The Alligator Effigy Mound is an

effigy mound An effigy mound is a raised pile of earth built in the shape of a stylized animal, symbol, religious figure, human, or other figure. The Effigy Moundbuilder culture is primarily associated with the years 550-1200 CE during the Late Woodland Peri ...

in Granville,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The mound is believed to have been built between AD 800 and 1200 by people of the

Fort Ancient Fort Ancient is a name for a Native American culture that flourished from Ca. 1000-1750 CE and predominantly inhabited land near the Ohio River valley in the areas of modern-day southern Ohio, northern Kentucky, southeastern Indiana and western ...

culture. The mound was likely a ceremonial site, as it was not used for burials. Located on privately owned land, Alligator Mound is one of two extant effigy mounds known in the present-day state of Ohio, along with

Serpent Mound The Great Serpent Mound is a 1,348-foot-long (411 m), three-foot-high prehistoric effigy mound located in Peebles, Ohio. The mound itself resides on the Serpent Mound crater plateau, running along the Ohio Brush Creek in Adams County, Ohio. ...

Adams County, Ohio Adams County is a county in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 27,477. Its county seat is West Union. The county is named after John Adams, the second President of the United States. Geography According to the ...

. It has been listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

since 1971. Effigy mounds were built more often by ancient

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

peoples located in the areas of the present-day states of

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Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

, and

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

than in the Ohio area, and many have survived there.

Survey history

Squier and Davis: 1848

Ephraim George Squier Ephraim George Squier (June 17, 1821 – April 17, 1888), usually cited as E. G. Squier, was an American archaeologist, history writer, painter and newspaper editor. Biography Squier was born in Bethlehem, New York, the son of a minister, Joel S ...

and

Edwin Hamilton Davis Edwin Hamilton Davis (January 22, 1811 – May 15, 1888) was an American physician and self taught archaeologist who completed pioneering investigations of the mound builders in the Mississippi Valley. Davis gathered what, at that time, was the ...

surveyed the privately held site in Granville,

for

the Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

and reported their findings in their 1848 publication ''

Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley ''Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley'' (full title ''Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley: Comprising the Results of Extensive Original Surveys and Explorations'') (1848) by the Americans Ephraim George Squier and Edwin Hamilton ...

''. They described the site as "strange." They report the location of the work as being 150 to 200 feet in height. They note that people in the area called it "the

alligator An alligator is a large reptile in the Crocodilia order in the genus ''Alligator'' of the family Alligatoridae. The two extant species are the American alligator (''A. mississippiensis'') and the Chinese alligator (''A. sinensis''). Additiona ...

," "although the figure bears as a close resemblance to the lizard as any other reptile." The head of the effigy points towards the southwest. The work totaled 250 feet in length from head to tail. The body was noted at 40 feet wide, and each leg was measured at 36 feet. They describe the ends of the paws as being "a little broader than the remaining portions of the same, as if the spread of those toes had been originally indicated." Squier and Davis note that the head, shoulders and rump of the effigy are higher than the rest of the body. The height of the mound ranges from four feet to six feet. In the middle of the effigy was a small

mound A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher ...

, which they believed was used as an

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paga ...

Stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

s covered the altar, with marks from being lit on fire in the past. A graded way was made from the altar to the "top of the effigy." The graded way is ten feet wide. They note evidence of excavation in parts of the effigy with little disturbance to the site. Through excavation they determined that the site is made of

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

and that the clay had been imported from another area. They also noted that no historical excavation, made by the creators of the effigy, was found in the region. They examine the headland where the mound is built. They describe it as a "beautifully rounded spur of land," and question if the site was rounded by humans to create such a rounded place. During their visit, they also noticed that damage had been done to the headland. They note that other earthworks can be seen from the top of the headland, specifically those in the Newark group. After their survey, Squier and Davis concluded that the site was used for sacrifices or "on stated or extraordinary occasions,".

Lepper and Frolking: 1999

In 1999, Brad Lepper and Tod A. Frolking conducted a professional archaeological investigation of the mound. By

radiometric Radiometry is a set of techniques for measuring electromagnetic radiation, including visible light. Radiometric techniques in optics characterize the distribution of the radiation's power in space, as opposed to photometric techniques, which ch ...

dating of a piece of charcoal recovered from the base of the mound, they estimate its construction to have been 1,000 years BP (about AD 950). Lepper suggests that the Alligator Mound is an effigy of an

underwater panther An underwater panther, called ' (in Ojibwe syllabics: ) or ' (in syllabics: ) in Ojibwe (), is one of the most important of several mythical water beings among many Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands and Great Lakes region, partic ...

, a powerful figure in Native American myth. He thinks that early European settlers misinterpreted what Native Americans told them about the effigy. They were told that it was a fierce creature that lived in the water and ate people, which they assumed to be an alligator.

References

External links

Ohio Exploration Society - Alligator Mound

{{National Register of Historic Places 1848 archaeological discoveries Fort Ancient culture Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio Archaeological sites in Ohio Geography of Licking County, Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Licking County, Ohio Geoglyphs Mounds in Ohio