houses is a kind of haven or refuge for wild animals, for once they have run thither, they are safe; no hunter would spear a kangaroo or opossum which cowered on the ground at one of these hallowed spots. The very plants which grow there are sacred and may not be plucked or broken or interfered with in any way. Similarly, an enemy who succeeds in taking refuge there, is safe from his pursuer, so long as he keeps with the sacred boundaries: even the avenger of blood, pursuing the murderer hot-foot, would not dare to lift up his hand against him on the holy ground.

 

Thus, the places are sanctuaries in the strict sense of the word; they are probably the most primitive examples of their class and contain the germ out of which cities of refuge for manslayers and others might be developed. It is sanctuaries in the heart of the Australian wilderness derive their sacredness mainly; it would seem, from their association with the spirits of the dead, whose repose must not be disturbed by tumult, violence, or bloodshed. Even when the sacred birth stones and sticks have been removed from the store-house in the secret recesses of the hills and have been brought into the camp for the performance of certain solemn ceremonies, no fighting may take place, no weapons may be brandished in their neighborhood: if men will quarrel and fight, they must take their weapons and go elsewhere to do it.

 

And when the men go to one of the sacred store-houses to inspect the treasures which it contains, they must each of them put his open hand solemnly over the mouth of the rocky crevice and then retire, in order to give the spirits due notice of the approach of strangers; for if they were disturbed suddenly, they would be angry.

It is only after a young man has passed through the severe ceremonies of initiation, which include the most painful bodily mutilations, that he is deemed worthy to be introduced to the tribal arcane, the sacred sticks and stones, which repose in their hallowed cave among the mountain solitudes. Even when he has passed through all the ordeals, many years may elapse before he is admitted to a knowledge of these mysteries, if he shews himself to be of a light and frivolous disposition.

 

When at last by the gravity of his demeanour he is judged to have proved himself indeed a man, a day is fixed for revealing to him the great secret. Then the headman of his local group, together with other grave and reverend seniors, conducts him to the mouth of the cave: the stones are rolled away from the entrance: the spirits with are duly warned of the approach of the visitors; and then the sacred sticks and stones, tied up in bundles, are brought forth. The bundles are undone, the sticks and stones are taken out, one by one, reverently scrutinized, and exhibited to the novice, while the old men explain to him the meanings of the patterns incised on each and reveal to him the person, alive or dead, to whom they belong. All the time the other men keep chanting in a low voice the traditions of their remote ancestors in the far off dream times.

 

At the close the novice is told the secret and sacred name which he is thenceforth to bear, and is warned never to allow it to pass his lips in the hearing of anybody except members of his own totemic group. Sometimes this secret name is that of an ancestor of whom the man or woman is supposed to be a reincarnation: for women as well as men have their secret and sacred names.

 

The number of sacred birth stones and sticks kept in any one store-house naturally varies from group to group; but whatever their number, whether more or less, in any one storehouse, they all normally belong to the same totem, though a few belonging to other totems may be borrowed and deposited for a time with them. For example, a sacred store-house of the honey-ant totem was found to contain sixty-eight birth sticks of that totem with a few of the lizard totem and two of the wild-cat totem. Any store-house will usually contain both sticks and stones, but as a rule perhaps the sticks predominate in number.

 

Time after time these tribal repositories are visited by the men and their contents taken out and examined. On each examination the sacred sticks and stones are carefully rubbed over with dry and powdered red ochre or charcoal, the sticks being rubbed with red ochre only, but the stones either with red ochre or charcoal. Further, it is customary on these occasions to press the sacred objects against the stomachs or thighs of all the men present; this is supposed to untie their bowels, which are thought to be tightened and knotted by the emotion which the men feel at the sight of these venerated sticks and stones. Indeed, the emotion is sometimes very real: men have been seen to weep on beholding these mystic objects for the first time after a considerable interval.

