Portsmouth Earthworks

Portsmouth Earthworks
Mural in Portsmouth commemorating the mound complex
Location
Country	USA
Region	Southern Ohio and Northeastern Kentucky
Nearest town	Portsmouth, Ohio
History
Culture	Adena culture, Hopewell culture
First occupied	100 BCE
Abandoned	500 CE
Architecture
Architectural styles	earthworks
Number of monuments
Horseshoe Mound
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	Scioto County, Ohio
Nearest city	Portsmouth, Ohio
Coordinates
Built	499-0 BCE, 499-0 CE, 1000-500 CE
Governing body	Local Government
NRHP Reference #	74001621
Added to NRHP	1974[1]
Portsmouth Earthworks, Group A
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	Greenup County, Kentucky
Nearest city	South Portsmouth
Coordinates
Built	499-0 BCE, 499-0 CE, 1000-500 CE, 1499-1000 CE, 1749-1500 CE, 1750-1799 CE
Governing body	Private
NRHP Reference #	80001534[1]
Added to NRHP	December 4, 1980

The Portsmouth Earthworks are a large prehistoric [2] The site was one of the largest earthwork ceremonial centers constructed by the Hopewell and is located at the confluence of the Scioto and Ohio Rivers, in present day Ohio.

The majority of the mound complex site is now covered by the city of [2] Several individual sections of the complex have been included on the National Register of Historic Places.

Description

Originally, the Portsmouth Earthworks consisted of three sections extending over twenty miles of the Ohio River valley, crossing from Ohio to Kentucky in several places. It was surveyed and mapped by E. G. Squier in 1847 for inclusion in the seminal archaeological and anthrolopological work Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley.^[3]

Portsmouth Earthworks, Group B

Overview of the Horseshoe Mound

The northern most section was made up of a number of circular enclosures, two large horseshoe-shaped enclosures, and three sets of parallel-walled roads leading away in different directions. One set of walled roads extends across the Ohio River into [2]

Portsmouth Earthworks, Group A

One of the surviving walls

Also known as the Old Fort Earthworks (15Gp1) it is a series of rectangular enclosures near South Portsmouth in Greenup County, Kentucky. Group A is a large square enclosure with two series of parallel walls extending from the northeast and southwest corners. The Old Fort Earthworks consist of several sites, including the Old Fort Earthworks (15Gp1), Mays Mound (15Gp16), Hicks Mound (15Gp265), Stephenson Mound (15Lw139), and several other unnamed mounds and enclosures. It is also the location of Lower Shawneetown, a protohistoric/historic Fort Ancient and Shawnee settlement and colonial trading post which are all part of the Lower Shawneetown Archeological District,^[4] along with the Thompson and Hansen Sites

Portsmouth Earthworks, Group C

Also known as the Biggs Site (15Gp8), Group C was a large series of concentric circles surrounding a central cone mound, believed to have been built by the Adena culture. This section of the earthworks is located in Greenup County, Kentucky several miles to the east of South Shore, but connected to Group B by a causeway.

