Newark Earthworks Center Calendar for Autumn 2007

Monday, Sept 24
Octagon Earthworks Open to the Public
September 24 is a "golf-free" day at the Octagon Earthworks. It is one of four days each year when the Moundbuilders Country Club does not schedule golf and the Ohio Historical Society invites the public to visit the entire site. We will take all of the History 151 classes to the Octagon that day and we urge everyone to go as well, and to invite your students and your friends. The Ohio Historical Society will have staff on site to answer questions and provide interpretive materials. If you haven’t visited the Octagon lately, plan to go on Monday!

Monday, Oct 1
Moonrise and Lunar alignment at the Octagon,” Octagon Earthworks, Newark OH.
OHS is planning a program starting at 8 PM – not at the Octagon, but at the Great Circle. The public is encouraged to come to the shelter house at the Great Circle, which is on Rt. 79 just east of 21st Street. The program is to last about 2 hours and the public will be directed to go to the Octagon about 10 PM.

Moonrise is at 10:23pm (but it always becomes visible ten or fifteen minutes later). Plan to arrive 30 minutes before the moonrise. Site is open to the public only after dark. Bring a flashlight. No facilities will be available. Check the OHS website for details.

Wednesday, Oct 3
The Ohio Historical Society will hold a public meeting to solicit comments and ideas about new exhibits for the Visitor Center at the Great Circle in Newark, OH. In addition, OHS is planning to conduct a limited archaeological survey prior to installing a leach bed to improve drainage at the maintenance building along Cooper Avenue. The meeting will be in Hopewell Hall 68 on the OSU Newark campus and will begin at 7:00 PM. Dr. Brad Lepper, Curator of Archaeology, will present ideas and solicit public reaction. For more information, including directions, call (614) 297-2642. If you’re not able to attend the meeting, OHS would still like to hear from you. Feel free to contact OHS for more information on the both the visitor's center project as well as the archaeological survey.

Saturday, Nov 3
Ohio Archaeological Council Annual Meeting hosted by the Newark Earthworks Center, Reese Center Auditorium, 9am - 5pm. Morning sessions focus on research project updates. Afternoon sessions focus on recent research at Hopewell sites.

Autumn Quarter 2007
Humanities 294 (1 credit) will focus on the Ohio Archaeological Council's annual meeting. The class will meet twice: the evening of Oct 22 and all day on November 3. For more information, contact Dr. Richard Shiels @ shiels.1@osu.edu.

The Newark Earthworks and World Heritage Site Status:
The National Park Service submitted a preliminary list of USA places to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for World Heritage status. There are 19 sites on the list, including 6 natural and 13 built sites. Three combined Ohio sites: Newark Earthworks, Fort Ancient and Hopewell Culture National Historical Park are ranked second on the list of man-made sites. There will be a period of several months for public comment on this tentative list and a final list will be presented to UNESCO in January.

The Newark Earthworks Center…Ohio State University at Newark…740-364-9574

 

 

 

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The Newark Advocate

Help Earthworks get named to list

 

A grassroots campaign is under way to nominate several ancient earthworks to the World Heritage Site List. We need your help. The sites are: the Newark Earthworks in Licking County; the Serpent Mound in Adams County; Fort Ancient in Warren County; and the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park in Ross County. The World Heritage Site List is sponsored by the United Nations. It is a list of places we have inherited from the past and, hopefully, will leave for future generations. Among the sites on the list are: the Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Barrier Reef and the Great Wall of China. Constructed some 2,000 years ago, the four sites that comprise the Great Earthworks of Ohio include magnificent, one-of-a-kind earthen structures that forever commemorate the achievements of the Native American people who built them. The Newark Earthworks cover more than four square miles and include huge, geometrically shaped structures. Fort Ancient stands as an incredible feat of construction and is one of the few remaining hilltop enclosures built by the ancient moundbuilders. Serpent Mound is the largest effigy of its kind in the world. Hopewell Culture National Historical Park preserves several unique earthworks. All that needs to be done is to send a letter or e-mail that says you support the nomination of these four sites to the World Heritage List. Letters can be sent to: Mr. George Kane, Director of Facilities Management, Ohio Historical Society, 1982 Velma Ave., Columbus, OH 43211. You can also e-mail letters to Mr. Kane at: worldheritagenominations @ohiohistory.org I urge you to help make a difference. William F. Romain, Ph.D. author of "Mysteries of the Hopewell: Astronomers, Geometers and Magicians of the Eastern Woodlands"

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The Newark Advocate

Supporters hope to get Earthworks recognition
Nominations sought in getting prehistoric site on World Heritage list
By KENT MALLETT
Advocate Reporter

 