 

Whenever the sacred store-house is visited and its contents examined, the old men explain to the younger men the marks incised on the sticks and stones, and recite the traditions associated with the dead men to whom they belonged; so that these rude objects of wood or stone, with the lines and dots scratched on them, serve the savages as memorials of the past, they are in fact rudimentary archives as well as, we may almost say, rudimentary idols; for a stone or stick which represents a revered ancestor and is supposed to be endowed with some portion of his spirit, is not far from being an idol. No wonder, that they are guarded and treasured by a tribe as its most precious possession.

 

The sticks and stones are associated with the spiritual parts of the former and present owners, they naturally wish to have as many of them as possible and regard their possession as a treasure of great price, a sort of reservoir of spiritual force.”

Belief in Immortality by J.G. Frazier pp96-104

Pliny the Elder. Natural History, book 37:27:99-28.101
A stone that is closely akin to ‘carunculi’ is the sandastros, sometimes known also as the Garmantic stone in virtue of its character.  It occurs in a part of India that bears the same name, and is found also in Southern Arabia. Its chief merit is that its fiery brilliance, displayed, as it were, in a transparent casing, glitters with golden particles that shine like stars within the stone, and always inside its structure and never upon its surface. 

 

Furthermore, there are religious associations attached to these stones, and we are told of their affinity with the stars, which exists because the starry particles with which they are embellished generally conform in their numbers and arrangement to the constellations of the Pleiades and Hyades.  For this reason, they are regard by astrologers as religious objects.  Here too, the male stones may be distinguished by their deep colour and by a certain vitality, which imparts a tint to objects placed close to them. 

 

The Indian stones, it is said, even weaken the sight.  The fire of the female stones is more mellow, and glows rather than kindles”

The Modern Egyptians. Superstitions P254

To wear a small mus-haf in a embroidered leather or velvet case hung upon the right side by a silk string which passed over the left shoulder: but this custom is not now very common. During my first visit to the country, a respectable Turk, in the military dress, was seldom seen without a case of this description upon his side, though it often contained no hegab.  The mus-haf and other hegabs are still worn by many women, generally enclosed in cases of gold, or of gilt or plain silver.  To the former, and to many other charms, most extensive efficacy is attributed; they are esteemed preservatives against disease, enchantment, the evil eye, and a variety of other evils. 

May contain chapters of the Kuran: 6, 18, 36, 44, 55, 67, 78.

Another charm, which is believed to protect the wearer (who usually places it within his cap) from the devil and all evil genii, and may other objects of fear, is a piece of paper inscribed with the following passages from the Kur-an called “ayat el-hefz” (the verses of protection, or preservation).

And the preservation of both [heaven and earth] is no burden unto Him: And He is the High, the Great
But God is the best protector; and He is the most merciful of those who shew mercy
They watch him by the command of God
And we guard them from every devil driven away with stones
And a guard against every rebellious devil
And a guard. This is the decree of the Mighty, the Wise
And God encompasseth them behind, Verily is a glorious Kur-an, [written] on a preserved tablet

The ninety-nine names, or epithets, of God, comprising all the divine attributes, if frequently repeated, and written on a paper, and worn on the person, are supposed to make the were a particular object for the exercise of all the beneficent attributes – in like manner it is believed that the ninety-nine names or titles of the prophet, written upon anything, compose a charm which will, if placed in a house, and frequently read from beginning to end, keep away every misfortune, pestilence and all diseases, infirmity, the envious eye, enchantment, burning, ruin, anxiety, grief, and trouble.  After repeating each of these names, the Muslin adds, “God bless and save him!”

“Just before I quitted my house in Cairo to return to England, a friend, who had been my sheikh (or tutor), wrote on a slip of paper, “There is no deity but God: Mohammad is God’s apostle:” then tore it in halves, gave me the latter half, and concealed the other in a crack in the roof a little cupboard in my usual sitting room. This was to insure my coming back to Cairo: for it is believed that the profession of the faith cannot remain incomplete: so that by my keeping the latter half always upon my person, it would bring me back to the former half.

Miscellanea curiosa 28

“They Account this world the Body of God, for all that they say he’s immaterial, and say that the highest heavens are his head, the fire his mouth, the air his breath and breast, the water his seed, and the earth and foundations there of his legs and feet. But assert in general that God is the life of every thing, yet is the thing neither Greater nor less for him.