Gallery of Squier and Davis maps

See also

• List of Hopewell sites

References

External links

Hopewellian peoples Woodland period List of Hopewell sites Mound builder (people) List of archaeological periods (North America) Ohio Hopewell Beam Farm Benham Mound Cary Village Site Cedar-Bank Works Dunns Pond Mound Ellis Mounds Ety Enclosure Ety Habitation Site Fort Ancient Fortified Hill Works Great Hopewell Road High Banks Works Hopeton Earthworks Hopewell Culture National Historical Park Indian Mound Cemetery Keiter Mound Marietta Earthworks Moorehead Circle Mound of Pipes Nettle Lake Mound Group Newark Earthworks Oak Mounds Orators Perin Village Site Pollock Works Portsmouth Earthworks Rocky Fork Enclosures Rocky Fork Mounds Seip Earthworks and Dill Mounds District Shawnee Lookout Tremper Mound and Works Williamson Mound Archeological District Crab Orchard culture Carrier Mills Archaeological District Cleiman Mound Hubele Site Mann Site O'byams Fort site Wilson Site Yankeetown Site Goodall Focus Goodall Site Norton Mound Group Havana Hopewell culture Albany Mounds State Historic Site Dickson Mounds Duncan Farm Golden Eagle-Toppmeyer Site Kamp Mound Site Mound House site Naples Mound 8 Rockwell Mound Sinnissippi Mounds Toolesboro Mound Group Kansas City Hopewell Cloverdale archaeological site Renner Village Archeological Site Trowbridge Archeological Site Marksville culture Crooks Mound Grand Gulf Mound Marksville Prehistoric Indian Site Mott Archaeological Preserve Miller culture Bynum Mound and Village Site Ingomar Mound Miller Site Pharr Mounds Pinson Mounds Point Peninsula Complex Lewiston Mound Serpent Mounds Park LeVescounte Mounds Swift Creek culture Santa Rosa-Swift Creek culture Crystal River Archaeological State Park Etowah Indian Mounds Leake Mounds Kolomoki Mounds Historic Park Miner's Creek site Pierce Site Swift Creek mound site Third Gulf Breeze Yearwood site Yent Mound Other Hopewellian peoples Armstrong culture Copena culture Fourche Maline culture Laurel Complex Saugeen Complex Old Stone Fort (Tennessee) Exotic trade items Copper Galena Mica Fresh water pearls Obsidian Pipestone Sea shells Related topics Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley Black drink burial mound Calumet (pipe) Effigy mound Hopewell pottery Horned Serpent Eastern Agricultural Complex Underwater panther

Pre-Columbian North America Periods Lithic Archaic Formative Classic Post-Classic Archaeological cultures Adena Alachua Ancient Pueblo (Anasazi) Baytown Belle Glade Buttermilk Creek Complex Caborn-Welborn Calf Creek Caloosahatchee Clovis Coles Creek Deptford Folsom Fort Ancient Fort Walton Fremont Glades Glacial Kame Hopewell List of Hopewell sites Hohokam Leon-Jefferson Mississippian List of Mississippian sites Mogollon Monongahela Old Cordilleran Oneota Paleo-Arctic Paleo-Indians Patayan Plano Plaquemine Poverty Point Red Ocher Santa Rosa-Swift Creek St. Johns Steed-Kisker Tchefuncte Tocobaga Troyville Archaeological sites Angel Mounds Bandelier National Monument The Bluff Point Stoneworks Cahokia Chaco Canyon Casa Grande Coso Rock Art District Eaker Effigy Mounds National Monument Etowah Indian Mounds Eva Folsom Site Fort Ancient Fort Center Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument Holly Bluff Site Hopewell Culture National Historical Park Kincaid Mounds Kolomoki Manitou Cliff Dwellings Marksville Meadowcroft Rockshelter Mesa Verde Moorehead Circle Moundville Mummy Cave Nodena Site Ocmulgee National Monument Old Stone Fort Parkin Park Pinson Mounds Portsmouth Earthworks Poverty Point Pueblo Bonito Rock Eagle Rock Hawk Russell Cave National Monument Salmon Ruins Serpent Mound Spiro Mounds SunWatch Taos Pueblo Toltec Mounds Town Creek Indian Mound Winterville Miscellaneous Black drink Buhl Woman Calumet Chunkey Clovis point Container Revolution Eastern Agricultural Complex Eden point Effigy mound Falcon dancer Folsom point Green Corn Ceremony Horned Serpent Kennewick Man Kiva Metallurgy Mi'kmaq hieroglyphic writing Medicine wheel Mound builders N.A.G.P.R.A. Stickball Norse colonization of the Americas Piasa Southeastern Ceremonial Complex Three Sisters agriculture Thunderbird Underwater panther Related Genetic history Indigenous Portal of North America Pre-Columbian era

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