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<< Our Photo Pages >> Fort Ancient - Moorehead Circle - Timber Circle in United States in Great Lakes Midwest

Submitted by bat400 on Wednesday, 02 January 2013  Page Views: 8374

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Fort Ancient - Moorehead Circle Alternative Name: Moorehead Circle Woodhenge
Country: United States Region: Great Lakes Midwest Type: Timber Circle
Nearest Town: Lebanon, Ohio  Nearest Village: Oregonia, Ohio
Latitude: 39.406800N  Longitude: 84.0909W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 Destroyed Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 4 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 4

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Fort Ancient - Moorehead Circle
Fort Ancient - Moorehead Circle submitted by bat400 : A dig unit still open in the North Section. This is in the area of the timber circle that was first found by geophysical surveys in 2005. Several recent digs have focused on this structure. Photo by bat400, 15 Sept 2007. (Vote or comment on this photo)
Timber Circle in Warren County, Ohio.
Located inside the Northern Earthwork Enclosure of the Fort Ancient State Memorial, the Moorehead Circle is a timber circle, nearly 200 feet in diameter. It was possibly used to mark astronomical events. Discovered in 2005 during a remote sensing survey, there was no visible sign of the structure above ground in historic times. Carbon dating indicates some form of the site was first built in 40 BC, but was rebuilt multiple times up to AD 420.

The complex site, has a triple circle of post holes with a central, rectangular pit filled with red, burned soil, 2.5-foot-deep pit that was 15 feet long by 13 feet wide.

Moorehead Circle has been the focus of yearly excavations led by Robert Riordan, an anthropology professor at Wright State University. The feature was named by Riordan in honor of pioneering archaeologist Warren K. Moorehead.

[Information from The Ohio Archaeology Blog, National Geographic, and other sources.]

Note: Richard Riordan describes Moorehead Circle Woodhenge as Hopewell "Ceremonial Machine." See comments from reports by Bradley Lepper.
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Fort Ancient - Moorehead Circle
Fort Ancient - Moorehead Circle submitted by Michelledubois : Moorehead Circle - Woodhenge Excavation of Moorehead Circle, 2010. Photo by Dr. Robert Riordan, and originally published on the website of ohio-archaeology.blogspot.com Located in Fort Ancient State Memorial, just northeast of Cincinnati, Ohio, is Moorehead Circle. This "wooden Stonehenge" is a timber circle, and like Stonehenge, was likely used to mark astronomical events. Today only rock-fill... (Vote or comment on this photo)

Fort Ancient - Moorehead Circle
Fort Ancient - Moorehead Circle submitted by Michelledubois : Limestone embedded clay floors surround post-holes during excavation of Moorehead Circle on July 8, 2011. Photo by Bob Riordan, originally published on several news websites including foxnews.com and news.nationalgeographic.com Today only rock-filled post-holes remain of Moorehouse Circle, surrounded by the enigmatic earthworks of Fort Ancient State Memorial in Ohio. (Vote or comment on this photo)

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"Fort Ancient - Moorehead Circle" | Login/Create an Account | 4 News and Comments
  
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Timber circle aligned to summer solstice emerges from prehistoric Ohio by bat400 on Wednesday, 02 January 2013
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Another earlier story submitted by Andy b, dated 5 Oct 2011:
Wooden "Stonehenge" Emerges From Prehistoric Ohio

Timber circles, like U.K. monument, aligned to summer solstice, study reveals.
Published July 20, 2010

Just northeast of Cincinnati, Ohio, a sort of wooden Stonehenge is slowly emerging as archaeologists unearth increasing evidence of a 2,000-year-old ceremonial site.

Among their latest finds: Like Stonehenge, the Ohio timber circles were likely used to mark astronomical events such as the summer solstice.

Formally called Moorehead Circle but nicknamed "Woodhenge" by non-archaeologists, the site was once a leafless forest of wooden posts. Laid out in a peculiar pattern of concentric, but incomplete, rings, the site is about 200 feet (57 meters) wide.

More at

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/07/100720-woodhenge-stonehenge-ohio-fort-ancient-science/. And: There was a lot of excitement at the Fort Ancient Earthworks in 2005. Dr. Jarrod Burks, an archaeologist with Ohio Valley Archaeological Consultants, was conducting a remote sensing survey of portions of the interior of the great enclosure in preparation for an erosion control project at the site. We wanted to make sure that the construction activities involved with repairing the damage to the site did not cause more damage to important archaeological traces buried beneath the surface.

