Archaeologist Links Newark, Ohio Mounds to Milky Way & Cygnus

by Dr. Greg Little

In the February 2007 issue of AP, I posted an article entitled, "Cygnus: From The Pyramids of Egypt to the Newark, Ohio Earthworks." The article began by showing that the three large pyramids at Giza are actually built to mimic the three cross stars of the Northern Cross—the Cygnus Constellation. As Andrew Collins convincingly showed in his book, The Cygnus Mystery, the ancients revered the Cygnus Constellation, located in an area known as the "dark rift" in the Milky Way, as the gateway between the sky world and earth. Collins also showed that numerous ancient sites showed key alignments to Cygnus. Among these sites are several important mound complexes in America.

One mound complex especially intrigued Collins. It is a massive formation of geometrical earthworks and mounds, many of which still exist at Newark, Ohio. As related in the earlier article:

"The Newark site dwarfs every other mound complex in the Americas. It was constructed by what American archaeologists term the Hopewell Culture between 500 B.C.-100 B.C. A curious earthen embankment on the western side, constructed by walls of earth piled from 6 to 20 feet high, formed a perfect circle attached to an octagon. The circle enclosed 20 acres while the octagon enclosed 50 acres. Inside the octagon are 8 truncated earthen pyramids at each corner. This intact formation has now been shown to have been utilized to precisely calculate the movements of the moon over 18.61 years, in essence serving as a functional eclipse calculator. From the Circle-Octagon site, three parallel sets of walls formed walkways. They were all 175 feet wide, formed by earthen walls 3-feet or more high.

The northernmost walkway led a mile east to a complex set of mounds, embankments, and circles that defy description. The center walkway also extended east to a 20-acre embankment in the form of a square. To the southeast from the square, more embankments led to a gigantic, 30-acre circular earthwork with a single opening pointing to the northeast. The circle, generally known as the ‘Great Fairgrounds Circle,’ was formed by an outer wall 9-feet tall. A moat, 7-feet deep, ran inside the wall, creating a 16-foot high, continuous interior wall.” As should be obvious after studying the survey of the immense Newark site, that the function of this complex remains one of the greatest mysteries in American archaeology."

One of the reasons that Collins became so intrigued with the Newark site is that the Great Circle at Newark is quite similar to the circular Avebury site in England. The earthwork and stone circle of Avebury is virtually identical in size to the Great Circle at Newark and both have a similar outer embankment and moat. Utilizing a computer astronomy program, Collins ran the data from the Newark site back to 100 B.C., the time that Newark was at its height. He found that two hours before sunrise at the midsummer, the Milky Way stood straight up as viewed from the top of the effigy mound toward the only opening. Following the Milky Way to the center of the sky—directly overhead of the bird effigy mound, was Cygnus. I later obtained the same results using a different astronomy program.

In an internet article issued by archaeologist William F. Romain in November 2005 titled, "Newark Earthwork Design Iteration II," Romain asserted that, "On the date of the summer solstice therefore, the Great Hopewell Road would mirror on earth the direction of the celestial Milky Way." Romain also specifically mentions the visibility of Cygnus in the alignments and affirms Collins idea that the Milky Way (and Cygnus) were focal points of belief. Romain states, "...many Native American peoples - including the Apache (Curtis 1011:34), Pawnee (Von Del Chamberlain 1982: 113), Cheyenne (Curtis 1911: 158), Sioux (Powers 1975: 53, 93) and Shoshone (Mooney 1896: 290) believed the Milky Way was the path deceased souls traveled to reach the Otherworld."