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Adena

The Serpent Mound

The Great Serpent Mound of Ohio, the Largest Earthen Effigy in the World

The Great Serpent Mound is a 1,300-foot (396 m) long and 3-foot (91 cm) high prehistoric effigy mound located on a plateau of a crater along Ohio Brush Creek in Adams County, Ohio, and is the largest...
Deriv; The Sutton Letter, courtesy authors, and a human skull. Representational image only.

The Giants of Doddridge County: Burials of a Vanished Race – Part I

(Author’s Note: This article contains reference to an anonymous source. Although we have a rule of not using anonymous sources in our published work, we have made an exception in this case, since we...
Example of an Adena mound in Mound Cemetery at Marietta Ohio. Unfortunately the Spearhead Mound was destroyed in 1940 for gravel operations.

The Spearhead Mound: Interpretation of a Forgotten Adena Burial Site

The people of the Adena Culture were some of the first to construct burial mounds and earthworks in the Ohio River Valley. Early Adena sites date to between 1000 and 200 BC and usually consist of...

The Mound Builders' Moon Goddess: Grandmother of the Eastern Woodlands

“With the Uncanny one has reached the fringes of the Numinous.” --C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain During a period spanning roughly 500 BC—500 AD, the Eastern Woodlands of North America were the...
Is the answer of the downfall of the giants found in ancient texts? Source: grandfailure / Adobe Stock.

The Fall of the Giants and Their Fate According to Ancient Texts

Giants were here. In using the term giants, I am referring to persons at least 7 feet (2.1m) and up to 13 feet (4m) in height. Given that pre-modern man was significantly shorter on the average than...
Serpent Mound

Symbolism of the Great Serpent in the Adena and Hopewell Cultures – Part II

Recently, a debate has developed in the Ohio archaeological community over the age and cultural affiliations of the Great Serpent Mound in Adams County, Ohio. So, what does the evidence really show...
Aerial View of Serpent Mound.

Symbolism of the Great Serpent in the Adena and Hopewell Cultures – Part I

Recently, a debate has developed in the Ohio archaeological community over the age and cultural affiliations of the Great Serpent Mound in Adams County, Ohio. So, what does the evidence really show...
 Illustration of the "Emmons mask", a Mississippian culture carved cedarwood human face shaped object once covered in copper and painted with galena and used as part of a headdress

Adena Axis Mundi & Large Skeletal Remains: Travelling to the Realm of the Dead at Grave Creek Mound - Part II

The large Grave Creek Mound proved to be an irresistible attraction to early antiquarians and curiosity seekers. In 1823, John Haywood mentioned the impressive mound: “of a conical form, 75 feet high...
Illustration of the "Emmons mask", a Mississippian culture carved cedarwood human face shaped object once covered in copper and painted with galena and used as part of a headdress

Adena Axis Mundi & Large Skeletal Remains: Archaeology of the Grave Creek Mound - Part I

The City of Moundsville is located along the Ohio River in Marshall County, West Virginia. From the time of European settlement in the 1770s, Moundsville was regarded by antiquarians as one of the...
Skeletal remains and recreation of a prehistoric timber circle

Burned Bones, Mysterious Timber Circles & the Rites of the Ancients - Adena Culture in Mason County

Mason County, West Virginia is a place rich in history. Founded in 1804, the county is named after George Mason, who was a delegate at the American Constitutional Convention of 1787. In October of...
A Puma in the night

Ghost Talkers and Puma Men: Adena Totemism and the Shamans of the Early Woodland Period

The people of the Adena Culture are widely regarded as the first builders of mounds and earthworks in the Ohio Valley. By conventional dating the culture spans the period of 1000 BC to around 300 AD...
Deriv; The Adena Female. [Image copyrighted © by MARCIA K MOORE CIAMAR STUDIO. The use of which is prohibited unless prior written permission from the artist is obtained.

A Portrait of an Adena Female and Women in Adena Society

The Adena Culture emerged in the Ohio River Valley sometime between 1400 and 800 BC, and persisted until around 300 AD. Adena raised earthen mounds ranging from just a few inches to nearly 70 feet...
Looking to Elders to Discover the Amazing Burial Mounds and Forgotten Woodland Traditions of Canada

Looking to Elders to Discover the Amazing Burial Mounds and Forgotten Woodland Traditions of Canada

While the burial mounds and earthworks of the Adena and Hopewell Cultures are usually associated with the Ohio River Valley, there are lesser-known—but equally as fantastic—manifestations of these...
Foundations of Stone – Part II : Investigating the Megalithics of West Virginia and the Connection to the Pleiades

Foundations of Stone – Part II : Investigating the Megalithics of West Virginia and the Connection to the Pleiades

Several mounds of the Charleston works featured these cup marked stones. Along the Elk River North of Charleston, Norris excavated a conical mound 50 feet (15 meters) broad and five feet (1.5 meters...
Foundations of Stone – Part I : Investigating the Megalithic Aspect of Late Archaic and Woodland Cultures in West Virginia

Foundations of Stone – Part I : Investigating the Megalithic Aspect of Late Archaic and Woodland Cultures in West Virginia

The data for this article regarding the Charleston Earthworks is largely derived from the handwritten manuscript of P.W. Norris. The authors have used this version of the report due to the needless...
A human skull. Representational image only.

The Giants of Doddridge County: Body Snatching and Buried Notebooks – Part II

( Read Part I ) It is important to note that in relation to the measurements published for the gigantic skeletons from the Zahn Farm mounds, Sutton’s method of determining height would actually have...
Adena Giant Mound Builders

The Adena Giant Revealed: Profile of Prehistoric Mound Builders

In the 1800s, reports began to surface of the discovery of very large skeletal remains in the burial mounds of North America. These skeletons were described as reaching seven to eight feet (2.4...
North American giant

The Adena People and Prehistoric Colonization of North America

Read Part 1 European scholars have noted evidence of ancient colonization of North America. After studying American Mounds and Earthworks, Dr C.A. Adolph Zestermann (Leipzig) wrote in 1851: “I can...
Postcard image of the Serpent Mound, Ohio

Ancient Earthworks of North America suggest pre-Columbian European contact

Long before the Isolationist doctrine of the Smithsonian became an academic dogma, mounds and earthworks in America were routinely compared to those observed in Western Europe. This position was...