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<< 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 Ancient
Country: United States Region: Great Lakes Midwest Type: Hillfort
Nearest Town: Lebanon, Ohio  Nearest Village: Oregonia, Ohio
Latitude: 39.407000N  Longitude: 84.09W
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
4 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
4 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.
5 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
5

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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

Fort Ancient
Fort Ancient submitted by bat400 : These are twin mounds placed outside what seems to have been a main entrance to the north east. About where I am standing there was the south leg of two parallel earthworks, marking an "avenue". Between the twin mounds the "entry" was paved with stone. This pavement arrangement is also seen at the Old Stone Fort in Tennessee. A modern road goes through the northern section at this point, follo... (Vote or comment on this photo)
Hillfort in Warren County, Ohio. Fort Ancient is a large earthwork and stone enclosure on the very edge of a bluff over 90 m above the Little Miami River. The area inside the enclosure is over 120 acres with over 6100 m of walls. The walls vary in height (1 to 8 m.) Although they were never unbroken (there are over 65 openings) and there is no evidence of a stockade, some argue that the site could have been defended as a working "fort."

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.
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Fort Ancient
Fort Ancient submitted by durhamnature : Old photo, from "Masterpieces of the Mound Builders" via archive.org (Vote or comment on this photo)

Fort Ancient
Fort Ancient submitted by eforrest25 : This stone covered mound at the entrance of the park has been discovered to have lunar and solar alignments to notches in the earthen wall about a hundred yards distant. The wall is obscured by shadow and foliage this time of year. Accompanying photos explain the alignments. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Fort Ancient
Fort Ancient submitted by durhamnature : Old site plan, from "Travels among American...."via archive.org (Vote or comment on this photo)

Fort Ancient
Fort Ancient submitted by durhamnature : Old plan drawing from "Prehistoric America; The Mound Builders" via archive.org (Vote or comment on this photo)

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.

Fort Ancient
Fort Ancient submitted by bat400 : A reconstruction (to size) of a Hopewell era building. The building is sited in a small garden outside the Fort Ancient Museum. The single room is approximately 12 by 8 feet. Photo by bat400, 15 Sept 2007.

Fort Ancient
Fort Ancient submitted by bat400 : The SW corner of a square arrangement in the North Section. The stone capped mound (about 8 feet in diameter) is one of four modern constructs covering the locations of four special areas. These were arranged in a very regular square and appear to have been used for sighting moonrise extremes through NE openings in the surrounding earthwork walls. From postmarks and charred areas, the four "cor...

Fort Ancient
Fort Ancient submitted by AKFisher : Stone mound at Fort Ancient, Ohio in 2004. Today they have allowed this mound to be partially overgrown. The stone mounds in the enclosure were used as marking points for astronomical sightlines through gaps in the outer walls. Photo courtesy Dr Greg Little, author of the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Native American Indian Mounds & Earthworks (2016). 

Fort Ancient
Fort Ancient submitted by AKFisher : Large pottery vessel and other artifacts from the area displayed in the Fort Ancient, Ohio museum. Photo courtesy Dr Greg Little, author of the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Native American Indian Mounds & Earthworks (2016). 

Fort Ancient
Fort Ancient submitted by AKFisher : Photo courtesy Dr Greg Little, author of the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Native American Indian Mounds & Earthworks (2016). 1890 illustration of one of many skeletons in stone lined graves excavated from Fort Ancient, Ohio.

Fort Ancient
Fort Ancient submitted by AKFisher : Portion of the 18,000-foot-long earthen wall at Fort Ancient. Ohio. This is a section of the wall seldom seen by visitors. Photo courtesy Dr Greg Little, author of the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Native American Indian Mounds & Earthworks (2016).

Fort Ancient
Fort Ancient submitted by AKFisher : Photo courtesy Dr Greg Little, author of the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Native American Indian Mounds & Earthworks (2016). Display at Fort Ancient, Ohio showing the location of the Mills Mound. The pink lines are the 18,000 ft long outer earthen/stone walls. The Mills Mound location is shown by the yellow line.

Fort Ancient
Fort Ancient submitted by AKFisher : One of many stone mounds at Fort Ancient, Ohio. These were often used as markers to view periodic astronomical events (solstice/equinox/star risings & settings) from that spot through one of the more than 80 gaps in the high outer walls surrounding the site. Photo courtesy Greg Little author of the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Native American Indian Mounds & Earthworks (2016).

Fort Ancient
Fort Ancient submitted by AKFisher : Painting displayed at the Fort Ancient, Ohio museum. It shows a ceremony at Fort Ancient with a fire on the top of a stone mound with the orientation looking toward the setting sun through one of the gaps in the outer walls of the site. This was likely the Path of Souls, death journey ceremony where the "free soul" was sent to the sky world to make its trip to the portal leading to the "Other Worl...

