Newark Earthworks
National monument in Heath, OhioWikipedia
13
MENTIONS
5
EPISODES
5
PODCASTS
Search complete. 13 mentions across 5 episodes found for "Newark Earthworks".
Oct 9, 2026
James W. GrahamGUEST
Yes, they are.
James W. GrahamGUEST
And it's an interesting that you ask that question because one of the most important sites is in Newark, Ohio, and they're known as the Newark Earthworks.
James W. GrahamGUEST
There are two principal earthworks in Newark.
James W. GrahamGUEST
One is the Newark Octagon, which is actually connected to a circle known as Observatory Circle.
James W. GrahamGUEST
It's about a half a mile in length.
James W. GrahamGUEST
And then, uh, uh, a mile or so away from that is the Great Circle.
James W. GrahamGUEST
And both of these sites are now open to the public, but only fairly recently.
James W. GrahamGUEST
Believe it or not, until around January first of twenty twenty-five, the Newark Octagon was used as a golf course.
Doug SwiftHOST
This is Pastor Jeff Gill and his longtime friend, Lama Kathy Wesley.
Doug SwiftHOST
We're at the Newark Octagon Earthworks, a 2,000-year-old mound structure which, along with seven other mound structures across central and southern Ohio, was recently designated as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations.
Doug SwiftHOST
We enter a circle so large it's hard to see the other side.
Jeff GillGUEST
Connected by a wall to a circle that's 1,054 feet across in diameter, with a-
11 MINS LATER
Jeff GillGUEST
These earthworks say something about time and continuity and ritual.
Jeff GillGUEST
[upbeat music]
Doug SwiftHOST
Jeff has a technique he uses when giving tours of the Octagon to help visitors hear what the earthworks are saying.
Jeff GillGUEST
When we go to the middle of the Octagon and we do what I like to do when we get to that center point, I say, "Okay, I've talked a lot.
Glenna WallaceSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
In 2007, I read where an author by the name of John Sugden, who was the primary person that I trusted and read everything that he wrote about the Shawnees, he was going to be lecturing at Ohio State University.
Glenna WallaceSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
I drove there, visited with him, and learned that this was a speaker series and it was a requirement of the speaker to go to a place called Newark Earthworks.
Glenna WallaceSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
I had never heard of it, but went along.
Glenna WallaceSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
It is one of the most beautiful mounds that there could be.
speaker_10NARRATOR
In North America, surveys have revealed that the earthwork complexes are far more extensive than previously thought.
speaker_10NARRATOR
The Newark Earthworks in Ohio, built by the Hopewell culture around 100 CE, covers nearly four square miles.
speaker_10NARRATOR
It includes precise geometric shapes, circles, squares and octagons aligned to astronomical events.
speaker_10NARRATOR
This required not just labour but sophisticated mathematical and astronomical knowledge.
L.A. MarzulliGUEST
Sure enough, we pass by.
L.A. MarzulliGUEST
There's the sign, Newark Earthworks.
L.A. MarzulliGUEST
I go, look, I got free time tomorrow, Sunday.
L.A. MarzulliGUEST
Drop me off.