Mystery Of The Moon And Newark Mounds: Octagon Earthworks’ Alignment With Moon – No Accident

Ellen Lloyd – MessageToEagle.com – The mystery of the Newark Earthworks — massive mounds built by ancient people who lived here thousands of years ago — lies in the movements of the moon.

One piece of the Earthworks is a giant octagon, large enough to fit four Roman Colosseums. Each of the octagon’s points lines up perfectly with specific times in the lunar cycle, pointing to the northernmost and southernmost places where the moon rises and sets,’ reports The Columbus Dispatch.

The walls of this 2,000-year-old circle and octagon were aligned to the points on the horizon, marking the limits of the rising and setting of the moon during an 18.6-year cycle.

“The moon goes through an elaborate cycle, sort of like the sun, in that there’s a solstice and an equinox –  it’s the rhythm of the year,” said Bradley T. Lepper, curator of archaeology at the Ohio History Connection.

The Newark Earthworks are the largest known complex of geometric earthworks on the planet, according to archaeologists. Radiocarbon dating puts construction at around A.D. 1 to A.D. 400, Lepper said.

They cover about 4.5 square miles, and about 7 million cubic feet of earth was used to construct them.

“And keep in mind that they were building it by hand, with pointed sticks, clamshell hoes, and baskets,” Lepper said. “And then, carrying those baskets on their backs, one at a time, to create this amazingly precise geometry and astronomy.”

Multiple exposures show the path of the moonrise above the southern wall at the Octagon Earthworks in Newark. Timothy E. Black

Some background about the moon that will be important later: The moon rises in the east and sets in the west, just like the sun. That happens because Earth spins to the east. But it’s important to note that the moon also moves on a north-to-south arc.

The lunar cycle lasts 18.6 years. In the beginning, middle and end of that cycle, the arc is either at its widest or narrowest, depending on the part of the cycle we are in.

That means that once every 9.3 years, the moon’s arc is either at its widest or narrowest.

That the Newark Earthworks’ octagon lines up with those widest and narrowest moonrises and moonsets suggests that their builders, the Hopewell, understood the cycle.

Archaeologists haven’t found written records for the Hopewell people. For that matter, they don’t even know what the Hopewell called themselves. They were named for Mordecai Cloud Hopewell, a captain in the Confederate Army during the Civil War who later bought a farm in what is now Ross County, not far from Chillicothe.

Artists rendition of the Newark Earthworks. (Photo taken inside the small museum/visitor center.) via u.osu.edu

It was there that major artifacts of the Hopewell people were found.

It’s possible that the Hopewell were ancestors to some Native American tribes that later lived here. But scientists don’t know for sure.

Mounds near Chillicothe now are part of Hopewell Culture National Park, though archaeologists say they are not nearly as prominent as those in Newark.

The Newark Earthworks are protected, but they are also part of the Mound Builders Country Club’s golf course.

The country club has agreed to close the course four days a year to allow visitors to roam the mounds. One of those days is today.

That’s because the moon will rise at its northern minimum point — the shortest point of its arc — and line up perfectly with one point of the octagon. Next weekend, it will rise at its southern minimum point, perfectly in line with another point of the octagon.

The mystery of the Newark Earthworks — massive mounds built by ancient people who lived here thousands of years ago — lies in the movements of the moon.

To honor that once-every-9.3-years occasion, the Newark Earthworks Center is hosting an open house from sunrise to sunset today, with guided tours.

On Saturday, the Newark Earthworks Center plans to lead a public viewing of the moon in line with the octagon. That should occur around 9:30 p.m.

Dick Shiels, emeritus director of the Newark Earthworks Center at Ohio State University-Newark, said the mounds likely were part of a ceremonial site. The moon’s northernmost and southernmost rises and sets occur during different seasons throughout the lunar cycle, which eliminates at least one practical use of the octagon.

“It doesn’t help you know when to put in your crop or take out your harvest,” Shiels said.

And artifacts from across North America — mica from North Carolina, shells from the Gulf Coast, obsidian from the area that is now Yellowstone National Park — have been found there.

To Shiels and other archaeologists, that is evidence that the octagon hosted a great pilgrimage.

“We think that it’s likely a cue for some kind of major event, some kind of major gathering,” Shiels said. “The truth is, we don’t have written records from these people.

“We don’t have anything that tells us definitively why they would have done this. But I think what I can say with confidence is it must have been important to be there when the moon was in a certain place. And that takes us to thinking that very likely this was a ceremonial site.”

One clue of the earthworks’ ceremonial status is a burial ground there.

“Like Mecca or Jerusalem, people would have been coming from all over North America to participate in the mystery, to worship, to offer gifts of thanksgiving, and to be involved in the construction, even of the earthworks themselves,” Lepper said.

“And they didn’t take away a commodity when they left. They took away the spiritual experience of having been part of that magical experience.”

Watching the moon rise or set at one of the octagon’s points is a fantastic experience, Lepper said.

“To stand there and watch along this earthwork wall, and know that the moon is going to rise in perfect alignment with that because it’s a cosmic alarm clock set 2,000 years ago and it still works — I’ve never felt closer to the ancient people that I study,” he said.

Written by Ellen Lloyd – MessageToEagle.com

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