Tarlton Cross Mound | |
Location | Tarlton State Park, northwest of Tarlton [1] |
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Nearest city | Tarlton, Ohio |
Coordinates | 39°33′44″N82°47′7″W / 39.56222°N 82.78528°W |
Area | Less than 1 acre (0.40 ha) |
NRHP reference No. | 70000489 [2] |
Added to NRHP | November 10, 1970 |
Cross Mound (also called the Tarlton Cross Mound) is an earthwork located near Tarlton, Ohio in the United States. The culture who built it and the time it was built remains unknown. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. [3] Contemporary archaeologists have described it as "one of the many enigmatic effigy mounds in Southern Ohio." [4]
The site is located in Cross Mound Park, near a tributary of the Scioto River. [5] The site totals 29-acres. To access the site, visitors must pass over a suspension bridge that was built in 1936. [6]
Ephraim George Squier and Edwin Hamilton Davis visited the site in the mid 1840s. They would discuss their survey in their 1848 publication Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley . They describe the location of the work as occupying a "narrow spur of land,". They describe the design of the work as a Greek cross. The work was three feet high and 90 feet apart on each end and closely matches the cardinal directions. A small ditch surrounded it, following the design of the cross. In the middle of the cross was a circle shaped depression. The depression was noted as being 20 feet in diameter and 20 feet deep. Towards what they describe as the "back" of the cross was "a small circular elevation of stone and earth." (Later to be described by contemporary surveyors as a "small stone mound".) They believed it to be an altar. Squier and Davis believed that this installation represented a connection with the Alligator Effigy Mound in nearby Granville, Ohio. Near the main site, they noted a collection of smaller mounds. A larger hill near the cross was described as having "several large mounds". [5]
"Cross Mound is located, near a tributary of the Scioto River (Cross Mound, 2015). The site totals 29-acres and to access the site, visitors must pass over a suspension bridge that was built in 1936 (Cross Mound, 2015). This site used to be within Tarlton’s limits until recently, in fact, it is known as called Tarlton Cross Mound (Cross Mound, 2015). Today, the site is maintained and owned by the Fairfield County Historical Parks Commission (Cross Mound,2015)." [7]
Today, the site is maintained and owned by the Fairfield County Historical Parks Commission. The Ohio Historical Society reports that the 20-foot depression in the middle of the cross is 12 inches deep, not 20 inches deep in the middle of it. [3] Dr. Greg Little also suggests that the cross itself is four feet high, not three feet high as surveyed by Squier and Davis. Three small mounds also exist at the site, today. [6]
The exact age of the site is undetermined. They theorize that the site may represent the sun, as crosses were utilized by the Mississippian culture frequently as a sun symbol. They also theorize that it was built by the Fort Ancient peoples, but the National Park Service and others suggest that it was built by the Hopewell culture. [3] [4] [8]
Despite the suggestion of that the Hopewells designed the work, Dr. Jarrod Burks of Ohio Valley Archaeology states, "not enough evidence exists to support this claim." Burks does believe that the site was probably built during the Middle Woodland period. Other effigy mounds in the area, Alligator Effigy Mound and Serpent Mound, are both dated after 1,000 AD. This dates them as being built by the Fort Ancient peoples, and Burks believes the same might be true for Cross Mound. [4]
The Hopewell tradition, also called the Hopewell culture and Hopewellian exchange, describes a network of precontact Native American cultures that flourished in settlements along rivers in the northeastern and midwestern Eastern Woodlands from 100 BCE to 500 CE, in the Middle Woodland period. The Hopewell tradition was not a single culture or society but a widely dispersed set of populations connected by a common network of trade routes.
The Great Serpent Mound is a 1,348-feet-long (411 m), three-feet-high prehistoric effigy mound located in Peebles, Ohio. It was built on what is known as the Serpent Mound crater plateau, running along the Ohio Brush Creek in Adams County, Ohio. The mound is the largest serpent effigy known in the world.
Hopewell Culture National Historical Park is a United States national historical park with earthworks and burial mounds from the Hopewell culture, indigenous peoples who flourished from about 200 BC to AD 500. The park is composed of four separate sites open to the public in Ross County, Ohio, including the former Mound City Group National Monument. The park includes archaeological resources of the Hopewell culture. It is administered by the United States Department of the Interior's National Park Service.
The Great Hopewell Road is thought to connect the Hopewell culture monumental earthwork centers located at Newark and Chillicothe, a distance of 60 miles (97 km) through the heart of Ohio, United States. The Newark complex was built 2,000 to 1800 years ago.
Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley (1848) by the Americans Ephraim George Squier and Edwin Hamilton Davis is a landmark in American scientific research, the study of the prehistoric indigenous mound builders of North America, and the early development of archaeology as a scientific discipline. Published in 1848, it was the Smithsonian Institution's first publication and the first volume in its Contributions to Knowledge series. The book had 306 pages, 48 lithographed maps and plates, and 207 wood engravings. The book was reissued in 1998 in paperback, with an introduction by David J. Meltzer, professor of anthropology at Southern Methodist University.
Fortified Hill Works is a registered historic site near Hamilton, Ohio, listed in the National Register on July 12, 1974.
The Alligator Effigy Mound is an effigy mound in Granville, Ohio, United States. The mound is believed to have been built between AD 800 and 1200 by people of the Fort Ancient culture. The mound was likely a ceremonial site, as it was not used for burials.
The Newark Earthworks in Newark and Heath, Ohio, consist of three sections of preserved earthworks: the Great Circle Earthworks, the Octagon Earthworks, and the Wright Earthworks. This complex, built by the Hopewell culture between 100 BCE and 400 CE, contains the largest earthen enclosures in the world, and was about 3,000 acres in total extent. Less than 10 percent of the total site has been preserved since European-American settlement; this area contains a total of 206 acres (83 ha). Newark's Octagon and Great Circle Earthworks are managed by the Ohio History Connection. A designated National Historic Landmark, in 2006 the Newark Earthworks was also designated as the "official prehistoric monument of the State of Ohio."
The Hopeton Earthworks are an Ohio Hopewell culture archaeological site consisting of mounds and earthwork enclosures. It is located on the eastern bank of the Scioto River just north of Chillicothe in Ross County, Ohio, about 1 mile (1.6 km) east of the Mound City Group and Shriver Circle on a terrace of the Scioto River. The site is a detached portion of the Hopewell Culture National Historic Park, along with the Mound City Group, Hopewell Mound Group, Seip Earthworks, Spruce Hill Earthworks, and the High Bank Works. The site is open to the public.
The Tremper Mound and Works are a Hopewell earthen enclosure and large, irregularly shaped mound. The site is located in Scioto County, Ohio, about five miles northwest of Portsmouth, Ohio, on the second terrace floodplain overlooking the Scioto River. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
The Portsmouth Earthworks are a large prehistoric mound complex constructed by the Native American Adena and Ohio Hopewell cultures of eastern North America. The site was one of the largest earthwork ceremonial centers constructed by the Hopewell and is located at the confluence of the Scioto and Ohio Rivers, in present-day Ohio.
Indian Mound Reserve is a public country park near the village of Cedarville, Ohio, United States. Named for two different earthworks within its bounds — the Williamson Mound and the Pollock Works — the park straddles Massies Creek as it flows through a small canyon.
Fort Hill State Memorial is a Native American earthwork located in Highland County, Ohio, United States. Built by the Hopewell culture, it is maintained by the Arc of Appalachia Preserve System and the Ohio History Connection.
Howard Baum Site is a Hopewell tradition earthworks site located in Ross County, Ohio, in the United States. The work is located near the north fork of Paint Creek. It was described, in 1848, as "one of the largest and most interesting in the Scioto valley."
Cedar-Bank Works is group of Adena culture earthworks located in Ross County, Ohio in the United States. It is located approximately five miles north of the town of Chillicothe, Ohio.
The Junction Group is a site of earthworks located two miles southwest of Chillicothe, Ohio in the United States. The earthworks are associated with the Hopewell tradition. The site has been described as "unusual" by contemporary archaeologists. Excavations in the early 19th-century state that the site was not for fortification, but was used for religious purposes, including for burials.
The Dunlap Works are a group of Hopewell tradition earthworks located in Ross County, Ohio in the United States. It is located approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) north of the city of Chillicothe, Ohio on the left bank of the Scioto River. The site should not be confused with the earthworks in Hamilton County on the Great Miami River near Dunlap's Station, the former site of a pioneer fort.
The Piketon Mounds are a group of earthworks located in Piketon, Ohio in the United States. The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The specific age of the site is unknown. Some mounds were created by the Adena culture, while other mounds were built by the Hopewell culture.
The Stubbs Earthworks was a massive Ohio Hopewell culture archaeological site located in Morrow in Warren County, Ohio.
The Shriver Circle Earthworks are an Ohio Hopewell culture archaeological site located in Chillicothe in Ross County, Ohio. At 1,200 feet (370 m) in diameter the site is one of the largest Hopewell circular enclosures in the state of Ohio.