Newark Earthworks

Drawing of Earthworks and nearby mound and embankments from 1911, utilizing previous sketches of prehistoric sites.

Overview

When Europeans first arrived in the Licking River Valley, they found a large and complex series of earthworks created centuries prior by the Hopewell culture. Built between 100 B.C.E and 400 C.E. the Earthworks covered more than four square miles of ground and were composed of a variety of geometric shapes, including circles, squares, and octagons, with mounds and embankments. The Newark Earthworks are the largest geometric earthworks in the world. The original function of site is unknown though a sacred purpose connected to lunar and astronomical charts is the most likely, and various structures function as astronomical calendars and markers of celestial movements.

Unfortunately, many of these features have been destroyed over the last two centuries through agriculture and transportation and urban development projects. What remains, however, is a striking testament to the ingenuity and mathematical skill of the ancient Hopewell. Two large structures are still extant today in the Newark area: the Great Circle, southwest of downtown Newark and abutting Ohio 79, and the Octagon Earthworks, south of Ohio 16 on property leased to Moundbuilders County Club. Together with several smaller mounds and earthwork fragments, including the Wright Earthworks, they make up the grouping collectively known as the Newark Earthworks. The Great Circle and Octagon Earthworks, along with other sites in a Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, are in the final stages of the application process to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Wright Earthworks

The Wright Earthworks were part of a twenty-acre, square enclosure with sides running more than nine-hundred feet in length. The corner includes a portion of one side of a lost parallel embankment running northeast. The surviving corner gives a taste of the grandeur of this complex series of structures, as well as a reminder of how much has been lost.

They were connected to the Great Circle physically through a series of embankments, and to the Octagon Earthworks and to the Octagon Earthworks in its alignment to the lunar cycle and its standardized measurements.

The Great Circle

The Great Circle, with an earthen wall that varies between five and fourteen feet in height, spans twelve hundred feet across and encompasses thirty acres. Along the inside of the circle wall is a ditch or moat that ranges in depth from eight to thirteen feet. A separate mound, or series of small mounds, stands in the center of the Great Circle. Traditionally called the Eagle Mound, because of its resemblance to a flying bird, it is possible the mound or mounds represent an arrow or an animal print of some kind. The Eagle Mound stands on what had once been the site of a Hopewell great house.

The Great Circle Earthworks was misunderstood by many European settlers as a fortification, and was referred to by most nineteenth century inhabitants of the area as the "Old Fort." Others believed it to be the site of a monarch's center of power, of a place for games akin to the Olympics of ancient Greece, though some surmised that the structures had a greater, more spiritual significance. Despite the lack of understanding of the sites function, and the destruction of many of the embankments and smaller earthworks in the Licking River Valley, the Great Circle experienced both destruction and alteration, but also a degree of preservation through a variety of civic and commercial uses in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The land was purchased in 1853 by a group of concerned citizens with the aim of preserving the site as a public gathering space. Once the site of the now defunct Licking County fair and even the State Fair, the Great Circle was also a military practice field, horse-racing track, and even an amusement park known as Idlewild. The public use of the Great Circle and the Octagon complex did lead to wear and change of the sites, yet ensured that they would survive relatively intact. By the 1930s, the Great Circle was at risk again with the closure of the amusement park. The citizens and officials of Licking County, working together with the Ohio Historical Society and the Civilian Conservation Corps—one of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal initiatives—the site was cleaned up and restored and maintained as an important historical and cultural site.

The Octagon Earthworks

A 120-acre tract of earthworks containing three mounds in geometric shapes is sited south of Ohio 16 in Newark, on the ground of Moundbuilders County Club. The largest mound, the Octagon encloses 50 acres within its eight walls. There are two accompanying circles—Observatory Circle and a much smaller circle—that complete the extant complex. The structures date to the Hopewell period and excavations near the Octagon yielded more firm radiocarbon dating between 180 C.E. and 400 C.E.

The Octagon mound is aligned with lunar cycles moonrises and moonsets. The smaller Observatory Circle southwest of the Octagon encompasses 20 acres and is connected by a wide pathway or avenue to the Octagon Earthworks. The scale and measurements of the earthworks were standardized, and the Observatory Circle, with a diameter of 1,054 feet, served as a way to measure and lay out the greater Earthworks complex. The distance between the center of the Observatory Circle to the center of the Great Circle is six times the diameter of Observatory. The distance from the center of the Octagon Earthworks to the center of the Wright Square is also six times the diameter the Observatory Circle, illustrating the command of mathematics and engineering that the Hopewell possessed.

Used as a National Guard encampment from 1892-1908, the city of Newark leased the site to the Moundbuilders Country Club. Ownership of the land has passed to the Ohio History Connection, but the lease to the Mound Builders County Club has continued for more than a century, and the Octagon complex remains part of an active golf course. This use of the space with significant spiritual meaning to Native Americans has created tension over the continuation of the lease. In the Fall of 2020, court cases over the lease of the land to Moundbuilders County Club continued in Ohio State courts.

Public access to the Octagon Earthworks is available but limited. The Octagon can be viewed from north 30th Street, the Octagon and small circle from Parkview Road and the Observatory Circle from Moundview Avenue. There is public access to Observatory Mound behind the Licking Memorial Hospital.

J.G.