Mound Builders

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Map of the original Moundbuilders city

Licking County was undoubtedly the center of a great community of Moundbuilders. Evidenced not only by the great number of ancient earthworks, but also by the elaborate mound system that runs through the western part of Newark. The only two remaining mounds in the county are the circle at Moundbuilders Park and the circle and octagon at Moundbuilders Country Club.

Adena

The first white men in Licking County found nearly three hundred mounds, during the first era of discovery in the early 1800s. The Moundbuilders lived in the areas around the Ohio Valley somewhere between 500 and 2000 years ago. The first major mound builders were the Adena, named from Ohio's first governor, Thomas Worthington, where the first mound was excavated on his estate. Nearly 500 Adena sites have been studied across the country, and their mounds have dated back as far as the the birth of Christ. The Adena were talented hunters and fisherman, and analysis of their skeletons show them to have stood nearly seven feet tall. [1]

Around 500 B.C., the Adena began building conical mounds as for burial purposes. [1] The mounds were often surrounded by great earthen ridges, though the purpose of the ridges is not known. The mounds were used to honor the remains of prominent members of the Adena society including chiefs, shaman, and priests. Early on, the dead were buried in bark lined pits, covered with slabs of bark and covered with earth to form a mound. Later on these tactics evolved and the dead were buried in log tombs, layered atop each other, until the mounds were 30 to 70 feet tall. [1]

Hopewell

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Kavasch, E. (2004). Adena Mound Building Culture (1000-100 B.C.). In The Mound Builders of Ancient North America. Lincoln, NE: IUniverise.