Fort Ancient
Fort Ancient submitted by eforrest25 : This map shows the circle, wall notches and alignments.

Fort Ancient
Fort Ancient submitted by eforrest25 : Alignment explanation for the stone covered mound in square at the entrance to the park.

Fort Ancient
Fort Ancient submitted by durhamnature : Old photo, from "Masterpieces of the Mound Builders" via archive.org

Fort Ancient
Fort Ancient submitted by durhamnature : 1820 site plan, from "Masterpieces of the Mound Builders" via archive.org

Fort Ancient
Fort Ancient submitted by durhamnature : Old photo, from "Masterpieces of the Mound Builders" via archive.org

Fort Ancient
Fort Ancient submitted by durhamnature : Old site plan, from "Masterpieces of the Mound Builders" via archive.org

Fort Ancient
Fort Ancient submitted by durhamnature : 1809 site plan, from "Masterpieces of the Mound Builders" via archive.org

Fort Ancient
Fort Ancient submitted by durhamnature : One man working, six looking on, all in period hats, old image from "Fort Ancient" via archive.org

Fort Ancient
Fort Ancient submitted by durhamnature : Old image from "Fort Ancient" via archive.org

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 80m WSW 254° Fort Ancient - Moorehead Circle* Timber Circle
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"Fort Ancient" | Login/Create an Account | 12 News and Comments
  
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Pilgrimage unearths Hopewells at Fort Ancient by bat400 on Wednesday, 09 November 2011
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In the 23 October Columbus Dispatch, columnist John Switzer features the Fort Ancient Earthworks and the idea that this grandest of monumental hilltop enclosures was a place of pilgrimage for the Hopewell culture 2,000 years ago.

He quotes site manager Jack Blosser who suggests we think of the earthwork as a church – but not just any church. The scale of Fort Ancient could accommodate a vast congregation. Three-and-a-half miles of earthen embankments enclose about 100 acres of ceremonial space. This is far more space than would be needed to serve the needs of the local population, so this may have been built for big ceremonies that attracted celebrants from hundreds of miles away. This could explain the wealth of exotic raw materials brought to Ohio Hopewell sites from across North America – copper from the Great Lakes, mica from the Carolinas, shells from the Gulf of Mexico, and obsidian from Wyoming. Perhaps these precious materials were offerings brought by pilgrims from distant lands.

According to Jean and Joyotopaul Chaudhuri, writing in A Sacred Path: the Way of the Muscogee Creek, the oral traditions of the Creek Indians refer to their ancestors making pilgrimages in the spring and autumn to "special mounds." The Muskogoee Creek tribe was part of a coalition of tribes that lived in the area now encompassed by the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. Perhaps it was their ancestors that brought the mica to the Ohio pilgrimage centers.

John points out that ancient DNA obtained from the teeth of a few individuals from the Hopewell Mound Group near Chillicothe has revealed genetic connections with modern tribes from across much of North America – from tribes as diverse and widespread as the Apache, Micmac, Ojibwa and Yakima. This is another clue to the cosmopolitan nature of the Hopewell earthworks. People came from far and wide to Fort Ancient bearing offerings of exotic raw materials. Some may stayed and married into local tribes. Others may have returned home with a wife or husband from Ohio. John writes, “Imagine if DNA from other mounds were to be compared. Perhaps other tribes would also be linked to the Hopewell.”

The importance of Fort Ancient as a place of special power was recognized long past the end of the Hopewell culture at around A.D. 400 and pilgrimages continued into the historic era. Warren K. Moorehead, the Ohio Historical Society’s first Curator of Archaeology and the person most responsible for the fact that Fort Ancient has been preserved as a public park, recorded a story heard in his youth that the pioneer Simon Kenton often had observed groups of Shawnee Indians visiting “the place en route to the Ohio” in order to pay “homage to the spirits of its makers.”

Make your own pilgrimage to Fort Ancient and the other magnificent surviving earthworks built by this great Native American culture.

Thanks to coldrum for this submission of John Switzer's article. Here’s the link to read John’s column in its entirety at The Columbus Dispatch

The DNA evidence to which John refers is summarized in previous OHS Archaeology blog entries:

Ancient DNA from the Ohio Hopewell: ohio-archaeology.blogspot.com from 22 June 2006.

