To bring things over to our shore we’ll highlight something that is probably just as significant but more often overlooked. We’ll look at the Neolithic earth art of North America. There are a number of pieces of "earth art" attributed to the first nations people of North America, These mounds vary greatly in size and shape as well as in the date of their creation. They also vary in purpose, but the most interesting of these mounds are the "effigy mounds" that have been crafted in the shape of animals, presumably the totems of the tribes that produced them. The most spectacular of them is The Great Serpent Mound.
 |
A snake some 1400 feet long that slithers along the crest of a ridge by a small river in southern Ohio. The huge head occupies the highest point and is marked by a heap of stones that may at one point have been an altar. It appears that the natural formation of the land may have inspired this shape. |
