The Newark Earthworks in Newark and

Heath, Ohio Heath is a city in Licking County, Ohio, United States, and is located approximately 30 mi (48 km) east of Columbus. The population was 10,412 at the 2020 census. History This area is known to have been populated by the Hopewell Ind ...

, consist of three sections of preserved earthworks: the Great Circle Earthworks, the Octagon Earthworks, and the Wright Earthworks. This complex, built by 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 ...

between 100 BCE and 400 CE, contains the largest earthen

enclosure Enclosure or inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or "common land", enclosing it, and by doing so depriving commoners of their traditional rights of access and usage. Agreements to enc ...

s in the world, and was about in total extent. Less than 10 percent of the total site has been preserved since European-American settlement; this area contains a total of . Newark's Octagon and Great Circle Earthworks are managed by the

Ohio History Connection Ohio History Connection, formerly The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society and Ohio Historical Society, is a nonprofit organization incorporated in 1885. Headquartered at the Ohio History Center in Columbus, Ohio, Ohio History Connect ...

. A designated

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

, in 2006 the Newark Earthworks was also designated as the "official prehistoric monument of the State of Ohio." This is part of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, one of 14 sites nominated in January 2008 by the

U.S. Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal lands and natural resources. It also administers programs relating t ...

for potential submission by the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

to the

UNESCO World Heritage List World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...

. It was officially designated a World Heritage Site in September 2023 together with the earthworks at

Hopewell Culture National Historical Park Hopewell Culture National Historical Park is a United States national historical park with earthworks and burial mounds from the Hopewell culture, indigenous peoples who flourished from about 200 BC to 500 AD. The park is composed of four s ...

and

Fort Ancient The Fort Ancient culture is a Native American archaeological culture that dates back to . Members of the culture lived along the Ohio River valley, in an area running from modern-day Ohio and western West Virginia through to northern Kentucky ...

History

Built by the

between 100 BCE and 400 CE, the earthworks were used by the indigenous Native Americans as places of ceremony, social gathering, trade, worship, and honoring the dead. The primary purpose of the Octagon earthwork was believed to have been scientific. Scholars have demonstrated that the Octagon Earthworks comprise a lunar

observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysics, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. Th ...

for tracking the Moon's orbit during its 18.6-year cycle. While limited, the Newark Earthwork site is the largest surviving Hopewell earthwork complex in North America. The culture built many earthen mounds. Over decades, they built what is the single largest earthwork enclosure complex in the

Ohio River Valley The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its mouth on the Mississippi River in Cairo, ...

. The complex was one of hundreds of Native American ancient monuments identified and surveyed for the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

in the mid-nineteenth century by Ephraim G. Squier and

Edwin Hamilton Davis Edwin Hamilton Davis (January 22, 1811 – May 15, 1888) was an American physician and self taught archaeologist who completed pioneering investigations of the mound builders in the Mississippi Valley. Davis gathered what, at that time, was th ...

, from 1837 to 1847. The work that was published by a nascent Smithsonian Institution was titled ''Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley''. This study of the prehistoric

Mound Builders Many pre-Columbian cultures in North America were collectively termed "Mound Builders", but the term has no formal meaning. It does not refer to specific people or archaeological culture but refers to the characteristic mound earthworks that in ...

of North America was a landmark in American scientific research and the early development of archaeology as a scientific discipline. The book was the first volume of the

's ''Contributions to Knowledge'' series and the Institution's first publication. Squier and Davis' detailed and measured plan of the site is shown on this page.

Great Circle Earthworks

The -wide Newark Earthworks Great Circle (located in Heath, OH) is one of the largest circular earthworks in the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

, at least in construction effort. A deep moat is encompassed by walls that are high; at the entrance, the dimensions are even more grand. Researchers have used archaeogeodesy and

archaeoastronomy Archaeoastronomy (also spelled archeoastronomy) is the interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary study of how people in the past "have understood the phenomena in the sky, how they used these phenomena and what role the sky played in their cultur ...

to analyze the placements, alignments, dimensions, and site-to-site interrelationships of the earthworks. This research has revealed that the

prehistoric Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

s in the area had advanced scientific understanding which they used as the basis of their complex construction.

Octagon Earthworks

The Octagon Earthworks consists of an Observatory Mound (connected at the southwestern edge of Observatory Circle), Observatory Circle , and the connected Octagon . The Octagon has eight -long walls, from to high. The Octagon is joined by parallel walls to Observatory Circle . Newark Works Squier and Davis Plate XXV

In 1982 researchers from

Earlham College Earlham College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Richmond, Indiana. The college was established in 1847 by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and has a strong focus on Quake ...

Richmond, Indiana Richmond () is a city in eastern Wayne County, Indiana, United States. Bordering the state of Ohio, it is the county seat of Wayne County. In the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 35,720. It is the principal c ...

concluded that the complex was a lunar observatory, designed to track motions of the moon, including the northernmost point of the 18.6-year cycle of the lunar orbit. When viewed from the observatory mound, the moon rises at that time within one-half of a degree of the octagon's exact center. The earthwork is twice as precise as the complex at

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric Megalith, megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, to ...

