Evidence of Human Sacrifice at the Portsmouth, Ohio Earthworks

The Children's Home was constructed in 1876 and is now part of "Mounds Park."

Prehistoric America, 1905

   Mr. T. W.Kinney says the mound, which was a natural elevation, was selected as the site for a children's house. In excavating the cellar there was discovered a circular altar composed of stones which were standing close together and showed evidence of heat.  This altar was four feet below the surface. leading from the altar was a channel about eighteen inches wide, composed of clay, which was designed to "Carry off the blood," giving the idea that human sacrifices were offered here, as upon the alters of Avebury, England

The site of the Children's Home where the stone altar was located is to the west of the "road" and north of the cemetery.

Avebury, England, and Portsmouth, Ohio Sister Druid Earthworks

Avebury, England, and Portsmouth, Ohio Sister Druid Earthworks

The similarities between the Avebury Serpentine work and Portsmouth are striking. Grand avenues that are draped over a solar symbol representing the rejuvenation of the solar deity. 


    In Wiltshire, England, are prehistoric remains of great extent supposed to be the work of the Druids.
    The so-called " Temple of Abury consisted originally of a grand circumvallation of earth 1,250 feet in diameter, enclosing an area of upwards of twenty-two acres.  It has an inner ditch, and the height of the embankment, measuring from the bottom of the ditch, is seventeen feet. It is quite regular, though not an exact circle in form, and has four entrances placed at unequal distances apart, though nearly at right angles to each other. Within this grand circle were originally two double or concentric circles, composed of massive upright stones; a row of large stones, one hundred in number, was placed upon the inner brow of the ditch. Extending upon either hand from this grand central structure, were parallel lines of huge upright stones, constituting upon each side, avenues upwards of a mile in length. These formed the body of the serpent. Each avenue consisted of two hundred stones. The head of the serpent was represented by an oval structure, consisting of two concentric lines of upright stones; the outer line containing forty, the inner eighteen stones. This head rests on an eminence * * * from which is commanded a view of the entire structure, winding back for more than two miles to the point of the tail. * * * About midway, in a right line between the extremities of the avenues, is placed a huge mound of earth, known as Silbury Hill, [which] is supposed by some, Dr. Stukely among the number, to be a monumental structure erected over the bones of a King or Arch-Druid." — Squier, 234. " The circumference of the [above] hill, as near the base as possible, measured two thousand and twenty-seven feet, the diameter at top one hundred and twenty feet, the sloping height three hundred and sixteen feet, and the perpendicular height one hundred and seventy feet." It contains over 13,500.000 cubic feet. — Hoare,

Ancient Sacred Well Described at Marietta, Ohio Ceremonial Enclosures

Ancient Sacred Well Described at Marietta, Ohio Ceremonial Enclosures

The supernatural qualities of sacred wells and springs were venerated as places of healing and divination. The proximity of the well to the sacred via and enclosures hints at its use as a ritual Druid site.

Prehistoric America, 1905
  Mr. Harris says there was at Marietta a well sixty feet deep and twenty feet in diameter, of the kind used in the early days, when water was brought up in pitchers by steps.  This well may have been for the convenience of the people at the enclosures. The proximity to the temple platforms and the conical mound and the graded way makes it significant.

Ancient Fish Wells Carved in the Rock in Paint Creek, Ross County, Ohio

Ancient Fish Wells Carved in the Rock in Paint Creek, Ross County, Ohio

I am not convinced that these wells carved deep into the rock of Paint Creek were functional.  Their proximity to the ceremonial earthworks makes me lean more to them being sacred wells that may have been presided over by a priestess.


Illustrated History of Missouri

   Many years ago, in the bed of Paint Creek, in Ross County, Ohio, several deep cavities or wells were discovered, which gave rise to much speculation as to their origin and purpose. I believe they have since been found in many other localities. Mr. Pidgeon states that he discovered four similar ones in the bed of a small tributary of the St. Peters river, varying in depth from eight to twelve feet, from five to six feet in diameter at the bottom and from three to five feet at the top. These excavations were made in the soft slate rock which formed the bed of the stream. To the level top, or rim of the well, a thin flat rock was fitted, with a round or square hole in the center, about twelve inches in diameter. This opening could be closed at will, by a stone stopper perforated with small holes. A short distance below the wells he found one of these stoppers which fitted neatly the larger capstone of one of the wells. At the time of their discovery, the depth of the stream which flowed over them was ten inches. Mocking-Bird informed him that these were fish traps and that many such could be found in other streams, were they not so filled with mud and stones as to escape observation;  and also that they were constructed and used anciently for the purpose of securing a supply of fish for the winter. Large quantities of bait being deposited in them in the fall, the fish would gather there in great numbers, when the stopper would be placed over the mouth, which prevented their escape, and then they could be taken out with a small net as desired. While it is no doubt true that the mound-builders were an agricultural people, it is quite reasonable to suppose, from the fact that their most extensive works are found upon the shores of lakes and banks of rivers, that fish formed no inconsiderable item of their bill of fare.

