Shriver Circle Earthworks

Ohio Hopewell culture archaeological site

Shriver Circle Earthworks
33 RO 347

Artists conception of the summer solstice sunrise at the Shriver Circle Earthworks

Location within Ohio today

Location| Chillicothe, Ohio, US
Region| Ross County, Ohio
Coordinates| 39°22′3.76″N 83°0′20.41″W﻿ / ﻿39.3677111°N 83.0056694°W﻿ / 39.3677111; -83.0056694
History
Founded| 200 BCE
Abandoned| 500 CE
Cultures| Ohio Hopewell culture
Site notes
Archaeologists| Squier and Davis
Architecture
Architectural styles| earthworks
Architectural details| enclosure, tumulus

The Shriver Circle Earthworks (33 RO 347)[1] are an Ohio Hopewell culture (200 BCE to 500 CE) archaeological site located in Chillicothe in Ross County, Ohio. At 1,200 feet (370 m) in diameter the site is one of the largest Hopewell circular enclosures in the state of Ohio.[2]

## Site description

[edit]

The site is an oblong circular enclosure with an encircling ditch, located a little under 1,500 feet (460 m) to the south of the Mound City Group and a short distance west of the Scioto River. The oblong shape is anomalous among large Hopewell circles which are usually nearly perfect circles. A low conical mound measuring 40 feet (12 m) across and 5 feet (1.5 m) high was located at the enclosures center. When first surveyed and excavated in 1846 by Ephraim George Squier and Edwin Hamilton Davis it measured over 1,000 feet (300 m) in diameter, 5 feet (1.5 m) in height, and 25 feet (7.6 m) in width. The ditch measured 20 feet (6.1 m) in width and was 4 feet (1.2 m) in depth. The embankment and ditch were broken into six segments by six unevenly spaced gateways around the perimeter.[3] An early crude map drawn sometime before 1813 by Thomas Worthington, Ohio's sixth governor whose house Adena is the namesake of the Adena culture, has notations that indicate the enclosure and conical made had lost half of their height due to plowing by 1846 and were originally at least 10 feet (3.0 m) in height. The crude map also indicated nine gateways.[1]

The central conical mound and the eastern gateway form a summer solstice sunrise alignment with a hill known as Sugarloaf Mountain located several miles to the east across the Scioto River valley.[4]

## Excavations

[edit]

1840s map of Shriver Circle and Mound City in Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley

Before excavations were first done at the site in 1846 a road and part of the Ohio and Erie Canal had already been constructed during the early 1830s on the western third of the enclosure.[1] Squier and Davis partially excavated the central mound in 1846. They found a number of artifacts made from copper and mica as well as large quantities of charred bones. The artifacts resemble those found at Adena culture sites more than they do artifacts excavated from the nearby Mound City Group. They included the site in their influential book Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley in 1848. They named the site after Henry Shriver, who owned the site and much of the farmland in the area during the mid-1800s.[3]

Much of the site was damaged by farming in the 1800s and early 1900s. During World War I the United States Army built a military training base, Camp Sherman, on the site. The circle was graded down and the camps parade ground was constructed in its location. After the war, the camp was razed and Ohio State Route 104, a road which runs through the site, was widened causing even more damage. Part of the site was covered by the Chillicothe Correctional Institution when it was constructed in the early 1960s. By the early 2000s when archaeologists from the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park began doing magnetic surveys the sites features were so flattened that they could not be distinguished by eye from the surrounding fields although they could be made out on old aerial photos.[3][1] In 2005 a series of LIDAR investigations and field excavations were conducted at the site.[1]

## See also

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* Hopeton Earthworks
* Moorehead Circle
* Newark Earthworks
* Stubbs Earthworks
* List of Hopewell sites

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d e Burks, Jarrod; Cook, Robert A. (October 2011). "Beyond Squier and Davis : Rediscovering Ohio's earthworks using geophysical remote sensing". American Antiquity. 78 (4). Cambridge University Press: 667–689\. JSTOR 41331917.667-689&rft.date=2011-10&rft_id=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41331917#id-name=JSTOR&rft.aulast=Burks&rft.aufirst=Jarrod&rft.au=Cook,+Robert+A.&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Shriver+Circle+Earthworks" class="Z3988">
2. ^ Burks, Jarrod. "New Results and Updates on Magnetic Surveys at Steel Group and the Shriver Circle, Ross County". Ohio Archaeological Council. Retrieved 2019-05-18.
3. ^ a b c Pederson, Jennifer; Burks, Jarrod (September 2004). "Detecting the Shriver Circle Earthwork, Ross County, Ohio". Hopewell Archaeology Newsletter. 5 (1). National Park Service. Retrieved 2019-05-17.
4. ^ Romain, William F. (2015). An Archaeology of the Sacred: Adena-Hopewell Astronomy and Landscape Archaeology. The Ancient Earthworks Project. p. 124–125. ISBN 978-0692492260.

