The Ratcliffe Mound ( 33-Vi-3) is a Native American mound in the southeastern part of 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 so ...

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 ...

. Located in western Vinton County, it lies to the east of the community of Londonderry, at the bottom of a steep-walled valley. Sitting in the middle of farm fields near a stream, the mound is isolated in open countryside; there are no nearby woodlots. The mound is a circular cone in shape, high and in diameter.Owen, Lorrie K., ed. ''Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places''. Vol. 2. St. Clair Shores: Somerset, 1999, 1370. Unlike those of many Native American mounds, the identity of the Ratcliffe Mound's builders is unknown. Two

cultures 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 ...

from the

Woodland period In the classification of :category:Archaeological cultures of North America, archaeological cultures of North America, the Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures spanned a period from roughly 1000 BC to European contact i ...

, the Adena and Hopewell, built large numbers of mounds in southeastern Ohio, and the Adena are known to have built a group of six mounds in the Vinton County village of Zaleski, but the Ratcliffe Mound lacks features that enable archaeologists to identify its builders. Neither of these two cultures typically built mounds in locations such as that of the Ratcliffe, and no identifiable artifacts have been found in the vicinity of the mound, so no identification can be made in the mound's present state. Furthermore, no

archaeological excavation In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...

has been conducted at the Ratcliffe Mound, so no artifacts have been recovered from it. Despite the inability of archaeologists to classify the mound's origins, it is likely to be a valuable

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

if investigated. In recognition of its archaeological value, the Ratcliffe Mound was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1975.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Archaeological sites in Ohio Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Vinton County, Ohio Woodland period Mounds in Ohio