NEWARK -- Two city councils will consider tonight a resolution supporting the nomination of Newark Earthworks to the World Heritage Site list of the world's most outstanding examples of natural or cultural heritage. If chosen for the list, the Earthworks would join the likes of The Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Pyramids in Egypt, the Great Wall of China, and the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone national parks in the United States. The Newark Earthworks would be part of a Hopewell culture nomination, which also would include Fort Ancient in Warren County and the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park in Ross County. Newark and Heath councils have resolutions of support on tonight's agendas. The list includes 830 sites in 138 countries, including 20 in the United States, but none from Ohio. The Ohio Historical Society and Hopewell park have combined to seek the nomination. "In my heart of hearts, I think sooner or later, we'll be on the list," said Dick Shiels, director of Newark Earthworks and a professor at the Newark campus of Ohio State University. "I'll be elated if it makes the list. I honestly believe we have a world-class site." Shiels said public support is important before submitting the nomination. The Ohio House and Ohio Senate also will consider resolutions of support. The verdict will not be known until 2010, when the World Heritage Committee makes its decision. The nomination, though, must be received by the U.S. National Park Service by April 1. The Newark Earthworks, constructed about 2,000 years ago as a ceremonial center and social gathering place of the Hopewell people, represents the largest example in North America of a geometric enclosure with walls of earth and stone extending across an area of more than four square miles. The Earthworks includes three locations -- the Great Circle Earthworks in the south side of Newark off Ohio 79, the Octagon Earthworks at North 33rd Street and Parkview Road on the grounds of Moundbuilders Country Club, and Wright Earthworks west of the Ohio 79 interchange at Grant Street. The Earthworks has gained stature in recent years because of new discoveries and acknowledgments, including the 2006 designation as Ohio's official prehistoric monument. Letters of support for the nomination should be sent by March 15 to: George M. Kane; Director of Facilities Management, Ohio Historical Society, 1982 Velma Avenue, Columbus, OH 43211.   Kent Mallett can be reached at (740) 328-8545 or kmallett@newarkadvocate.com

 

 

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The Newark Advocate
Originally published February 13, 2007

Council committee endorses Newark Earthworks nomination

 

NEWARK -- The city council's Finance Committee approved Monday a resolution endorsing the nomination of the Newark Earthworks for inclusion on the UNESCO list of world heritage sites. The full council will consider the resolution next week. The Newark Earthworks, constructed about 2,000 years ago as a ceremonial center and social gathering place of the Hopewell people, is the largest example in North America of a geometric enclosure with walls of earth and stone extending over an area of more than 4 square miles. World heritage sites represent examples of the world's cultural and natural heritage. There are 830 sites in 138 countries, including 20 in the United States. The Ohio Historical Society and the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park are working together to prepare nominations of significant archaeological sites in Ohio. The Newark Earthworks and the Hopewell Park in Ross County have been grouped together for consideration. Letters of support for the nomination should be sent by March 15 to: George M. Kane, Director of Facilities Management, Ohio Historical Society, 1982 Velma Avenue, Columbus, OH 43211.

 

 

 

 

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The Columbus Dispatch

13 February 2007

 

ARCHAEOLOGY

Octagon Earthworks' alignment with moon likely is no accident

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

BRADLEY T. LEPPER

The Octagon Earthworks in Newark is one remnant of the Newark Earthworks, recently listed by The Dispatch as one of the Seven Wonders of Ohio.

Earlham College professors Ray Hively and Robert Horn demonstrated in 1982 that the walls of this 2,000-yearold circle and octagon were aligned to the points on the horizon, marking the limits of the rising and setting of the moon during an 18.6-year cycle.

The implications of this argument for our understanding of the knowledge and abilities of the ancient American Indian builders of the earthworks are astounding. But how can we know whether they deliberately lined the walls up with the moon or whether the series of alignments is just an odd coincidence?

In the current issue of the Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, Hively and Horn use statistics to address this question.

And while they acknowledge that they cannot provide a definitive answer, their analyses certainly offer compelling evidence to support their idea that the sites are among the world's earliest astronomical observatories.

Hively and Horn focused on five alignments. These are the main axis of the site, which points toward the maximum northerly rise point of the moon, and the orientation of four of the octagon's eight walls, which align variously with the moon's maximum southern rise point, the minimum northern rise point, the maximum northern set point and the minimum southern set point.

They performed a "Monte Carlo" analysis in which a computer randomly generates more than 10 billion equilateral octagons, randomly aligned them to a compass bearing and then checked how many astronomically significant alignments resulted.

They determined that, even "making the most generous plausible combination of assumptions favoring chance alignments," the odds that the alignments at Newark are merely accidental are about one in a thousand. Using more reasonable assumptions, the odds are more like one in 40 million.

This does not take into account several other lunar alignments incorporated somewhat more subtly into the earthworks. Neither does it consider the fact that Hively and Horn have shown that High Bank Works in Chillicothe, the only other circle and octagon combination built by the Hopewell culture, also is aligned to the same series of lunar rise and set points.

It's a safe bet that these ancient Ohioans understood a lot more about astronomy than most of us have recognized.

 

Bradley T. Lepper is curator of archaeology at the Ohio Historical Society.

 

 

 

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Indian Country Today

6 November 2006

 

Newark Earthworks Day draws a crowd.

