But as the American Blacks are smart..........................why don't they solve this stuff themselves?

The Mystery of Ohio's Massive Serpent Mound

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by  Tatiana Danger

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Over three hundred million years ago, a meteor crashed into what would become Adams County, southwestern Ohio. This created a 5-mile-wide crater, upon which, about 900 years ago, ancient Native Americans built a massive mound in the shape of a serpent.

Semi-nomadic descendants of the Hopewell culture, known as the Fort Ancient peoples, settled in this part of Ohio between AD 1000 and AD 1650. They had an acute interest in and understanding of both solar and lunar alignments. Though the serpent-shaped mound was originally attributed to the Adena peoples, this has now been accepted as false, based on radiocarbon dating tests completed in the mid-1990s, which suggest the mound was built by the Fort Ancient peoples:



"Two samples of wood charcoal were obtained from undisturbed parts of Serpent Mound. Both yielded a date of ca. A.D.1070, suggesting that the effigy was actually built by people of the Fort Ancient culture (A.D. 900-1600), a Mississippian group that lived in the central Ohio Valley."
- Jessica E. Saraceni, Archaeology Magazine, Volume 49 Number 6, November/December 1996


The purpose of the serpent mound is still considered quite mysterious. Though there are nearby burial grounds, there have been no human remains discovered in or directly by the mound itself. The National Park Service states that it is a structure of "undetermined origin exposed by differential erosion."



"The most singular sensation of awe and admiration overwhelmed me at this sudden realization of my long-cherished desire, for here before me was the mysterious work of an unknown people... I mused on the probabilities of the past; and there seemed to come to me a picture as of a distant time."
- F.W. Putnam at the Serpent Mound, 1883


Many anthropologists believe that the shape of the Serpent Mound is actually a massive lunar calendar, built to align with solstices and equinoxes. Animal mounds are widely considered to be effigies reflective of cosmic alignments. In fact, the towns and surviving structures also reflect this interest in the cosmos. However, who exactly built it is still open to conjecture. (It's attributed to three different prehistoric indigenous cultures, but its actual purpose is still heavily debated.)

Serpent Stats:

• Discovered in 1847 by Ephraim Squier and Edwin Davis.
• Measures 1,348 feet long, 1 to 5 feet high.
• 120-foot-long snake head, with an open mouth.
• Serpent's head is aligned with the summer solstice sunset.
• Serpent's body curve (closet to the tail) is aligned with the winter solstice sunrise.
• Currently the Ohio History Connection maintains the mound.
• Radiocarbon dating places the creation of the mound to AD 1070, some years after Halley's Comet.
• Some historians believe it was a ceremonial site.

The serpent motif has a connection to the cycles of birth, death, and nature in many cultures throughout the world. Modern visitors may enjoy contemplating the mysteries of our land's ancestors, feeling a connection to the past, and sensing of wonder at the scale of early people's physical and artistic accomplishments. Mystery, rather than certainty, remains this site's greatest gift to present generations, and all visitors are welcome to enter the circle of conjecture.- Arc of Appalachia Preserve System

According to Strange History, over the years, the Great Serpent Mound has been attacked by New Age vandals who believe it's an "intergalactic portal" and a site brimming with metaphysical energy. In 1987, these New Age a$$holes held a "Harmonic Convergence" ceremony, in which they chanted, meditated, and damaged the mound by burying crystals in it.

Then in 2012, another New Age group, the "Light Warriors" allegedly buried hundreds of amulets (AKA Orgonites: homemade objects composed of resin and bits of metal and crystal) in the ground. It also doesn't help that the History Channel, that paragon of peer-reviewed, scholarly research, has pseudo-intellectuals on their "Ancient Aliens" series claiming the mound was the site for aliens to mine for spaceship fuel. Ugh.

Today you can visit the Serpent Mound every day from dawn to dusk. And during the equinoxes the mound is open even longer.

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Serpent Mound is managed by Ohio History Connection and Arc of Appalachia Preserve System. It is located in Adams County, Ohio (3850 State Route 73, Peebles, Ohio).

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