Day 33: Mysterious Mounds

Okay, I wanted to title tonight's post "Almond joy's got nuts, mounds don't" but Stan thought it might be irreverent to the people who made these prehistoric earthworks in central Ohio. We visited Serpent Mound, a site we've seen in textbooks over the years; an earthen mound in the shape of a snake that's more than 1,350 feet in length, formed by an ancient Native American tribe more than a thousand years ago. Scientists have long wondered about its purpose. It may have served in some religious capacity. It's also tied into the astronomical calendar, with various components of the serpent's shape marking the phases of the sun and moon.

The site is operated by the Ohio Historical Society and features a tall metal platform from which you can see the effigy in its entirety. And we were intrigued to learn that the ground surrounding the mound is a huge crater (five miles across) believed to be the result of a meteor collision millions of years ago. Fascinating place, and so fun to see it in person.

The people behind Serpent Mound came into better focus for us at the Hopewell Culture National Historic Park, south of Columbus. The park cares for five different sites of 2,000-year-old mounds along the Scioto River. The visitor center is located next to the Mound City site, which contains at least 23 mounds of various heights and geometric shapes. It's thought that because the area was so plentiful in game and plant life, the tribes didn't have to work as hard to survive and therefore had time to develop these large-scale monuments and burial mounds as well as their understanding of celestial calendars. These people were the predecessors of those at Serpent Mound.

The timing of our visit was extraordinary, as there's an active archeological dig this week...the first in more than 50 years. The mounds were all but obliterated over the years by farming, a WWI training camp, and looters; they were restored thanks to detailed drawings made 150 years ago when the mounds were still intact. But much of the ground beneath and around them is largely unexplored. We had so much fun talking with the National Park archeologist in charge of the dig. He's discovered evidence of structures predating the mounds.

We returned to modern life this evening, visiting one of our lifelong friends, Jennifer McCasland Watson, at her older son's baseball game in Columbus! It was wonderful to get caught up on each other's lives. We look forward to another reunion on Sunday, this with one of Stan's friends from Westmont. Tomorrow we'll dive into Cincinnati.

Serpent Mound

lay-out of Mound City, in the background

baseball and buddies