Brad Lepper
Guest Columnist
NEWARK Between about AD 1 and 400 the ancient American Indian Hopewell culture built a series of monumental earthen enclosures across southern Ohio.
The largest concentration of these earthworks was along the Scioto River Valley and its tributaries near modern Chillicothe.
The Newark Earthworks is one of the most magnificent of the Hopewell ceremonial centers, but it’s located 60 miles to the north seemingly isolated from the Chillicothe Hopewell heartland. There is, however, compelling evidence to suggest that, far from being isolated, it was linked directly to that heart of the Hopewell world by a major transportation artery.