Description: D. Wyrick's 1860 map of the Newark Earthworks. Built by the prehistoric Hopewell Culture between 100 B.C. and A.D. 500, this architectural wonder of ancient America was part cathedral, part cemetery, and part astronomical observatory. The entire Newark Earthworks originally encompassed more than four square miles. Over the years, the growth of the city of Newark destroyed many of the Newark Earthworks, but three major segments survived because of the efforts of interested local citizens. In 2006, Governor Bob Taft formally declared the Newark Earthworks to be Ohio's state prehistoric monument, honoring the early American Indian builders of this site. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL02913
Subjects: American Indians--Archaeology; Earthworks (Archaeology); Hopewell culture--Ohio; Ohio History--Natural and Native Ohio; Ohio state symbols
Places: Newark (Ohio); Licking County (Ohio)
 

Description: Map of the Marietta Works by surveyor Charles Whittlesey, 1837. The Marietta Earthworks site is a large Hopewell culture (100 BC-AD 500) ceremonial center located at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio rivers in Washington County. Originally, it included a large square enclosure surrounding four flat-topped pyramidal mounds, another smaller square, and a circular enclosure with a large burial mound at its center. Three segments of the original Marietta Earthworks are maintained as public parks today, and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL02886
Subjects: American Indians--Archaeology; Earthworks (Archaeology); Hopewell culture--Ohio; Ohio History--Natural and Native Ohio
Places: Marietta (Ohio); Washington County (Ohio)
 

Description: Photograph showing Hopeton (sometimes written Hopetown) Fort in Ross County, Ohio, ca. 1900. The Hopeton Earthworks is a large Hopewell ceremonial center on the east bank of the Scioto River, just north of Chillicothe, Ohio. It was first mapped in 1809, and was later surveyed by Ephraim George Squier and Edwin Hamilton Davis in 1846. Squier and Davis concluded that the site was used as a fortification in their 1848 book "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley." After the 1840s, very little archaeological investigation was done at the site until the National Park Service began conducting field research in 1995. Since then, the site has become one of the better-understood Hopewell earthwork centers in Ross County. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV17_B02F05e08_09_1812_1
Subjects: American Indians--Archaeology; Earthworks (Archaeology); Mounds--Ohio--Ross County;
Places: Ross County (Ohio)
 

Description: Photograph showing Hopeton (sometimes written Hopetown) Fort in Ross County, Ohio, ca. 1900. The Hopeton Earthworks is a large Hopewell ceremonial center on the east bank of the Scioto River, just north of Chillicothe, Ohio. It was first mapped in 1809, and was later surveyed by Ephraim George Squier and Edwin Hamilton Davis in 1846. Squier and Davis concluded that the site was used as a fortification in their 1848 book "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley." After the 1840s, very little archaeological investigation was done at the site until the National Park Service began conducting field research in 1995. Since then, the site has become one of the better-understood Hopewell earthwork centers in Ross County. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV17_B02F05e08_09_1815_1
Subjects: American Indians--Archaeology; Earthworks (Archaeology); Mounds--Ohio--Ross County;
Places: Ross County (Ohio)
 

Description: Photograph showing miscellaneous mounds at Hopeton (sometimes written Hopetown) Fort in Ross County, Ohio, ca. 1900. The Hopeton Earthworks is a large Hopewell ceremonial center on the east bank of the Scioto River, just north of Chillicothe, Ohio. It was first mapped in 1809, and was later surveyed by Ephraim George Squier and Edwin Hamilton Davis in 1846. Squier and Davis concluded that the site was used as a fortification in their 1848 book "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley." After the 1840s, very little archaeological investigation was done at the site until the National Park Service began conducting field research in 1995. Since then, the site has become one of the better-understood Hopewell earthwork centers in Ross County. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV17_B02F05e08_09_1815_2
Subjects: American Indians--Archaeology; Earthworks (Archaeology); Mounds--Ohio--Ross County;
Places: Ross County (Ohio)
 

Description: Human effigy pipe from the Adena culture, Early Woodland period, 500 BC-1 AD. Excavated from the Adena Mound in Ross County, Ohio, in 1901. Large, anthropomorphic tube pipe is in the form of a man standing upright, wearing a patterned loincloth, earspools and a feather bustle. He has a swelling on his throat that may represent goiter. His head and torso are large in comparison to his legs, suggesting to some that he represents a dwarf. However, it may just reflect artistic convention. The mouthpiece has a small hole in a semicircular projection at the top of the head. The bowl of the pipe is located between the figure's feet. Made of pipestone, the front, or ventral face, is light yellowish brown and much of the back, or dorsal face, is yellowish red. The object is held in the Ohio History Connection Archaeology Collection, and is recognized as the state artifact of Ohio. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL00218
Subjects: American Indians--Archaeology; Earthworks (Archaeology); Hopewell culture--Ohio; Ohio History--Natural and Native Ohio; Ohio state symbols
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: Lithograph titled "Ancient Works, Marietta, Ohio," based on an earlier painting by Charles Sullivan. This lithograph dates to 1848, and was published in Squier and Davis's "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley." It shows Native Americans against a backdrop of the Hopewell Culture's ceremonial earthworks, located at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio Rivers in Washington County. The Marietta Earthworks are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Caption states that the painting is in the "...posession of A. Nye Esq. Marietta." View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL08597
Subjects: Ohio History--Natural and Native Ohio; Earthworks (Archaeology); Earthworks (Art)--United States; Marietta (Ohio)
Places: Marietta (Ohio); Washington County (Ohio)
 

