Indian Country -- History Got it Wrong: Scientists Now Say Serpent Mound as Old as Aristotle
Posted on 04/08/2015 10:00:16 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
There’s something new about the very old Great Serpent Mound, the earthen snake effigy that stretches a quarter of a mile along the terrain in Adams County in southern Ohio...
What is new about Serpent Mound is that it might be far more ancient than currently thought. Some archaeologists have recently discovered evidence that it was constructed around 300 B.C. by the Adena culture. That contrasts with the prevailing school of thought that it is about 920 years old and was built by the Fort Ancient culture...
For instance, the massive head of the snake effigy points to where the sun sets on the summer solstice, the day of the year with the longest period of daylight. The various curves in the snake’s body are also aligned with other celestial events. The snake is positioned so that it appears ready to strike at the summer-solstice sun and gobble it up as it sets below the horizon.
Intrigued, I called Bradley Lepper, the curator of archaeology at the Ohio History Connection... was part of the team in the early 1990s that found charcoal fragments in the earthwork that dated to 900 years earlier and the Fort Ancient culture. He said the new date came when another team of archaeologists recently took soil cores from the serpent and found organic material at their base dating to 2,300 years ago and the Adena people.
“It’s an open question now that needs more study... I still think it was the Fort Ancient culture” that built the effigy, he said.
I also asked him why the ancients seemed so much more aware of the heavens than most of us do today. He said they continually watched the night sky while we mostly sit inside our houses at night and watch television.
(Excerpt) Read more at dispatch.com ...
Indian Country -- History Got it Wrong: Scientists Now Say Serpent Mound as Old as Aristotle
“gobble it up” sounds just SO scientific! :-)
1,400 years is a helluva big difference....
> An alternative theory is that the Fort Ancient Culture refurbished the site c. 1070, reworking a preexisting mound built by the Adena Culture (c.1100 B.C.E.-200 C.E.) and/or the Hopewell Culture (c. 100 B.C.E.-550 C.E.). Whether the site was built by the Fort Ancient peoples, or by the earlier Adena or Hopewell Cultures, the mound is atypical. The mound contains no artifacts, and both the Fort Ancient and Adena groups typically buried objects inside their mounds. Although there are no graves found inside the Great Serpent Mound, there are burials found nearby, but none of them are the kinds of burials typical for the Fort Ancient culture and are more closely associated with Adena burial practices.
2300 years old would make it as old as Archimedes, not as old as Aristotle...but the 2300 figure is probably not precise. If Aristotle was alive he would be almost ready to celebrate his 2400th birthday.
Besides sitting and watching TV instead of out watching stars, modern man has created calenders to mark seasons.
Columbus.
Biggest farm hamlet in the USA.
No doubt.
I got this here sphere that aligns with just about everything.
Ohio Ping
There’s something new about the very old Great Serpent Mound, the earthen snake effigy that stretches a quarter of a mile along the terrain in Adams County in southern Ohio...
Thanks! That might happen this summer.
When it said “Serpent Mound,” I thought the article was going to be about Capitol Hill.
Bring your fishing poles. The creek down the hill from the mound has some excellent smallmouth action.
Good one!
Leni
:’) That’s probably what the mound is meant to signify, not a serpent at all. ;’)
Ohio Brush Creek is Ohio’s cleanest body of water and home to vibrant creek critters. Creek smallmouth aren’t as large as their lake cousins, but my grandson pulled a 3.5 pounder out last year. And they don’t want to leave the water. Really fun to land. Crawdads now, minnows later. Fly fishermen do really well if they can handle their lines in a brush lined stream.
The truth is that there are a lot of snakes along the stream, but the poisonous variety tend to be south of the terminal moraine of the last glaciation. We’re way too far north for moccasins, but copperheads and rattlers aren’t unheard of in mid to lower Adams County. So, egg eating non-poisonous would be common enough for those ancients to have witnessed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