Stone Altar for Human Sacrifice Discovered at the Portsmouth Ancient Ceremonial Earthen Temple

Stone Altar for Human Sacrifice Discovered at the Portsmouth Ancient Ceremonial Earthen Temple

Photo shows the Children's home in the background with the horseshoe-shaped work in the foreground.

Prehistoric America, 1905
Mr. T. W.Kinney says the mound, which was a natural elevation, was selected as the site for a children's house. In excavating the cellar there was discovered a circular altar composed of stones which were standing close together, and showed evidence of heat.  This altar was four feet below the surface. leading from the altar was a channel about eighteen inches wide, composed of clay, which was designed to "Carry off the blood,' giving the idea that human sacrifices were offered here, as upon the altars of Avebury, England.

The Children's home and the site of the altar for human sacrifice was within the circular earthwork to the north of the horseshoe-shaped earthworks.

The Sacred Number 3 and the Mound Builders in Ohio and the British Isles

The Sacred Number 3 and the Mound Builders

The Ohio Serpent faces the confluence of  3 creeks, it has 3 bends in the body and the tail coils 3 times. Upstream on Brush Creek is Fort Hill that is also a serpentine shaped work that has 33 gateways. 

The most common cluster of Adena (Beaker People) mounds is in groups of three, many times in the form of a triangle. 

    The mound itself is built as all other serpent mounds are, no matter in what country. The head of the serpent, containing the altar, is on a high bluff overlooking Brush Creek. The first rays of the Sun God fell first upon this altar, and from it, far below, the priests of the ancient faith could see the ♦three forks of the river. This trinity, whether it be three rivers or three mountains, is always to be seen from an altar of the serpent worshippers and is always unmistakable. The altar is invariably placed in the one spot from which the Trinity may be seen. It is always placed where the first rays of the rising sun may fall upon it. From the neighboring lands, the awe-struck worshippers of old might see the priests 

perform their fearsome rites and watch the victim of the stone knives gasp out his last breath as the first tongue of flame licked at his still quivering flesh. Just what these rites were will never be known, in all probability. But that fire and knife played a part in them can hardly be doubted 
from the mute witnesses found by modern searchers.

Located north of the Serpent mound is Fort Hill in Highland County, Ohio.  There are 33 gateways

in the stone walls. The northern entrance represents two serpent heads.

The stone walls of Fort Hill undulate like a giant serpent between the 33 gateways. T

here is little doubt that the Serpent Mound and Fort Hill were contsructed to be numerically harmonic.

The Serpent Mound in Oban, Scotland, also constructed by the Beaker People, 

also has 3 bends of the body, 2 bends of the tail and faces 3 mountain peaks. 

The head of the serpent also had a  stone alter. 

Mysteries of the Serpent Mound

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.

Mound Builder's "Watchers" in Indiana, Ohio and West Virginia

Mound Builder's  Spirit Facades in Indiana, Ohio and West Virginia

Natural sculpturing has created these stone facial profiles. They were considered "spirit stones" to the mound builders. In Wabash County, Indiana, stone works of the Iroquois Hopewell were more prolific than anywhere else in Indiana or Ohio. This site is known as "Hanging Rock" to the locals.

Another stone profile is found near Bainbridge, Ohio off of Paint Creek.  Paint Creek, located west of Chillicothe Ohio has more prehistoric ceremonial earthworks than anywhere else in the Ohio.  These earthworks were constructed by the Sioux Hopewell.

Called "The Old man of the Canyon" on Boone County, West Virginia

Dakota Sioux Hopewell of the Ohio Valley

Dakota Sioux Hopewell of the Ohio Valley

American Antiquarian, 1891
THE DAKOTAS AND THEIR TRADITIONS.
      Editor American Antiquarian : In reference to the Dakotas and their migrations, I would say that I was informed by my father and the Messrs. Pond that their myths refer to their ancestral villages on the Upper Mississippi, Lake Isanti, and the west end of Lake Superior; to wanderings in regions north of the Great Lakes ; to residence on the Great Lake many times farther east than Lake Superior. Their descriptions of the ocean storms, sea beaches, etc., are so accurate that it seems impossible that these myths, gathered more than fifty years [ago, could possibly have originated otherwise than when they resided there. But they had no traditions as to residence south of Lake Superior. Father was informed by half breeds, who had resided among the Iowas, that the Iowas had traditions that they came from the Ohio Valley, but without the myths themselves to be analyzed little importance could be attached to such traditions. With the exception of the Crows, and perhaps the Osages and Winnebagos, the tribes allied to the Dakotas in language were, when first visited by the whites, chiefly dependent on agriculture for their support. It was my father's opinion that these tribes, the Iowas, Omahas, and Ponkas ; the Osages, Kansas, Kaws and Qunpas, the Mandans and Winnebagos, were the Ohio mound-builders, or at least one class of them. 