Joyce, P.W. A Social History of Ancient Ireland. Religion, Learning, and Art Part II, Chapter XII, Irish Literature and Language p478-485.

Vellum – Two chief materials were used in Ireland for writing on: Long, thin, smooth rectangular boards or tablets; and vellum or parchment, made from the skins of sheep, goats, or calves, which was the most usual and the most important material. Inscriptions were also carved on stone, both in ordinary Irish letters and in Ogham. The scribes had to make all their own materials – tablets, vellum, ink, and pens; or rather perhaps individuals devoted themselves to this special work, who thereby became skillful and expert.

Wooden Tablets: the other materials for writing on were called by various names : Tauibhli filid [tavila-filla]: tablets of the poets
Tabhall Lorga, tablet staves , a staff
Tamlorga filidh, staves of the poets
Flese filidh, the poets rod

Of the first two names, the first part in each case is derived from the latin Tabula or tabella, a table, or tablet; but the other two, tamlorga filidh and flese filidh, are pure Irish. The tablets were generally made of beech or birch: but sometimes other timber was used.

The characters were either written in Ink or cut in with a knife. Ogham, which consists of lines or notches, were often cut in. The use of tablets for writing on was not peculiar to the Irish: for it is well known that, before parchment came into general use, the Romans, the Jews, and other ancient nations inscribed their laws, poems, and other on wooden tablets.

First I will tell you the author of the piece, if there is no objection, who begins after Homer’s fashion with, an isle Ogygian lies far out at sea, distant five days’ sail from Britain, going westwards, and three others equally distant from it, and from each other, are more opposite to the summer visits of the sun; in one of which the barbarians fable that Cronus is imprisoned by Zeus, whilst his son lies by his side, as though keeping guard over those islands and the sea, which they call ‘the Sea of Cronus.

The great continent by which the great sea is surrounded on all sides, they say, lies less distant from the others, but about five thousand stadia from Ogygia, for one sailing in a rowing-galley; for the sea is difficult of passage and muddy through the great number of currents, and these currents issue out of the great land, and shoals are formed by them, and the sea becomes clogged and full of earth, by which it has the appearance of being solid. Plutarch, Concerning the Face Which Appears in the Orb of the Moon, chap. 26.

O’Flaherty Ogygia Part III chapter 30

They were made of the birch tree, before the invention of parchment, which they called Oraiun and Triabhele Fileadh, that is, philosophical tablets. Not long since Duald Firbiss, the only pillar and guardian of Irish antiquities, where he lived, and whose death was an irreparable loss to any further improvement in them, wrote me an account of his being in possession of some of these, and of the different forms of their characters, which he sums up to the number of one hundred and fifty, and of the virgean characters, Mr. Ware says as follows in his Irish Antiquities, cap. 2.

“Besides the common characters, the ancient Irish used various occult or artificial methods of writing, called Ogum, in which they wrote their secret and mysterious affairs.  I have an old book filled with them. The letters themselves were anciently called Feadba, i.e. woods.”

The ancient Latins first wrote on wooden tables, wherefore a book in Latin is so called ere the bark; also tablets and leaves are derived from trees.

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Appendix 5: Welch and Richardson Mound Excavations

The enclosures known to exist in Clinton County are three in number- one near Springfield Meeting-House, in Adams Township; another at Clarksville, near the railway, station and the west. line of the county: and the third near Villars Chapel. on the Little East Fork of the Little Miami diver. The first and last mentioned art, each about an acre in extent, surrounded by a ditch and outer circular wall.

The first-named is partly on the premises of David Curl, and within it are the sheds and graveyard of the Springfield Meeting House. A sacrificial mound near by, also on Mr. Curl's land, is about seventy-five feet in diameter at the base. and eight feet high, its height having been much reduced by its being repeatedly plowed over. The nature of the surface of the mound is the same as that of the surrounding soil.

