<< Other Photo Pages >> Liberty Earthworks - Artificial Mound in United States in Great Lakes Midwest
Submitted by AKFisher on Friday, 04 August 2023 Page Views: 423
Pre-ColumbianSite Name: Liberty Earthworks Alternative Name: Harness Site, Harness Mounds, Liberty MoundsCountry: United States
NOTE: This site is 3.618 km away from the location you searched for.
Region: Great Lakes Midwest Type: Artificial Mound
Nearest Town: Liberty Township, OH
Latitude: 39.258520N Longitude: 82.87785W
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:
The Harness Mound was over 150 feet long, 100 ft wide, and 20 feet tall at its highest point. This mound served as the resting place for important members of the Hopewell culture. the people living in the Scioto River Valley shared rich and vibrant religious practices with other groups of people across the eastern half of the United States. These religious practices involved celebrations in ceremonial settings such as the earthworks we see at Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, very similar to churches, temples, and mosques we see today. The people of the Hopewell culture also created religious imagery in the form of abstract designs and animal and human effigies from exotic materials such as copper, silver, mica, pipestone and obsidian. Many of these items were recovered during archaeological excavations of the Edward Harness Mound.
The earthwork has been excavated multiple times, first by Squier and Davis in 1847; Fredric W. Putnam, an archaeologist from Harvard, excavated in 1885; Warren K. Moorehead, the first curator of Ohio archaeology in 1897; and William C. Mills in 1907. These excavations all took place before the technological advancement of radiocarbon dating. Dr. N'omi Greber excavated the site again in the years 1975 to 1977 and was able to uncover untouched portions of the earthwork. She was able to recover portions of charcoal and organic materials like charcoal and seeds for carbon dating, helping add to the chronology of the Hopewell Period. It is because of Dr. N'omi's work that we know the Edwin Harness Mound at Liberty Earthwork complex was constructed near the end of the Hopewell Cultural Period (AD 330 - 470). During her work her crew made an important discovery about its construction. Dr. N'omi found that the mound covered a place where a gigantic building once stood. The building has a carefully prepared clay floor and at least four rooms joined together by hallways. Inside these rooms were dozens of tombs where the ancestors of American Indians were laid to rest, along with objects and symbols that expressed ideas about the activities important to their lives. These structures would have served as special locations for ceremonial practices.
Sources:
Greber, N'omi, James B. Griffen, Tristine Lee Smart, Richard I. Ford, Orrin C. Shane III, Raymond S. Baby, Suzanne M. Langlois, Stephanie J. Belovich, David R. Morse, Kent D. Vickery. 1983. Recent Excavations at the Edwin Harness Mound, Liberty Works, Ross County, Ohio. Kirtlandia 39.
Seeman, Mark F. 1998. An Archaeological Overview and Assessment of the Harness Group (33RO22), Ross County, Ohio. Kent: Kent State University.
Further reading and information:
NPS
https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/teachers/lessonplans/Liberty%20Materials%20LP.pdf
Ohio History Journal
https://resources.ohiohistory.org/ohj/search/display.php?page=69&ipp=20&searchterm=Array&vol=16&pages=113-193>
Directions:
From Chillicothe, OH via Eastern Ave. and Old US Rte 35, 8.5 mi.
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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
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Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
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