The Newark Earthworks: Ancient structures, modern monuments

The Newark Earthworks are unique in at least three ways: it is the largest, the northernmost, and the most geometrically precise of the earthworks built in the Hopewell era. -Richard D. Shiels

A section of the wall and interior “moat” of the Great Circle in Heath, Ohio (the municipality adjacent to Newark). The slightly elliptical circle of the towering walls encloses roughly thirty acres. (Photo by T.S. Bremer, 2008)

Unless you’ve been there, it’s hard to imagine the enormity and magnificence of the Newark Earthworks. Photos do not do them justice. Words can never capture the experience of standing among these ancient structures. Scientists who have studied them for decades still do not fully grasp the precision of their astronomical alignments. And we can only guess the purposes and meanings they had for the people who built them and for others who have marveled at them over the centuries. Like so many of the earthwork structures that punctuate the eastern half of North America, they remain a mystery that continues to intrigue.

A First Encounter

Amazement and awe overwhelmed Chief Glenna Wallace of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma when she first encountered the ancient earthworks in Newark, Ohio. She writes of her experience in the Foreword of the 2016 collection of essays The Newark Earthworks: Enduring Monuments, Contested Meanings: “Try to imagine the shock and total disbelief I experienced when I stepped out of the car and looked out at this intricate array of earthen walls and landscapes where…