Circles

Circles. . , You're standing at the gateway of one of the Junction Group's large, sacred circles., THE LARGE MAJORITY of Ohio's 600+ geometric earthworks are circles. Many were built by the earlier (pre-Hopewell) Adena culture as long as 2,500 years ago. Some were as small as 50 feet across, and others became much larger (Newark Ohio's Great Circle is more than 1,200 feet across, for example). The circular earthworks at Junction are relatively small, and probably among the earliest Hopewell enclosures to be built. Their precision was rediscovered when teams led by Dr. Jarrod Burks (of the Heartland Earthworks Conservancy) produced this detailed magnetometry image. , Hopewell Geometry and Astronomy , Many Hopewell earthworks are composed of near-perfect circles, squares, and other shapes. A few have long avenues flanked by parallel embankment walls. Some circles and squares have equal areas. Multiple sites across the region used standard units of measure. Earthwork geometry is often aligned. with key sun and moon-rises. All of this shows that the American Indian builders of these ancient monuments had sophisticated systems of shared knowledge.