(assuming Stonehenge is an observatory, which is a disputed theory). From 1892 to 1908, the state of

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

used the Octagon Earthworks as a

militia A militia ( ) is a military or paramilitary force that comprises civilian members, as opposed to a professional standing army of regular, full-time military personnel. Militias may be raised in times of need to support regular troops or se ...

encampment Camp may refer to: Areas of confinement, imprisonment, or for execution * Concentration camp, an internment camp for political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or minority ethnic groups * Extermination ...

. Immediately after this, the Newark Board of Trade owned the property, until 1918. In 1910, the property was leased to Moundbuilders Country Club (MBCC), which developed the site as a golf course. As a result of a

Licking County Licking County is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of Ohio. At the 2020 census, the population was 178,519. Its county seat is Newark. The county was formed on January 30, 1808, from portions of Fairfield County. It ...

Common Pleas Court case, a trustee was named to manage the property from 1918 to 1933. In 1997 the

Ohio Historical Society Ohio History Connection, formerly The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society and Ohio Historical Society, is a nonprofit organization incorporated in 1885. Headquartered at the Ohio History Center in Columbus, Ohio, Ohio History Connect ...

(now the Ohio History Connection) signed a lease until 2078 with the country club. MBCC maintains, secures, and provides restricted public access to the land. Some citizens believe the country club is an inappropriate use of the sacred site. There has been increasing public interest in the earthworks. Activists have pressed for more public access to the site to witness the moonrise, which observance was planned in the design and construction by the original native builders. In 2022 the

Ohio Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of Ohio is the highest court in the U.S. state of Ohio, with final authority over interpretations of Ohio law and the Ohio Constitution. The court has seven members, a chief justice and six associate justices, ...

had ruled that the historical society could use eminent domain to buy out the lease from the Moundbuilders Country Club. On August 2024 a deal was reached and the Country Club left from the site on 1 January 2025.

Wright Earthworks

The Wright Earthworks consist of a fragment of a geometrically near-perfect square enclosure and part of one wall that originally formed a set of parallel embankments, which led from the enclosure to a large oval yard. The Newark square's sides formerly ranged from about to in length, enclosing a total area of about . Much of the square enclosure and its associated mounds was destroyed during nineteenth-century European-American development: construction related to building the Ohio Canal, as well as the streets and houses of the city of Newark. Clearing and cultivation of fields for farming also destroyed much of the monument. The remaining segment of one wall of the square is less than long. The Wright Earthworks are named in honor of Mrs. Frances Rees Wright, who donated the site in 1934 to the Ohio Historical Society.

Gallery

Color photos are of the Great Circle, located in Heath. The black-and-white photos of the Octagon Earthworks in Newark were taken from the air in the 1980s, showing the interposition of country club golf sand traps and greens with the surviving parts of the ancient circles, walls, Observatory Circle and Octagon. File:Ohio Newark Great Circle01 02.jpg, Panoramic view from within the Great Circle, the wall of which can be seen in the background. File:Newark Great Circle Central Mound.jpg, Man on top of the central mound at the Great Circle in 2024 File:TouristsAtGreatCircleEarthworks.jpg, Tourists at Great Circle Earthworks, Heath File:Newark Mounds, Newark, Ohio, USA.jpg, Octagon Earthworks, Newark - small ancient walled circle File:Newark Mounds,10 Newark, Ohio, USA.jpg, Octagon Earthworks - walls of ancient causeway File:Newark Mounds,11 Newark, Ohio, USA.jpg, Octagon Earthworks - small ancient circle and other walls File:Newark Mounds,13 Newark, Ohio, USA.jpg, Octagon Earthworks File:Newark Mounds,14 Newark, Ohio, USA.jpg, Octagon Earthworks - Observatory Circle in lower right; part of straight walls of Octagon in left center File:Newark Mounds,15 Newark, Ohio, USA.jpg, Octagon Earthworks File:Newark Mounds,17 Newark, Ohio, USA.jpg, Octagon Earthworks File:Newark Mounds,20 Newark, Ohio, USA.jpg, Octagon Earthworks - Observatory Circle in upper right, and part of Octagon visible below that after short causeway File:Newark Mounds,21 Newark, Ohio, USA.jpg, Octagon Earthworks - walls of Observatory Circle

References

External links

Newark Earthworks, The Ancient Ohio Trail

Official website
from the Ohio Historical Society
The Newark Earthworks Center
The Ohio State University
Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks UNESCO World Heritage Site

The Octagon Earthworks: A Neolithic Lunar Observatory
{{authority control Ohio Hopewell National Historic Landmarks in Ohio State parks of Ohio Symbols of Ohio Land art Newark, Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Licking County, Ohio Ohio History Connection Mounds in Ohio Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio