Why did the ancients build a Snake mound that repeats the constellation of the Dragon

In the eastern United States of America, among a huge forest area next to a tributary of the great Ohio River, is one of man’s most unusual and mysterious formations ever created. This is a Large Snake Mound – the largest geoglyph in the world with the image of a snake. By whom, when, and for what purpose it was built remains a mystery, which for many decades has generated controversy among scientists and excites curious minds trying to get answers to these questions.

What does the world’s largest snake geoglyph look like

The Snake Mound, located in a rural area of the Ohio Valley, is the largest depiction of a snake in the United States and worldwide. This ancient earthen structure is approximately 1,375 feet long, one to three feet high, and about 20-25 feet wide.

From a bird’s eye view, the mound looks like a snake, unfolding as a crescent, with seven sinuous rings between the head and tail. The snake’s head faces east, and its tail faces west.

The snake’s tail ends in a triple ring, and the oval shape of the head looks like the snake is trying to swallow an egg-shaped object about 121 feet long. This configuration of the geoglyph causes controversy and various assumptions among scientists. Some see this oval as an enlarged snake’s eye, others as a hollow egg or even a frog about to be swallowed by the snake’s wide-open jaws. Some scientists claim that they see a lizard rather than a snake in the shape of the head.

The mound corresponds to the natural relief of this area, which is a high plateau overlooking the Ohio Brush Creek. The snake’s head is approaching a steep natural cliff above the stream. Unique geological formations suggest that about 250-300 million years ago, a meteorite fell on this place, causing a folded bedrock under the mound, and later, a geoglyph in the form of a snake was built, assembled from stones reinforced with layers of yellowish clay and ash, and covered with earth on top.

What is known about the origin of the Snake Mound

Archaeologists have been arguing for decades about the Snake Mound’s origin. Despite the excavations, no artifacts or burials have been found that could directly indicate when and for what it was built.

There are currently two main theories. The mound may belong to the Aden culture, from 800 to about 100 BC. Visit. A F R I N I K . C O M . For the full article. Others believe that it is more likely that the mound was erected by ancient Native American cultures that flourished along the fertile valleys of the Mississippi, Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri rivers a thousand years ago.

The settled peoples grew corn, beans, and pumpkins here but left no written records. Many of their settlements were destroyed in later times when cattle began to be raised in this region, and farming began to spread.

A theory also combines the previous ones and suggests both may be true. Perhaps the culture of Aden originally built the snake, and then, thousands of years later, ancient farmers restored its parts, the main structure of which has survived to the present day.

What was the Snake Mound created for

Competing theories of the Snake Mound’s origin, suggesting the dates of its creation with a difference of millennia, suggest that there is still much to learn about this geoglyph and why ancient people created it.

Many indigenous peoples of North and Central America attributed supernatural powers to snakes or reptiles and incorporated them into their spiritual practices. The indigenous peoples of the Middle Ohio Valley, in particular, often created snake shapes from copper sheets. Therefore, it is possible that it was a ceremonial mound.

Since the position of the snake’s head coincides with the sunset of the summer solstice, and the tail indicates the sunrise of the winter solstice, there is a theory that this hill could be used to count time or change the seasons, possibly indicating when to start planting or harvesting.

In addition, the curves on the snake’s body have been identified as parallel to the lunar phases or coincide with two solstices and two equinoxes. However, they are so vague in the modern landscape that the true understanding of their meaning may forever remain unproven.

The shape of the snake spread out in the Ohio Valley imitates the constellation of the Dragon, and the North Star corresponds to the placement of the first curve on the snake’s body from the head. Alignment with the North Star may indicate that the mound was used to determine the true north and thus served as a compass.

The scientific debate on who built the Snake Mound and for what purpose continues, and perhaps they will never be finished, and the mystery of the origin of this geoglyph will remain one more.