Ancient Auburn Haired, Caucasian Mummies Discovered in a Tennessee Cave

The Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee (1823)
 Haywood describes a cave, the aperture into which was very small, near the confines of Smith and Wilson Counties, on the south side of Cumberland River, about twenty-two miles above Cairo, on the waters of Smith’s Fork. The workmen digging in the apartment next to the entrance, after removing the dirt, came to another small aperture upon the same level, which they also entered, and found a room twenty-five feet square. This room seemed to have been carefully preserved for the reception and burial of the dead. In it, near the center, were found three human bodies sitting in baskets made of cane, the flesh being entire, but a little shrivelled and hard. The bodies were those of a man, a woman, and a small child. The color of the skin was said to be fair and white, without any admixture of a copper color; their hair auburn and of a fine texture. The teeth were very white; in stature they were about the same as the whites of the present day. The man was wrapped in fourteen dressed deer skins, and over these were wound what those present called blankets. They were made of bark, like those found in the cave in White County. In form the baskets were pyramidal, being larger at the bottom and tapering towards the top. The heads of the skeletons were out side of the blankets.

Ancient Stone Mill Discovered in Wisconsin

AN ANCIENT MILL BELONGING TO THE STONE A.G.E. 

    There is in the rooms of the Historical Society of Wisconsin a curious relic of the stone age. It is a “quern,” or stone corn mill, and of undoubted antiquity. The lower stone is nearly twenty-three inches in diameter, and about seven inches thick. In the center is a hole one inch in diameter, extending through the stone. The stone is cut away to the depth of three-quarters of an inch for nearly its whole size, simply leaving a rim of about one-and-a-half inches in width. On one side a small channel is cut to allow the crushed grain to escape. The upper stone has a diameter of twenty inches, and the upper surface is convex having a thickness of two inches at the edge, and five inches in the center, where is a hopper-shaped opening with a diameter of five and one-half inches. Near the edge are three holes, equidistant, intended to put in sticks or something of the sort, for the purpose of turning. In the underside of the upper millstone is a rectangular slot three by eight inches and three-fourths of an inch deep. A copper disk, eight inches in diameter, carrying on one side a projection which exactly fits this slot, was found in the immediate vicinity, and doubtless formed a bearing upon which the stone revolved. The material of the mill is a greenish basalt, a variety of traps. It shows the effect of long use, the grinding surfaces being worn smooth. This unprecedented discovery was made in Washington county while digging away a mound in order to lay the foundation for a barn and at a depth of four feet below the surface. This implement is undoubtedly entitled to the first place among the pre-historic of Wisconsin. W. P. C. Madison, Wisconsin, Feb. 8, 1878.

Ancient Oil Lamp From the Near East Dating to 500 A.D. Discovered in Ohio

Ancient Oil Lamp From the Near East Dating to 500 A.D. Discovered in Ohio

Inscribed on the lamp was, "The light of Christ shines for all"

Bryan, Ohio Times April 19, 1997
  
Oil Lamp More Than 1,000 Years Old is Unearthed in Southern Ohio Village

   South Point, Ohio [AP]  A Near Eastern oil lamp estimated to be more than 1,000 years old has been unearthed in this village located in an area of southern Ohio better known for its arrowheads and other American Indian relics.
   John Hudnall was digging in his front yard last fall in preperation for replacing a sewer line when, about six feet down, he found the lamp. 
   "I thought it was an Indian artifact," Hudnall said. But when he showed the lamp to Charles West, owner of the Indian Relic Museum in New Richmond, West said it was not an Indian relic.  
   "It's beautiful, the only problem is it's not an Indian," West said.   West turned to Bob Price of the Lawrence County Historical Society, who helped him find similar lamps in an illustrated encyclopedia of the Bible.
   That lead west to the Institute of Archaeology at Andrews University at Berrien Springs, Michigan. David Merling, the institute's assistant director, said the lamp was probably crafted between A. D. 400 and 800 in the Near East, an area that includes southwestern Asia, northeastern Africa, and the Arabian peninsula.
   "Its a common form of an ancient lamp ...but I have no idea where it came from," Merling said. 
More Mysterious is how the lamp, on which the words, "The light of Christ shines for all" are inscribed in an ancient language, ended up in Lawrence County.
  Hudnall said he believes settlers who considered it an ancestral relic could have brought it to the area, which is about 110 miles south of Columbus, near the Ohio River. 
   "I think someone, probably a group of Indians, got together an buried it, thinking it was evil," he said.  "You can't burn it - its an oil lamp, and they were probably afraid that if they broke it, it would release evil."
  Hudnall said he will probably lend the lamp to the Huntington W.V. Museum of Art for exhibition and then donate to the Institute for study and preservation. 
   The lamp is probably only worth a couple of hundred dollars, but its discovery would be well worth documenting, Merling said.
"It's a curious find to find in Ohio," he said.
    

