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ANCIENT
AMERICAN * ISSUE #29
Ancient Ohio's Great Hopewell Highway ©
(continued)
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Figure 6 : In this rendering of the Newark Mounds, openings
in the abutting angles have been sealed in order to present the
earthworks' pure geometry, thereby confirming the accuracy of
their incorporated astronomy, and to lend greater appreciation
of the unbroken geometry involved. They demonstrate a possible
fusion of scientific disciplines (astronomy, geometry, metrology,
iconography and mythology). (Hamilton 1999, after Thomas, Marshall,
Hively and Horn) Graphic imagery ©, by Patricia Mason. |
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of the Earth, according to her myth. The Sun People kept and
maintained it, sending it on its daily rounds. Meanwhile, the
animals grumbled among themselves, plotting to get some of the
light for their own, dark world. In her efforts to connect both
worlds, Grandmother Spider created a large web-like network.
Could the Hopewell Road be one of her silken threads, linking
the skies above with the Earth below through the mounds' astronomical
alignments?
Eventually, the opossum fetched a piece of the Sun, and placed
it on his tail. When he came back to the dark world of his brethren,
the heat of it had burned off his fur (which mythically explained
the opossums baldness). Then the buzzard swooping down, stealing
another piece of the Sun and put it on his head. Though he fared
a little better than the opossum, he ultimately failed as well,
and now the buzzard is bald-headed.
Now Grandmother Spider told the animals she would try. She fastened
a clay bowl to her back, quietly got past the Sun People, and
brought back a piece of the Sun, enlightening her animal companions.
Interestingly, she exuded a long, straight thread of her silk
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along the way, so she could find her way back by the quickest
route. Her myth perhaps symbolizes the geometric formula of the
Newark earthworks.
The Great Turtle
 nother story, this time preserved by the
Cheyenne, demonstrates a possible connection between the High
Bank earthwork and accounts of a great turtle. The shell of the
overland turtle may have been associated with that of a celestial
turtle representing the general dome of the sky. In the Cheyenne
myth, about fifty young warriors were engaged in a long hunting
trip. Several days out on their hunting expedition, they began
following a straight path marked by tree branches. The men noticed
something shining and gleaming in the distance, supposing that
it might be a mirage. But eventually approaching it, they saw
that it was a huge turtle, slowly moving along the same straight
track. They scampered up on the turtle's back, until all but
the chief had climbed aboard. When they noticed that they were
headed for a lake, they tried to dismount but could not. Stuck
fast to the lumbering beast, they began to pry and bash at its
shell and head in desperate efforts to free themselves. It was
all in vain. Nothing could harm or slow down the mighty creature.
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Then the chief ran around to the head of the turtle and pleaded
for his young men to be released. But the turtle just kept moving.
Finally, the young men became resolved to their fate. They instructed
the chief to return to their village and explain every- thing
to their families. They then waved goodbye, and disappeared beneath
the water, still held fast to the back of the great animal.
The people of the village came there afterwards to mourn their
young warriors and to pay respect to the site of their last breaths
in this world. Now it is said that their bones are visible in
a dry lake bed, preserved from very ancient times.
In this myth may be preserved tribal memories of Ohio's Great
Road, with its straight align- ments crawled over by the gradual
progress of the heavens, and the loss of its astronomers in prehistory.
Marshall's Law
 he discoveries of Hively and Horn, together
with those of William F. Romain and others in Ohio Valley archaeo-
astronomy have re-discovered the long-lost knowledge and original
purposes of some of the state's massive, geometric earthworks.
Among these important researchers is James A. Marshall, who began
in the 1960s to survey
Hopewell Highway... Page 5
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and map hundreds of ancient sites all
over the eastern United States. His maps are extraordinarily
accurate, reflecting his professional skills as a registered
civil engineer. Realizing that some of the archaeo-astronomy
advocates were still using outdated and flawed maps, Marshall's
published observations and informative lectures have helped to
bring his colleagues up to date; his maps illustrate this article.
Thanks in large measure to his meticulous investigations, the
Newark, High Bank and other prehistoric earthworks of the Ohio
Valley are being understood for what they really were.
Two of the illustrations provided are computer-generated facsimiles
of the Newark and Highbank works. They are based on the surveys
of Squier and Davis, Hively and Horn, the Smithsonian, and James
A. Marshall. They demonstrate that the ancients did not merely
create their earthworks for the sole purpose of incor- porating
astronomical events, but simultaneously produced classical geometric
axioms. In the current vernacular, what they did is termed a
fusion of sciences to create a seamless expression of unity.
Astronomy may be perfectly integrated with geometry, proportion
and measure at the expense of neither. Did the ancient Hopewell,
even as philosophers and magicians, seek to embody all their
science in one, unifying expression of their forgotten religion?
There are other ancient pathways rumored to exist in the Ohio
Valley, and efforts are under way to identify them. The Great
Hopewell Road is the first of its kind to be so thoroughly illuminated
and identified. It is an indicator of the genius of a people
now long disappeared, possibly assimilated to become the scores
of subsequent Native American "nations."
References:
American Indian Mythology, by Alice Mariott
and Carol K. Rachlin, Thomas Crowell, Apollo Editions, 1972
Ancient Astronomers of the Ohio Valley,
by Brad Lepper, Timeline, Jan-Feb, 1998
Tracking Ohio's Great Hopewell Road, by
Bradley Lepper, Archaeology, 1998
A View From the Core: A Synthesis of Ohio Hopewell
Archaeology, the Ohio Archaeological Council. 1998
Further Reading:
Geometry and Astronomy in Prehistoric Ohio
(Ray Hively and Robert Horn), Archaeo-astronomy, #13 (1982)
\Hopewellian Geometry and Astronomy at High
Bank, (Hively and Horn), Archaeo-astronomy, # 15 (1984)
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