<< Our Photo Pages >> Fort Ancient - Hillfort in United States in Great Lakes Midwest
Submitted by bat400 on Tuesday, 24 August 2010 Page Views: 17714
Iron Age and Later PrehistorySite Name: Fort AncientCountry: United States Region: Great Lakes Midwest Type: Hillfort
Nearest Town: Lebanon, Ohio Nearest Village: Oregonia, Ohio
Latitude: 39.407000N Longitude: 84.09W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
Internal Links:
External Links:
I have visited· I would like to visit
eforrest25 visited on 21st Aug 2015 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 5 Fort Ancient takes some effort to find, but once inside the gates, the walls that go on for miles and which can be seen from the roadside are impressive. The best time to see it would be when the foliage and summer growth are not so dense. From the car, there is not much to see, but the "overlooks" are drivable with short walks. There is a small mound with both lunar and solar alignments to larger mounds at the entrance of the park. Excellent museum.
Michelledubois bat400 have visited here
The site's obvious man made structures attracted attention of European settlers on first sight. Caleb Atwater included Fort Ancient in his 1820 descriptions of Ohio mound sites. The earthworks were mapped in the 1840's by Squier and Davis. Warren Moorehead conducted excavations in the 1890's. Modern examination began in the 1980's, including examinations for astronomical alignments. The enclosures, some burial mounds and evidence of settlement outside the enclosure points to the Hopewell culture. The site was later used by the people of the "Fort Ancient" (type site) culture, whose designation comes from the older structure. The area is moderately wooded both outside and inside the walls, but in general, new trees are now kept from growing into enclosure walls themselves. The site is in a handsome, woodland setting and is very impressive. The oldest portion is the South Section, the earthworks dating to 100 BC. The North Section was built roughly 400 years later. Some of the higher walls and their more pronounced openings appear to have been made to align with major solar and lunar events.
Within the Northern Enclosure the footprint of a triple timber circle was discovered in 2005. Named the Moorehead Circle, its been the focus of excavations ever since, revealing a complicated history of use and rebuilding. (See the detailed site listing.)
The State of Ohio protected the site by making it into a state park, which is larger than the enclosure itself. In the tradition of multi-use for American state parks the site contains picnic areas in addition to a museum, informational placards and some boardwalk crossings so the enclosure walls may be examined without eroding the walls away. The museum and a portion of the hiking trails are wheelchair accessible. Despite all these amenities you can get a very peaceful and meditative feeling walking within and outside the earthwork walls, especially in the summer when the trees are fully leafed out. (Although the walls and ditches are more easily seen in winter.) There are hiking trails around the enclosure walls and down into the Little Miami River flood plane below. The museum presents not only the Fort Ancient site, but also gives an overview of prehistoric events in the US Midwest. A garden of wild plants (and more familiar current domesticates) that were used by the culture of Fort Ancient lies just behind the museum.
OHS website
[Information from Indian Mounds of the Middle Ohio Valley, by Woodward and McDonald, The Ohio Archaeology Blog, National Geographic, and other sources.]
Note: New finds hint at Fort Ancient's purpose, see latest 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.
These are just the first 25 photos of Fort Ancient. If you log in with a free user account you will be able to see our entire collection.
Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.
Click here to see more info for this site
Nearby sites
Click here to view sites on an interactive map of the areaKey: 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
80m WSW 254° Fort Ancient - Moorehead Circle* Timber Circle
14.3km ENE 66° Hillside Haven Mound* Artificial Mound
24.0km NE 49° Keiter Mound* Artificial Mound
29.5km NNW 327° Miamisburg Mound* Artificial Mound
30.8km SSW 213° Millford Earthworks Circle Diverging Lines* Hill Figure or Geoglyph
33.0km ESE 110° Ratcliffe Mound Artificial Mound
34.3km WSW 242° Mathew Mound* Artificial Mound
34.5km W 272° Rentschler Park Hilltop Enclosure* Hillfort
36.5km NNW 341° Sunwatch* Ancient Village or Settlement
36.9km NNW 345° Calvary Cemetery Hilltop Enclosure* Hillfort
37.1km SW 230° Benham Mound* Artificial Mound
38.6km SW 216° Odd Fellows' Cemetery Mound* Artificial Mound
39.4km SE 143° Fort Salem Misc. Earthwork
40.6km SW 229° Norwood Mound* Artificial Mound
41.5km N 1° Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Mounds Artificial Mound
43.1km N 0° Wright Brothers Memorial Group Artificial Mound
43.3km NNE 31° Pollock Works* Misc. Earthwork
43.4km NNE 32° Pollock Works Artificial Mound
43.5km W 264° Fortified Hill Works* Hillfort
43.7km NNE 31° Wiliamson Mound* Misc. Earthwork
47.8km NNE 22° Orators Mound Artificial Mound
50.2km WSW 256° Dunlap Works* Artificial Mound
54.2km NNE 14° Enon Mound* Artificial Mound
58.0km W 273° Enyart Mound* Artificial Mound
58.4km W 273° Reily Cemetery Mound* Artificial Mound
View more nearby sites and additional images