Was the Newark Octagon Mound the Place for Ritual Sacrifice?

There are many similarities with the religion of the historic Natchez and the anient mound builders in the Ohio Valley. The Natchez performed ritual human sacrifice upon the death of a Sun. When a male Sun died, his wives were expected to accompany him by performing ritual sacrifice. Pictured above are 8 people who are being sacrificed at the death of the Natchez Sun King. The number reoccurs within the earthworks in the Ohio Valley.  Were these places of sacrifice of the Sun King?

Were subjects sacrificed at the 8 gateways of the Newark Ceremonial Center at the death of the Sun King?

Prehistoric America, Stephen Peet, 1903

First, let us consider the traditions of the Indian tribes as to their migrations.
1. The Cherokee were a tribe situated, at the opening of history, among the mountains of East Tennessee and perhaps as far east as North Carolina. There is a common tradition that the Cherokee were at one time in the Ohio Valley.
2.) The Dakotas; this tribe or stock was, at the opening of history located west of the Mississippi River, in the State that bears their name.  The Dakotas have a traditon they they were once on the Ohio River, and that they migrated from their to the west.
3.) The Natchez were a tribe formerly situated near the city of Natchez.  They were sun-worshippers.  It is supposed by some that the Natchez built the sun temples in Ohio, but they changed their methods and adopted the pyramid as their typical work afterwards.
4.0 The Tetons, a branch of the Dakotas, were probably once in the region, though their home was afterward in the northern part of Georgia.

Ancient Burial Mounds of the Iroquois Indians of New York

Ancient Burial Mounds of the Iroquois Indians of New York

The Proto-Iroquois Indians were the northern contingent of the Adena Hopewell empire that stretched from New York to Florida. The "Hopewell" were a confederation of Iroquois in the Great Lakes, Sioux in the Ohio Valley and Cherokee in the Southeast. Burials in a sitting position are found most commonly in the Great Lakes region. 


     According to Mr. Lewis H. Morgan, different customs have prevailed among the Iroquois in relation to the mode of burial. At one period they buried the dead in a sitting posture, with the face to the east. Skeletons are still found in this position, in various parts of the State of New York, with a gun-barrel resting against the shoulder, thus fixing the period of their sepulture subsequently to the first intercourse of this people with the whites. Another and more extraordinary mode of burial prevailed among them. The body of the deceased was exposed upon a bark scaffolding, erected upon poles or secured upon the limbs of trees, where it was left 'to waste to a skeleton. After this had been affected by the process of decomposition in the open air, the bones were removed either to the former home of the deceased or to a small bark house by its side prepared for their reception. In this manner, the skeletons of the whole family were preserved from generation to generation by the affection of the living. After the lapse of a number of years, or in a season of ' public insecurity, or on the eve of abandoning a settlement, it was customary to collect these skeletons from the whole community around, and to consign them to a common resting-place. To this custom, which was not confined to the Iroquois, are, doubtless, to be ascribed the barrows and bone mounds which have been found in such numbers in various parts of the country. On opening these mounds the skeletons are usually found arranged in horizontal layers constituting a conical pyramid, those in each layer radiating from a common center. 

This type of "Spoked Burial" is most predominant in the Great Lakes region, but is also found in southern Ohio, associated with the Adena Hopewell.  

     In other cases, they are found placed promiscuously. There were Senecas residing at Tonawanda and Cattaraugus, in 1851, who remember having seen, about sixty years before, at the latter place, these bark scaffoldings on which bodies were exposed. The custom still prevails among the Sioux upon the Upper Mississippi, and among some of the tribes in the far west. The notions entertained by the Iroquois as to the state of the soul when disembodied were vague and diversified; but they all agree that, on the journey, it required the same things as were of use while it dwelt in the body. They, therefore, deposited beside the deceased his bow and arrows, tobacco and pipe, and necessary food for the journey. They also painted his face and dressed his body in its best apparel. A fire was built upon the grave at night to enable the spirit to prepare its food.’

Ohio Hopewell Mound Builders Earthwork Found In South Carolina

Ohio Hopewell Mound Builders Earthwork Found In South Carolina  

Evidence Links the Cherokee with the Ohio Mound Builders

Henge complex at Camden South Carolina.   The position of this site offers more evidence that the Cherokee Indians were part of the Hopewell Mound Builders Confederacy.

American Antiquarian, 1891

     We are ready to acknowledge the resemblance between these circles in the Kanawha Valley and those on the Wateree River in South Carolina, and especially the similar significance of the circle with the mound in its center, which seems always to be a sign of sun-worship. Squire and Davis have called attention to the general similarity between the southern mounds and the Ohio mounds, especially to the fact that there were spiral paths around the outside of them. They speak of the council or oblong mound in the circle on the Wateree River, with a circumference of 550 feet at the base and 225 feet at the top, and 30 feet high. They say, however, that while this region was occupied by the Cherokee at one time and by the Ocmulgee at another, still the country was, many ages preceding the Cherokees, inhabited by one nation, who were ruled by the same system of laws, customs, and language, but so ancient that the Cherokees or the Creeks could give no account of them or the purposes for which they erected the monuments. High pyramidal mounds, with spacious avenues leading to artificial lakes, and cubical yards, with sunken area and rotundas, are the characteristic works of the south-works which the Cherokee adopted and used, but which, it is said, they did not build. The contrast between the two classes is marked, as the water cult is plain in one and the sun-worship in the other, and yet, the connecting link may be found in the circles we are describing.