|
Lapham arrived in Milwaukee in 1836 to survey the proposed route of the Milwaukee to Rock River Canal, which was never built. In his work as surveyor he took great scientific interest in the thousands of effigy mounds found near Wisconsin's rivers and lakes. He found the Aztalan pyramid complex located east of Lake Mills and mapped hundreds of Native American effigy mounds dating from the Woodland Period, which Wisconsin has in extraordinary profusion. Lapham began Antiquities of Wisconsin in 1849 and published it in 1855 under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution. The book is filled with the author's precise ldrawings of numerous earthworks and mounds throughout the state. He carefully plotted and described these mounds created during Woodland Period in Wisconsin before the mounds were destroyed by white farmers newly settled in Wisconsin. In a race against time, Lapham documented these rare structures before farmer's plows reduced them to crop land. The effigy mounds found in Wisconsin are animal and geometric-shaped
emblems created from soil by Wisconsin's native peoples. Most mounds
date from the Woodland and Mississippian phase cultures one thousand
to fifteeen hunded years ago. Many of the round mounds serve as ancient
burial sites. The original significance of the animal shapes was lost,
though many shapes correspond to native American clan names found among
Wisconsin's historic Indian tribes. Sources Charles Round. "Increase Lapham." Wisconsin Authors and Their Works. Madison: The Parker Educational Company, 1918. 192-196. The entire contents of I.A.
Lapham's Antiquities of Wisconsin
|
Gallery
