The Portsmouth Earthworks are a large prehistoric

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 el ...

complex constructed by the Native American

Adena Adena may refer to: Artists * ADENA, Romanian singer-songwriter *Adeena Karasick (born 1965), Canadian poet, performance artist, and essayist * Adena Halpern (born 1968), American author *Adena Jacobs (born 1982), Australian theatre director Place ...

and Ohio Hopewell cultures of eastern North America (100 BCE to 500 CE). The site was one of the largest earthwork ceremonial centers constructed by the Hopewell and is located at the

confluence In geography, a confluence (also: ''conflux'') occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join to form a single channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main stem); o ...

of the Scioto and

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

s, in present-day

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 ...

. The majority of the mound complex site is now covered by the city of

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

Scioto County, Ohio Scioto County is a county located along the Ohio River in the south central region of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 74,008. Its county seat is Portsmouth. The county was founded March 24, 1804, from Adams C ...

. Several individual sections of the complex have been included 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 v ...

Description

Originally, the Portsmouth Earthworks consisted of three sections extending over twenty miles of the Ohio River valley, crossing from Ohio to

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

in several places. It was surveyed and mapped by

E. G. 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 ...

in 1847 for inclusion in the seminal archaeological and anthrolopological work ''

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 ...

''.

Portsmouth Earthworks, Group B

The northernmost section was made up of a number of circular enclosures, two large horseshoe-shaped enclosures, and three sets of parallel-walled roads leading away in different directions. One set of walled roads extends across the Ohio River into

South Portsmouth, Kentucky South Portsmouth is an unincorporated community in Greenup County, Kentucky, United States. South Portsmouth is located on the Ohio River across from Portsmouth, Ohio and west of South Shore, Kentucky. Kentucky Route 8 passes through the comm ...

to the southwest to ''Portsmouth Earthworks, Group A''. Another set of walled roads lead to the southeast where it also crossed the Ohio River and lead to ''Portsmouth Earthworks, Group C''. The third set of walled roads lead to the northwest for an undetermined distance, and may point to

Tremper Mound and Works The Tremper Mound and Works are a Hopewell (100 BCE to 500 CE) earthen enclosure and large, irregularly shaped mound. The site is located in Scioto County, Ohio, about five miles northwest of Portsmouth, Ohio, on the second terrace floodplain ov ...

, some 5 miles away. The City of Portsmouth maintains a public park which includes one of the remaining horseshoe-shaped enclosures, known as Mound Park, it is the only publicly accessible part of the complex. Under the name ''Horseshoe Mound'' it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. In 2019 two independent scholars proposed that the Group B mounds represent part of an eight-mile-long female

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 ...

, which the authors propose depicts "The Woman Who Fell from the Sky," a Native American myth about human origins found among the indigenous peoples of North America. If true, this would make it the longest effigy mound known, although much of the structure was destroyed by the city of Portsmouth. The authors link the mounds to the story of He-nau-ee, as told by the

Meskwaki The Meskwaki (sometimes spelled Mesquaki), also known by the European exonyms Fox Indians or the Fox, are a Native American people. They have been closely linked to the Sauk people of the same language family. In the Meskwaki language, th ...

Indians, possible descendants of the Hopewell mound builders. Other archeologists have cast doubt on the theory.

Portsmouth Earthworks, Group A

Also known as the Old Fort Earthworks (15Gp1) it is a series of rectangular enclosures near South Portsmouth in

Greenup County, Kentucky Greenup County is a county located along the Ohio River in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 35,962. The county was founded in 1803 and named in honor of Christopher Greenup. Its co ...

. Group A is a large square enclosure with two series of parallel walls extending from the northeast and southwest corners. The Old Fort Earthworks consist of several sites, including the Old Fort Earthworks (15Gp1), Mays Mound (15Gp16), Hicks Mound (15Gp265), Stephenson Mound (15Lw139), and several other unnamed mounds and enclosures. It is also the location of

Lower Shawneetown Lower Shawneetown, also known as Shannoah or Sonnontio, was an 18th-century Shawnee village located within the Lower Shawneetown Archeological District, near South Portsmouth in Greenup County, Kentucky and Lewis County, Kentucky. The population ...

, a

protohistoric Protohistory is a period between prehistory and history during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing, but other cultures have already noted the existence of those pre-literate groups in their own writings. For example, in ...

/historic

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 ...

and

Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...

settlement and colonial trading post which are all part of the Lower Shawneetown Archeological District, along with the

Thompson Thompson may refer to: People * Thompson (surname) * Thompson M. Scoon (1888–1953), New York politician Places Australia *Thompson Beach, South Australia, a locality Bulgaria * Thompson, Bulgaria, a village in Sofia Province Canada * ...

and Hansen sites

Portsmouth Earthworks, Group C

Group C was a large series of concentric circles surrounding a high central conical mound. This section of the earthworks is located in

several miles to the east of South Shore, but connected to Group B by a causeway that ran down to the Ohio River.

Portsmouth Earthworks, Group D

Located to the west or downriver of Group C is the Biggs site (15Gp8) or Portsmouth Earthworks Group D. Biggs was an

Adena culture The Adena culture was a Pre-Columbian Native American culture that existed from 500 BCE to 100 CE, in a time known as the Early Woodland period. The Adena culture refers to what were probably a number of related Native American societies sharing ...

circular causewayed embankment high by wide encircling a ditch deep and across. They encompassed an area in diameter. In the center of the ditch was a conical tumulus high and in diameter. It was not only mapped by Squier and Davis, they also included a small illustration of the feature.

Gallery of Squier and Davis maps

File:Portsmouth Works Group A B C D Squier and Davis 01.jpg File:Portsmouth Works Group A Squier and Davis 01.jpg File:Portsmouth Works Group B Squier and Davis 01.jpg File:Portsmouth Works Group C Squier and Davis 01.jpg

References

External links

Scioto Historical : Portsmouth Earthworks Tour

The Portsmouth Earthworks Complex

Portsmouth Earthworks Complex Artifacts

OHC Portsmouth Earthworks

The Portsmouth Earthworks and the Jim King Mound in Kentucky
{{Registered Historic Places Adena culture Ohio Hopewell Fort Ancient culture Native American history of Kentucky Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Scioto County, Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Greenup County, Kentucky Mounds in Ohio