Ancient Blonde Haired Female Mummy Discovered in a Tennessee Cave

Ancient Blonde Haired Mummy Discovered in a Tennessee Cave

It is believed that this is the mummy of Biblical Joseph 1400 B.C.   Joseph was from the same lands of the Amorites who invaded and controlled Egypt. Did these same people sojourn into the Tennessee Valley?

Smithsonian Institutes Bureau of Ethnology, 1890-1891

     Twelve miles below Carthage, and about a mile from the Cumberland River is a cave in which occurred human bones of all sizes. There is a burying ground near to the fortification, in which, fifteen years ago, were discovered many skeletons, and with them were deposited pipes and water vessels of earthenware. Near to this cemetery is a deep creek running into the river, and forming an acute angle with the latter. At some distance from the junction is a ditch running from the creek to the river, and the remains of a parapet. Opposite to the entrance way, and about six feet from it is the appearance of a wall on the inside, so formed as to turn those entering to the right or left. In the interior were several mounds.

      Captain Daniel Williams, a man of undoubted veracity, is said to have affirmed that, several years ago, in a cave five or six miles from Carthage, on the Cumberland River, workmen were collecting earth for saltpeter and that many human skeletons were found, one of which was a female in a good state of preservation with yellow hair, and shrivelled flesh. Around the waist was a silver girdle, with marks resembling letters. The body was replaced in the cave whence they had taken it.

Ancient Cinnabar Mines in California

Ancient Cinnabar Mines in California

Cinnabar is associated with "life" and "rejuvenation" in the ancient world and is most associated with the Earth Mother.  The painting above depicts Christ in a red robe, symbolizing the same aspects. Traces of ancient mining operations are also met with in several places in North America, but all we know about them is that they are of much earlier date than the Spanish conquest. Mention is made of ancient mines of cinnabar existing in California,' where the rocks have given way, burying in their fall the miners, whose skeletons lay at the bottom of the mine beside clumsy stone hammers, the only tools of these savage workmen. Similar hammers have been found in the Lake Superior mines. We shall recur to this subject ;

Ancient Giants Remove Three Ton Blocks of Stone From a Lake Superior Copper Mine

Ancient Giants Remove Three Ton Blocks of Stone  From a Lake Superior Copper Mine

One of the few skulls discovered at one of the copper mines shows that it was not that of American indigenous peoples

The modern mining works are mostly confined to that part of the copper region known as Keweenaw Point. This is a projection of land extending into Lake Superior and described as having the shape of an immense horn. It is about eighty miles in length, and, at the place where it joins the mainland, about forty-five miles in width. All through this district, wherever modern miners have worked, remains of ancient mining works are abundant; and they are extensive on the adjacent island, known as Isle Royale. The area covered by the ancient works is larger than that which includes the modern mines, for they are known to exist in the dense
 forests of other districts, to which the modern mining has not yet been extended.

One remarkable mining excavation of the Mound-Builders was found near the Waterbury mine. Here, in the face of a vertical bluff, was discovered “an ancient, artificial, cavern-like recess, twenty-five feet in horizontal length, fifteen feet high, and twelve feet deep. In front of it is a pile of excavated rock on which are standing, in full size, the forest trees common to this region.” Some of the blocks of stone removed from this recess would weigh two or three tons and must have required levers to get them out. Beneath the surface rubbish
 were the remains of a gutter or trough made of cedar, placed there to carry off water from the mine. At the bottom of the excavation, a piece of white cedar timber was found on which were the marks of an axe. Cedar shovels, mauls, copper gads or wedges, charcoal, and ashes were discovered, over which “primeval” forest trees had grown to full size.

