Featured: Hare and Tabor T Shirts for discerning antiquarians

Hare and Tabor T Shirts for discerning antiquarians

Random Image


Menhir de Ger

Explore Cornwall with the amazing Megalithic Portal smartphone app

Explore Cornwall with the amazing Megalithic Portal smartphone app

Who's Online

There are currently, 473 guests and 2 members online.

You are a guest. To join in, please register for free by clicking here

Sponsors

<< Text Pages >> Yorktown Enclosure - Misc. Earthwork in United States in Great Lakes Midwest

Submitted by bat400 on Tuesday, 13 March 2007  Page Views: 11302

Multi-periodSite Name: Yorktown Enclosure Alternative Name: Muncie-Yorktown Enclosure, 12-Dl-39
Country: United States
NOTE: This site is 95.069 km away from the location you searched for.

Region: Great Lakes Midwest Type: Misc. Earthwork
Nearest Town: Muncie
Latitude: 40.180500N  Longitude: 85.46939W
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
2 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.
no data 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

Internal Links:
External Links:

Earthwork Enclosure in Delaware County, Indiana.
This circular ditch and central earthwork mound was "discovered" in 2006 during surveys for a highway widening project. Assigned by archaeologists to the “New Castle Phase,” a time between 250 B.C. and A.D. 350 when relatively small circular earthworks and sometimes sizable burial mounds were built.

This phase of mound building is considered a local focus of the Hopewell Culture.
Such earthworks of ditches with the spoil thrown up to form a central mound were not uncommon in East Central Indiana when European settlement began in the 1820's. The Yorktown Enclosure may have been the earthwork cited in an 1881 county history that near Yorktown there was “one of those enclosures … of the class known as fortifications.” However, plowing, gravel mining, and other development have destroyed most of these sites. And the Yorktown example appears to have been forgotten until aerial photos revealed the obvious shape.

Other existing examples of these type of earthworks include Great Mound and Chrysler Enclosure.

Although Yorktown has had substantial modification and damage in the early 20th century, Indiana officials pledged to protect the site from the road project as examination pointed to a prehistoric structure. In 2015 the site was purchased by the Archaeological Conservancy.

Note: Conservancy buys prehistoric earthwork. See comment.
You may be viewing yesterday's version of this page. To see the most up to date information please register for a free account.


Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.

Nearby Images from Flickr
20240311_120050
20240311_115951
20240311_120039
20240312_094831
20240312_095215
20240312_100016

The above images may not be of the site on this page, but were taken nearby. They are loaded from Flickr so please click on them for image credits.


Click here to see more info for this site

Nearby sites

Click here to view sites on an interactive map of the area

Key: Red: member's photo, Blue: 3rd party photo, Yellow: other image, Green: no photo - please go there and take one, Grey: site destroyed

Download sites to:
KML (Google Earth)
GPX (GPS waypoints)
CSV (Garmin/Navman)
CSV (Excel)

To unlock full downloads you need to sign up as a Contributory Member. Otherwise downloads are limited to 50 sites.


Turn off the page maps and other distractions

Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 15.4km SW 236° Mounds (Indiana) - Circle Mound* Misc. Earthwork
 15.9km SW 234° Mounds (Indiana)* Henge
 16.2km SW 233° Mounds (Indiana) - Earthwork B* Misc. Earthwork
 16.2km SW 234° Mounds (Indiana) - Great Mound* Henge
 16.2km SW 234° Mounds (Indiana) - Fiddleback Mound* Misc. Earthwork
 16.3km SW 234° Mounds State Park (Indiana) - Earthwork D* Misc. Earthwork
 22.5km E 97° Windsor Mound* Artificial Mound
 25.7km SSE 156° New Castle Complex* Henge
 31.0km SSE 165° Chrysler Enclosure* Henge
 41.2km W 262° Castor Farm Ancient Village or Settlement
 41.4km W 262° Strawtown Enclosure* Ancient Village or Settlement
 46.2km SE 146° Cambridge City Henge Complex* Henge
 60.3km ESE 116° Whitehead Mound* Artificial Mound
 75.2km SW 233° Indiana State Museum* Museum
 102.4km SE 144° Enyart Mound* Artificial Mound
 102.7km SE 144° Reily Cemetery Mound* Artificial Mound
 110.0km SW 226° Blue Bluff Rock Outcrop
 117.5km ESE 116° Sunwatch* Ancient Village or Settlement
 117.7km SW 225° Bundy-Voyles Site* Ancient Village or Settlement
 117.8km SE 140° Fortified Hill Works* Hillfort
 118.6km ESE 121° Miamisburg Mound* Artificial Mound
 119.0km SE 135° Rentschler Park Hilltop Enclosure* Hillfort
 119.2km ESE 115° Calvary Cemetery Hilltop Enclosure* Hillfort
 120.6km SE 144° Dunlap Works* Artificial Mound
 125.1km ESE 110° Wright Brothers Memorial Group Artificial Mound
View more nearby sites and additional images

<< Deportivo Cali Tombs

Jabuticabeira II >>

Please add your thoughts on this site

Stonehenge Landscapes Book and CD-ROM

Stonehenge Landscapes Book and CD-ROM

Sponsors

Auto-Translation (Google)

Translate from English into:

"Yorktown Enclosure" | Login/Create an Account | 8 News and Comments
  
Go back to top of page    Comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content.
Conservancy buys prehistoric earthwork. by bat400 on Monday, 30 March 2015
(User Info | Send a Message)
The Archaeological Conservancy has acquired a prehistoric Native American earthwork as a bargain sale to charity, paying only $20,000 for the property appraised at more than $200,000.