The Iowas and Ponka Sioux had a tradition of building large burial mounds like Seip in Ross County, Ohio

     According to Dakota traditions, the Iowas and Ponkas built much larger mounds than the Dakotas. I have myself heard several Dakotas say that the Iowas (" Syakhibee" in the Santee dialect) built the round mound thirty feet high, perhaps partly natural, on the brow of the bluff a mile east of my father's mission station, and quite an extensive earth-work, probably originally ten feet from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the wall between this mound and the mission station. This earth-work enclosed a spring well towards the top of the bluff, and overlooked a rich bottom, in which was a large space partly covered with large trees, that seemed to be covered with old corn-hills. The Indians stated this bottom was used as a corn-field by the Iowas and also another piece afterward planted by themselves. They represented that the Iowas left this region on account of a war between the Dakotas and Iowas, one Indian supposing this happened about ten generations ago, another estimating the time at only five generations. I noticed the remains of some circular houses banked up with earth within the enclosure, but these remains and a large share of the earth-work were many years ago destroyed by plowing. I never examined fully the large mound, and could not do so on account of intrusive burials of the Dakotas in the top. A small excavation in one side proved that it was to a considerable extent artificial, but seemed to indicate that it was partly natural. It commanded an extensive view. The Dakotas in winter sus pended their dead in trees or on scaffolds, and buried the bones only when the flesh had rotted off. In summer they usually buried at once, provided they could obtain a coffin of boards. The heathens always placed offerings with the body, whether on the scaffold, in the tree, or in the coffin; but I think never placed offerings with buried bones, as they supposed the dead by this time domiciled in the new world, and that the spirit, which long lingered about the body, took its final departure into some other human being or some animal when the decay of the flesh was complete. A. W. Williamson. Rock Island, I11., October 25, 1890.

Iroquois Chief, Joseph Brant Claims Ancient White Men Built the Ohio Mounds

   Iroquois Chief, Joseph Brant Claims Ancient White Men Built the Ohio Mounds 

Were the Ohio Valley Mounds Built By White Men? Iroquois Chief Joseph Brant says that the Indian legends of the tribes from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi shared a common history that the mound builders were white men.

Life of Joseph Brant -Thayendanega

Includes the Wars of the American Revolution by William L. Stone 1838

   Among other things relating to the western country" says Mr. Woodruff, " I was curious to learn in the course of my conversation with Captain Brant, what information he could give respecting the tumuli which are found on and near the margin of the rivers and lakes, from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi. He stated, in reply, that the subject had long been agitated, but yet remained in some obscurity. "A tradition, he said prevailed among the different nations of Indians throughout that whole extensive range of country, and had been handed down from time immemorial, that in an age long gone by, there came white men from a foreign country, and by consent of the Indians established trading houses and settlements where these tumuli are found".

Celtic Stone Heads Discovered in the Ohio Valley

Celtic Stone Heads Discovered in the Ohio Valley  

   Evidence continues to accumulate that the Ohio mound builders were migrants from the British Isles that were practicing the Druidic religion of the Celts.

Stone Pillar in England, dated to 150 B.C. with Celtic heads carved into the facade.

Celtic face carved into a West Virginia rock face.  The evidence continues to accumulate that the Ohio mound builders practiced the Celtic Druids religion.

Iroquois Legend of a Bridge Spanning the Ohio River Constructed by the Adena. Portsmouth?

Iroquois Legend of a Bridge Spanning the Ohio River Constructed by the Adena. Portsmouth?

Iroquois Book of Rites, 1883
    "In Iroquois hydrography, the Ohio--the great river of the ancient Alligewi domain--is the central stream to which all the rivers of the mighty West converge. This stream the emigrants now attempted to cross. They found, according to the native annalist, a rude bridge in a huge grape-vine which trailed its length across the stream. Over this a part of the company passed, and then, unfortunately, the vine broke. The residue, unable to cross, remained on the hither side, and became afterwards the enemies of those who had passed over."

A "Must Be" Haunted House in Athens County, Ohio

A "Must Be" Haunted House in Athens County, Ohio

Athens County, Ohio is the most haunted place I have ever been. The haunted oppression is like a depressive cloak that envelopes everything.  Is it any wonder this is the most economically depressed county in Ohio?   More accounts of paranormal activity associated with the mounds here https://www.mysteriesofancientamerica.com/2020/07/ancient-haunted-bust-of-adena-amorite.html