Description: Lithograph showing the group of prehistoric earthworks in Marietta, Ohio, after a painting by Charles Sullivan. This lithograph dates to 1848, and was published in Squier and Davis's "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley." View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL05765
Subjects: Ohio History--Natural and Native Ohio; Earthworks (Archaeology); Earthworks (Art)--United States; Marietta (Ohio)
Places: Marietta (Ohio); Washington County (Ohio)
 

Description: Four small maps showing Native American earthworks and ancient monuments in Pickaway, Fairfield and Licking Counties. Pictured are "the Alligater," "the Cross," the Rock Mill Work and the Newark Valley earthworks. Archaeologists E.G. Squier and E.H. Davis, with the help of surveyor and geologist Charles Whittlesey, systematically documented the Indian works and compiled them into an 1847 book called "Ancient monuments of the Mississippi Valley: Comprising the results of extensive original surveys and explorations." View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: monuments
Subjects: Mounds--Ohio River Valley; American Indians--Archaeology; Ohio River Valley--Antiquities; Earthworks (Archaeology)
Places: Pickaway County (Ohio); Fairfield County (Ohio); Granville (Ohio); Licking County (Ohio); Newark (Ohio)
 

Description: What is now Chillicothe in Ross County, Ohio, was once home to the Adena and Hopewell prehistoric Native American cultures. This map shows an earthwork known as the Hopeton Work, about four miles north of Chillicothe. The Adena culture (800 B.C. to 100 A.D.) built most of the earthworks and some of the circular enclosures in the Chillicothe area, including the Adena Mound. The Hopewell culture (100 B.C. to 400 A.D.) built monumental earthworks and burial mounds in geometric shapes, primarily in the Paint Creek Valley, a few miles from Chillicothe. Archaeologists E.G. Squier and E.H. Davis, with the help of surveyor and geologist Charles Whittlesey, systematically documented the Indian works and compiled them into an 1847 book called "Ancient monuments of the Mississippi Valley: Comprising the results of extensive original surveys and explorations." View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL08598
Subjects: Mounds--Ohio River Valley; American Indians--Archaeology; Ohio River Valley--Antiquities; Earthworks (Archaeology)
Places: Chillicothe (Ohio); Ross County (Ohio)
 

Description: Serpent Mound is a spectacular effigy earthwork of a serpent uncoiling along a prominent ridgetop in northern Adams County, Ohio. Excavations between 1887 and 1889 by Frederic Putnam, of Harvard University's Peabody Museum, revealed the structure of the earthwork, but Putnam did not find any artifacts that revealed the age or cultural affiliation of the mound. Until recently, archaeologists assumed that Serpent Mound was built by the Adena culture (800 B.C. to 100 A.D.) since two Adena burial mounds are located nearby. Yet Putnam also discovered traces of a village of the Fort Ancient culture (1000 A.D. to 1650 A.D.) near the Serpent. Excavations conducted in 1991 recovered charcoal that returned radiocarbon dates suggesting that the Fort Ancient people built the mound between about 1025 A.D. and 1215 A.D.. Frederic Putnam saved Serpent Mound from destruction. On his urging, funds were raised for Harvard University to purchase the site. Later, the ownership was transferred to the Ohio Historical Society, and Serpent Mound is now recognized as a National Historic Landmark. Archaeologists E.G. Squier and E.H. Davis, with the help of surveyor and geologist Charles Whittlesey, systematically documented the Indian works and compiled them into an 1847 book called "Ancient monuments of the Mississippi Valley: Comprising the results of extensive original surveys and explorations." View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL08639
Subjects: Mounds--Ohio River Valley; American Indians--Archaeology; Ohio River Valley--Antiquities; Earthworks (Archaeology)
Places: Peebles (Ohio); Adams County (Ohio)
 

Description: Drawing depicting the astronomy of the Great Circle Earthworks in Newark, Ohio, as seen in "Ancient Astronomers of the Ohio Valley," by Bradley T. Lepper, TIMELINE (Vol. 15, No. 1), January-February 1998. Built by the prehistoric Hopewell Culture between 100 B.C. and A.D. 500, this architectural wonder of ancient America was part cathedral, part cemetery, and part astronomical observatory. Great Circle Earthworks is nearly 1,200 feet in diameter and was likely used as a vast ceremonial center by its builders. The 8 feet (2.4 m) high walls surround a 5 feet (1.5 m) deep moat, except at the entrance where the dimensions are even greater and more impressive. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL02910
Subjects: Astronomy; Ohio History--Natural and Native Ohio; Earthworks (Archaeology)
Places: Newark (Ohio); Licking County (Ohio)