Great Circle Earthworks

Archaeology & Artifacts

There have been very few archaeological investigations at the Great Circle. As a result, only a handful of Hopewell-era artifacts have been found here. Two copper ornaments, one shaped like a beaver and the other a crescent, were found on the floor of a timber building that was taken down and buried beneath Eagle Mound. These artifacts likely were worn by Hopewell ceremonial leaders. They help to show how far people came to participate in the ceremonies at the Hopewell earthworks. The copper to make those ornaments came from either southern Ontario or North Carolina. Hopewell artifacts found at other earthworks include ornaments made from rare raw materials gathered from across the country— such as seashells from the Gulf of Mexico, mica from North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, and fossilized shark teeth from the Chesapeake Bay.

The few archaeological investigations that have been done in and near the Great Circle have added to our knowledge of the Hopewell culture, but only a small portion of the site has been explored. Given its excellent state of preservation, the Great Circle Earthworks has much more to tell us about what was going on at this amazing place 2,000 years ago.