Ancient Skulls Uncovered in Maryland and New Jersey Determined to Originate in Northern Germany

Ancient Skulls Uncovered in Maryland and New Jersey Determined to Originate in Northern Germany

These primitive skulls were determined to be of the same origin. The skull on the left was uncovered in Trenton, New Jersey. The skull in the middle was found in Burlington, Maryland and the skull on the right is from Bremen, Germany.  

Smithsonian Institute Bureau of Ethnology, Bulletin 33  1907

Skeletal Remains Suggesting Or Attributed to Early Man in North America: 1907

   Racial Affinities of the Burlington County and Riverview Cemetery Skulls The inevitable conclusions are that the Burlington County skull and that from the Riverview cemetery at Trenton are of a type totally different from that of the Lenape, or of any other Indian crania from the East or elsewhere of which we have thus far any knowledge.

   They are skulls of people of a different race with which no further acquaintance has yet been made in this country. What this race was, the writer was not able to show at the time of the publication of the report in 1902. Two possibilities suggested themselves at that time: One, that the crania represented some non-Indian people who preceded the Lenape about Trenton; the other, that they might be crania of later intruders — or immigrants — into that region. The former theory could not be accepted without further proof, and the immigrant idea seemed hardly plausible, for the Delaware Valley had been settled largely by Swedes, whose cranial type is radically different. On the whole, there are very few localities known, in Europe or elsewhere, where normally very low skulls had been observed.

  The foregoing accounts, which do not seem to have been followed by any additional observations of importance on similar material, establish the presence in parts of northwestern Germany and Holland in or up to recent times of a cranial type characterized by precisely the feature which renders so extraordinary the skulls from Burlington County and Riverview cemetery, namely, very low height. The cephalic index and the capacity of the European chamaecephals show a wide range, which easily includes the same characteristics of the Trenton specimens. The facial measurements are lacking in the German reports, but Gildemeister speaks of a narrow face, a feature marked also in the two skulls from New Jersey; and one of the latter, it will be remembered, shows a trace of basal depression, such as noticed in a more pronounced degree in some of Virchow's low crania. The illustrations of the European chamaecephals show remarkable general resemblances to the two Trenton skulls — there are the same the rounded outline, without sagittal elevation, of the anterior and the posterior plane, similar shape of the superior plane, and similar aspect of the face. There can be no doubt of the relationship of the two forms, and it now remains to account for the occurrence of identical forms in regions so remote from each other. That such marked similarity of any two normal, important, extreme, and repeated forms in cranial morphology

Ancient Horned Dwarf Discovered in an Indiana Cave

Coconino Sun (Flagstaff, Arizona) December 31, 1915

Probably an Ancient Cowboy

      Hans, Augustus and James Hansen and Leo Ellsworth returned Monday from Whiteriver where they have been the past six weeks hauling wood for the Indian Agency. They report the finding of a skeleton of a horned man. The skeleton was three feet tall, with well-defined horns about two inches long near the temples. The skeleton was found near the East Fork of the White River close to a large cave. It was fully developed man and was on exhibition at Whitewater several days before being sent to a museum in Washington City. - Snowflake Herald.

Ancient Giant's Corn Discovered in Arkansas

Ancient  Giant's Corn Discovered in Arkansas

The Star (Reynoldsville, Pa.) July 18, 1900
STRANGE ANCIENT GRAIN
It is Dug Up In A Jar  - May Be a Thousand Years Old
    While excavating for a new building at Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, workman unearthed about 29 feet underground, in a drift of sand and gravel, a sealed stone cask when opened revealed a species of maize resembling in some respects the corn of present day, but a different grain in every particular from any grain at present time, and being reddish brown in color and somewhat larger in size.  The cask contained over a peck of the grain, which will be preserved and replanted.
     Near where the cask was found many evidences of a prehistoric race have been unearthed.  Several years ago stone jars and vases were revealed and bones of what was once a human being apparently gigantic in size were discovered.  Local scientists who have examined the grain declare there nothing produced like it in the world at the present time and they account for the preservation under the ground for probably 1,000 years or more due to its being closed in the airtight cask.

