Hardened Clay Sarcophagus Found Within the Enon Burial Mound in Clark County, Ohio
Some years ago Knob Prairie Mound (Enon mound) was opened, and the investigator says: "We found top soil all the way down to thirty feet when we came to a cave of curious construction; it was in the shape of a bake oven, and high enough for a man to stand upright in the center; it tapered down on the sides. On one side there was a door that evidently had led from a grand entrance into the cave. In the middle was a pile of dirt and stone resembling an altar; on it were bones, charcoal and some pieces of decayed wood. There was one piece of partly charred wood in a good state of preservation. The wood was preserved, but the bones would not stand removal; the investigators then cut their names and the date on the altar, filled up the excavation and left."
According to an engineering record made in 1863, the mound in Ferncliff was five and one-half feet high, conical in shape and thirty- two feet in diameter; many years ago, it was opened by investigators, a shaft being sunk in the center. About five feet from the apex, a hard ceiling of baked clay was encountered; the excavators continued their shaft through this ceiling, finding it a vault or cave ten feet high and shaped like a bake oven, similar to the one in Knob Prairie Mound. In this chamber were bones, charcoal and a wooden chain seven inches long with six links and made from black locust.
