Long Shadows Over the Valley: Findings from ASC Group’s Excavations at Serpent Mound State Memorial

September 13, 2013.

"In 2011, ASC Group, Inc. (ASC), a Cultural Resource Management (CRM) firm headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, conducted excavations of an area southeast of Serpent Mound and in close proximity to a large conical mound. Headed by principal investigator Kevin Schwarz, the dig represented one of just a handful of archaeological investigations at Serpent Mound State Memorial since Harvard’s Frederic Ward Putnam conducted the initial excavations at Serpent Mound in the late 1880s. ASC’s work was made possible by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, which provides a requirement for this kind of investigation prior to development that may impact an important archaeological site.  ASC’s findings expanded upon those made by Putnam (1890) over 100 years earlier, shedding new light on the mysteries surrounding Serpent Mound (Figure 1) and its native contemporaries. Most notably, the discovery of a feature dating to the Fort Ancient period carries implications for understanding the relationship between early and late occupants of the plateau where Serpent Mound sits (Schwarz and Lamp 2012). Read Entire Article (PDF)"-Daniel Weintraub & Kavin R. Schwarz

For more information, visit the Ohio Archaeological Council's Website.