Larry New, an owner/developer of retirement communities, agreed to sell a small woods encompassing the Yorktown Enclosure, a 2,000-year-old earthwork, to the national non-profit preservation group based in Albuquerque.

“We’re very pleased to be able to acquire this rare and significant site at such favorable terms,” said Paul Gardner, Midwest director of the conservancy. “Usually prime commercial real estate is priced beyond what we can realistically afford. When the importance of the site was explained to Mr. New, he was very agreeable to our acquiring it for an archaeological preserve and accepted our first offer of a purchase price.”
“The only way to learn about the prehistoric past is through archaeology,” Gardner said. “Our major focus is to preserve these sites as archaeological research preserves so they are there for scientists to study.”

The Yorktown Enclosure is assigned by archaeologists to the “New Castle Phase,” a time between 250 B.C. and A.D. 350 when American Indians in East Central Indiana constructed relatively small circular earthworks and sometimes sizable burial mounds.
It is related to the more elaborate Ohio Hopewell Culture, whose earthworks of the same time period sometimes enclose more than 100 acres with earthen walls miles long, according to the conservancy.
Today, most archaeologists consider them to be ceremonial sites where the ditch and wall separate the interior sacred space where important activities would take place from the outside mundane world of everyday life.

When visited by Ball State University archaeologists in 2007, it was apparent that the Yorktown Enclosure had been modified during the historic period.
The ditch has been deepened and a low interior wall created, while the original exterior wall has been buried by fill removed from the ditch. In addition, the causeway, which would allow access to the interior of the circle across the ditch, has been removed.
Fortunately, the interior of the circle and the original wall are still intact, so the site maintains significant research potential and is thought to be eligible for nomination to The National Register of Historic Places.

The site’s archaeological importance was recognized 10 years ago by local GIS planners studying aerial and topographic maps.

The Archaeological Conservancy, founded in 1980, has acquired more than 475 sites in 44 states, including four others in Indiana’s Johnson, Laporte, Dearborn and Sullivan counties.

Although pre-scientific excavation, looting, and plowing have largely erased all above-ground traces of the mounds from the landscape, modern geophysical surveys using magnetometer and soil-resistivity techniques continue to produce new information about the site. It was purchased at fair market value from an owner who otherwise planned to subdivide it as a residential development.

For more, see http://www.thestarpress.com
[ Reply to This ]

Archaeological Investigations of the Yorktown Enclosure (12-Dl-39), 2007 by bat400 on Monday, 30 March 2015
(User Info | Send a Message)
"Archaeological Investigations of the Yorktown Enclosure (12-Dl-39) Delaware County, Indiana," B. McCord, D. Cochran, 20 Dec 2007, Project #STP-M-710, Des. No. 9700310. Prepared for: Indiana Department of Transportation.

Abstract
Archaeological investigations of the Yorktown Enclosure (12-Dl-39) were conducted to determine the origin and potential significance of the earthwork. Fieldwork and comparison with other earthworks in the New Castle Phase of east central Indiana revealed that the site is a 2,000 year old earthwork. While the ditch has been altered by historic modification, the original embankment remains buried under spoil removed from the ditch. The central platform also remains essentially undisturbed. The site retains integrity and is one of only two surviving examples of isolated circular enclosures in all of east central Indiana. The site should be preserved and nominated to the State and National Registers.

Conclusions and Recommendations
Archaeological investigations of the Yorktown Enclosure were carried out by the Archaeological Resources Management Service to determine whether the enclosure was a Native American earthwork and to evaluate the potential significance of the site. Field investigations included mapping, survey, geophysical prospecting and limited test excavations.
The most conclusive evidence for the age of the site included the documentation of an older embankment underneath more recently deposited mixed glacial till and comparison with other earthworks in the New Castle Phase. The older embankment shows that the site is of bank and ditch construction. The depth of the ditch and the sediment deposited on the older embankment indicates that the earthwork was modified historically. The size, shape and location of the earthwork clearly relate it to other earthworks in the New Castle Phase.

