Saturday, August 24, 2024

Ancient Indiana Travel: Six Ancient Sun Temples (Henges) in Indiana Dating 500 B.C.- 200 A.D.

 

Six Ancient Sun Temples (Henges) in Indiana Dating 500 B.C.- 200 A.D.

Ancient Indiana Travel

  There are eighty-five burial mounds and earthworks in Indiana! Only three sites are registered as historic sites or preserved. Most notable are the three henge complexes made to align with the sun, moon, and bright stars in New Castle, Cambridge City, and Mounds State Park in Anderson.
They date as early as 500 B.C - 200 A.D. The same people constructed the rectangular enclosure in Winchester to align with the solstices that created a Pythagorean triangle within the work. Indiana archaeologists reported this with another Pythagorean triangle formed in the spacing of the Newark, Ohio earthworks and recognized by Brad Lepper, curator of Archaeology at the Ohio History Connection. Near the Winchester work was another square earthwork at Fountain City that was constructed to be numerically harmonic with the lengths of the walls at Winchester. Winchester's east-west earthen walls were 1320 feet, and the north-south walls were 1080 feet. Fountain City consisted of four 780-foot walls. 1320 - 780 = 540, 540 + 540 = 1080.  Knowledge of pi, squaring circles, geometry, trigonometry, surveying...these people's math was as advanced as the rulers of Babylon from 2,000 B.C. - 1600 B.C. called the Amorites. They were one of the giant tribes accounted for in the Bible. 
    When you visit the earthworks, you will know that they are far more than piles of dirt.
    I believe the Amorites were the Adena mound builders. I think the Dakota Sioux were the Hopewell mound builders. The advanced mathematics used in constructing the geometric earthworks is not of Native American origin. Building henges as astronomical calendars are identical to those found in the British Isles with Amorite origins. In England, we have conical burial mounds surrounded by earthwork or moat, and we also find it is a type of burial mound in the Ohio Valley. There are too many similarities to suggest they are independent of one another. 
   Political correctness is the driving force behind the narrative of universities. Only recently have the universities acknowledged the Pythagorean triangles with the doctrine that if you believe the Native Americans didn't figure it out, it is deemed racist.

1.) Mounds State Park, Anderson, Indiana Burial Mound and Henge Complex
        There were ten henge groups in Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky. The best preserved is Mounds State Park. The Great henge was constructed to align with the solstices and bright stars. The burial mound in the center of the henge's platform was aligned to the solstices for two thousand years before being destroyed by university archaeologists ignorant to its importance as a solar marker. Two earthworks are still visible but not marked by the park. 



The importance of the burial mound in the central platform is visible in this map of the henge's alignments. Universities destroyed the mound: they should rebuild it. The small work aligned to Fomalhaut is still visible but not marked. The outer wall has dips like a great serpent surrounding the central platform, these dips were made to align to stars and the solstices.

The importance of the burial mound in the central platform is visible in this map of the henge's alignments. Universities destroyed the mound: they should rebuild it.
   A henge is described as an earthwork with an interior ditch and an outer wall with a gateway that is generally aligned to a solar event. (This is an exception). The deep ditch initially held water.

To the north of the previous henge is this panduriform shaped henge that is aligned to the May 1 Beltane sunrise. The sun will also set on the gateway to the west on October 31.


2.) New Castle, Indiana Burial Mound and Henge Complex
 
    Despite Ball State University all but destroyed the jewel of Indiana's antiquities, which was the loaf-shaped burial mound surrounded by a deep ditch. Most of this burial is gone except for the ditch that surrounded it. There are still four henges visible, along with two burial mounds. This site is on public land but is not preserved or recognized as a historic site.
    
New Castle, Indiana henge complex.

You can only see the remnants of this mound and earthwork site in winter when the high grass has died. The ditch around the large mound is visible, along with the henge, a burial mound to the west. To the south, in the woods, three henges can be seen. 

This is the large loaf-shaped burial mound oriented to the east with a surrounding earthwork and ditch (much like a henge) before Ball State University archaeologists all but destroyed it. 


I am standing in the middle of the now-destroyed burial mound, looking west on the Equinox when the sun aligns with the two burial mounds. You can see the surrounding ditch in the foreground.

To the west of the loaf-shaped burial mound were two henges, one easier to see than the other. The outer walls of the henge are highlighted in the photo. One of the better-preserved henges is to the south.



Also, in New Castle, Indiana, this single henge has a gateway aligned to the winter solstice sunrise. The henge is located next to the High School in a public park.

Cambridge City, Indiana Henge Complex

    The Cambridge City Henge Complex has been plowed for a hundred years, yet the largest henge is still visible in cultivated fields. Originally, the southern henge was the same dimensions as the Mounds State Park henge at 210 feet in diameter. 
     It is hard to define, but the southern henge's gateway is a little north of east and may have been aligned to the May 1, Beltane sunrise. 
     One interesting feature at the site was a cut made in the earth to make a graded way that led from the center of the two henges to the creek below.
    Three major henge sites in Indiana, all within twenty miles of one another, make this the henge capital of the Ohio Valley. That only one is being preserved shows that Indiana needs to be made aware of the economic value of having these prehistoric remains utilized as travel destinations. 


The Indiana Geological Survey did this map of the Cambridge City works in about 1915. The original map shows that the southern henge was aligned to the east and the northern henge to what appears to be the summer solstice sunrise. Between the two henges you can see where the cut was made that lead down to the West Branch of the White River.

A LIDAR photograph of the site reveals that the southern henge may align with the May 1 Beltane sunrise. The Beltane alignment also occurs at the North Panduriform henge at Mounds State Park. The LIDAR image reveals that the northern henge was not circular in shape but a panduriform. The gateway appears to be aligned with the equinox sunrise. There are as many as thirteen smaller earthen circles at this site.

This photograph was taken on the cut's western side, looking east towards the earthworks. The sacred way connected the sun temples in the upper world to the water in the lower world. This geographical aspect also occurs at Mounds State Park and New Castle, where the burial mounds and henges were built on high bluffs overlooking a river. 

This is what the southern henge looks like today. It is still an impressive ancient sun temple.

Yorktown Indiana Henge

    A history of Delaware County mentioned in 1881 that near Yorktown, there was "one of those enclosures … of the class know as fortifications." I went to this site in or about 2006 and talked to the landowner, who complained that Ball State University archaeologists were trespassing on their land without even asking permission. They would have been given permission had they asked. Instead, they were asked not to return.
  Ball State archaeologists wrote in their report, "The site retains integrity and is one of only two surviving examples of isolated circular enclosures in east central Indiana."  Another isolated henge in Delaware County was destroyed by farming. A single henge still exists in New Castle, Indiana, and another in Allen County, Indiana.

Yorktown's henge gateway is aligned with the summer solstice sunrise. This is the first earthwork that the Archaeological Conservatory purchased." This is good since Indiana has no plans to preserve anything.

The interior ditch of the henge holds water as it was originally intended to do.

Fort Wayne, Indiana Henge


The henge is located north of Fort Wayne on the St. Joseph and is the northernmost of all the sun temples. I was at this site on the Equinox sunrise, and there was no alignment that I believed would line up on the Beltane sunrise of May 1.  Three other henges in Indiana and Ohio have this May 1 sunrise alignment that hints that a Celtic people once inhabited these regions.