Dec 93 - The tail, Serpent mound (Fort Ancient culture, @ 1070 AD), near Chillicothe, Ohio
The US midwest is home to most (almost all?) of the world's effigy mounds and to the world's best (Wisconsin has the greatest concentration anywhere, notwithstanding the wave of pioneer farmers that leveled so many to clear their fields), and Serpent Mound is the largest, most famous and most impressive single mound anywhere, 1,330 feet along its coils and an average of 3 feet in height. There's a good chance it was built by the 'Fort Ancient' culture in @ 1070 AD based on some radiocarbon dates and an astronomical tie-in as the head area is aligned to the summer solstice sunset and the coils with the winter solstice sunrise and that date would coincide with the appearance of Halley's Comet in 1066 and light from the Crab nebula supernova in 1054.
- Some think the oval at the head-end is an egg that the snake's eating, but I've heard and I think that it's the open mouth of the snake as it sits coiled and ready to strike. This is a shot of the tail. Images of the mound (scroll down): www.crystalinks.com/pyrnorthamerica.html.
- I've seen plenty of mounds stateside (Etowah in Georgia www.flickr.com/photos/97924400@N00/50089574827/in/photoli... , climbed Monk's mound at Cahokia in ILL. [but at night], climbed Emerald mound in MISS. [also at night], toured Natchez village in MISS., toured at Newark, OH twice [incredible! "The Newark Earthworks are the largest set of geometric earthen enclosures in the world." moundrovers.org/2018/10/06/newark-ohio-largest-temple-com... faculty.humanities.uci.edu/tcthorne/colonialhistory/newar... Why aren't they more famous, much more? {Update: They've now been designated 'World heritage' by Unesco, as the 'Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks', a great, very suitable thing whc.unesco.org/en/list/1689 }] and Mound city, OH [while on this trip], and effigy mounds Alligator [which I've read probably represents Mishipeshu, the 'underwater panther' of Anishinaabe legend, "the most powerful underworld being" in Algonquin cosmology] tripsacrossamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/earthwo... www.flickr.com/photos/97924400@N00/505363221/in/photolist... and Tarlton Cross, both in Ohio, and Southwold earthworks and Serpent mound at Rice Lake in Ontario [the latter is the least in this list, it could be named 'Twice-bent stick mound']) but they don't tend to be photogenic from ground-level, and nothing else I've seen holds a candle to this. I haven't seen 'Effigy mounds park' above the Mississippi in Iowa, which I understand has the best after this, with 5 bears in profile, each 50' long, and 2 larger flying birds.
- As mentioned, Wisconsin has the greatest concentration anywhere, with an interesting assortment of leftovers I understand at points across much of the southern half of that state that survived the concerted efforts of 18th & 19th cent. farmers to level them, incl. the last surviving built in the shape of a man on earth (discussed in this video from the 7:30 min. pt..: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDn_frvo_i0 ) and the largest flying bird mound with a wingspan of 190 m.s, located near Madison. Wisconsin is "the only place [anywhere] where effigy mounds were routinely built, and in fact if you go outside of Wisconsin's borders, after you get about a county into Iowa, Illinois and Minnesota, you're out of the effigy mound region. It's a very Wisconsin phenomenon, the only place where people routinely raised up earth to make bas-relief sculptures of people and spirits and animals, thousands of them." (from the 7:15 min. pt.) So this greatest effigy mound (anywhere) and 'Alligator mound', both in Ohio, and the 'Rock eagle' mound in Georgia too, are outliers.
- I hitched here just after touring Mound city near Chilicothe en route to Mammoth cave in Kentucky for New Years and on to St. Louis, and climbed Monk's mound at Cahokia mounds one night this trip just across the river in Illinois.
- I photoshopped the colour out of this.
