Portsmouth Ohio's and Avebury England Henge Decoded - Druid's Water and Solar Cult

  Let us consider the water cult.  It seems to have existed in the Ohio Valley but was closely connected with the solar cult, the ceremonies of that cult requiring the presence of water to make it complete. The water cult we recognize between some of the earthworks in Southern Ohio are identical to those in Great Britain.
  The first group of works that be shall cite is the one at Portsmouth.  The chief evidence is given by the avenues or the covered ways, which seem to have connected the enclosures on different sides of the river.  These, by the aid of the ferry across the river, must have been the scene of an extensive religious procession, which can be compared to nothing better than the mysterious procession of Druid priests, which once characterized the sacrifices to the sun among the ancient works of Great Britain.
   It is in the middle group that we discover the phallic symbol, the fire cult, the crescent of the moon and the sun circle. In the works of the west bank of the Scioto we find the effigy enclosed in a circle as a sign of animal worship, and in the concentric circles with the enclosed conical mound, on the Kentucky side, we find the symbols of sun worship.

The water cult was combined with the solar cult at the great works at Avebury, England; the avenues passed over Kennet Creek before they reached the circle at Beckhampton; the same is true at Stanton Druew and at Mount murray, in the Isle of Man.  In each of these places were coverede avenues reaching across the marshy ground toward the circles.
   At the circles were alters, whereon human sacrifice may have been offered to the sun; but the avenues mark the place through which procession passed in making their sacrifices, - a passage over water being essential to the ceremony.
   This is significant in connection with the works at Portsmouth.  here the avenues approach the river in such a way as to show that a canoe ferry was used to cross the river, the ceremony being made more significant by those means.

As additional evidence that the works at Portsmouth were devoted to the water cult and were similar to those at Avebury in Great Britain, we would again refer to the character of the works at either end of the avenues. It can be proven that the most striking features at Avebury are duplicated here; the sun symbol being embodied in the concentric circles upon the Kentucky side; the phallic symbol in the horseshoe mounds upon the Ohio side and the avenues of standing stones correspond to the covered ways which connected the enclosures on the Kentucky side with that of the Ohio side.

We have dwelt upon these peculiarities of the works at Portsmouth for the very reason that they seem to prove the existence of a water cult, and because it so closely resembles those in which the water cult has been recognized in Great Britain. We maintain, however, that it was as cult which was associated with sun worship and that the phallic symbol was embodied here. We maintain that sacrifices were offered to the sun, and that the human victims were kept in the corral one one side of the river; that they were transported across the water and carried up to the third terrrace, and immolated near the horseshoe, and that afterward the procession passed down the terrace, through the avenue, across the river, a second times, and mounted the spiral pathway to the summit of the terraced mound situated at the end of the avenue.

Giant Skeletons Uncovered in a Celtic Druid Mound in New York

Giant Skeletons Uncovered in a Celtic Druid Mound in New York

Archaeological History of New York, 1915
   The burial mound, represented upon plate III, from the peculiar construction of the work and the character of its remains, appears to belong to a class of mounds different from any others embraced in this exploration. It is located upon the brow of a hill, still covered by the ancient forest, and overlooking the valley of the Conewango. This work has some appearance of being constructed with the ditch and volume outside of the mound, as in the Druid Barrows, but perhaps more accurately belongs to the class composed of several stages, as the Trocalli of the valley of Anahuac. The form of the tumulus is of intermediate character between an ellipse and the parallelogram; the interior mound, at its base, has a major axis of 65 feet, while the minor axis is 61 feet, with an altitude above the first platform or embankment of 10 feet, or an entire elevation of some 13 feet. This embankment, with an entrance or gateway upon the east side 30 feet in width, has an entire circumference of 170 feet. As previously remarked, the work itself, as well as the eminence which it commands, and the ravine upon either side, are overshadowed by the dense forest. The remains of a fallen tree, embedded in the surface of the mound and nearly decomposed, and which from appearance, had grown upon the apex, measured nearly 3 feet in diameter, and heavy timber was growing above the rich mold it had formed. Thus we had some indicia of the age of this work. The mound indeed, from the peculiar form of its construction, as well as from the character of its contents, has much resemblance to the Barrows of the earliest Celtic origin, in the Old World. In making an excavation, eight skeletons, buried in a sitting position and at regular intervals of space, so as to form a circle within the mound, were disinterred. Some slight appearance yet existed, to show that the framework had inclosed the dead at the time of interment. These skeletal remains were of a very large size but were so much decomposed that they mostly crumbled to dust. The relics of art here disclosed were also of a peculiar and interesting character 

May 1st Beltane Solar Alignments at Mounds State Park Henge, The Newark Henge, and the Alligator Mound

May 1st Beltane Solar Alignments at Mounds State Park Henge, The Newark Henge, and the Alligator Mound

At Beltane, on May 1st, it was the time of mating and of the passing of the livestock through the two Beltane fires for purification.his festival is also known as Beltane, the Celtic May Day. It officially begins at moonrise on May Day Eve and marks the beginning of the third quarter or second half of the ancient Celtic year.

 It marked the beginning of summer. Special fires were kindled, and their flames, smoke and ashes were deemed to have protective powers. The people would walk around the bonfire or between two bonfires, and sometimes leap over the flames or embers. Household fires would be doused and then re-lit from the Beltane bonfire. It officially begins at moonrise on May Day Eve, and marks the beginning of the third quarter or second half of the ancient Celtic year.

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,

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.