Germantown, Ohio Serpentine Earthen Hopewell Enclosure

Germantown, Ohio Serpentine Earthen Enclosure

The serpentine gateway at Spruce Hill was duplicated at several hilltop ceremonial centers, including the work at Germantown, Ohio.

Serpentine gateway of the Germantown hilltop earthwork is very similar to the Spruce Hill gateway. The approaches to this earthwork looked to be man made and undulated like a serpent.

Parts of the original wall that skirts the bluff are still visible in the winter months.

Oneoto Sioux Hopewell Mounds and Earthworks in Posey County, Indiana

Oneoto Sioux Hopewell Mounds and Earthworks in Posey County, Indiana

Square earthworks similar to those found in Ohio were diagrammed by Indiana University.

Prehistoric Antiquities of Indiana, Lilly, 1937

The village and burial site near the mouth of the Wabash yielded so many artifacts similar to the Oneota culture, such as limestone disk pipes, copper ear spools, tubular beads, and characteristic triangular arrow points, that Siouan relationship seems almost certain. Probably the village at Bone Bank [Posey County, Indiana] and the citadel at Merom, both on the lower Wabash, were also Siouan sites.

Large loaf shaped burial mound similar to the Seip Mound in Ross County, Ohio photographed north of Mt. Vernon, Indiana.

Oneoto Sioux burial mound located a few miles east of Mt. Vernon, Indiana.

Oneoto Sioux Hopewell burial mound now has a house on top. The tree line in the distance is the Ohio River.

This incised jar design (Lesueur 41205) is a variety of Caborn-Welborn Decorated that is very similar to Oneota jar motifs found in regions to the north and east of the mouth of the Wabash. Note the nested circle and the loop handle. Oneota motifs occur as small percent of the decorated ceramics at many Caborn-Welborn sites.

Demoret Adena Burial Mound in Butler County, Ohio

Demoret Adena Burial Mound in Butler County, Ohio

The largest mound of this group must have been destroyed at some time, leaving this smaller mound of the group as the only one to survive the urban sprawl. It is situated next to a new home, however it has been left with thick underbrush and trees growing on it that make it difficult to see.

The Mound Builders, Archaeology of Butler County, Ohio, 1879:

On the farms of William Hogan and Charles Borger, section twenty-one, is group of mounds, six in number. A plan of these given in Fig. 56.

The largest is twenty-six feet high with a base eighty feet in diameter. The rest vary in height, ranging from three to eight feet. The illustration gives the relative sizes, positions and distances of the mounds composing the group. The group is situated on the highest point of land in the township, and from the summit of the largest mound a view of the surrounding country can be obtained. To the east, if the forest trees did not intervene, the city of Hamilton could be seen; while to the south it overlooks the Colerain Hills.

  Mr. L. Demoret looked up the history of and the stories concerning this mound, and writes as follows:

“About the year 1820 this mound was opened by a man named Young, assisted by the Keever brothers, in hopes of finding a treasure chest. They worked only during the hours of darkness, and in perfect silence, in the belief that the chest never could never be reached if a word was spoken while at work. A story was started, and believed by many, that the chest was finally discovered, when one of the diggers exclaimed: ‘I’ve got it at last!’ whereupon it slipped from his fingers and vanished, leaving a smell of brimstone in the air.

“The tunnel was started on the north side, about half way up the slope, and ran downwards at an angle of thirty-five degrees, for a distance of thirty feet, when the center was reached, from which point it was carried eastwardly several feet. It was stated at the time that the center of the mound gave the appearance of having been once a hut formed of leaning timbers to sustain the great weight of earth. Within this vault were found a stone back-wall, coals and ashes, and human bones.”

Indiana Archaeologists Determine Hopewell Earthwork at Strawtown, Indiana is Oneoto Sioux

Indiana Archaeologists Determine Hopewell Earthwork at Strawtown, Indiana is Oneoto Sioux

The Srawtown henge is discernable from the circular elevated platform seen on the left encircled by a ditch with the outer wall also still visible. Despite being plowed for years what may be a gateway is evident on the southeast section. Traces of additional embankments were discovered several hundred yards south of the earthwork. The Strawtown earthwork is located on the high ground overlooking the White River as it bends to the south.

