THE BAUM PREHISTORIC VILLAGE SITE. W. C. Mills.

The field work of the Ohio State Archæological and Historical Society was completed August 18. The explorations were a continuance of last year’s work at the Baum Prehistoric Village Site, which is situated in Ross County, Ohio, just across the river from the small village of Bourneville, and is located upon the first gravel terrace of the Paint Creek Valley. The village site surrounds a large pyramidal mound which was examined a number of years ago under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution of Washington. A complete report of the explorations is found in the 12th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1890-91. At this time the village site was not explored but it was known to exist, as the following extract from the 12th Annual Report will show: “This mound is situated upon the edge of the first general bottom of Paint Creek, which though protected by a huge levee is annually inundated. In overflow times the smaller circle of the adjoining enclosure is almost entirely submerged, and the summit of the mound is the only land visible above a broad expanse of water. Around the mound upon all sides, particularly to the east, are traces of former Indian occupation. Numerous fragments of pottery similar in fabrication and ornamental feature to those found in the mound bestrew the plowed ground. These were intermingled with the valves of mussel shells, pitted stones, shell disks, human bones, arrowheads, pieces of perforated stone gorgets, and a large quantity of chipped flint.” Directly north of this village site, about one mile distant is the noted hill top enclosure known as Spruce Hill, which overlooks the valley of Paint Creek for many miles north and south. The hill on which this enclosure is situated is about 500 feet high, and is a long narrow spur projecting from the tableland and extending to the south.

The wall of this enclosure is composed entirely of boulders and broken pieces of sandstone which had been collected along the margin of the summit of the hill. These sandstones are the result of disintegration of the sandstone strata which is near the surface on the hill top. Directly east from the village site, a little more than 1300 feet, is what is known as the Baum works, which was surveyed by Squier & Davis in 1846. They described this work as the best preserved, and possessing gateways that are wider than those of any other earth-works found in this valley. They also made a survey of the mound which is situated in this village site and they described it as a large, square, truncated mound, with a base of 120 feet and having a flat top, with an area 50 feet square. The mound at that time being 15 feet high. They also say that quantities of coarse broken pottery were found on and around the mound. Thus it will be seen that the early investigators found pottery surrounding the mound and later explorations by the Smithsonian Institution show that the broken pieces of pottery found on the surface surrounding the mound were very much like the pottery found in the mound and placed with the buried dead therein.

The object of the investigations carried on by the Archæological and Historical Society is to show the connection between the occupants of the prehistoric village and those who built the mound. This has been done by carefully comparing the contents of this village site with the contents of the mound as reported by the Smithsonian Institution. So far, all of the pottery and implements of bone, stone, and shell that were buried in this mound, have been duplicated in great numbers from the refuse heaps, burials, and ash pits found in the village. The village entirely surrounds the mound, but on the east it is more extensive and occupies upward of five acres of ground.

The work of examining the village site is very laborious. Every portion or particle of the earth to a depth, on the average, of two and one-half feet is carefully dug over with small hand trowels, and every particle of bone, shell or stone is carefully removed and examined. The contents of the ash pits are screened so that no implements or ornaments may be lost. The whole village site is platted, laid off in sections thirty-six feet square, which square is again laid off into sections four feet square. In this way every find is carefully located upon the map. This year the work was conducted east and north-east of the mound. Here the post-molds of their little tepees were found in abundance. Their fire-places usually were placed just outside of the tepees, and their refuse pits near at hand, and near by we found the burials. A series of photographs, showing the manner of burial and the close proximity of the burials to the ash pits and tepees, were carefully made. At one time seven skeletons were exposed within an area of fifteen feet square. Within this space two ash pits were found and one row of the post-molds, showing the relation of the little home to the burial ground. The manner of burial is shown by the photographs taken of the seven skeletons exposed at one time, showing that they had no definite manner of placing the bodies, as some were buried at right angles to each other, some were placed at full length, and lying upon the back, while others were placed upon the side; in still other cases the body was evidently doubled up and then buried. A great number of skeletons of babies were found in the ash pits, showing that the already dug ash pit was the most convenient grave for the little ones, who was then covered with ashes, consequently the skeletons were perfectly preserved. With a great number of the adult skeletons were found implements of bone, such as awls, hoes, celts, arrow and spear points of stone, beads and ornaments of shell and bone; but with the skeletons of children varying in age from four to twelve years were found the greatest number of ornaments made of shell and bone. In one instance a large gorget made from the marine univalve Strombus gigas about two and one-half inches in diameter, was found upon the skeleton of a child six years of age. In another more than two hundred beads and ornaments of shell and bone were found upon the skeleton of a child not over seven years of age. In another grave a child not over four years of age had buried with it, what at one time was no doubt, a necklace made of elk teeth, perforated for attachment. In two instances the graves of children were carefully covered over with slabs of slate. With those children whose graves were carefully covered no implements or ornaments of any sort were placed. Of the sixty-three skeletons found, not a single perfect piece of pottery was found buried with them, differing greatly from the Madisonville Prehistoric Cemetery near Cincinnati, for at the latter cemetery quantities of pottery in their perfect state was found, buried with the skeletons. The pottery, implements and ornaments at Madisonville can be readily dedicated from the village at Paint Creek.