Ancient Stone Buildings Diagrammed in Missouri and Franklin County, Indiana

Ancient Stone Buildings Diagrammed in Missouri and Franklin County, Indiana

Illustrated History of Missouri, 1879
    The stone edifices thus described seem to have been peculiar to Missouri alone, as I find no notices of existing similar works in any other locality, unless those described by Mr. Brown in his Western Gazetteer were such. Those were found near the town of Harrisonville, Franklin Co., in the State of Indiana. They were located on the neighboring hills, northeast of the town. The ruins of quite a number were observed, all of which, it is stated, were built of rough, unhewn stone. The walls were leveled nearly to the foundations, and covered with soil, brush and full-grown trees. Mr. Brown informs us that "after clearing away the earth, roots, and rubbish from one of them, he found it to have been anciently occupied as a dwelling. It was about twelve feet square. At one end of the building was a regular hearth, on which were yet the ashes and coals of the last fire its owners had ever-enjoyed, for around the hearth were the decayed skeletons of eight persons, of different ages, from a small child to the head of a family. Their feet were all pointing towards the hearth, which fact suggests the probability that they were murdered while asleep." The bottom lands in this region are said to have abounded in mounds similar to those described elsewhere, and containing human bones, implements of stone, and a superior article of glazed pottery. A skull taken from one of them was found pierced with a flint arrow which was still sticking in the wound, and was about six inches long. The stone dwellings described by Mr. Brown were evidently of inferior construction to those of Missouri. The authors of the latter showed no mean skill in architecture; while the rough and ruder walls of the Indiana structures, their diminutive size, along with the fact of the whole family lying together on the floor, would indicate a social condition but little removed from barbarism. Whether their builders belonged to the race of the mounds in the valleys near, is not certain, and the means of deciding the question are doubtless destroyed.

Ancient Graveyard of a 3 Foot Pygmy Race Discovered in Tennessee

Ancient Graveyard of  a 3 Foot Pygmy Race Discovered in Tennessee

Archaeologist calls the figure on this pipe, "fanciful."  But maybe it depicts a person from a pygmy race that numbered in the thousands and lived in peace with the giant race.

“Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee, 1823
 devote an entire section to the consideration of “the ancient pygmies.” The following is a synopsis of the facts stated by him in reference to this matter:— A number of small skeletons were discovered a few miles from Sparta, Tennessee, in White County, an account of which was given by a Mr. Lane. The graves were about two feet in length, fourteen inches broad, and sixteen inches deep. These extend promiscuously throughout the farm of Mr. Lane, and in a large and closely connected burying-ground in the vicinity; there were others of the same description four miles south of Sparta, and it is said that hundreds of them might be found throughout the locality. There is no discernible rising on the surface of the earth on account of these graves, and they were found by sinking an iron rod into the ground until it struck the covering stone of the colfins. These graves generally contained small skeletons of human beings so much decayed that they could not be removed without being broken to pieces, or crumbling to dust. There were also found in them remnants of pottery and shells, as well as bones of animals. In one the skeleton lay on its back, with its feet drawn up, so as to raise the knees about four inches above the bottom of the grave; the head was also so raised as to cause the chin to lie upon the breast. This‘ skeleton, carefully measured as it lay, was found to be, from a little below the ankle-joints to the top of the skull, two feet ten inches, making a proper allowance for the bending of the legs and the inclination of the head. But one grave of the whole series was ‘of a larger size and of a different form, being constructed after the manner of a coffin, fourteen inches broad at the head, twenty-two at the elbow, and ten at the foot; the sides and ends were of flag-stones, the same as those of the small graves. In this grave lay a skeleton five foot, five inches long, the head to the west and the feet to the east. This skeleton was carefully uncovered without displacing any of the bones until the whole was exposed to View. Its mouth was wide open and contained a full set of teeth, the arms lay along the side, the ribs were broad and flat and more than double the size of those of the Pigmies. The head was also larger, the eyes wider apart, and the forehead higher than those in the smaller graves. The skull was perfect, with the exception of a fracture on the right cheek-bone; and a quantity of fine, straight hair adhered to it, which was of a bright gray color. No vessels or trinkets were found with this skeleton, and, from the great dissimilarity in the shape of its head and the size and form of the bones, it seemed to belong to a different tribe from the skeletons of the smaller graves. From the great number of small graves found here, says Mr. Lane, all of the same description, and, among them all, but one being of a large size, it seems to indicate that there was, in ancient times, a race of people whose height was from two feet ten to three feet. As old as the hair of the large skeleton seemed to be, there was not a tooth lost or unsound in either jaw, but one of the Pigmy heads had in the upper jaw a decayed tooth, whence it was conjectured that the person to whom this skeleton belonged was older than the former. Specimens of the contents of these graves were submitted to medical gentlemen of Nashville, and various opinions were entertained as to the maturity or infancy of the smaller skeletons. The prevailing one seemed to be that these skeletons belonged to adult persons of small size, and also that some of the bones found were those of animals—Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee

