Don Wesley - The Serpent Mound

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The Serpent Mound is the most dynamic
and mysterious effigy mound in the United
States. At nearly a quarter mile in length it
is also one of the largest serpentine earthworks
in the world. The Serpent Mound and the Anasazi
Pueblos of the Rio Grande are two of the most
mysterious indiginous works remaining that were
constructed prior to the arrival of the first European settlers.

To this day no one knows for sure which peoples of the Middle Ohio
Valley region are responsible for its construction. The original following
was that it was the work of the reputable mound builders, the Adenas.
The reason for this belief was that there were neighboring mounds that
were certainly constructed by the Adenas for ceremonial and burial
purposes. However, after carbon dating some of the charcoal samples
found in the mound at around A.D. 1070, archaeologists now tend to credit
the Fort Ancient peoples, who were building mounds in the area at the time.

Another mystery to modern man is the actual purpose of the mound. Serpents
represent many different things for many cultures around the world. Some of
the beliefs associated with Ohio's Serpent Mound are that the serpent is
swallowing an egg, or chasing a leaping frog. In 1993, Robert V. Fletcher
and Terry L. Cameron mapped astronomical alignments that suggest
that the serpent mound could have served as an astromomical
calendar for its caretakers.

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Bibliography for this page...

Glotzhober, Robert C. and Bradley T. Lepper
Serpent Mound: Ohio's Enigmatic Effigy Mound.
Ohio Historical Society, Columbus, Ohio. 1994.

Lepper, Bradley T.
People of the Mounds: Ohio's Hopewell Culture.
Ohio Historical Society, Columbus, Ohio. 1995.