Earthworks

Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, UNESCO World Heritage Site

45^th Extended Session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee | Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

September 19, 2023

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural World Heritage inscription recognizes the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage considered of outstanding value for all of humanity. 

Nominations by a country must represent at least one of the criteria of world heritage as defined by UNESCO. The authenticity of the nominated site and its protection and management are also considered.

The Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks are Ohio's first UNESCO World Heritage inscription and the twenty-fifth for the United States of America.

Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks is a series of eight monumental earthen enclosure complexes built between 2,000 and 1,600 years ago along the central tributaries of the Ohio River in east-central North America. They are the most representative surviving expressions of the Indigenous tradition now referred to as the Hopewell culture. 

Their scale and complexity are evidenced in precise geometric figures as well as hilltops sculpted to enclose vast, level plazas. Huge earthen squares, circles, and octagons are executed with a precision of form, technique, and dimension consistently deployed across a wide geographic region. There are alignments with the cycles of the Sun and the far more complex cycles of the Moon. 

These earthworks served as ceremonial centers, built by dispersed, non-hierarchical groups whose way of life was supported by a mix of foraging and farming. The sites were the center of a continent-wide sphere of influence and interaction and have yielded finely crafted ritual objects fashioned from exotic raw materials obtained from distant places.

Criterion (i) Represent a masterpiece of human creative genius

Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks comprises highly complex masterpieces of landscape architecture. They are exceptional amongst ancient earthworks worldwide not only in their enormous scale and wide geographic distribution, but also in their geometric precision. These features imply high-precision techniques of design and construction and an observational knowledge of complex astronomical cycles that would have required generations to codify. The series includes the finest extant examples of these various principles, shapes, and alignments, both in geometric earthworks and in the pre-eminent surviving hilltop enclosure. They reflect the pinnacle of Hopewell intellectual, technical, and symbolic achievement.

Criterion (iii) Bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared

Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks bears exceptional testimony to the unique characteristics of their builders, who lived in small, dispersed, egalitarian groups, between 1 and 400 CE, amongst the river valleys of what is now southern and central Ohio. Their economy was a mix of foraging, fishing, farming, and cultivation, yet they gathered periodically to create, manage, and worship within these massive public works. The precision of their carefully composed earthen architecture, and its timber precursors, reflected an elaborate ceremonialism and linked it with the order and rhythms of the cosmos. The earthworks in this series, together with their archaeological remains, offer the finest extant testimony to the nature, scope, and richness of the Hopewell cultural tradition.

Edited by Elizabeth Weiser, Timothy Jordan, and Richard Shiels. The Ohio State University Press.

Available for purchase June 2023! $24.95 in Paperback and PDF EBook editions. 

Rising in quiet grandeur from the earth in an astoundingly engineered arrangement that ancient peoples mapped to the movements of the moon, Ohio’s Newark Earthworks form the largest geometric earthen complex ever known. In the two thousand years of their existence, they have served as gathering place, ceremonial site, fairground, army encampment, golf course, and park. And, at long last, they are poised (along with neighboring sites) to be named a UNESCO World Heritage Site—a designation that recognizes their international importance as a direct link to the ancient past as well as their continuing cultural and archaeological significance.

The lush photos and wide-ranging essays of The Fertile Earth and the Ordered Cosmos honor this significance, not only to the global community but to local individuals and scholars who have developed intimate connections to the Earthworks. In sharing their experiences with this ancient site, public historians, archaeologists, physicists, architects, and others—including local and Indigenous voices—continue the work of nearly two hundred years of citizen efforts to protect and make accessible the Newark Earthworks after centuries of stewardship by Indigenous people. The resulting volume serves as a rich primer on the site for those unfamiliar with its history and a beautifully produced tribute for those who are already acquainted with its wonders.

All proceeds from the sale of this book go to support the Ohio History Connection and the Newark Earthworks Center in their efforts to manage and interpret the site for the world.

During the Newark Earthworks Open House, visitors are invited to explore and experience fully all three segments of these ancient, expansive earthworks built masterfully by American Indians. 

The Newark Earthworks served social, ceremonial and astronomical functions for their builders, people of the Hopewell Culture. The site is a National Historic Landmark and Ohio’s official prehistoric monument.

Activities will be held at the Great Circle and Octagon. See below for times.

Information Tables • Noon–4 p.m.
Whether you’re waiting for or resting from your Octagon Earthworks guided tour, there is still a lot to learn about. Visit one of the information tables hosted by the Ohio History Connection and others.

Guided Octagon Earthworks Tour • 12:30, 2:00 & 3:00 p.m.

Join Ohio History Connection archaeologists and World Heritage staff Brad Lepper or Jennifer Aultman as they walk with guests through the circle and octagon earthen walls that make up the impressive Octagon Earthworks. Stops along the way will point out specific features including Observatory Mound and the many openings in the earthworks that are key to the 18.6-year lunar alignment encoded into the landscape.

Participating sites

• Great Circle – 455 Hebron Rd., Heath, OH
• Octagon Earthworks–125 N. 33rd St., Newark, OH
• Wright Earthworks – North of Grant St. on James, parallel to State Route 79 in Newark

For more information, visit the Ohio History Connection.

During the Newark Earthworks Open House, visitors are invited to explore and experience fully all three segments of these ancient, expansive earthworks built masterfully by American Indians. 
 

