Twin Mounds & Parallel Walls

Circular twin mounds at Fort Ancient were excavated in the late 1800s and contained no human remains. Two shallow ditches extend from the mounds, one connecting to Randall Run on the north side of Fort Ancient and the other connecting with Cowen Run on the east and south sides of the site, so that the entire site is surrounded by either a river, stream and natural gully, or a ditch. Parallel walls extended northeast from the twin mounds for approximately 2,700 feet and ended in an irregularly shaped circle around a small earth mound. The walls were three to four feet high, 12 feet wide, and 140 feet apart, and they were distinct in the early 1800s. By the 1920s only remnants could be seen along the fencerow at the woods, and after nearly two centuries of farming they are no longer visible. The small earth mound inside the walls was excavated in 1893 and yielded no artifacts.

Ohio · United States