• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Serpent Mound: A Mysterious 400-Meter Snake Lurks In Ohio’s River Valley

December 29, 2023 by Deborah Bloomfield

Ohio’s Serpent Mound might just be one of the most fascinating prehistoric sites in North America. Located in Adams County, it’s the largest known surviving example of a prehistoric effigy mound in the world. Its origins remain unclear. Who built this amazing monument and why? Fortunately, modern science is helping to shed light on the mystery.

It almost looks as if a giant serpent is lying beneath a shallow sprinkling of earth and grass, consisting of a gently raised mound that snakes around for 411 meters (over 1,300 feet), according to UNESCO. At one end of the swirling mound is a large oval shape, which has been interpreted as a snake’s head, eye, or perhaps an egg clenched in the reptile’s mouth.

Advertisement

The monument is an example of an effigy mound, earthworks formed in the shape of animals that were built by Native American cultures in parts of present-day Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, and Ohio. Similar monuments have been found as far south as Peru, hinting at a strong cultural bond that runs through the Americas. 

The origins of the Serpent Mound were hotly debated by archaeologists and anthropologists throughout the 20th century. Some effigy mounds feature human burials and physical artifacts that help to illuminate the people who constructed them. No such discoveries have been made at Serpent Mound, though.

The Great Serpent Mound prehistoric Adena Native American effigy in Summer

Who built the Great Serpent Mound? It still isn’t certain.

Image credit: Oh London Tom/Shutterstock.com

In more recent years, archaeological advances have been getting to the bottom of the mystery – although many questions remain. One load of radiocarbon dating results has suggested that the Serpent Mound emerged around 1120 CE, which would indicate it was built by the Fort Ancient Culture, a Native American culture that flourished in and around the Ohio River valley between 1000 to 1500 CE. 

However, another team of archaeologists published new radiocarbon dates in 2014, suggesting that it was built around 300 BCE by the Adena culture, according to the Ohio History Connection.

Advertisement

Whoever built this monument, the mound most likely held a huge cultural significance. It’s been noted that the head of the serpent aligns with the summer solstice sunset and the tail points to the winter solstice sunrise, leading to suggestions that it had some astronomical function.

Sadly, the site fell into ruin by the 19th century as a result of rampant farming and looting. By 1887, however, it started to undergo restoration and has since been designated as a National Historic Landmark by the United States Department of the Interior.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Paris ramps up security as jihadist attacks trial starts
  2. Cricket-‘Western bloc’ has let Pakistan down, board chief says
  3. Ancient Bison Found In Permafrost Is So Well Preserved Scientists Want To Clone It
  4. Where Inside Us Do We Feel Love?

Source Link: Serpent Mound: A Mysterious 400-Meter Snake Lurks In Ohio's River Valley

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • The Bizarre 1997 Experiment That Made A Frog Levitate
  • There’s A Very Good Reason Why October 1582 On Your Phone Is Missing 10 Days
  • Skynet-1A: Military Spacecraft Launched 56 Years Ago Has Been Moved By Persons Unknown
  • There’s A Simple Solution To Helping Avoid Erectile Dysfunction (But You’re Not Going To Like It)
  • Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS May Be 10 Billion Years Old, This Rare Spider Is Half-Female, Half-Male Split Down The Middle, And Much More This Week
  • Why Do Trains Not Have Seatbelts? It’s Probably Not What You Think
  • World’s Driest Hot Desert Just Burst Into A Rare And Fleeting Desert Bloom
  • Theoretical Dark Matter Infernos Could Melt The Earth’s Core, Turning It Liquid
  • North America’s Largest Mammal Once Numbered 60 Million – Then Humans Nearly Drove It To Extinction
  • North America’s Largest Ever Land Animal Was A 21-Meter-Long Titan
  • A Two-Headed Fossil, 50/50 Spider, And World-First Butt Drag
  • Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Is Losing Buckets Of Water Every Second – And It’s Got Cyanide
  • “A Historic Shift”: Renewables Generated More Power Than Coal Globally For First Time
  • The World’s Oldest Known Snake In Captivity Became A Mom At 62 – No Dad Required
  • Biggest Ocean Current On Earth Is Set To Shift, Spelling Huge Changes For Ecosystems
  • Why Are The Continents All Bunched Up On One Side Of The Planet?
  • Why Can’t We Reach Absolute Zero?
  • “We Were Onto Something”: Highest Resolution Radio Arc Shows The Lowest Mass Dark Object Yet
  • How Headsets Made For Cyclists Are Giving Hearing And Hope To Kids With Glue Ear
  • It Was Thought Only One Mammal On Earth Had Iridescent Fur – Turns Out There’s More
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version