The Newark Earthworks served social, ceremonial and astronomical functions for their builders, people of the Hopewell Culture. The site is a National Historic Landmark and Ohio’s official prehistoric monument.

Activities will be held at the Great Circle and Octagon. See below for times.

Information Tables • Noon–4 p.m.
Whether you’re waiting for or resting from your Octagon Earthworks guided tour, there is still a lot to learn about. Visit one of the information tables hosted by the Ohio History Connection and others.

Guided Octagon Earthworks Tour • 12:30, 2:00 & 3:00 p.m.

Join Ohio History Connection archaeologists and World Heritage staff Brad Lepper or Jennifer Aultman as they walk with guests through the circle and octagon earthen walls that make up the impressive Octagon Earthworks. Stops along the way will point out specific features including Observatory Mound and the many openings in the earthworks that are key to the 18.6-year lunar alignment encoded into the landscape.

Participating sites

• Great Circle – 455 Hebron Rd., Heath, OH
• Octagon Earthworks–125 N. 33rd St., Newark, OH
• Wright Earthworks – North of Grant St. on James, parallel to State Route 79 in Newark

Newark Earthworks Remnants Walking Tour, TBD

There’s a guided walking tour of portions of the Newark Earthworks that are not the Octagon, Great Circle or Wright Earthworks on Saturday, October 15, starting and ending at the Great Circle Museum, 9 am to Noon. Covering about three miles, the route will be over mostly level terrain on public sidewalks. Walking shoes and a water bottle are all you need, plus sunscreen or a hat — little shade on the tour, so dress accordingly. No registration is necessary.

For more information, visit the Ohio History Connection.

We are sharing an announcement from the Ohio History Connection.

We are pleased to announce the Ohio History Connection can proceed with its efforts to acquire the Octagon Earthworks lease from Moundbuilders Country Club in Newark and provide full public access to the site.

On Dec. 7, the Ohio Supreme Court upheld decisions by Ohio’s Fifth District Court of Appeals and the Licking County Common Pleas Court.

The court’s decision supports our mission to make the Octagon Earthworks fully accessible to the public. It also recognizes the incredible accomplishments of American Indian ancestors in Ohio, how relevant these amazing earthworks are today and how essential their preservation and careful restoration are for the future.

Ohio History Connection's guiding principles throughout this process have been to enable full public access to the Octagon Earthworks while ensuring Moundbuilders Country Club receives just compensation for the value of the lease.

A jury trial will be scheduled to determine the value of the lease.

• The Ohio Supreme Court Decision for 2020-0191: State ex rel. Ohio History Connection v. The Moundbuilders Country Club Company and Park National Bank (external link)
  • December 7, 2022.

The Department of the Interior has submitted a nomination to the World Heritage List for the “Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks,” consisting of eight properties in Ohio, five of which are in Hopewell Culture National Historical Park in Ross County: Hopeton Earthworks, Mound City, High Bank Works, Hopewell Mound Group and Seip Earthworks; and three that are National Historic Landmarks: Fort Ancient in Licking County, owned by the State of Ohio, and the Octagon Earthworks and Great Circle Earthworks in Warren County, owned by the state-chartered Ohio History Connection.

The nomination was submitted through the U.S. Department of State to the World Heritage Centre of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for consideration by the World Heritage Committee, which will likely occur at the Committee's 46th annual session in mid-2023.

This property has been selected from the U.S. World Heritage Tentative List, which comprises properties that appear to qualify for World Heritage status and which may be considered for nomination by the United States to the World Heritage List, as required by the World Heritage Committee's Operational Guidelines.

The “Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks” are nominated under World Heritage cultural criteria (i) and (iii), as provided in 36 CFR 73.9(b)(1), as a group, or “series,” that collectively appears to justify criterion (i) by demonstrating a masterpiece of human creative genius: A 2,000-year-old series of precise squares, circles, and octagons and a hilltop sculpted to enclose a vast plaza. They were built on an enormous scale and the geometric forms are consistently deployed across great distances and encode alignments with both the sun's cycles and the far more complex patterns of the moon. The series also justifies criterion (iii) in providing testimony to its builders, people now referred to as the Hopewell Culture: Dispersed, non‐hierarchical groups whose way of life was transitioning from foraging to farming. The earthworks were the center of a continent‐wide sphere of influence and interaction and have yielded exceptionally finely crafted ritual objects fashioned from raw materials obtained from distant places. The properties, both individually and as a group, also meet the World Heritage requirements for integrity and authenticity.

The World Heritage List is an international list of cultural and natural properties nominated by the signatories to the World Heritage Convention (1972). The World Heritage Committee, composed of representatives of 21 nations elected as the governing body of the World Heritage Convention, makes the final decisions on which nominations to accept on the World Heritage List at its annual meeting each summer. Although the United States is not a member of UNESCO, it continues to participate in the World Heritage Convention, which is an independent treaty. There are 1,154 World Heritage sites in 167 of the 194 signatory countries. The United States has 24 sites inscribed on the World Heritage List.

Neither inclusion in the Tentative List nor inscription as a World Heritage Site imposes legal restrictions on owners or neighbors of sites, nor do they give the United Nations any management authority or ownership rights in U.S. World Heritage Sites, which continue to be subject only to U.S. federal and local laws, as applicable.

Document Citation : 87 FR 16492. Document Number: 2022-06121. March 23, 2022.