Investigation showed that, next underneath, was earth which had apparently been thrown over the embers while they were yet. hot. then appeared the altar composed of burnt clay and slightly depressed in the center at the top, the heat having been so intense that the elements in the wood and sand had been formed into coarse glass. Some badly decomposed pieces of human bones and a copper awl were found in this mound, and other copper implements were found close by.

Cooper Mound In 1880, Mr. Richardson excavated, at a cost of $222, what is known as the Cooper Mound, in Highland County , south of Leesburg. His labors wore rewarded by finding numerous implements, pieces of bones (showing it to have been a sacrificial mound) and quantities of cloth. The latter is of several distinct textures, and establishes the fact. beyond question, that the ancients understood the art of manufacturing cloth front something besides plaiting it out of bark, as this was evidently made in a rude loom, being perfectly regular (230 - HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY). and even.

A Cincinnati chemist tested pieces of it, and concluded that it was made of some material furnished by the vegetable kingdom. It is the intention of Messrs.

Welch and Richardson, as soon as it can conveniently be done, to publish a volume descriptive of their investigations and the relics they have discovered, and to their co-laborers in the same field it must. prove intensely interesting. Dr. Welch has a large number of beautiful water-color and India ink drawings of relics in the collection, from which it is his intention to have colored lithographic plates made, and these will add greatly to the value of the work. Few men have, through a genuine ardor for the work, instead of a hope of subsequent financial gain, carried their investigations to such an extent as the gentlemen named, and their zeal is yet unflagging.

Fitzhugh Mound Two miles south of Wilmington, on the Fitzhugh farm, in elegant ax was found by Mr. Richardson, which is highly polished, of curious shape, and has carved upon it a face-apparently that of a female and a death's head. Occasionally fragments of pottery are fennel in tome of the mounds, but seldom any whole specimens.

Some pieces, shown by Mr. Richardson. are thin and delicate as china ware, lighter colored on the inner side than on the outer. and showing evidence of great care in their manufacture. Within a radius of five miles of Wilmington are, says Mr. Richardson, fifty-six well-defined mounds, with probably numerous others not so readily noticed, and many more are nearly within the same circle. None of them are very large, except one, on the George Pillars farm, on Cowan's Creek. southwest of Wilmington . which is perhaps thirty feet high and a hundred feet in diameter.

This and one near Lumberton , in Liberty Township , on Anderson 's Fork; are the largest in the county, and differ but little in size. With probably one exception, all the mounds found in Clinton County are circular in form, the exception being a long mound near Sligo, in Adams Township . The enclosure previously mentioned at Clarksville is on the first bottom of Todd's Fork.

Sparks Mound: From a mound on the Seth Linton farm, three miles west of Wilmington , in Union Township , were taken several curiously constructed copper spools. Three mounds are here close together, on Todd's Fork, in which have been discovered some fine and rare relics, among them a butterfly-shaped tablet of banded slate, and another tablet of Waverly sandstone. both covered with hieroglyphics. North of Wilmington, on Todd's Fork, was found a pipe. on which were figures of a face. a beaver (or otter) and numerous characters.

The Cooper Mound. Highland Weekly News.  Devoted to News, Politics, Literature, Agriculture, Manufacture, and the General interests of Highland County. Vol. 43, No. 18. Hillsborough, Highland County, Ohio. Thursday, July 24, 1879. Whole No. 2252. The Cooper Mound. Relics of the Mound Builders.

Editor Highland News:- Having recently visited this now somewhat famous historic monument, I send you an account of what I saw and heard.

The mound is on the farm of Mr, Eli Cooper, two miles southwest of Leesburg and a mile southwest of the Fairfield Meeting House, renowned in this season of the year in connection with "Quaker Quarterly". It is near the Kinzer, or Mound school house, and is plainly visible from the pike connecting Samantha and Leesburg.

To Mr. James Johnson, better known as "Uncle Jim Johnson," who resides near the mound, and is celebrated for his sociability, hospitality and generosity, I am indebted for some items that may be of interest. As he was born in 1806, near where he resides, and is now the oldest living man born in Highland county, and as he can remember when our fair fields were a "howlin’ wilderness" and when even the site of the "Model Town" was the best ridge of hoop-poles he ever saw, he is justly entitled to that consideration awarded by common consent to the "oldest inhabitant".

