09/21/2023
Ohio’s Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks have been designated as the nation’s newest UNESCO World Heritage site.
The Earthworks include Hopewell Culture National Historical Park in Chillicothe, including the Mound City Group, Hopewell Mound Group, Seip Earthworks, High Bank Earthworks, and Hopeton Earthworks, as well as Ohio History Connection's Octagon Earthworks and Great Circle Earthworks in Newark and Fort Ancient Earthworks in Oregonia.
Built between 1,600 and 2,000 years ago by people now referred to as the Hopewell Culture, the earthworks were built on an enormous scale using a standard unit of measure, form precise squares, circles, and octagons as well as a hilltop sculpted to enclose a vast plaza. Artifacts, which are among the most outstanding art objects produced in pre-Columbian North America, show that those who built the earthworks interacted with people as far away as the Yellowstone basin and Florida.
The National Park Service manages all or part of 19 of the 25 World Heritage Sites in the United States including, the Statue of Liberty National Monument, Grand Canyon National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and Mesa Verde National Park.
Learn more at: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/internationalcooperation/worldheritage.htm
Image: Early morning view at Mound City. NPS/Tom Engberg
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