Catalog Archive
Auction 149, Lot 273

"Plan of the Remains of Some Ancient Works on the Muskingum", Columbian Magazine

Subject: Marietta, Ohio

Period: 1787 (published)

Publication:

Color: Black & White

Size:
8.6 x 7.1 inches
21.8 x 18 cm
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This rare map represents the birth of American Anthropology as it is "thought to have been the first description and plan of an American earthwork ever published" (American Anthropologist, Vol 10, p. 343.). The map was likely sketched by Captain Jonathan Heart of the First American Regiment. Heart was commissioned a Captain by Congress and was ordered to the Muskingum Valley to protect the surveying parties there. It was during his service there that he produced the plan of the ancient Indian works located near present-day Marietta, Ohio. The plan with a key for circular mounds, walls, caves and graves details an area of about one square mile on the east bank of the Muskingum River. The plan is on a scale of 10 chains to an inch (666 feet).

References: Wheat & Brun #663.

Condition: B

Issued folding with several extraneous vertical creases, minor soiling, and a small binding trim at lower right that has been replaced with old paper.

Estimate: $450 - $550

Sold for: $325

Closed on 5/21/2014

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