When the first white settlers came into
the Miamisburg area, they were inspired to preserve the Miamisburg Mound
which is the largest conical mound in Ohio. Originally it was 68 feet
high with a diameter of three hundred feet. One excavating attempt in
1869 reduced the height to it's present 65 feet. They claim that it was
not excavated anymore since then and the hill sits like a huge beacon as
you drive into the Miamisburg State Park in Ohio where it resides.
This video is from a distance back from
it so that you can see it in the park setting it is located in.
"Miamisburg
Mound," Ohio
This mound is
the largest conical (Adena) mound found in Ohio.
Man-made mounds are mounds that were made from the ground up and fall
into four basic shapes or categories. Conical mounds, Effigy mounds,
Temple Mounds and Geometric (usually linear) mounds. Use the following
Links to learn more.
Conical Mounds - look like
pyramids except that they are rounded. They, just as the great
pyramids, were built in honor of some special shaman or king, and
are in fact burial sites for them as well.
Effigy Mounds
- are shaped like animals and or spirits, and were believed to have
ceremonial, navigational and calendar-like purposes. It is known
that many of these align with the stars and could have been used to
predict solstices, and even eclipses.
Temple Mounds -
were mounds that either were man-made or "truncated" natural hills.
Structures (many times temples) were placed upon the flattened top
and were considered to be "living spaces" for shamans or their
leaders and their families.
Geometric-Shaped
Mounds - were usually circular, square, or linear in shape, and
were thought to have alot of the same uses as the effigy mounds, but
sometimes (like the Newark site above) were believed to be created
together to build ceremonial & observatory inside large complexes.
To learn more about the people who built the
mounds, use the following links:
