Serpent Bound Research Paper

Intro

What is the Serpent Mound? The Serpent Mound is an effigy, or a mound made of earth and stone. The formations of most effigies often look like animals, but some can be in the shape of humans. (Lepper,2009) The effigy measures around 1,417 feet from the tip of the tongue/snout to the tip of the tail. The width is an average of 22 feet across. The height has changed over the years due to restorations and preservation of the site but if you were to measure it today at around 4 feet (Willoughby, 1919). The Mound is located in Peebles at 3850 State Route 73 in Adams County Ohio. The Mound is currently protected and maintained by the Arc of Appalachia Preserve System after partnering with the Ohio History Connection. Previously it was purchased

Jenny Wohlfarth (2007) wrote the article in the Cincinnati magazine called What Lies Beneath and in theatrical she brings up a good point. The site, even though being internationally known, still has many unanswered questions. What was it used for? What is it meant to be? And some questions we already have answered. The people who built the mound didn’t leave any written word making this a hard puzzle to crack. The possibilities are really endless as to what this could tell us about this ancient culture knowledge. Some thoughts have ranged from a snake swallowing an egg, a snake throwing something up some have even said it’s the serpent from the Garden of Eden about to eat a fruit (Wohlfarth, 2007). Bengston, as mentioned in What Lies Beneath (2007), had a thought about the formation of The Serpent Mound, “Hailey’s Comet’s appeared in 1066A.D.; this mound was built around 1070 A.D. So maybe this is a great serpent chasing the sun.” Which isn’t a bad thought when given the appearance of the comet is in The Fort Ancient peoples’ life time. As mentioned in Stephen Whitt’s(2005) writing One Strange Serpent Mound, The Serpent has many connections to the sky. Archaeologists have noted that the three main coils of the mound are pointing to different solstices. The three points point to the winter solstice, the summer solstice and the last coil points to the Vernal and autumnal equinoxes, or the spring and fall equinox as observed by Dr. Lepper(2009). Once thought to be that the marks were used as a solar observatory, Lepper thinks this to be unlikely. Even though you can get a nice view of the solstice sunrises from the edge of the bluff, he thought it was more likely to be as a tribute to Hailey’s Comet. (Whitt, 2005) This article also agrees with what Wohlfarth wrote about the passing of Hailey’s Comet. One possibility mentioned is that the Fort Ancient people