Edwin Harness Mound graves   Save
Archaeology Collection - Ohio History Connection
Description: This photograph depicts five graves uncovered during an excavation at the Edwin Harness Mound in Ross County, Ohio, ca. 1900-1915. It was taken as a record of the excavation. The Edwin Harness Mound was located south of Chillicothe in Liberty Township, Ross County, Ohio. It was the largest of the 14 mounds associated with the nearly 100-acre Liberty Earthworks, a complex dating to late in the Hopewell Period (post-A.D 300). In their 1840s survey, Squier and Davis described the mound as egg-shaped in plan (about 100 x 180 feet) with the larger end toward the north. It was measured at 20 feet high at the north end, sloping to 11 feet at the south end. Like many large Hopewell burial mounds in Ohio, the Harness Mound was repeatedly investigated throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, leading to the recovery of numerous burials and the a variety of related artifacts. The last fieldwork at the site took place in the 1970s in advance of the area being reclaimed for agricultural purposes. Archaeologists dug below the base level of the mound and discovered it had been constructed over the remains of two very large conjoined post structures, most likely ceremonial houses or perhaps a single great house. The houses each measured about 30 x 40 feet connected by a 10 x 10 foot passageway, reminiscent of how Hopewell earthworks in general were laid out. Additionally, numerous artifacts diagnostic of the Hopewell culture were recovered and radiocarbon dates ranging between A.D. 330 and A.D. 470 place the Edwin Harness Mound near the extreme end of the Hopewell sequence. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL00286
Subjects: Edwin Harness Mound (Ohio); Earthworks (Archaeology); Hopewell Culture (A.D. 1–400); Excavations (Archaeology)--Ohio
Places: Ross County (Ohio)