Alternative name | Bigfoot Earthworks, Warren County Serpent Mound |
---|---|
Location | Morrow, Ohio, USA |
Region | Warren County, Ohio |
Coordinates | 39°21′24″N84°9′36″W / 39.35667°N 84.16000°W |
History | |
Founded | 100 BCE |
Abandoned | 500 CE |
Cultures | Ohio Hopewell culture |
Site notes | |
Archaeologists | Frank Cowan |
Architecture | |
Architectural styles | earthworks, timber circle |
Architectural details | |
Stubbs Earthworks | |
NRHP reference No. | 78002205 [1] |
Added to NRHP | April 4, 1978 [1] |
Responsible body: private |
The Stubbs Earthworks (33 WA 1) (also known as Bigfoot Earthworks [2] and Warren County Serpent Mound) was a massive Ohio Hopewell culture (100 BCE to 500 CE) archaeological site located in Morrow in Warren County, Ohio. [3]
The site was a ceremonial center consisting of an earthen enclosure with circular and rectangular elements and a separate smaller circular enclosure that contained the remains of a timber circle. To the east of the main enclosure on a high terrace overlooking the site was a large W-shaped earthwork. This was once thought to be a snake effigy mound similar to the Great Serpent Mound in Adams County, Ohio; although archaeologists do not currently think this was the case. [3]
In September 2005 archaeologist Frank Cowan conducted excavations at the smaller circular enclosure; discovering a timber circle 240 feet (73 m) in diameter and composed of 172 large posts. Carbon dating of charcoal found in post molds at the site have dated the structure to 200-300 CE. [4]
Although ignored by Edwin Hamilton Davis and E. G. Squier for inclusion in their seminal archaeological and anthrolopological work Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley in 1847; the site was visited and mapped by Charles Whittlesey in 1851. [5] Since that time much of the site has been destroyed by farming, gravel quarrying, and encroaching development. The Little Miami High School was constructed over part of the earthworks in 2000; although some of the site is still preserved on its grounds. [3] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. [1]
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-foot-long (411 m), three-foot-high prehistoric effigy mound located in Peebles, Ohio. The mound itself resides on the Serpent Mound crater plateau, running along the Ohio Brush Creek in Adams County, Ohio. The mound is the largest serpent effigy in the world.
In archaeology, timber circles are rings of upright wooden posts, built mainly by ancient peoples in the British Isles and North America. They survive only as gapped rings of post-holes, with no evidence they formed walls, making them distinct from palisades. Like stone circles, it is believed their purpose was ritual, ceremonial, and/or astronomical.
Fort Ancient is a Native American earthworks complex located in Washington Township, Warren County, Ohio, along the eastern shore of the Little Miami River about seven miles (11 km) southeast of Lebanon on State Route 350. The site is the largest prehistoric hilltop enclosure in the United States with three and one-half miles (18,000 ft) of walls in a 100-acre (0.40 km2) complex. Built by the Hopewell culture, who lived in the area from the 200 BC to AD 400, the site is situated on a wooded bluff 270 feet (82 m) above the Little Miami. It is the namesake of a culture known as Fort Ancient who lived near the complex long after it was constructed.
The Adena culture was a Pre-Columbian Native American culture that existed from 500 BCE to 100 CE, in a time known as the Early Woodland period. The Adena culture refers to what were probably a number of related Native American societies sharing a burial complex and ceremonial system. The Adena culture was centered on the location of the modern state of Ohio, but also extended into contiguous areas of northern Kentucky, eastern Indiana, West Virginia, and parts of extreme western Pennsylvania.
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 six separate sites 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.
Mounds State Park is a state park near Anderson, Madison County, Indiana featuring Native American heritage, and ten ceremonial mounds built by the prehistoric Adena culture indigenous peoples of eastern North America, and also used centuries later by Hopewell culture inhabitants. It is separate from the similarly named Mounds State Recreation Area. The park receives about 400,000 visitors annually.
Moorehead Circle was a triple woodhenge constructed about two millennia ago at the Fort Ancient Earthworks in the U.S. state of Ohio.
In archaeology, earthworks are artificial changes in land level, typically made from piles of artificially placed or sculpted rocks and soil. Earthworks can themselves be archaeological features, or they can show features beneath the surface.
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 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.
Prehistory of Ohio provides an overview of the activities that occurred prior to Ohio's recorded history. The ancient hunters, Paleo-Indians, descended from humans that crossed the Bering Strait. There is evidence of Paleo-Indians in Ohio, who were hunter-gatherers that ranged widely over land to hunt large game. For instance, mastodon bones were found at the Burning Tree Mastodon site that showed that it had been butchered. Clovis points have been found that indicate interaction with other groups and hunted large game. The Paleo Crossing site and Nobles Pond site provide evidence that groups interacted with one another. The Paleo-Indian's diet included fish, small game, and nuts and berries that gathered. They lived in simple shelters made of wood and bark or hides. Canoes were created by digging out trees with granite axes.
The Highbank Park Works is a complex of earthworks and a potential archaeological site located within Highbanks Metro Park in Central Ohio in the United States. The park is in southernmost Delaware County on the east bank of the Olentangy River. The site is a semi-elliptical embankment, consisting of four sections, each 3 feet (0.91 m) high, and bordered by a shallow ditch. Two ravines and a 100-foot-high shale bluff surround the earthworks. It is thought to have been constructed sometime between 800 and 1300 CE by members of the Cole culture. The earthworks have seen little disturbance since the first white settlement of the region; agriculture has never been practiced on their vicinity, and no significant excavation has ever been conducted at the site. One small excavation and field survey, conducted in 1951, yielded a few pieces of pottery and flakes of flint from a small midden. Another excavation was conducted in 2011 that focused mainly on site usage and constructing a timeline for the mounds.
The Mount Horeb Earthworks Complex is an Adena culture group of earthworks in Fayette County, Kentucky. It consists of two major components, the Mount Horeb Site 1 and the Peter Village enclosure, and several smaller features including the Grimes Village site, Tarleton Mound, and Fisher Mound. The Peter Village and Grimes Village enclosures were mapped by Rafinesque and featured in Squier and Davis's landmark publication Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley in 1848 as Plate XIV Figures 3 and 4.
The Marietta Earthworks is an archaeological site located at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio Rivers in Washington County, Ohio, United States. Most of this Hopewellian complex of earthworks is now covered by the modern city of Marietta. Archaeologists have dated the ceremonial site's construction to approximately 100 BCE to 500 CE.
The Rocky Fork Park Site is an archaeological site in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. Located in Rocky Fork State Park in eastern Highland County, the site's earthworks have been designated a historic site because of their archaeological importance.
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. Contemporary archaeologists have described it as "one of the many enigmatic effigy mounds in Southern Ohio."
The Cowan Creek Circular Enclosure (33CN11) is an earthworks complex in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. Named for its location near the stream known as Cowan Creek, the enclosure is an important archaeological site, and it is protected as part of a state park.
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.