Posted: November 06, 2006

by: Stephanie Woodard

 

Reawakening for an ancient site

NEWARK, Ohio - A dazzling fall day, with gold and russet trees against a bright blue sky, greeted the processional that opened Newark Earthworks Day, an annual shindig that mixes speeches and scholarly presentations with feasting, conviviality and prayer. Richard Brings Them, Standing Rock Sioux, led a processional across Ohio State University's Newark campus that included traditional inhabitants of Ohio, such as the Shawnee, and other indigenous residents, such as the Lakota, who arrived during the 20th century.

Native and non-Native scholars, visitors from across the continent and townspeople of all ages filled the ranks as well. All told, about 300 people turned up to celebrate the 2,000-year-old Newark Earthworks and, by extension, the architectural, engineering and astronomical achievements of their builders: Ohio's original peoples.

The local earthworks - a national historic landmark that is among the thousands of mounds, or artificial hills, and earthen-walled enclosures across the Midwest and Southeast - have captured the imagination of area residents, many of whom hope the golf course that currently sits on them may one day relocate. To encourage studies of the site, Ohio State University recently formed the Newark Earthworks Center. It's directed by Richard Shiels, a history professor, and Marti Chaatsmith, Comanche/Choctaw, program coordinator.

The Newark Earthworks have also drawn the attention of folks around Ohio. The day's first speaker, state Sen. Jay Hottinger, described children from a Newark elementary school persuading the Legislature to make the site the state prehistoric monument. At first, Hottinger admitted, he didn't think the kids would succeed:  “I thought they'd simply learn about the legislative process. But their passion lit a fire.”

Far from being relics of the past, earthworks are part of Native life today, a point made by Second Chief Alfred Berryhill of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, which maintains a mound-building tradition. Jay Miller, Delaware and director of the American Indian Studies program at Ohio State University, introduced Berryhill, calling him “a man of great vision” who has revitalized practices devastated during the Muscogees' removal from their Georgia homeland to Oklahoma and has devised community development programs that include health clinics and businesses.

Berryhill, a Methodist minister and speaker of his indigenous language, opened with a Muscogee hymn and prayer. He went on to describe his visits to Georgia mounds and others, such as Cahokia, in Illinois. Using an overhead projector, Berryhill then plotted concordances between rituals and objects of the Old Testament and those of the Creeks. He demonstrated that the plan of the tabernacle was similar to that of the Creek ceremonial ground, which is, in turn, represented in the layout, activities and personnel of today's Creek Christian churches.

Berryhill's saga has been personal: ''When I became a minister and would ask about the ceremonial ground, my dad, who's also a minister, would say, ‘That's of the devil.’ But you know us preachers' sons: we disobey and go find out for ourselves.”  His efforts have also been part of reconstructing his nation's identity. “I'm doing this so next time someone asks a community member what it means to be Creek, they'll answer: ‘How much time you got?’”

In a separate interview, Berryhill praised the efforts of scientists who've studied the mounds: “We should work in concert. Archaeologists and anthropologists find out things we've forgotten since removal. We can then incorporate these ideas into our lives.”

Archaeology, however, also drew criticism. “There are things worth knowing in what archaeologists do,” said Robert Warrior, Osage, professor of English and Native American Studies at the University of Oklahoma, in his speech. “But there are also well-justified suspicions about archaeology in Native communities. No regulations or promises will undo the history of plunder that's unfolded on this continent.”  Indeed, archaeologists have excavated mounds down to several feet below the earth's surface and removed human remains, grave goods and religious artifacts.

On the other hand, less invasive disciplines have succeeded in revealing engaging information. Two Earlham College faculty members, philosophy professor Robert Horn, and physics and astronomy professor Ray Hively, presented their latest research. In a slide presentation, Hively showed the virtuosic accuracy of the Newark Earthworks, in terms of both their geometric forms and their many alignments with celestial events. The site, Hively noted, was built to a higher standard than that used by modern surveyors. The site is as gigantic as it is precise, he added, and Stonehenge and Egypt's Great Pyramid could be tucked into its corners.

Equally fascinating were the many geometrical puzzles Hively has found within the Newark site, including equal perimeters for a square and a circle and the diameter of that same circle - more than 1,000 feet - used as a giant yardstick to locate the center points of other enclosures.

According to Hively, the site's builders may have chosen its location because of the surrounding topography, where the Newark Earthworks' major celestial alignments appear to be related to outlying hills and valleys. In addition to being blessed by the heavens, the tract is encircled by water in the form of creeks and rivers, thus offering a schematic of the North American indigenous universe: Turtle Island surrounded by the primordial sea.

And finally, during the site's heyday, materials and artifacts from across the continent - copper from the Great Lakes region, silver from Canada, obsidian from the Rockies, mica from the Carolinas and shells from the Gulf of Mexico - were brought to it, possibly by pilgrims, according to archaeologist Bradley Lepper. Taken all together, these characteristics point to the Newark Earthworks having been a place of great healing power to which worshipers brought these offerings.

The healing continues to this day, said Carol Welsh, Sisseton-Wahpeton and director of the Native American Indian Center of Central Ohio: “In this magnificent place, we are renewing the sacred. In school, I learned that my people were savages. But now I see I come from people who were beautiful and intelligent. I see the sacredness of being Indian.”

 

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