The larger size of this henge is comparable to others found at the Highbank Works at Chillicothe, Ohio and Yorktown, Indiana. The henges around Piqua Ohio also include a work 300 feet in diameter along with a spoked burial. A spoked burial was also discovered in Madison County Indiana near the works at Mounds State Park. IPFW archaeologist excavated parts of the earthwork and concluded that the artifacts they found were culturally affiliated with the Oneoto Sioux. Strawtown is the anchor to Indiana’s magical 50 miles that reveals by going back upriver to the east the circular henges at Mounds State Park, the henge in Delaware county, the large mound at Windsor and the Winchester works.  

Indiana Department of Geology and Natural History (Fourteenth Annual Report), 1884

But Strawtown has an antiquity evidently higher than the days of the Delaware Indians. The mound builders have left their footprints in this vicinity by the numerous relics of the Stone Age that have been picked up by the present inhabitants. A little west of the present village there is a burial mound about six feet high; it has been plowed over for a number of years, so that not only its height has been reduced, but its base rendered so indistinct that its diameter can not be accurately measured; it is, however, between seventy and eighty feet. It was opened in 1882 by Judge Overman, of Tipton, and four skeletons were found lying on the original surface of the ground, with their heads together and their feet directed to the cardinal points of the compass.

This type of 'spoked burial' is found throughout the Ohio Valley associated with both the Adena and Hopewell.

At a distance of 150 yards southeast of this mound is a circular embankment, now about three feet high, and twelve feet on the base.  The diameter of the circle, measured from the bottom of the ditch on each side, is 315 feet. There is a doubt as to what period this work should be referred. A tradition among the “old settlers” claims that the remains of palisades that once formed a stockade, were standing on the embankment when the early immigrants settled here. This tradition is strengthened by the fact that in 1810 a stockade was built by the Delaware Indians somewhere near this spot, as a protection against their Miami neighbors north of White River. Moreover, it was not the custom of the mound builders to make a ditch on the outside of their embankments. On the other hand, the regularity of the work, and the perfect form of the circle, is hardly compatible with the idea that this is the work of modern savages. It is possible that the circle dates back to the period of the mound builders, and that the Delaware’s took advantage of it to build their stockade on, and made the ditch to strengthen their palisades. The ditch was been filled, and the embankment reduced much by cultivation.

Jewish Menorah Earthwork Located in Clermont County, Ohio

Jewish Menorah Earthwork Located in Clermont County, Ohio

Most of the earthworks in the Ohio Valley are either a circle or a square with these shapes sometimes combined in one earthwork. The circle representing the Sun deity and the square, the Earth Mother.  So what about this???

Wikipedia "The menorah symbolized the ideal of universal enlightenment. The seven lamps allude to the branches of human knowledge, represented by the six lamps inclined inwards towards, and symbolically guided by, the light of God represented by the central lamp. The menorah also symbolizes the creation in seven days, with the center light representing the Sabbath.

This is a modern Jewish Menorah with 4 candles and a larger center candle that representing God. When the Amorite giants were expelled from the Canann by Joshua, did some Hebrews follow along to North America. Had some of the Amorites in Canaan converted to Judaism?

Photographic Tour of Ohio's Hopewell Sioux's Blood Spring Necropolis.

Ohio's Blood Spring Necropolis.

    The mound builders constructed hundreds of burial mounds at this site.  Tales of disembodied voices on this site are notorious. Blood Spring was a place where the living could commune with dead. 

A literal river of blood runs from this natural spring.  This would have been the Holy of Holies to the Mound Builders who interpreted Iron Oxides as the blood of the Earth Mother.

It is not known if the steps were constructed by the park employees or by the ancients.  A burial mound is located just beyond the top of the steps.

Springs were interrupted as a portal to the underworld.  The serpent was the consort of the Earth Mother in the underworld who acted as a protector of the dead.

Drinking from Blood Spring.  1000s of the ancients may have come to this site to drink and be cleansed by these waters.