- If you have most of an hour to spare, here's a really interesting lecture by Dr. Amy Rosebrough re effigy mounds in Wisconsin (the same video in the last link just above)..: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDn_frvo_i0
Dec 93 - The tail, Serpent mound (Fort Ancient culture, @ 1070 AD), near Chillicothe, Ohio
The US midwest is home to most (almost all?) of the world's effigy mounds and to the world's best (Wisconsin has the greatest concentration anywhere, notwithstanding the wave of pioneer farmers that leveled so many to clear their fields), and Serpent Mound is the largest, most famous and most impressive single mound anywhere, 1,330 feet along its coils and an average of 3 feet in height. There's a good chance it was built by the 'Fort Ancient' culture in @ 1070 AD based on some radiocarbon dates and an astronomical tie-in as the head area is aligned to the summer solstice sunset and the coils with the winter solstice sunrise and that date would coincide with the appearance of Halley's Comet in 1066 and light from the Crab nebula supernova in 1054.
- Some think the oval at the head-end is an egg that the snake's eating, but I've heard and I think that it's the open mouth of the snake as it sits coiled and ready to strike. This is a shot of the tail. Images of the mound (scroll down): www.crystalinks.com/pyrnorthamerica.html.
- I've seen plenty of mounds stateside (Etowah in Georgia www.flickr.com/photos/97924400@N00/50089574827/in/photoli... , climbed Monk's mound at Cahokia in ILL. [but at night], climbed Emerald mound in MISS. [also at night], toured Natchez village in MISS., toured at Newark, OH twice [incredible! "The Newark Earthworks are the largest set of geometric earthen enclosures in the world." moundrovers.org/2018/10/06/newark-ohio-largest-temple-com... faculty.humanities.uci.edu/tcthorne/colonialhistory/newar... Why aren't they more famous, much more? {Update: They've now been designated 'World heritage' by Unesco, as the 'Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks', a great, very suitable thing whc.unesco.org/en/list/1689 }] and Mound city, OH [while on this trip], and effigy mounds Alligator [which I've read probably represents Mishipeshu, the 'underwater panther' of Anishinaabe legend, "the most powerful underworld being" in Algonquin cosmology] tripsacrossamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/earthwo... www.flickr.com/photos/97924400@N00/505363221/in/photolist... and Tarlton Cross, both in Ohio, and Southwold earthworks and Serpent mound at Rice Lake in Ontario [the latter is the least in this list, it could be named 'Twice-bent stick mound']) but they don't tend to be photogenic from ground-level, and nothing else I've seen holds a candle to this. I haven't seen 'Effigy mounds park' above the Mississippi in Iowa, which I understand has the best after this, with 5 bears in profile, each 50' long, and 2 larger flying birds.
- As mentioned, Wisconsin has the greatest concentration anywhere, with an interesting assortment of leftovers I understand at points across much of the southern half of that state that survived the concerted efforts of 18th & 19th cent. farmers to level them, incl. the last surviving built in the shape of a man on earth (discussed in this video from the 7:30 min. pt..: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDn_frvo_i0 ) and the largest flying bird mound with a wingspan of 190 m.s, located near Madison. Wisconsin is "the only place [anywhere] where effigy mounds were routinely built, and in fact if you go outside of Wisconsin's borders, after you get about a county into Iowa, Illinois and Minnesota, you're out of the effigy mound region. It's a very Wisconsin phenomenon, the only place where people routinely raised up earth to make bas-relief sculptures of people and spirits and animals, thousands of them." (from the 7:15 min. pt.) So this greatest effigy mound (anywhere) and 'Alligator mound', both in Ohio, and the 'Rock eagle' mound in Georgia too, are outliers.
- I hitched here just after touring Mound city near Chilicothe en route to Mammoth cave in Kentucky for New Years and on to St. Louis, and climbed Monk's mound at Cahokia mounds one night this trip just across the river in Illinois.
- I photoshopped the colour out of this.
- If you have most of an hour to spare, here's a really interesting lecture by Dr. Amy Rosebrough re effigy mounds in Wisconsin (the same video in the last link just above)..: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDn_frvo_i0