Fort Ancient

 museum, Mound Builders

The Fort Ancient Earthworks are a series of earthen embankments that extend for more than 3 and one half miles around a high bluff along the Little Miami River in southwestern Ohio. Although it is called a "fort," it is doubtful that it ever served as a work of defense. Ditches are located inside the walls, rather than outside as would be expected if it was a fortification, and there are more than 60 gateways in the walls, which would have made it difficult to defend against enemies.

The earthwork includes two major components, the South Fort, the oldest section, and the North Fort. A long, narrow neck referred to as the Middle Fort connects these two parts. The most prominent gateway is located in the northeastern part of the North Fort. Two mounds are located just outside the gateway. These framed the entrance to a set of parallel walls that once extended northeastward for nearly half a mile where they ended in a semi-circular enclosure surrounding a mound.

The Hopewell culture (100 BC-AD 500) constructed the earthworks, although a later people built a village and a cemetery within the walls of the already ancient South Fort. Archaeologists mistakenly assumed the villagers had built the earthen walls and named the culture after the site: the Fort Ancient culture (AD 1000-1650). This mistake has caused confusion for later students of Ohio archaeology.

Recent excavations at Fort Ancient discovered the remains of Hopewell culture houses and ceremonial features both inside and outside of the enclosure walls. It is not known whether the houses located inside the enclosure were occupied before or after the enclosure was built. It also has yet to be determined whether the houses were the dwellings of more or less full time residents, or the temporary shelters of visiting pilgrims.

The Fort Ancient Earthworks is an Ohio Historical Society site open to visitation. It is located seven miles southeast of Lebanon, in Warren County. In addition to the earthworks, the site features a museum with interpretive exhibits about Ohio's ancient past. The Fort Ancient Earthworks site also is a National Historic Landmark.

www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=2404