author
Caleb Atwater
1778–1867
An early Ohio historian and archaeologist, he helped bring national attention to the ancient earthworks of the Ohio Valley. His life also ranged through law, politics, education, and public service on the American frontier.
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About the author
Born in North Adams, Massachusetts, in December 1778, Caleb Atwater studied at Williams College, trained in law, and later moved to Ohio, where he built a varied career as a lawyer, teacher, legislator, and postmaster in Circleville.
He is best remembered for his writing about Ohio's past and for some of the earliest published descriptions of the region's prehistoric mounds and earthworks. Because of that work, he is often described as an early archaeologist or anthropologist of the Ohio Valley, even though his methods belonged to an earlier era of American scholarship.
Atwater also wrote on Ohio history and natural history, showing a wide curiosity about the young state and its people. He died in Circleville, Ohio, on March 13, 1867, leaving behind works that still matter to historians of the Midwest and the study of ancient North American earthworks.