## External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Shriver Circle Earthworks.

* Mound City Group, National Park Service

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Hopewellian peoples

* Woodland period
* List of Hopewell sites
* Mound Builders
* List of archaeological periods (North America)

Ohio Hopewell|

* Beam Farm
* Benham Mound
* Cary Village Site
* Cedar-Bank Works
* Dunns Pond Mound
* Ellis Mounds
* Ety Enclosure
* Ety Habitation Site
* Everett Knoll Complex
* Fort Ancient
* Fortified Hill Works
* Great Hopewell Road
* High Banks Works
* Hopeton Earthworks
* Hopewell Culture National Historical Park
* Indian Mound Cemetery
* Keiter Mound
* Marietta Earthworks
* Moorehead Circle
* Mound of Pipes
* Nettle Lake Mound Group
* Newark Earthworks
* Oak Mounds
* Orators
* Perin Village Site
* Pollock Works
* Portsmouth Earthworks
* Rocky Fork Enclosures
* Rocky Fork Mounds
* Seip Earthworks and Dill Mounds District
* Shawnee Lookout
* Shriver Circle Earthworks
* Stubbs Earthworks
* Tremper Mound and Works
* Williamson Mound Archeological District

Crab Orchard culture|

* Carrier Mills Archaeological District
* Cleiman Mound
* Hubele site
* Mann site
* Mount Vernon Site
* O'byams Fort site
* Wilson site
* Yankeetown site

Goodall focus|

* Goodall site
* Norton Mound group

Havana Hopewell culture|

* Albany Mounds State Historic Site
* Dickson Mounds
* Duncan Farm
* Golden Eagle-Toppmeyer Site
* Kamp Mound Site
* Mound House site
* Naples Archeological District
* Naples Mound 8
* Ogden-Fettie Site
* Rockwell Mound
* Sinnissippi Mounds
* Toolesboro Mound Group

Kansas City Hopewell|

* Cloverdale archaeological site
* Renner Village Archeological Site
* Trowbridge Archeological Site

Marksville culture|

* Crooks Mound
* Grand Gulf Mound
* Marksville Prehistoric Indian Site
* Mott Archaeological Preserve

Miller culture|

* Bynum Mound and Village Site
* Ingomar Mound
* Miller Site
* Pharr Mounds
* Pinson Mounds

Point Peninsula complex|

* Lewiston Mound
* Serpent Mounds Park
* LeVescounte Mounds

Swift Creek culture
Santa Rosa-Swift Creek culture

* Crystal River Archaeological State Park
* Etowah Indian Mounds
* Leake Mounds
* Kolomoki Mounds
* Miner's Creek site
* Pierce Site
* Swift Creek mound site
* Third Gulf Breeze
* Yearwood site
* Yent Mound

Other Hopewellian peoples|

* Armstrong culture
* Copena culture
* Fourche Maline culture
* Laurel complex
* Saugeen complex
* Old Stone Fort (Tennessee)

Exotic trade items|

* Copper
* Galena
* Mica
* Fresh water pearls
* Obsidian
* Pipestone
* Sea shells

Related topics
Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley
Black drink
burial mound
Ceremonial pipe
Effigy mound
Hopewell pottery
Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks
Horned Serpent
Eastern Agricultural Complex
Underwater panther

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Pre-Columbian North America

Periods
Lithic
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Archaeological
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* Caborn-Welborn
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* Fort Ancient
* Fort Walton
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* List of Hopewell sites
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Archaeological
sites|

* Angel Mounds
* Anzick site
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* Bastian
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* Blue Spring Shelter
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* The Bluff Point Stoneworks
* Brewster
* Cahokia
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* Crystal River
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* Etowah Indian Mounds
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* Fort Ancient
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* Gila Cliff Dwellings
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* Paquime
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* Plum Bayou Mounds
* Portsmouth Earthworks
* Poverty Point
* Pueblo Bonito
* Rassawek
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* River Styx
* Roberts Island
* Rock Eagle
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* Rosenstock Village
* Russell Cave
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* Sierra de San Francisco
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Human
remains|

* Anzick-1
* Arlington Springs Man
* Buhl Woman
* Kennewick Man
* La Brea Woman
* Leanderthal Lady
* Melbourne Man
* Minnesota Woman
* Peñon woman
* Spirit Cave mummy
* Vero man

Miscellaneous|

* Aridoamerica
* Ballgame
* Black drink
* Ceremonial pipe
* Chanunpa
* Chunkey
* Clovis point
* Container Revolution
* Eastern Agricultural Complex
* Eden point
* Effigy mound
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* Metallurgy
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* Mound Builders
* N.A.G.P.R.A.
* Norse colonization of North America
* Oasisamerica
* Piasa
* Projectile point
* Southeastern Ceremonial Complex
* Stickball
* Three Sisters agriculture
* Thunderbird
* Transoceanic contact
* Underwater panther
* Water glyphs

Related
Genetic history
Pre-Columbian era
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