Unexpectedly, a dramatic circular pattern appeared in Burks' data that didn't reflect the location of any feature documented on any 19th or 20th century map of the site. The circle was more than 200 feet in diameter. According to a widely circulated press release, issued at the time by the Ohio Historical Society, it was "the first major architectural feature discovered at the Fort Ancient Earthworks since the site was first explored and mapped" and it had "the potential to add considerably to our understanding of how ancient Ohioans used this important site." (See http://www.ohiohistory.org/places/ftancien/fa-01.html ).

From the remote sensing data, we couldn't tell whether it was the remains of a circular earthwork, or ditch, that had been leveled, or if it might be the remains a giant "woodhenge" such as had been uncovered at the Stubbs Earthworks, also in Warren County, by Dr. Frank Cowan and the Cincinnati Museum Center (see Dr. Cowan's article "Stubbs Earthworks: an Ohio Hopewell 'Woodhenge'" in Ohio Archaeology: an illustrated chronicle of Ohio's ancient American Indian heritage).

In 2006, Dr. Robert Riordan and his students at Wright State University came to Fort Ancient to investigate this mysterious circle. Dr. Riordan and his team excavated a trench across the edge of the circle in order to determine how it had been constructed.

More at
http://ohio-archaeology.blogspot.com/2007/04/moorehead-circle.html.
[ Reply to This ]

New finds hint at Fort Ancient's purpose by bat400 on Wednesday, 02 January 2013
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Another earlier story, submitted by Andy b and dated 24 Aug 2010:
The origin of a timber circle surrounded by the earthen mounds of Fort Ancient is a mystery to archaeologists slowly unearthing its remains, but the site has yielded something remarkable.

Scraping at earth with deer shoulder bones, shifting dirt with sticks, measuring distances with vines and using other rudimentary methods lost to time, the Hopewell tradition Native Americans that constructed the ring 2,000 years ago were able to align the circle's gateway with the rising sun on the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.

The astrological find derived from computer modeling is one of the few things archaeologists have discovered that could suggest a use for the circle, named the Moorehead Circle after Warren K. Moorehead. He was a prominent late 19th century and early 20th century archaeologist who helped preserve Fort Ancient, a series of earthworks 3½ miles long built by the Hopewell, the dominant culture in Midwestern and Eastern North America in the first millennium A.D.

Lacking other physical evidence, the hard currency of archaeology, even the precise nature of the recent find yields no answers.

Archaeologist Robert Riordan and an excavation team have dug the site since its 2005 discovery during ground scans to combat erosion at Fort Ancient.

"Everybody expected this was just a vacant field," said Riordan, professor of anthropology and chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Wright State University.

Ground-penetrating scans showed something else: a ghostly outline of a 200-foot-wide circle hidden beneath the surface.

"We have a tremendous site and a big mystery on our hands," Riordan said.

Subsequent digs each summer since the discovery have gradually revealed irregular rock-filled post holes that once held wooden timbers 10-13 feet high laid in concentric circles and, at that center, a 14-foot-wide circle of reddish burned soil. About 1,000 pieces of pottery fragments have been found around the core, Riordan said, and 2,000 in the greater circle.

Estimates place the circle's building within the first or second century A.D.

One purpose for the Moorehead Circle that has been ruled out is a burial ground. No remains have been found by archaeologists, and the burned soil was apparently brought in, probably using baskets, from surrounding areas.

Riordan's team has also found evidence of a dwelling within the ring.

As with other discoveries made at Moorehead Circle, why the dwelling was there may never be known.

But the circle's elaborate construction and its location surrounded by the mounds the Hopewell built over a period of 400 years suggest the wooden post ring was important to whatever the early Ohioans were trying to accomplish with their toils.

"I think this was the ceremonial center of Fort Ancient for a period of time," Riordan said.

For the archaeologists working at and interested in the Moorehead Circle, the joy is in the what, not the why.

"Any time we can add another piece to the puzzle of prehistory, that's a great day," said Lynn Hanson, vice president of Collections & Research at Dayton Society of Natural History, which runs Fort Ancient State Memorial through an agreement with the Ohio Historical Society.

"At Fort Ancient, there could be other places that are equally important that we just haven't found yet," she said.



More at

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100731/NEWS01/8010321/New-finds-hint-at-Fort-Ancient-s-purpose
[ Reply to This ]

'Woodhenge' at Fort Ancient raises interest in ritual past by bat400 on Wednesday, 02 January 2013
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The first comment post at Megalithic Portal about the Moorehead Circle appeared 3 May 2007:

During a remote-sensing survey of the Fort Ancient Earthworks in 2005, Jarrod Burks of Ohio Valley Archaeological Consultants discovered a circular pattern in the soil ... nearly 200 feet in diameter.

