Mounds (Indiana) - Circle Mound Misc. Earthwork : The Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map:

<< Our Photo Pages >> Mounds (Indiana) - Circle Mound - Misc. Earthwork in United States in Great Lakes Midwest

Submitted by bat400 on Monday, 23 October 2006 Page Views: 4733

Multi-periodSite Name: Mounds (Indiana) - Circle Mound
Country: United States Region: Great Lakes Midwest Type: Misc. Earthwork
Nearest Town: Anderson, Indiana
Latitude: 40.102900N Longitude: 85.61897W
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

4 Ambience:

5	Superb
4	Good
3	Ordinary
2	Not Good
1	Awful
0	No data.

4 Access:

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 Accuracy:

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

4

Internal Links:

External Links:

· NEW: I have visited
· I would like to visit

· Submit an Image
· Add a description
· Give accurate position
· Add a comment or news about this site

I have visited· I would like to visit

rrmoser visited on 15th May 2015 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 5 Access: 4 Second visit to this remarkable site. Camp sites are close by. Really superb as is the so called circle mound nearby within the same park.

stonetracker visited - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 4 Visited in late Oct 2023. There is parking nearby at the Woodland Shelter (see park map) and a short walk across a mowed field to the site.

bat400 have visited here

Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 4.5 Ambience: 4.5 Access: 4

Click to view comments at bottom of this page

**Mounds (Indiana) - Circle Mound** submitted by bat400 : Mounds - Circle Mound Enclosure A stitched photo. The viewer is standing before the entrance, looking due west, into the enclosure. Photo: bat400 Oct 2006. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Earthwork in Mounds State Park, Madison County, Indiana.
Circle Mound isn't really a circle at all. It is a rectangular enclosure 285 by 225 feet. The gateway opens to the east. The encircling ditch is roughly 30 feet wide and 5-6 feet deep. The outer embankment built from the ditch is 4-6 feet higher than the surrounding surface. Original survey documents indicated two low oval mounds outside the enclosure at the gateway, but little remains.

The gateway is set symmetrically along the long axis of the rectangle. With the east-west alignment, the sunrise on both the vernal and spring equinox would be centered in the gateway to an observer inside the enclosure. (The sunset of the equinox would set along the center axis to a view in the gateway, looking west.) Additionally, at this latitude, the size of the rectangle means that sighting along the opposite corners of the rectangle aligns with the winter or summer solstice sunrise and sunset.

Excavations show that the ditch and embankment were built after the earthworks of the southern group of earthworks including the Great Mound were complete (about 1AD.) The two small mounds flanking the gateway were built somewhat later, around 70AD.

With no sign of a settlement among the mounds and earthworks the site is assumed (like many other Adena or Hopewell Woodland mound and earthwork sites) to have had a ceremonial use as part of a complex of mounds. Circle Mound lies on a bluff overlooking the White River, but to the north of the complex including the Great Mound. The location given is approximate. There were at least two other rectangular enclosures in the vicinity of Circle Mound, but both were farther away from the river. Remants of only one of these other rectangular earthworks remain.

[Information from Mounds State Park information pamphlets, and "The Archaeology of Anderson Mounds, Mounds State Park, Anderson Indiana" by Donald Cochran and Beth McCord, 2001.]
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.
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
783m S 186° Mounds (Indiana)* Henge
983m SSW 202° Mounds (Indiana) - Fiddleback Mound* Misc. Earthwork
994m SSW 198° Mounds (Indiana) - Great Mound* Henge
1.0km SSW 194° Mounds (Indiana) - Earthwork B* Misc. Earthwork
1.1km SSW 202° Mounds State Park (Indiana) - Earthwork D* Misc. Earthwork
15.4km NE 56° Yorktown Enclosure Misc. Earthwork
27.4km ESE 123° New Castle Complex* Henge
28.3km W 276° Castor Farm Ancient Village or Settlement
28.4km W 275° Strawtown Enclosure* Ancient Village or Settlement
29.7km SE 136° Chrysler Enclosure* Henge
35.6km E 80° Windsor Mound* Artificial Mound
48.6km SE 128° Cambridge City Henge Complex* Henge
59.8km SW 232° Indiana State Museum* Museum
69.4km ESE 104° Whitehead Mound* Artificial Mound
94.9km SW 225° Blue Bluff Rock Outcrop
102.7km SW 224° Bundy-Voyles Site* Ancient Village or Settlement
104.1km SE 135° Enyart Mound* Artificial Mound
104.3km SE 136° Reily Cemetery Mound* Artificial Mound
120.3km SE 133° Fortified Hill Works* Hillfort
121.9km SE 137° Dunlap Works* Artificial Mound
122.8km SE 128° Rentschler Park Hilltop Enclosure* Hillfort
125.9km ESE 110° Sunwatch* Ancient Village or Settlement
125.9km ESE 114° Miamisburg Mound* Artificial Mound
127.9km ESE 109° Calvary Cemetery Hilltop Enclosure* Hillfort
128.6km SE 145° Conrad Mound* Artificial Mound
View more nearby sites and additional images

<< Mounds (Indiana) - Earthwork B

Cae Gwyn >>