He played upon the mound when a boy, and says it was a pretty and regular in form as any hay-stack ever built. It was about 45 or 50 feet high, and about 150 yards in circuit, or about 145 in diameter. It was cone-shaped, and tapered regularly to the top, which was a gently-rounded surface, five or six feet in diameter. Other trees were growing on it elsewhere, and there is now on its side a live white-oak more than three feet through.

In 1837, forty-two years ago, a party of men came from South Charleston and took off the top, and sunk a shaft at the center. Mr. Johnson boarded the men and aided in the work, and says they found several skeletons, large masses of hair, trinkets, and remains of wood and cloth.

From that time it seems to have remained undisturbed till recently, when a systematic and thorough exploration  was begun by a company, consisting of Dr. J W. Richardson, of Careytown, Highland county, J. M. Richardson, and Dr. L.B. Welch, of Wilmington, Clinton County. Dr. Richardson favored me with an hour's pleasant talk on the highly interesting subject of their discoveries.  This is the forty-seventh mound which he has assisted in exploring, most of which were in south-western Ohio, and two in Florida. This one, partly because of its size, the Dr. calls a "Kings Mound".

His object in exploration seems to be to gain knowledge of the past rather than to make money, and yet he seems to be almost unconscious of the great interest some of their discoveries would arouse, not only within the borders of our own state and country, by also among the savants of Europe.

The work is discontinued for the present, because of harvest and the hot weather, but a good beginning has been made. They first began plowing and scraping off the top till the lower part remained, about 15 feet high. They then commenced on the west side to take it away to the level of the ground, and have removed nearly a third of this lowest part. So far, the work has cost something over $200.

The result, however, has been profitable in a scientific view, and perhaps may pay expenses as a business enterprise. While the Dr. denies the stories that they have found diamonds and fabulous treasures, he says they have exhumed twenty-three skeletons, some of which were eight to nine feet long, and one eleven (!) feet! The skeletons were encased in peculiar putty-colored cement which exposure to the air reduces to a very fine powder.  This cement seems to have preserved the bones, except the parts near and at the joints. In some instances the decayed remains of what appeared to be walnut wood were found in such a position around the cement covered skeleton as to indicate a burial casket.

The position of the skeletons was strange, as some of them were found in groups, with the heads near together, and the bodies radiating like the spokes of a wheel.  Nine were found in one such group, and seven in another. The skeletons found were at different distances from the ground level, some being within a foot, others nine to twelve feet. On the neck of one was a strand of pearl beads; the string, however, crumbled away on being exposed to the air. 

What appears to be an ornament of black glass, and agate, rings and bracelets of gold were also found, For one of the bracelets, a geologist and relic hunter offered the Dr. $100 in vain.

Besides ashes, charcoal  and a piece of brick, they found remains of woven fabric, some as fine as linen, and some as coarse as our matting, the warp and woof of all of which was triple plaited thread or "three-plait" instead of twist.

The earth of which the mound is made is very fine, and entirely free from stones and gravel, and, if obtained in the vicinity must have been sifted or screened.

In some mounds in Clinton County, the company found two sand-stone tablets, on which figures of men and beasts are finely executed in relief. There was also on each tablet a rectangular figure, divided (six by four) into twenty-four squares, in each of which was a letter of character.

This would at once suggest and alphabet or inscription, and will doubtless prove of great value in future archaeological investigations. It should be stated, however, the characters on the two tablets are different. Who knows but that, like the Rosetta stone, they may prove a key to open some of the mysteries connected with these mounds? For one of these tablets the company refused an offer of a thousand dollars. The objects of interest so far taken out, together with those obtained elsewhere, are nearly all in Wilmington, where the company has a cabinet.

We shall anxiously await further developments, and hope that, while Dr. Schliemann is unearthing ancient Mycanae and Troy, and thereby verifying Grecian and Trojan traditions, our investigations nearer home may be enabled to dissipate the darkness that hangs over the history these early inhabitants of America.