The outer ring consisted of large posts about 9 inches in diameter set about 30 inches apart in slip trenches filled with rock. The inner ring had similar-size posts set about 15 feet inside the outer ring.

Robert Riordan, an anthropology professor at Wright State University, directed excavations there in 2006 and last month completed a report on his initial explorations of the circles.

Dubbed the "Moorehead Circle" by Riordan in honor of pioneering archaeologist Warren K. Moorehead, the area was a "woodhenge," defined by a double ring of posts.

Riordan estimates that the outer ring would have held more than 200 posts, each 10 to 15 feet tall. Inner posts likely were shorter.

At the center of the circle was a 2.5-foot-deep pit that was 15 feet long by 13 feet wide and filled with red, burned soil. The pit was ringed by a shallow trough in which large timbers of red oak had been burned. Excavators found little ash, so the burned soil must have been brought in.

A radiocarbon date on charcoal from a remnant trace of a post suggests it was built between 40 BC and AD 130. Burned timber fragments from the pit were dated AD 250 to AD 420.

Bradley Lepper's is no longer available directly at the Columbus Post Dispatch. A search in the archive section will retrieve it: from this page.
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Updates on Moorehead Circle at Fort Ancient, Ohio - Brad Lepper by bat400 on Wednesday, 02 January 2013
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Still Lots to Learn about Ohio Earthworks.

The Fort Ancient Earthworks is an irregularly shaped series of earthen embankments surrounding more than 100 acres of hilltop that overlook the Little Miami River in Warren County.

It was built by the Hopewell culture about 2,000 years ago. Since at least 1887, has been the focus of archaeological research with Warren K. Moorehead conducting the first systematic excavations. Subsequent Ohio Historical Society curators followed up on Moorehead’s work through the 1990s.

You might think that all of this work meant that nothing much was left to discover about Fort Ancient. However, one of the most remarkable features of the site went unrecognized until 2005, when a remote sensing survey revealed traces of a large circular structure beneath the surface of a nondescript field in the North Fort. Since that initial discovery, Robert Riordan, a professor of anthropology at Wright State University, and his team of students and volunteers have gone to the site every summer to investigate what he has named the Moorehead Circle.

The Moorehead Circle actually is a series of three concentric circles originally composed of large wooden posts set into the ground. The outer circle was about 200 feet in diameter. The three circles might represent three separate circular structures built in the same general location over time or, more likely, a single structure incorporating all three rings of posts.

The entrance to the Moorehead Circle was on its southeastern perimeter. This past year’s excavations established that this gateway was paved with closely-fitted limestone slabs. After some period of time, the gateway was repaved with another set of limestone slabs.
At the center of the circle was a large pit filled with red earth. Around the edges of this pit, Riordan found many pieces of broken pottery, which might represent the remnants of vessels used in a feast that were then smashed around the central altar as part of some ceremony.

The southern half of the circle is filled with a series of 15 concentric, shallow trenches alternating with prepared floors, some of which were partially covered by limestone slabs. Small wooden posts had been set into both the trenches and floors. These features might be the remains of bleacher seating for congregations that attended the worship services.

According to Riordan, who presented his updated conclusions at a meeting of the Eastern States Archaeological Federation in October, the Moorehead Circle was the focus of important ceremonial activities at Fort Ancient for perhaps a century. Then the Hopewell systematically dismantled the site.

Perhaps the most important lesson of the Moorehead Circle is that, even at sites as well-studied as Fort Ancient, there always is the possibility of discoveries that can change the way we think.



THE MOOREHEAD CIRCLE -- A CEREMONIAL MACHINE

The Moorehead Circle is an amazingly complicated site. Every shovelful of earth has seemed to reveal more puzzles than answers. Now, however, thanks to Riordan's persistence, a general picture is coming into focus.

The Moorehead Circle, located at the head of one of the major ravines leading up from the Little Miami River, was a triple ring of large, wooden posts surrounding a central pit filled with red earth. A 40 by 50 ft rectangular structure was located adjacent to this central altar. An arc of alternating trenches and prepared floors on the southern half of the circle may have been something like bleachers, though Riordan doesn't think it necessarily had wooden seats. In an e-mail, he suggested to me that these floors could have been places where "particular social groups, like members of clans, were supposed to watch the rites that occurred at the Circle's center."

The Moorehead Circle must have been the ceremonial heart of Fort Ancient. Riordan thinks it was a major focus of ritual activity for a century or more. There is c

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