Bournville Mound
Bournville Earthworks · Bournville Mound (33RO14)
Middle Woodland (Hopewell)·Hopewell (Ohio Scioto)·🇺🇸 Ohio, Ross County, United States
About
About Bournville Mound
Circular Hopewell enclosure and burial mound (c.100 BCE–400 CE) on Paint Creek terrace near Bourneville, Ross County, comprising 120-m-diameter circular embankment 2 m high with exterior ditch, central conical mound 5 m high 30 m base with log tomb, and borrow pits. Excavated by Squier & Davis 1846 and by Mills 1906; produced Hopewell bladelets, mica, and Havana cordmarked ceramics. Small hilltop-neighbor outlier in Chillicothe Hopewell cluster between Seip and Hopewell Mound Group, demonstrating Hopewell circular geometric canon.
Why it mattersPristine small Hopewell circular enclosure illustrating geometric earthwork variation within Chillicothe cluster.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Circular vs square geometric choice adjacent to Seip square
Theories
- 01Bournville as seasonal mortuary camp for Chillicothe elite processional route
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.100 BCE–400 CE
- Period
- Middle Woodland (Hopewell)
- Culture
- Hopewell (Ohio Scioto)
- Builders
- Hopewell (Ross County)
- Purpose
- Circular ceremonial enclosure and burial mound plaza
- Abandoned
- c.400 CE
- Rediscovered
- Squier & Davis 1846
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
On the ground
Structures & features
39.2830° N · 83.1620° W · 220 m · 2 mapped features
Circular enclosure
earthwork120 m ring bank 2 m high with exterior ditch encircling plaza
39.2835° N · 83.1620° WCentral conical mound
mound5 m high log-tomb burial mound at center of circle
39.2828° N · 83.1618° W