Earliest Known Photograph of the Grave Creek Adena Burial Mound

Earliest Known Photograph of the Grave Creek Adena Burial Mound

Earliest known photograph of the Grave Creek Mound taken in 1857. This may also be the only photo that shows the earthwork that once surrounded the mound.

     The Grave Creek burial mound located in Moundsville, West Virginia is the largest and most famous in the Ohio Valley. The mound measures 69 feet in height with a diameter of almost 300 feet; it was surrounded by a moat 40 feet in width and five feet in depth with a single causeway that led to the mound. Engineers estimate that it required its builders to move more than 60,000 tons of earth; that's 24,000,000 million baskets of earth at 5 lbs per basket. This begs the question of who warranted such an effort?
    In 1838, an archaeological excavation of the Grave Creek Mound, led by Jesse and Abelard Tomlinson, uncovered the ruins of two large vaults, one situated directly below the other. The vaults contained several human skeletons and a considerable amount of jewelry and other artifacts. According to Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, who visited the site in 1843, the Grave Creek Stone was discovered in the upper vault, along with seventeen hundred beads, five hundred sea shells, five copper bracelets, and one hundred and fifty plates of mica. The Grave Creek Tablet was “a small flat stone, of an ovate shape, containing an inscription of unknown characters More detailed descriptions of the skeletons was featured in the Charleston Daily Mail, October 22, 1922 “Archaeologists investigating the mound some years ago dug out a skeleton said to be that of a female because of the formation of the bones. The skeleton was seven feet four inches tall and the jawbone would easily fit over the face of a man weighing 160 pounds. There was also taken from the mound the skeleton of a man eight feet tall. There were no ornaments beside it. These skeletons were sent to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.”

Grave Creek mound with visible scars from early excavations. Originally, the lower tomb containing the 8-foot giant was able to be viewed for a few cents, but a cave-in ended the attraction.