Newark Earthworks

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Newark Earthworks
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
View from a section of the Great Circle Earthworks, part of the Newark Earthworks.
View from a section of the Great Circle Earthworks, part of the Newark Earthworks.
Location: Newark, Ohio, USA
Added to NRHP: October 10, 1966
NRHP Reference#: 66000614[1]
Governing body: Local and state government[1]

The Newark Earthworks in Newark, Ohio, consists of three sections of preserved earthwork: the Great Circle Earthworks, the Octagon Earthworks, and the Wright Earthworks. The site is preserved and maintained by the Ohio Historical Society.

Contents

[edit] History

Built by the Hopewell culture at some point between 100 BC and 500 AD, the Hopewell used these earthworks as places of ceremony, social gathering, trade, and worship. The culture built many earthen mounds, creating the single, largest earthwork complex in the Ohio River Valley. The earthworks cover several square miles.

[edit] Great Circle Earthworks

Panoramic view from within the Great Circle, the wall of which can be seen in the background.
Panoramic view from within the Great Circle, the wall of which can be seen in the background.

The 1,180 foot wide Newark Great Circle is the largest circular earthwork in the Americas, at least in construction effort. The 8 feet high walls surround a 5 feet deep moat, except at the entrance where the dimensions are even greater and more impressive. Archaeogeodesy and Archaeoastronomy research has demonstrated advanced scientific understandings by the prehistoric cultures in the area by analyzing the placements, alignments, dimensions, and site-to-site interrelationships of the earthworks.

Today, the Great Circle Earthworks are preserved in a public park near downtown Newark, called Mound Builders Park (or the Newark Earthworks) located at 99 Cooper Ave, Newark, Ohio.

[edit] Octagon Earthworks

From 1892 to 1908, the state of Ohio used the Octagon Earthworks as a militia encampment. Immediately after this, the Newark Board of Trade owned the property, until 1918. In 1910, the property was leased to MBCC (Mound Builders Country Club) and it was developed as a golf course. As a result of a Licking County Common Pleas Court case, a trustee was named to manage the property from 1918 to 1933. The current lease runs until 2078. MBCC maintains, secures, and provides some public access to that land.[2]

Observatory Mound, Observatory Circle, and the interconnected Octagon span nearly 3,000 feet in length.

[edit] Wright Earthworks

Part of Newark Earthworks State Memorial, this 50-foot long segment is one side of a large square enclosure that was a feature of the original complex.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b National Register of Historical Places - Ohio (OH), Licking County. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (2008-01-13).
  2. ^ Maag, Christopher. "Ohio Indian Mounds: Hallowed Ground and a Nice Par 3", New York Times, 2005-11-28. 
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