Moorehead Circle was a triple

woodhenge Woodhenge is a Neolithic Class II henge and timber circle monument within the Stonehenge World Heritage Site in Wiltshire, England. It is north-east of Stonehenge, in Durrington parish, just north of the town of Amesbury. Discovery Woodhe ...

constructed about two millennia ago at the

Fort Ancient Fort Ancient is a name for a Native American culture that flourished from Ca. 1000-1750 CE and predominantly inhabited land near the Ohio River valley in the areas of modern-day southern Ohio, northern Kentucky, southeastern Indiana and western ...

Earthworks in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. The outer circle, discovered in 2005 by Jarrod Burks, is about in diameter. Robert Riordan, Professor of Archaeology at Wright State University and lead archaeologist investigating the site, estimates that about two hundred wooden posts were set in the outer circle. Following the 2009 Field Season though, this estimate will likely be reevaluated given a huge number of tightly spaced post-molds found on the geographic south of the feature. Thirty post-molds in all, were found in an eight meter long area excavated on the border of the circle. "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." Both dates fall into the time period of the

Hopewell culture The Hopewell tradition, also called the Hopewell culture and Hopewellian exchange, describes a network of precontact Native American cultures that flourished in settlements along rivers in the northeastern and midwestern Eastern Woodlands from ...

, preceding the

Fort Ancient culture Fort Ancient is a name for a Native American culture that flourished from Ca. 1000-1750 CE and predominantly inhabited land near the Ohio River valley in the areas of modern-day southern Ohio, northern Kentucky, southeastern Indiana and western ...

occupation that predominates the site. The use or uses of the circles has not been determined, although it was likely ceremonial. Dr. Riordan named the circle in honor of

Warren K. Moorehead Warren King Moorehead was known in his time as the 'Dean of American archaeology'; born in Siena, Italy to missionary parents on March 10, 1866, he died on January 5, 1939 at the age of 72, and is buried in his hometown of Xenia, Ohio. Moorehead ...

, first curator of archaeology for the Ohio Historical Society and a leading North American archaeologist around the turn of the twentieth century, who was largely responsible for preservation of the Fort Ancient site. Other woodhenges have been found in the central part of the United States, including the

Cahokia Woodhenge The Cahokia Woodhenge was a series of large timber circles located roughly to the west of Monks Mound at the Mississippian culture Cahokia archaeological site near Collinsville, Illinois. They are thought to have been constructed between 900 and ...

and

Mound 72 Woodhenge Mound 72 is a small ridgetop mound located roughly to the south of Monks Mound at Cahokia Mounds near Collinsville, Illinois. Early in the site's history, the location began as a circle of 48 large wooden posts known as a "woodhenge". The woodh ...

s (both located at the

Cahokia The Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site ( 11 MS 2) is the site of a pre-Columbian Native American city (which existed 1050–1350 CE) directly across the Mississippi River from modern St. Louis, Missouri. This historic park lies in south- ...

site in western Illinois) and the

Stubbs Earthworks The Stubbs Earthworks ( 33 WA 1) (also known as Bigfoot Earthworks and Warren County Serpent Mound) was a massive Ohio Hopewell culture (100 BCE to 500 CE) archaeological site located in Morrow in Warren County, Ohio. Site description The site ...

, which is also a Hopewell culture site located in Warren County, Ohio.

References

* Riordan, Robert. "Report on the Excavations of the Moorehead Circle at Fort Ancient, 2007." Wright State University Laboratory of Anthropology: Fairborn, Ohio 2008. * Cowan, Frank L. "An Ohio Hopewell 'Woodhenge,'" in ''Ohio Archaeology: An Illustrated Chronicle of Ohio's Ancient American Indian Cultures''. Orange Frazer Press: Wilmington, Ohio.

External links

* *
Fort Ancient Archaeological Park

Fort Ancient, Ancient Ohio Trail

Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks UNESCO World Heritage Nomination
{{Pre-Columbian North America Ohio Hopewell Fort Ancient culture Buildings and structures in Warren County, Ohio

See also

References

External links