Ancient DNA from the Illinois Hopewell: ohio-archaeology.blogspot.com from 16 Oct 2006.
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Ohio Archaeology Blog, Moorehead Circle by Andy B on Wednesday, 05 October 2011
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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
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Timber circle aligned to summer solstice emerges from prehistoric Ohio by Andy B on Wednesday, 05 October 2011
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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/
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Re: New finds hint at Fort Ancient's purpose by bat400 on Wednesday, 25 August 2010
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The dig at the timber structure given the name "Moorehead Circle" has been oing on for some time. One of the attached photos on this site shows the unit (still open but covered over for the weekend) from 2007.
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New finds hint at Fort Ancient's purpose by Andy B on Tuesday, 24 August 2010
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New finds hint at Fort Ancient's purpose

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
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Private Group Offers to Manage Fort Ancient - Ohio Funding Woes for Historical Sites by bat400 on Thursday, 09 July 2009
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State funding reductions to the Ohio Historical Society have already forced reduced opening hours at multiple ancient sites managed by the society. Messages at OHS websites have warned visitors to check for complete closures after June 30th 2009 for many sites. Plans are being made to allow local groups to operate sites in their areas.

The following article on one such plan for Fort Ancient was submitted by coldrum ---

A nonprofit group has offered to take over management of Fort Ancient, a prehistoric Indian site faced with closing this summer because of proposed cuts in state funding.
If approved by state officials, Fort Ancient would be the 34th of 58 Ohio Historical Society sites to be managed by a private entity.

Under the plan, the Dayton Society of Natural History would operate the 100-acre site near Oregonia, about 30 miles northeast of Cincinnati. The group already manages a similar archaeological complex, the SunWatch Indian Village/Archaeological Park in Dayton.

"They would be a great partner to work with us," said George Kane, director of historic sites for the Ohio Historical Society.

If approved by the historical society's board of trustees, the transition to new management could take place by Aug. 1, Kane said. The historical society would still be responsible for capital improvements.

For more, see the Columbus Dispatch.
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Re: Timber Circle Found at Fort Ancient by Anonymous on Sunday, 02 December 2007
There is also another added thing that the scholary people have failed to see with their minds and eyes. The two curved mounds on both sides of the roadway heading back to the river observatory are symbols of waxing and waining moons, not crescents or bananas as some seem to think.
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Timber Circle Found at Fort Ancient by bat400 on Thursday, 03 May 2007
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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.

For more, see Bradley Lepper's column in the Columbus Post Dispatch.

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Protecting ancient forts from a modern invasion by Andy B on Tuesday, 12 December 2006
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Fort Ancient is largest, best preserved earthwork of its kind in America. Its purpose is not known

A sign identifies one of the prehistoric earthworks at Fort Ancient State Memorial. Ohio law forbids walking off trail or on any mound or earthwork.

The extensive earthen mounds and walls in southwest Ohio are unlikely a fortress, although they might have been used for social gatherings and religious ceremonies and astronomical viewings.

The site, atop a wooded bluff 235 feet above the Little Miami River in Warren County, was built 2,000 years ago by ancient Indians that archaeologists call Hopewells.

The intricate mounds stretch nearly 3.5 miles and enclose about 100 acres atop a promontory on the east bank of the river in Washington Township.

The earthen walls are as high as 23 feet and as wide as 68 feet. The walls are divided by 67 crescent-shaped gateways. There are stone pavements in some places.

Some call Fort Ancient Ohio's Stonehenge and it is one of Ohio's top prehistoric sites.

More at
http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/living/travel/visitors_guide/16201966.htm
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Fort Ancient Summer Solstice Events 2006 by bat400 on Tuesday, 06 June 2006
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If you're traveling in Ohio on June 21, the Fort Ancient Park will host solstice events. Site managers or special lecturers will be there and the sites will be open either before usual hours.

At Fort Ancient the rising sun is aligned with major gateways in the enclosure.

Follow the Fort Ancient link in the article above, and go to the Ohio Historical Society's Calendar for June. See the listings on the solstice.
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    Re: Fort Ancient Summer Solstice Events 2006 by mithra on Tuesday, 12 December 2006
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    This looks amazing! Thanks Bat.
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    No Planned Fort Ancient Winter Solstice Events 2006 by bat400 on Wednesday, 13 December 2006
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    What appear to be solar alignments have been found at Fort Ancient, but my understanding is that the alignments are for summer solstice sunrise through specific gaps in the earthwork wall when viewed from specific earthen mounds within the enclosure. The enterprising winter tourist can observe the opposite effect at winter solstice by standing NE of the gap and observing winter solstice sunset beyond the mound.
    (No events appear to be planned by the Ohio Historical Society for that day. I'm assuming that it's not a spectacular event.)
    If you're in the area, you may wish to visit to observe the alignment.
    [ Reply to This ]

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