Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, Ohio's only World Heritage Site, includes eight locations across Central and Southern Ohio: Hopewell Culture National Historical Park in Chillicothe, including the Mound City Group, Hopewell Mound Group, High Bank Earthworks and Hopeton Earthworks; Seip Earthworks in Bainbridge, and The Ohio History Connection’s Octagon Earthworks in Newark, Great Circle Earthworks in Newark, and Fort Ancient Earthworks in Oregonia.
The sites that comprise Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks were built between 1,600 and 2,000 years ago by people now referred to as the Hopewell Culture. The earthworks, built on an enormous scale and using a standard unit of measure, form precise squares, circles, and octagons as well as a hilltop sculpted to enclose a vast plaza. The geometric forms are consistently deployed across great distances and encode alignments with both the sun’s cycles and the far more complex patterns of the moon. Artifacts, which are among the most outstanding art objects produced in pre-Columbian North America, show that those who built the earthworks interacted with people as far away as the Yellowstone basin and Florida. These are among the largest earthworks in the world that are not fortifications or defensive structures. *World Heritage Committee members agreed that these earthworks deserve to be recognized alongside such places as Stonehenge in England and the Nazca Lines in Peru, as well as other iconic places in the United States, including Independence Hall and the Grand Canyon. The National Park Service's manages all or part of 20 of the 25 World Heritage Sites in the United States. It is also the principal U.S. government agency responsible for implementing the World Heritage Convention in cooperation with the Department of State. *
The Village of Bainbridge and the Historic Paint Valley are incredibly lucky to be located in the center of this new UNESCO World Heritage Site. Please use the links below to plan your travel or find additional information about these unique earthworks.
*National Park Service. (2023 SEP 21). Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks in Ohio now Nation's 25th World Heritage Site [Press Release]. http://lynk.fun/hopewell