In the ash pits can be found specimens showing the masterpieces of art wrought in stone, bone and shell, representing the civilization which at one time inhabited this village. Of the bone implements, the needle, made from the bones of the deer and elk is most beautiful in design, at the same time showing the skill displayed in the manufacture of the implements. Some of them are upward of nine inches in length. Of the bone specimens perhaps the bead is the commonest. In some pits more than two hundred have been taken out. In these ash pits were also found well wrought specimens of aboriginal fish hooks, also specimens showing the various stages of manufacture of this implement, which differs somewhat from the manufacture of those found at Madisonville, a full account of which appears in the 20th Annual Report of the Trustees of the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, by Prof. F. W. Putnam, in which he fully describes the manufacture of the fish hooks found in the prehistoric village site. In no instance was an unfinished specimen found in the Baum Village which would, in any way, show that a hole was first bored through the bone and the fish hook then wrought from this hole as was shown by Prof. Putnam; on the contrary a piece of bone was selected and cut into shape representing a small tablet of bone two and one-half inches long by from one-half to three-quarters of an inch broad, with rounded edges at the ends. The center was then cut out by rubbing with a stone on each side. So that two fish hooks were made instead of one from the single piece of bone. A great many perfect scrapers made from the metacarpal bone of the deer and elk were also found, while almost every pit would contain from one to four broken halves of these scrapers. Specimens were also procured showing the various stages in the manufacture of this implement which resemble very much in every particular those found at Madisonville, and also those found at the village site at Fort Ancient.

The pottery fragments found in these ash pits resemble those found at Madisonville, in the ornamentation by incised lines, implement indentations arranged in figures, and handles ornamented with effigies of birds and animals. Of the shell implements, perhaps the most common is the shell hoe, which is made from the mussel shell Unio plicatus.

A great number of beads, from one-half to one inch in diameter, made from mussel shells and perforated with from one to three holes, are found. The large gorgets from two to two and one-half inches in diameter are also found. These are invariably perforated with from one to three holes, and are made from a shell foreign to the Paint Creek Valley.

Of the implements and ornaments made of stone, the flint arrow heads are very common. These are mostly made from material brought from flint ridge in Licking County. Grooved axes are also found, the type prevailing is the one having the groove extend entirely around. The perforated gorgets of slate are also found, but the most interesting of the stone implements found in the pits are the perforated discoidals. These are all small, varying in diameter from two to three inches, and finely polished.

In the refuse heaps and ash pits were found the bones of the animals used for food, charred corn, hickory nuts, walnuts, butter nuts, acorns, hazel nuts, beans, seeds of the papaw, wild plum, etc. About thirty-five per cent. of the bones taken from these pits were of the Virginia deer. The bones of the black bear, raccoon, elk, ground-hog, wild-cat, muskrat, squirrel, beaver, wild turkey, wild duck, wild goose, trumpeter swan, great horn owl, barred owl, were found in abundance. But perhaps the most interesting of the animal bones found were those of the Indian dog. Skulls and parts of skeletons were taken from the pits in great numbers. Professor F. W. Putnam, of Harvard University, who has been making a study of the skulls of the dog taken from the mounds and burial places of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Ohio, Kentucky, New York, and from the great shell heaps in Maine, says that a distinct variety or species of dog was distributed over North America in pre-Columbian times, and by comparison he finds that the dog found in America is the same variety of dog found in the ancient site of the Swiss Lake dwellers, and also in the ancient tombs of Thebes in Egypt, and claims that the variety of the pre-Columbian dog is apparently identical with the pure breed Scotch collie of today, while Mr. F. A. Lucas, of the U. S. National Museum, describes the dog found in the Baum Village as resembling very much the bull terrier in size and proportion, and states that the same species have been found in the village sites in Texas and the old Puebloes.