Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley facts for kids
Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley is a very important book from 1848. It was written by two Americans, Ephraim George Squier and Edwin Hamilton Davis. The book is about the ancient mound builders of North America. These were groups of native people who lived long ago and built large earth mounds. This book was a big step for archaeology, which is the study of human history through digging up old things. It was the very first book published by the Smithsonian Institution.
Contents
Davis and Squier: The Discoverers
Edwin Davis was born in 1811 in Hillsboro, Ohio. He grew up near many ancient mounds and earthworks in the Scioto River valley. Seeing these amazing structures made him very curious. At that time, archaeology was not yet a proper school subject.
Davis explored the mounds while he was a student. He even wrote a paper about them for his graduation. A famous person named Daniel Webster heard his paper. Webster told Davis to keep studying the mounds. After becoming a doctor, Davis used his free time to explore more. He collected old tools and items he found near the mounds.
Ephraim Squier was born in 1821. He came to Chillicothe in 1845 to work for a newspaper. Squier had learned about civil engineering and journalism. He was very interested in the ancient monuments around him. When he asked local people about them, he didn't get many answers. So, Squier decided to explore them himself. He used tools like a compass and a shovel to start his own research.
When Davis and Squier met, they decided to work together. Davis knew a lot about the sites and had many artifacts. Squier was good at surveying and writing. They combined their skills to start a big project for the Smithsonian Institution.
Exploring Ancient Sites
The book Ancient Monuments describes many sites across the eastern United States. Squier and Davis personally surveyed and drew hundreds of earthworks. Most of these were in Ross County in southern Ohio. This area includes famous places like Mound City and Seip Earthworks. These are now part of the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. They also explored Serpent Mound, Fort Ancient, and Newark Earthworks.
The authors also used information from other researchers. For example, they used notes from C. S. Rafinesque for sites in Kentucky. Other people like James McBride and Charles Whittlesey also shared their findings. But Squier and Davis's own work was the most detailed and widespread.
A key part of their work was sorting the sites by what they seemed to be for. They identified places like burial grounds, animal-shaped mounds called effigies, forts, and building foundations. Sometimes, their ideas about the ancient cultures were not completely right. However, their drawings and descriptions of the sites were very good.
Why This Book Was Important
The first leader of the Smithsonian, Joseph Henry, helped edit Ancient Monuments. He wanted the first book from the Smithsonian to be very important. Henry chose this book about the mound builders even though it was a bit risky. People had many different ideas about who the mound builders were. The topic also touched on sensitive issues about Native Americans and European settlers.
Henry wanted the book to be very scientific. He tried to reduce Squier and Davis's guesses about the mounds. The book showed a common belief at the time. Many people thought the earthworks were made by a different, more advanced group than the Native Americans living then. This idea came from how complex the mounds looked. It didn't seem to match what European Americans saw in Native American cultures at the time.
When the book came out, it quickly became a major source of information. It is still important today because it covered so many sites.
Later Editions
In 1998, a special paperback edition of Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley was published. This was to celebrate its 150th anniversary. It included a long introduction by David J. Meltzer. He is a professor of anthropology at Southern Methodist University.
