Ancient Ohio Earthworks, Comparable to Stonehenge, Gain World Heritage Status
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On Native American Heritage Day, a remarkable feat of ancient engineering in Ohio-long hidden beneath a golf course-has finally received the global recognition it deserves. designated as a UNESCO World heritage Site in 2023, the Octagon Earthworks are being hailed by archaeologists as being on par with iconic sites like Stonehenge, marking a pivotal moment after decades of struggle for acknowledgment.
A Lost Civilization’s Astronomical Precision
from above, the astounding geometry of the Newark, Ohio site is revealed. The Hopewell culture,a long-gone ancient network spread across the Eastern United States,constructed the Octagon Earthworks around 2,000 years ago-roughly contemporaneous with the peak of the Roman Empire. The complex consists of vast soil mounts: a perfect 20-acre circle connected to a perfectly symmetrical 50-acre octagon, large enough to accommodate four Roman Colosseums.
“And they’re not just close to being precise.They’re very, very precise,” explained a senior archaeologist studying the site. The intricate design isn’t merely aesthetic; it mirrors the moon’s 18.6-year journey across the sky, with its central axis meticulously aligned to the point of the moon’s northernmost rise.
A Pilgrimage Center Lost to Time
Researchers believe the Octagon Earthworks served as a important ceremonial center for the hopewell people, who lived in scattered communities but converged on this site in the thousands. “I think this was like Mecca or like Jerusalem as a pilgrimage center,” one archaeologist posited,”but,without a Koran or a Bible,we don’t have the knowledge of who
of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe recalled the feeling of disrespect,stating,”Earthworks are sacred to us. And to then look out and see that those mounds had a golf course on top of them, I can’t explain the disappointment, the hurt, the lack of respect that I felt on behalf of my ancestors.”
A Twenty-Year Fight for Recognition
The Ohio History Connection recognized the site’s importance over two decades ago, initiating a plan to secure its preservation. A key goal was achieving designation as a World Heritage Site-a status reserved for places of outstanding universal value, like the Great Wall of China and the Pyramids of Giza. This ambition required a lengthy legal battle for control of the site, finally culminating in success at the World Heritage Committee hearing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 2023.
“The gavel came down, and it was in that moment a World Heritage Site,” recalled a director at the Ohio History Connection. “that was moving enough. But to be in that room with representatives from all over the world and have Chief Glenna, whose people were forcibly removed from Ohio, speak, that was the moment that it really came home, like, how critically important this was that we did this.”
A New Era of Understanding
The designation as a World Heritage site has sparked renewed interest in the Octagon Earthworks. The site opened to the public earlier this year, drawing visitors eager to learn about this ancient civilization. “It certainly gives us as Native Americans a marvelous feeling of pride,” said the Chief of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. “And I am so proud of the changes that are occurring in Ohio. The people are beginning to recognize what they have in their communities,and they want to do the right thing.”
The rediscovery and preservation of the Octagon Earthworks challenge long-held perceptions of Native American history. as one archaeologist pointed out, “For so long, our society has regarded Indians as savages. They were here in the way. They had to be removed and forcibly removed into the West so that these lands could be civilized. But the irony of that is that there’s evidence of this wonderful civilization that was here 2,000 years before Europeans got here.”
The ancient astronomical observatory in Ohio stands as a testament to the ingenuity and sophistication of the Hopewell people-a legacy now preserved for generations to come.
