The Secrets In The Great Serpent Mounds Of Ohio

By James Donahue

Adams County, Ohio, offers the site of the Great Serpent Mount, considered by archaeologists and historians to be the most dynamic and mysterious effigy mount in the United States.

Measuring almost a quarter mile in length, the twisting, winding mound built in the form of a massive snake swallowing an egg, is believed to be among the largest serpentine earthworks in the world.

It is a surviving earthwork, but it may not have been the only serpentine mound of its kind that once existed in Ohio. Another similar to it once was said to have been found in Warren County, located in Southwest Ohio between Dayton and Cincinnati. George Frederick Wright, in an article published in 1908, described the mound as 1,300 feet in length, three feet high and from 10 to 15 feet in width. Even when he saw it, Wright said erosion from a nearby stream had destroyed the head. Since his article appeared, the remains of the mound have been destroyed by human encroachment.

Also in Warren County, John R. White, professor of Anthropology at Youngstown State University, wrote that in the 1980s he examined two large stone effigies of rattlesnakes along the Little Miami River. He said they were made of flat shaped limestone slaps piled about two feet high and two meters wide. One was 86 feet long and the other measured 152 feet.

It was White’s theory that the snake effigies were made by the Fort Ancient prehistoric Indian culture that lived in the region around A.D. 1200. Also, because of the remains of a post hole in front of the heads of the snakes, White believed that posts were used like a sun dial, with a shadow moving down the backs of the snakes, to mark the summer and winter solstice.

While unique to Ohio, within most of the United States, serpent mounds have been found elsewhere in the world, including Britain and Mexico. Also the dragon, snake or reptile image has played an important role in ancient cultural artworks throughout the world.

So why were the serpent images considered so important to the ancient people that they would build massive earthworks like the ones found in the rural areas of the Midwestern United States?

Like images found in England, South America and in other parts of the world, the serpent mounds can only be seen and appreciated for their artwork from the air. The people of that prehistoric era did not have the capability of flight.

But aliens would have. So would ancient humans if there was once an ancient civilization as advanced as our own.

It is perhaps significant that Lucifer was described in the Book of Genesis as a serpent when he tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden. Was it because he was an alien and serpentine in physical appearance?

Consider that the ancient humans had both the memory and myth of a serpentine contact that some believe may date back to an ancient civilization. Some believe that old race of intelligent beings was serpentine in appearance. There is a theory that the genetic code from this ancient race is still found in our own . . . or at least in the genes of some of the many races that exist on Earth.

That the Book of Genesis speaks of "giants on the Earth" and gods that "came down" and mated with women. Their offspring became "mighty men which were of old, men of renown." Indeed, who were these mighty men, the ones the ancients called The Nephilim? Where they humanoids with scales? Did they resemble serpents? Is this why ancient humans built monuments that linked to the known serpents of the planet? Did they worship a serpent god because of this ancient memory?

In addition to the serpent mounts, the ancient civilizations in the United States built large earthen mounds. The remains of these works are nearly all destroyed now, but they existed throughout the Midwest. They were round in their shape when found by early settlers. They may have originally been shaped like pyramids.

The pyramids were built in rock all over the world. They remain a mystery to this day, Because of tiny holes cut through the sides of some of the pyramids that allow viewers to peer up into the ancient heavens, and because of the very way these structures were located on Earth, archeologists have linked the pyramids to the stars.

Great secrets exist in the things from the ancient past that still exist under our feet.