Given that the older embankment is preserved underneath more recent sediment and the lack of modification to the interior platform, the enclosure retains integrity in spite of the modification to the ditch.
Virtually all of the earthworks in the New Castle Phase have been damaged to some extent (McCord and Cochran 1996). In addition, the Yorktown Enclosure is one of only two isolated circular enclosures that have survived in the region. It is therefore clear that the Yorktown Enclosure is an important archaeological site and should be nominated to both the State and National Registers of Historic Places. While the site is situated just outside the proposed new right-of-way for the reconstruction of SR 32, it is vulnerable to secondary impacts related to the road reconstruction and development along the improved road corridor. Ideal use of the site location would be as a park or greenspace if the drainage issues can be resolved.
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Ball State University Investigators Thwarted by Anonymous on Sunday, 02 December 2007
People have a tendency to mess up some of the most historical places by ignorance.
[ Reply to This ]

Ball State University Investigators Thwarted by bat400 on Thursday, 22 March 2007
(User Info | Send a Message)
On 20 March investigating archaeologists from Ball State University went to the enclosure site, but heavy rains had caused flooding of the site. Drier weather will be necessary for a survey.
There is now some evidence that no matter what the origin of the circular site, it may have had excavations in the 1930's to develop the site for a fur breeding operation.
[ Reply to This ]

Owner Invites Archaeologists to Circle by bat400 on Wednesday, 14 March 2007
(User Info | Send a Message)
The new owner of the property containing the suspected earthwork enclosure, Larry New, has invited Ball State University archaeologists to visit the site.

Story by Seth Slabaugh of the Muncie Star Press----

"YORKTOWN -- Is it a moat dug in the 20th century or an enclosure made by Woodland Indians about 2,000 years ago?

"Larry New, an owner and developer of retirement communities, is inviting Ball State University archaeologists onto a potential development site today to investigate who built a circular, 150-foot-diameter ditch.

" 'I was told from previous owners that it was a fox farm, and they bred and raised foxes on that area and had a moat around the area where the foxes were kept so the foxes would not escape,' New said Tuesday.

"Aerial views of the site indicate to BSU researchers that it is an earthwork like those found at Mounds State Park, where prehistoric Indians once gathered.

" 'I definitely want to preserve anything of value,' said New, who owns retirement communities in four states, including the nearby Crown Pointe Senior Living Community. 'If it's just a fox farm, I want to know that, too.'

"New bought the property with the intent of developing it into housing and professional offices. 'If it's something prehistoric, we are going to check into it and take it step by step,' he said. 'If it's anything of importance, we will deal with it accordingly. We are glad to work with the proper people. It could be a benefit to make it a historical park. I'm not opposed to any of that.' "

[Locals recall a fox farm in the area, but not on the circle location.]

For more, see the Muncie Star Press.
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Circles in Delaware Co. woods suggest pre-historic site by Aluta on Wednesday, 14 March 2007
(User Info | Send a Message)
Beside the point, I know, but Lenape people must have stayed in this area for a while on their way west. Delaware is another name for them and Muncie is the name of one of their subgroups, who lived from the Poconos in Pennsylvania north into New York State.
[ Reply to This ]
    Delaware Migrations by Anonymous on Wednesday, 14 March 2007
    Yes, definitely. The Delaware groups that were pushed out of the east traveled into Indiana in the 1700's and received formal agreement from the resident Miami Indian groups to settle along White River. (The headwaters of White River are here in this section of Indiana, and stretch south and west across most of the state.) When white settlers showed up they found Delaware villages along the White River, and Miami villages to the north and west, generally along the Wabash River. The city of Muncie is named after "Munsee Town", the white settlers' name for the Indian village on the site.

    [ Reply to This ]

Circles in Delaware Co. woods suggest pre-historic site by Anonymous on Tuesday, 13 March 2007
Stories have appeared in Indiana newspaper websites (some more complete than others), but all originate from the Muncie Star Press.

Submitted by royharper---


By SETH SLABAUGH
Muncie Star Press

Well-preserved earthwork discovered in Delaware County, Indiana, USA

"The Delaware County Office of Geographic Information System stumbled onto what scientists believe to be a well-preserved earthwork built by pre-historic, Woodland Indians.

"The site, only 150 feet from Ind. 32 between Muncie and Yorktown, recently came to the attention of the Indiana Department of Transportation, which plans to widen that segment of the highway to four or five lanes.

" 'It's absolutely critical we keep this one,' said Don Cochran, director of archaeological research at Ball State University. 'This is one we don't know anything about.' "

The newspaper story includes an aerial image with sketch outline of earthwork. Versions may be found in the Indianapolis Star and the Muncie Star Press.
The story at the Indianapolis Star contains more detail, including a local attribute that the ditch was a fox run.


[ Reply to This ]

Your Name: Anonymous [ Register Now ]
Subject:


Add your comment or contribution to this page. Spam or offensive posts are deleted immediately, don't even bother

<<< What is five plus one as a number? (Please type the answer to this question in the little box on the left)
You can also embed videos and other things. For Youtube please copy and paste the 'embed code'.
For Google Street View please include Street View in the text.
Create a web link like this: <a href="https://www.megalithic.co.uk">This is a link</a>  

Allowed HTML is:
<p> <b> <i> <a> <img> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <tt> <li> <ol> <ul> <object> <param> <embed> <iframe>

We would like to know more about this location. Please feel free to add a brief description and any relevant information in your own language.
Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
Nous aimerions en savoir encore un peu sur les lieux. S'il vous plaît n'hesitez pas à ajouter une courte description et tous les renseignements pertinents dans votre propre langue.
Quisieramos informarnos un poco más de las lugares. No dude en añadir una breve descripción y otros datos relevantes en su propio idioma.