Mound 19

To the east of Mound 18 on the Patrick Map of 1876 is a line of mounds numbered 19 to 26. The first of these is Mound 19, which is located to the northeast of Mound 34.

The remnant of Mound 19 today appears as a lobe in the 127-meter (416.7 foot) contour line. It is a very small rise in the ground, reduced greatly by plowing. Patrick indicates that Mound 19 is a conical mound with a very small area on top. The McAdams (1882) and Thomas (1894) maps both give a height of 10 feet (3.05 meters), but later maps give only 5 feet (1.5 meters) (Peterson-McAdams 1906, Moorehead 1923). There are some discrepancies in the location of Mound 19 on the earlier maps, but once again Patrick’s location is accepted due to the care of his survey and because it corresponds with the UWM Map and aerial photographs.

Moorehead excavated in this area, reporting (1923) that because of cultivation, the edges of these mounds overlap. He also reports excavating a trench “of over 250 feet from the center of Mound 19 well into Mound 21.” However, on the UWM Map 250 feet (76.2 meters) would cover only the distance from the center of Mound 19 to the center of Mound 20 and would definitely not extend to Mound 21. It is possible that Moorehead may have assumed that Mound 20 actually included Mounds 20 and 21, since the distance between Mounds 19 and 20 on the UWM Map is about 79 meters. If that is the case, Moorehead’s description of material found in Mounds 19, 20, and 21 would only apply to Mound 20. For example, Moorehead makes the following comment:

About 150 feet from the west end of our trench, at a depth of three feet, were many fragments of spades and hoes, or digging tools of reddish chert. Why these were all broken we do not know. There were enough fragments to comprise fifteen or twenty of the tools, and about them were ashes and burnt earth. Fifteen feet beyond was a mass of pulverized galena Iying in ashes. [1923:17-19]

Assuming the west end Moorehead’s trench was in Mound 19,150 feet east of that would be Mound 20. Therefore, this cache of chert hoes would pertain to Mound 20. Other remains found by Moorehead are discussed in the description of Mound 20. Perino (1959), who excavated in the Ramey Field northeast of Monks Mound in the 1950s, mentions a burial “just west of the adjoining Mound 19. ” This was a female with notched edge filed teeth.