Ball State University Archaeologists Claim Mounds State Park North Henge is Aligned to the Equinox. - Not

 Ball State University Archaeologists Claim Mounds State Park North Henge is Aligned to the Equinox. - 

One henge and one earthwork have been found in Ohio that are aligned to the May 1 (Beltane) sunrise. Ball State University Archaeologists claim the North Henge at Mounds State Park is aligned to the Equinox sunrise. Did they not use a compass? In the History of Madison County, Indiana 1888, the north henge (Circle Mound) axis was measured at 67 degrees East. This is not true east, but north of east. This cannot align to the Equinox.  67 degrees is the May 1 (Beltane) sunrise.    

This Google Earth looking west into the gateway of the North Henge (Circle Mound). From the directional icon on the far right, you can see that the alignment is not true east. North of east at 67-degree alignment is Beltane May 1 sunrise. 

   The assumption of an equinox sunrise by Ball State archaeologists must have been done by dead reckoning.  Had they used a compass they would have known this is not aligned east. So much for the heralded Scientific Method. 

 In 2023 Mounds State Park welcomed people to join and witness the Equinox sunrise at the North Henge. Surprisingly, there were no photos. Wonder why? There were no posts to come to the fall equinox alignment either. 

   The May 1 alignment causes some trouble with archaeologists who don't believe in diffusion. The universities have doubled down with their belief that Native Americans were using the Pythagorean Theorem to build the geometric earthworks. The Pythagorean Theorem has been found and recognized by The Ohio History Connection and Ball State at Newark Ohio and Winchester, Indiana earthworks. 

I think the use of the word "Henge" to accurately describe the earthworks should be a clue as to whom really built them. 

   

MOUNDS STATE PARK, ANDERSON, INDIANA by Donald R. Cochran Beth K. McCord Illustrations by Aimee Smith Reports of Investigation 61 June 2001 Archaeological Resources Management Service Ball State University Muncie, Indiana 47306

  "Circle Mound Early drawings of the Circle Mound show it as long and narrow with rounded corners and curving sides. More recent maps show the enclosure as more rectangular with rounded corners. It measures 285' long and 225' wide. The ditch is about 30' wide and 5-6 feet deep, and the surrounding embankment varies between 4' and 6' in height. The platform is 148' long and 72' wide. The west end of the platform and a small area just to the left of the entrance are higher than the surrounding platform surface. Whether these higher areas represent artificial mounds is not currently known. The gateway is at the east end and the long axis of the enclosure is aligned due east and west. A park trail crosses the central platform and west wall of the enclosure. Two small mounds were situated on either side of the entrance and abutting the embankment. Both of these have been badly reduced in height by plowing as they were at the edge of a cultivated field. These small mounds were about 3feet high and 25 feet wide. The long axis of the enclosure lies on an east to west line. The sun would shine through the gateway and down the central platform at the equinox sunrise (September 21 and March 21). Sunset at these two dates would also fall on a line through the center of the enclosure and the gateway. The enclosure is also constructed in such a way that diagonal alignments through opposite corners mark sunset and sunrise alignments to the winter and summer solstice."

"The sun would shine," you never checked?

May 1 Beltane Sunrise and October 31 Samhain Sunset at Mounds State Park, Anderson, Indiana

 The north henge at Mounds State Park will be the third earthwork in the Ohio Valley to be aligned with the May 1 Beltane sunrise and the October 31 Samhain sunset.  

In the history of Madison County, Indiana, the north henge (Circle Mound) orientation was measured at 67 degrees North. Their map of the earthwork clearly shows that it is not on an east-west axis. Why are the docent archaeologists at Mounds Staye Park claiming that the gateway is aligned to the equinox sunrise?

History of Madison County, Indiana, 1880

 “On the same section of land, but a half mile farther up the river, and on the same side of the stream, there is another cluster of earthworks that are of nearly equal interest; in fact, the principal work A, on plate K, is, in some respects, more remarkable than the large circle on plate E. The outline is of irregular shape-constricted on one end and at the sides; at the other end there is a gateway (D) 9 feet wide, protected by two small mounds (B) and (C), now about 4 feet high. The wall is 30 to 35 feet wide at the base, and about 4 feet high; ditch 8 feet wide. A central line through the longer way is north 67 degrees east and 296 feet long; it is 160 feet across at the widest and 150 feet across at the narrowest part--near the middle. With the exception of the two mounds at the gateway, which lie on the cultivated side of a section fence, and have been cut down by the plow, the remainder antiquity is in as good state of preservation as when deserted by its original occupants. Large trees are growing over it, and the underbrush is so thick that it was difficult to obtain accurate measurements; in fact, there is hardly a stick of timber amiss over the ruins.”

Wow, the DNR archaeologists claimed an equinox sunrise alignment at the henge. Why are there no photos? I read from a university archaeological department that this henge and gateway were aligned with the equinox sunrise. I had dismissed this work as a possibility for aligning with the May 1  - October 31 sunrise and sunset.

   After finding a website that gave the angle of the sunrises and sunsets, the old histories of these measurements could be deciphered. The people working for the DNR at Mounds State Park are nice and very knowledgeable on the grounds. They got some bad intel from our experts at one of the universities. 

On May 1, at Mounds State Park the sun will rise at 69 degrees N.; it will be at 68 degrees by the 3rd and 67 degrees by May 6. Earth wobble over two thousand years accounts for the discrepancy. When I photographed the May 1 sunrise at an Ohio Henge the sun rose visibly on the gateway. The actual alignment was May 5, so few days discrepancy is accurate. It will" appear" perfectly aligned on May 1; then, on October 31, you can stand outside the gateway looking west, and the sun will set in the gateway once flanked by two mounds. The place to be on Halloween dusk!!!

In the History of Madison County, Indiana the earthwork was aligned to 67 degrees north.

According to timeanddate.com (graph above) the earthwork's eastern gateway will align to the Beltane sunrise.

On October 31 the sun will set in the west and align with the henge's eastern gateway.