Free Republic

On a lush hilltop deep in Southern Ohio, a giant snake slithers through the grass, its intentions a mystery. Despite more than a century of study, we still don't know who built the Great Serpent Mound, or why. That's part of what makes a visit here so fascinating, and also a little bit frustrating. There are still questions that can't be answered through a Google search or more than a century of research. This much is known: At 1,348 feet long, the serpent is the largest effigy mound in the world -- that is, an earthen creation in the shape...

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...

Researchers unearth glimpse of Adena hunter-to-farmer shift Tuesday, January 29, 2008 3:05 AM By Bradley T. Lepper Ohio's Adena culture represents a turning point in state history. Situated between the nomadic hunting and gathering cultures of the Archaic period and the more settled farming cultures of the later Woodland period, the Adena culture represented the dawn of a new way of life for Ohio's ancient people. Archaeologists now are fleshing out the details of the daily lives of Ohio's first farmers, who were known mostly for their mortuary and ritual sites, such as Chillicothe's Adena Mound, for which the culture...