70 Miles of Ancient Canals are Described in Missouri

70 Miles of Ancient Canals are Described in Missouri

Illustrated History of Missouri, 1879
    The pre-historic people of Missouri were not only great in populous towns, in their agriculture, in their huge piles of earth and embankments and buildings of stone, but they, too, were canal-builders. With surprising skill they developed a system of internal navigation, so connecting the lakes and bayous of the southern interior of the State, that the products of the soil found a ready outlet to the great river. The remains of these artificial water-courses have been frequently alluded to by travelers who have seen them but never thoroughly explored. Dr. G. C. Swallow, while at the head of the Geological Survey, called attention to them, and described one which was " fifty feet wide and twelve feet deep." For the fullest description of this class of works, I am indebted to Geo. W. Carleton, Esq., of Gayoso ; who, in response to a note of enquiry, — in addition to many interesting facts concerning a great number of ancient structures in Pemiscot County, — kindly furnished the following account, which I give in his own words: "Besides our Mounds, we can boast of ancient canals. Col. John H. Walker informed me that before the earthquakes, these canals — we call them bayous now — showed very plainly their artificial origin. Since the country has become settled, the land cleared up, the embankments along those watercourses have been considerably leveled down. One of these canals is just east of the town of Gayoso. It now connects the flats of Big Lake with the Mississippi river. Before the bank crumbled off, taking in Pemiscot Bayou, it connected this bayou with the waters of Big Lake. Another stream, that Col. Walker contended was artificial, is what we now call Cypress Bend Bayou. He said that it was cut so as to connect the waters of Cushion Lake with a bayou running into Big Lake. Cushion Lake lies in the northern part of Pemiscot county. The canal was cut from the flats of the lake on the south side, about three miles into Big Lake Bayou. By this chain of canals, lakes, and bayous, these ancient mound-builders and canal-diggers could have an inland navigation from the Mississippi River at Gayoso, into and through Big Lake bayou and the canal into Cushion Lake, through Cushion Lake and a bayou into Collins Lake or the open bay, thence north through a lake and bayou some eight miles, where another canal tapped this watercourse and run east into the Mississippi river again, some five miles below the town of New Madrid. Col. Walker, in referring to these water-courses, spoke of them only as canals. They show even now a huge bank of earth, such as would be made by an excavation, on the side opposite to the river, so that in case of overflow the water from the river would not wash the excavated dirt back into the canal."  Although in the foregoing account the present depth and width are not given, from it and from the reports of others, there can be no doubt that the ancient inhabitants had constructed with a skill which would do no discredit to our own engineers, a system of connecting canals which must have been necessitated by an extended internal trade, and which required boats of respectable dimensions. The evidences of work of such magnitude as canals, widen the "broad chasm" which is to be spanned before we can link the Mound-builders to the North American Indians until it becomes an impassable gulf.

1 In reply to a subsequent note of inquiry as to the length of this water-course, including canal and bayou, Mr. Carlton estimates it to be about seventy miles.

Ancient Giant's Canal Discovered at Lake Chautauqua, New York

Ancient Giant's Canal Discovered at Lake Chautauqua, New York

Smithsonian Institutes Bureau of Ethnology 1881

Cazenovia Township, Madison County, New York

     According to Mr. James Serrard, of Dunkirk, an ancient canal and basin exist at Long Point, two and a half miles up the eastern shore of the Lake from Bemus point, but this is not artificial. Faint traces of an aboriginal embankment were noticed upon the high land back from this point overlooking the lake.

Giant Skeletal Remains Discovered in Chautauqua County, New York

Pittsburgh Dispatch Aug 27, 1891

  Two Human skeletons of giant size were unearthed at Lakewood, N. Y., by the workman.  The thigh bone of one was 30 inches long