1.     A compilation of short essays and contributions showing modern research into symbolism, depth and many interesting topics.
Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand : American Indian art of the Ancient Midwest and South / Richard F. Townsend. Chicago ; Art Institute of Chicago ; New Haven : In association with Yale University Press, c2004.
2.     A book on the mythology and legends which serves to show various accounts of the same stories and how orators slightly embellished slightly through time.
Ballard, Arthur. Mythology of Southern Puget Sound. Seattle, Wash., University of Washington Press, 1929.
3.     An excellent survey of winter counts, their meanings and a year by year description of numerous examples.
The year the stars fell : Lakota winter counts at the Smithsonian / edited by Candace S. Greene and Russell Thornton. Washington D.C. : Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History : Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian ; Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, c2007.
The birchbark scrolls of the southern Ojibwe reveal medicine lodge ceremony and continuity with the symbolism used in the winter counts, the Walam olum as well as on, and stone tablets.
Selwyn H Dewdney and Glenbow-Alberta Institute. The Sacred Scrolls of the Southern Ojibwe. Toronto ; Buffalo : Published for the Glenbow-Alberta Institute, Calgary, Alta. by University of Toronto Press, [1975]. ;
The shell engravings found by WPA excavations into spiro mound turned up over 10,000 shell cups engraved with figures including examples of everything from cosmological diagrams to constellation figures.
Phillip Phillips and James Allison Brown. Pre-Columbian shell engravings from the Craig Mound at Spiro, Oklahoma. Part 1. Cambridge, Mass. : Peabody Museum Press, 1978-1984.; Philip Phillips and James A Brown and Eliza McFadden. Pre-Columbian shell engravings from the Craig Mound at Spiro, Oklahoma. Part 2. Cambridge, Mass. : Peabody Mus.Pr., Peabody Mus. of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard Univ., 1984.
The feline figurine (no. 240915) reveals continuity between the spiraling serpent figure and the panther. Page 117, 118. Alligator tablets page 62,63.
Gilland, Marion Spjut. The Material Culture of Key Marco Florida. A University of Florida Book. The University Presses of Florida. Gainesville. 1975.
A report on the Adena tablets with their reports of discovery.
Penney, David W., The Adena Engraved Tablets: A Study of Art Prehistory, Vol. 5, p. 3.  Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 1980.
4.     A complete Bibliography of the original reports that were published by the finders Richardson and Welch.
Wilmington Journal, March 5, 1879. Vol. XI, No. 51. page 1.
Wilmington Journal, March 19, 1879. Vol. XII, No. 1. page 1.
Wilmington Journal, May 7, 1879. Vol. XII, No. 8. page 5
Cincinnati Commercial. Vol. XXXIX,  No. 163 – Triple Sheet, Five Cents. Saturday Morning. February 22, 1879., February 21, 1879
A description of Prehistoric Relics found near Wilmington, Ohio. By L. B Welch and J.M Richardson. AAOJ, Vol 1, pp 40-48, An Illuustrated Description of Prehisoric Relics found near Wilmington, Ohio. L, B. Welch and J. M. Richardson, Journal Steam Print, Wilmington, 1879.
5.     Pliny A Durant;  W.H. Beers & Co. The history of Clinton County, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its townships, cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; history of the Northwest territory; history of Ohio; map of Clinton County; Constitution of the United States, etc. 1882. Page 229.
6.     Frank Hamilton Cushing;  Phyllis E Kolianos;  Brent  Richards Weisman. Florida Journals of Frank Hamilton Cushing. Gainesville, FL : University Press of Florida, 2005.
Frank Hamilton Cushing;  Phyllis E Kolianos;  Brent Richards Weisman. The lost Florida manuscript of Frank Hamilton Cushing. Gainesville : University Press of Florida, 2005.
7.     Lutz, David. The Archaic Bannerstone: Its Chronological History and Purpose From 6000 B.C. to 1000 B.C. 2000. Hynek Printing.
     Harvey, Edward. Bannerstones An Ancient Native American Art Tradition. Introduction by Dr. Richard Townsend, Chicago Art Institute. Forward by David Lutz. Hybrid CD Rom. 2002. Terry McGuire.
8.     Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics. Ed. by James Hastings. N.Y.: Scribner, 1908-27. 13v.
9.     Noel D. Justice Stone Age Spear and Arrow Points of the Midcontinental and Eastern United States. 1989
10. DNA analysis indicates a connection between the Ohio Hopewell and the Cahokia Elite.
     http://www.genetics.org/cgi/content/full/155/3/1481
     No Fixed Nucleotide Difference Between Africans and Non-Africans at the Pyruvate Dehydrogenase E1 -Subunit Locus. Ning Yua and Wen-Hsiung Lia. Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
