Newark Earthworks map   Save
Ohio History Connection - Property Files
Description: This is a map showing the Newark Earthworks in Licking County, Ohio. The Newark Earthworks were the largest set of geometric earthworks ever built in what is now the state of Ohio. They were constructed by the Hopewell culture (100 B.C. to 500 A.D.), an ancient American Indian culture. Originally the earthworks included a great circular enclosure (the Great Circle Earthworks), another slightly smaller circle that was linked to an octagon (Octagon Earthworks), and a large, nearly perfect square enclosure (Wright Earthworks), in addition to an oval earthwork surrounded a dozen conical and loaf-shaped mounds. All of these structures were connected by a series of parallel walls. There were many smaller circular enclosures and a scattering of other mounds and pits. On the opposite bank of the Licking River's South Fork, another square enclosure and an oval earthwork encircled the top of a hill that overlooked the vast maze of geometric enclosures. Over the years, the growth of the city of Newark destroyed many of the Newark Earthworks, but the Great Circle and the Octagon earthworks are major elements preserved by the efforts of interested local citizens. The surviving parts of the Newark Earthworks are recognized as a National Historic Landmark. 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. Archaeologists E.G. Squier and E.H. Davis, with the help of surveyor and geologist Charles Whittlesey, systematically documented the American 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: AL07257
Subjects: Ohio History--Natural and Native Ohio; Earthworks (Archaeology); Mounds--Ohio River Valley; American Indian history and society; Adena Culture (800 B.C.–A.D. 100); Hopewell Culture (A.D. 1–400)
Places: Newark (Ohio); Licking County (Ohio)