Saturday, July 5, 2025

I Feel The Earth Move

Well, this is an interesting place. We stopped by the Newark Earthworks in Ohio to check it out. It’s part of a series of large scale earthen structures (mounds, moats, and the like) built by the Hopewell culture 2,000 years ago. It turns out these were for ceremonial purposes, not defensive or residential as some first thought. For a while, after European settlement, it became the local county fairgrounds.

Archaeology is controversial here. On the one hand, messing with sacred spaces is offensive to many folks, especially Indigenous people. On the other, it helps to understand and appreciate the past. As one person put it: “How would you like it if I took a backhoe to the wall of the Sistine Chapel to find out how old it is?”



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