Show A PREHISTORIC BATTLE Discovery of a Field Where Barbarians Barbar-ians Fought 20000 Years Ago New York Herald Think of a battle which cost the lives of a hundred thousand thou-sand warriors History has no such record rec-ord but that such a battle was fought before history is shown is indicated by some remarkable discoveries in the Mississippi valley Evidences of 3 mighty battle between barbaric races contending for the possession pos-session of the great < valley of the Mississippi Mis-sissippi 20000 years ago in which 60000 ana perhaps 100000 tawnyskinned warriors war-riors save up their lives have been discovered in the Indian Territory that wild and almost unknown portion of the public domain set apart for the use and benefit of the nations wards The initial discovery was made by laborers employed in grading a roadbed road-bed for the Kansas City Plttsburg Gulf railway a few months ago near Redlands I T in the northern part of The Choctaw Indian reservation They I were surprised to find at a depth of six to eight feet a deposit of human bones ancient pottery and stone weapons of warfare The road at this point ran through one of the terraces of the Arkansas Ar-kansas river bottom for a considerable distance rver as the grading progressed carloads of human bones most of wJiich crumbled when exposed to the air and great quantities of rude battle axes arrow points long daggerlike javelin points and pieces of pottery were unearthed THIRTY ACRES OF SKELETONS The workmen made no effort to preserve pre-serve the relics an < J the real value and extent of the prehistoric remains might nev r have been known had not Professor Edwin Walters an archaeologist archaeol-ogist and geologist in the employ of the road happened along about that time He recognized the importance of the find and has recently made extensive excavations By digging and sounding he has ascertained that 30 acres most of which is heavily timbered are un derlaid with human bones His first theory was that he had found an ancient burying ground in which for many successive generations the triesmen had been laid to rest but when he picked up a skull in which 13 moss agate arrow points were embedded I embed-ded the conclusion was forced upon him that he had come upon a prehistoric prehis-toric battle ground Further excavations revealed other skulls pierced with arrow points and I many skeletons in portions of which I arrow points or stone Javelin heads I were buried One of them was dug up with a stone javelin head thrust through the spine and projecting for I several inches through the breastbone Scarcely a skull has been found that docs not bear the marks of violence I The great number of stone war implements imple-ments that are being found confirms Professor Walters theory that one of the most sanguinary struggles of prehistoric pre-historic times occurred there GREAT PRIMEVAL CONFLICT I The mystery which envelopes that strange scene of primeval conflict may I never be cleared away but to the mind of Professor Walters the story of that I early struggle is as an open book The 17 years he has spent in exploring the mounds fortifications and buried cities of the vanquished races of Central Cen-tral and North America have developed devel-oped facts of surpassing interest to archaeologists All of the prehistoric inhabitants of North America Professor Walters believes be-lieves came originally from Central America Thirty thousand years ago three millions of people breaking away from the vast population that for countless centuries had occupied eon tral and the northern portion of South America journeyed northeastward along the coast of the Carribean sea I and the Gulf of Mexico and finally overspread the Mississippi valley They belonged to the race of MayaToltecs who as is shown by their monuments and ruined cities had attained a remarkably re-markably high degree of civilization for that remote period As the centuries passed the wanderers wander-ers lost much of their knowledge of architecture astronomy chemistry civil engineering and sculpture in which the parent race had become proficient pro-ficient Instead of building temples and monuments they became mound builders and their rude structures are buiders scattered throughout the Mississippi valley and the region of the great I lakes Ten thousand years passed during I which the Mound Builders lost all of I the characteristics of the MayaToltec race and when as the successive waves of immigration from the Yucatan I Yuca-tan swept over the Pacific slope and eastward toward the Mississippi valley the supremacy of the Mound Builders I was threatened and they fortified their frontier against the incursions of their new enemy The Mayas made periodic I attempts to wrest the rich valley from I their grasp and many were the fierce I battles fought GREAT CHAIN OF FORTIFICATIONS FORTIFICA-TIONS Professor Walters has found a series of fortifications extending north and south and facing each other The first frst I of the prehistoric chain of fortifications that mark this one time bloody battle I bat-tle line is found near Om From that point it followed down 1 e riv bluffs to Kansas City and fix in there I has been traced southward almost to Mexico The battleground just found I I in the Choctaw country forms a link I in this chain of fortifications and goes far toward proving the correctness of Professor Walters theories Here he believes the decisive battle of this great international war of the primitive primi-tive race was fought I is in the midst of a rough rolling I country The Arkansas river broad and deep runs east and west at this point its channel being against a rocky wall on the north bank of the river in the country of the Cherokees To the south and left of the river are 1 two broad terraces covered with giant oaks and it is the higher of the two through which the railroad runs which I contains the prehistoric remains Upon this terrace can easily be traced the rude fortifications which were evidently evident-ly the objective point of the warlike MayaToltecs Following the topography of the country in his calculations Professor Walters figures out that the invading I army came across the level plain lying to the west drove the outposts of the I Mound Builders back from their settlements settle-ments around the great mounds that may still be seen at some distance I west of the recently discovered battleground battle-ground to the main fortifications or earthworks Here the two great armies 1reat I mies each possibly numbering 250000 engaged in a struggle that should only ceasewhen one or the other had been hopelessly vanquished What a terrible handtohand struggle strug-gle i must have been Every acre of that dark and bloody ground contains con-tains the ghastly remains of from 2000 to 3000 warriors and that they died amid a perfect rain of arrows javelins and stone axes the vast numbers of these deathdealing instruments unearth I un-earth bear mute testimony FOUGHT HAND TO hANDLess HAND-Less than 50000 men were killed in the bloodiest battle of the civil war What fearful carnage must there have been when between 60000 and 100000 mon armed only with bows and arrows javelins and rude battle axes went down Little wonder that almost every skull is crushed in with a blow from a battle ax or pierced with arrows whose tips had previously been dipped in poison The work of mapping the earthworks earth-works battlegrounds and burial places along the great battle line is one of the most stupendous undertakings yet attempted by students of American archaeology and ethnology Professor Walters has already given > up many years to his selfimposed task and expects I ex-pects to have i completed in ten years f 1 |