     Mills, Lisa A. Mitochondrial of the Ohio Hopewell of the Hopewell Mound Group. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/send-pdf.cgi?osu1054605467 Dissertation. Ohio State University. 2003.
11. Roberts Mary Nooter, LUKASA VHS(1989).
The Quarterly. Todd's Fork Watershed Action Planning. The Little Miami River Partnership Newsletter. Volume 7, Number 2. www.littlemiamiriver.org/Documents/7-2-NewsLetter.pdf. October 2005.
Personal Communication with Elizabeth Kassly. 2007.
 EEPA EECL 1447, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of African Art, Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, 950 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington,D.C. 20560-0708
 Schuster, Edmund. Oh, What a Blow that phantom gave me! A film by John Bishop and Harald Prins. Media Generation DVD. 1998.
 Carpenter, Edmund Snow, 1922- Title Materials for the study of social symbolism in ancient & tribal art : a record of tradition & continuity based on the researches & writings of Carl Schuster / edited & written by Edmund Carpenter, assisted by Lorraine Spiess Published [New York] : Rock Foundation, 1986-1988 Description 3 v. in 12 : ill. (some col.), col. maps ; 38 cm.
Catlin, George. Letters and Notes of the Manners, Customs, and conditions of North American Indians. Volume II. Dover Publications. 1973.
17. De Isde et Osiride. Vol II P 381
18. La Flesche, Francis. A Dictionary of the Osage language. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Govt. print. off., 1932.
 William Smith is the finder of the Ohio Rock, a navigation tool used to determine latitude and longitude. William Smith has identified 11 ancient forms of navigation instruments from the USA that were previously unidentified. Personal Communication with William Smith. AAAPF conference 2008.
Moorehead, Warren King. The stone age in North America; an archeological encyclopedia of the implements, ornaments, weapons, utensils, etc., of the prehistoric tribes of North America,. Boston, New York, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1910.
Indian Village Site and Cemetery near Madisonville, Ohio. By Earnest A. Hooton and C.C. Willoughby. Papers of the Peabody museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University. Vol. VIII - No. 1. Plate 20 a,b. 1920.
Ping, Wang. Aching for Beauty: Foot binding in China. Anchor. March 12, 2002.
http://www.novareinna.com/constellation/cancerheaven.html
http://www.novareinna.com/constellation/cancer.html
http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/edge-uml/edge-uml.htm
http://www.midwesternepigraphic.org/scherz.html
24. Expedition Magazine. An Unusual Winnebago War Club and an American Water Monster Frances Eyman. Volume 5, Number 4, Summer 1963. http://130.91.80.97:591/PDFs/5-4/An%20Unusual.pdf
25. http://lithiccastinglab.com/gallery-pages/2005decemberforkedstickflutingpage2.htm
26. Kelvin Sampson and Duane Esarey. Elaborate Mississippian Copper Artifacts from Illinois. Dickson Mounds Museum. Lewistown, Illinois.
27. M. Le Page Du Pratz. The History of Louisiana. P. 323
28. Halley, Edmund. Miscellanea curiosa. Containing a collection of some of the principal phenomena in nature, accounted for by the greatest philosophers of this age : being the most valuable discourses, read and delivered to the Royal society, for the advancement of physical and mathematical knowledge. As also a collection of curious travels, voyages, antiquities, and natural histories of countries: presented to the same society. To which is added, A discourse of the influence of the sun and moon on human bodies, &c. By R. Mead ... And also Fontenelle's Preface of the usefulness of mathematical learning. London, Printed by W.B. for James and John Knapton, 1723-27.
29. http://www.famsi.org/index.html
30.  http://www.buddhanet.net/bodh_gaya/bodh_gaya02.htm
31.  Bossu, Jean-bernard. TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR OF NORTH AMERICA, 1751-1762. University of Oklahoma. 1962.
32.  Blundeville, Thomas. A Brief description of Universal Mappes and Cardes, and of their use and also the use of Ptolemy his tables, Necessarie for those that delight in decoding of histories: and also for travelers by land or sea. Norfollek, 1589. Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery. Reel Position: STC/ 377:08 A Description of Gemma Frixzius his instrument calle Quadratum Nauticum.
33.  La Flesche, Francis. The Osage and the Invisible World: From the Works of Francis La Flesche. Introduced and Edited by Garrick Bailey. University of Oklahoma Press, 1995.
34.  Burns, Louis. Osage Indian customs and myths. Fallbrook, Calif.: Ciga Press, 1984. (Regional Ref 970.1 Burns 1984)
http://www.cs.biu.ac.il/~tsaban/Pdf/MathofLevi.pdf
http://obs.nineplanets.org/psc/hist1.html
 

Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, Ohio Northern University, May 2002.

Cahokia Mounds Volunteer, 2002-2006. Cahokia Archaeological Society Vice President, 2004-2006. Presentation: “Native American Artifacts of Southern Illinois ”, Feb 17, 2005 7:30 PM.

Southwestern Illinois College Astronomy Club. Archaeoastronomy March 31, 2006 6:30 PM.  Southwestern Illinois College Astronomy Club; December 8, 2006, 6:30 PM “Archaeoastronomy”;  December 8, 2007 “The Bannerstone Conundrum”

“Vince: You did an excellent job, one of the best speakers we have had in the 13 yrs I have been club moderator!  You obviously put a lot of time and effort into it!  It was icing on the cake to have such a great night to stargaze after your talk also!  All in all one of the best nights for club meetings I've had!  Thanks again! Frank Cange”

 Astronomical Society of Eastern Missouri. “Archaeoastronomy” February 10, 2007 6:30PM

Mascoutah Heritage Museum Volunteer 2006-current, Mascoutah Heritage Museum, Arcaheoastronomy, February 18,2007. Mascoutah Heritage Museum, Petroglyphs of Southern Illinois, March 18, 2007.

Van Meter State Park, Missouri. “Utz Tablet: New Perspectives on the Social Symbolism & Comparison with Other Tablets”. Saturday, August 18 at 10:00 AM. Sponsored by Missouri Department of Natural Resources.
“Last Sat. I heard a presentation by Vincent Barrows at the Van Meter Park, Miami, MO.  He has done some interesting work researching connections between Cahokia and Oneota.  So I'm sending along to the information you present to the E-address I have for him in St.L. Enjoy Black Water.  Dance easy! Torigunda,” -  Jimm GoodTracks
Ancient American Artifact Preservation Foundation Conference 2007, October 6, 2007 6:00PM, The Welch Butterfly : Its Vindication and Comparison with Other Tablets.
“I was very impressed with your presentation and all of the thought that went into it, although I unfortunately only got in on the tail end of it.” Charles Mattox;
“Vincent; You gave a great presentation at the conference and I want to personally thank you. “William Smith;
“I need to contact you about obtaining a copy of Vince Barrow's very professionally done, yet impromptu talk and Powerpoint presentation on Cahokia at the Ohio conference. Members here should know that, by the end of the talk, there was standing room only. Several attending the lecture in the other room are also interested in viewing my copy soon as it gets here” -Susan English, President of the Ancient Waterways Society

Antique Bottle and Jar Association, O’Fallon, IL

“Ancient Tablets” December 17, 2007 

“Monks Mound Fiasco” February 12, 2008

Collinsville Historical Museum. “Ancient Civilizations of Collinsville”. May 13, 2008 12:00 PM

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