Chunks of Red Ocher are found in great abundance around Blood Spring. It is very likely that much of the red ocher found in the Hopewell Sioux, burial mounds in the Ohio Valley came from this Holy site.

Behind Blood Spring is this Hopewell Sioux, burial mound.  It is left overgrown in the summer months and hard to see.  Park employees are clueless to the spiritual importance of this site.

Hundreds of small mounds once dotted the landscape around Blood Spring.  Antioch College destroyed many of the burial mounds.

A few yards from Blood Spring is this natural rock formation I've dubbed, "Skull Rock."

This is the spring that gives "Yellow Springs" its name.  This spring is high limonite that that leaves a yellowish cast to the adjoining rocks.

Save the Oberting Hopewell Sioux Ceremonial Earthwork from Archaeological Destruction!

Save the Oberting Hopewell Sioux Ceremonial Earthwork from Archaeological Destruction!

The Oberting earthwork dates to 200 B.C. and is one of the only hilltop enclosures in Indiana.  It is now under threat by Indiana archaeologists.  One only needs to see the destruction at the New Castle Earthwork site that has been nearly obliterated by archaeologists, to see what the fate of this earthwork and burial mounds is destined for if Indiana archaeological grave robbers are given access.

Rare photo of Indiana's university archaeologist's criminal activity destroying the largest burial mound at the New Castle mound and earthwork site. This mound aligned with another to the west to mark the equinox sunset for over 2000 years, before being obliterated by these idiots.

Central mound within the large circular enclosure at Mounds State Park, marked the alignment with the winter and summer solstice for over 2000 years before being destroyed by Indiana University archaeologists, who were clueless to importance as a solar marker.

Archaeologists will destroy the mound, remove the skeletons and put them in a box at the university. Indiana archaeologist have never preserved any site in the state, and there is no reason to believe that the Obeting earthwork will suffer the same fate as so many of the mounds and earthworks an d simply be destroyed.

Help save the Oberting earthwork and mounds from Indiana archaeologists

Colossus Adena Burial Mound in Butler County, Ohio

Colossus Adena Burial Mound in Butler County, Ohio

Photo from "The Nephilim Chronicles: A Travel Guide to the Ancient Ruins in the Ohio Valley." What appears to be two peaks of the mound is the result of the Ohio Historical Societies' archaeological digs. It is never the practice of archaeologists to restore burial mounds after excavating them Get directions to this site and 32 other large burial mounds in Ohio.  Here's a sneak peek from "The Nephilim Chronicles: A Travel Guide to the Ancient Ruins in the Ohio Valley" 

    From the "History of Butler County, Ohio"

The Great Mound of Butler County from rth.

One of Ohio's largest Adena Burial mounds as seen from Google Earth.  

If you travel to the mound in the summer months, this is what you will see.  The state of Ohio puts little or no value on the remnants of one of the worlds most prestigious ancient cultures. The largest remaining stone burial mound in Ohio is only a few miles from this site that is equally neglected.

"Address Restricted" of Ancient Burial Mound Sites in Ohio: Recipe for Destruction

 "Address Restricted" of Ancient Burial Mound Sites in Ohio: Recipe for Destruction

 The ruins of the Adena Hopewell mound builders are still evident in Brown County, Ohio that contains one of Ohio's largest mounds.  Nothing is preserved in the county.

 Large Adena burial mound in Brown County that overlooks the Ohio River is covered in thick growth and only visible during the winter months.  Photo from, "The Nephilim Chronicles: A Travel Guide to the Ancient ruins in the Ohio Valley.

One of Ohio's largest burial mounds in Brown County is now being obliterated by the plow.  Ohio Historical Society lists this as "address restricted." With the close proximity to the famous Serpent Mound, it is unbelievable that these sites are not tourist destinations.  There are 32 more of these large mounds in Ohio that have designated as "Address Restricted." To see the mounds  https://adenahopewellmoundbuildersohiovalley.blogspot.com/2016/04/32-of-largest-adena-hopewell-mounds.html

222 Burial Mound and Earthwork Sites in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia and Michigan