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Fort Ancient (33 WA 2) is a collection of Native American earthworks located in Washington Township, Warren County, Ohio, along the eastern shore of the Little Miami River about seven miles (11 km) southeast of Lebanon on State Route 350. The site is the largest prehistoric hilltop enclosure in the United States with three and one-half miles (18,000 ft) of walls in a complex. Built by the Hopewell peoples, who lived in the area from the 1st century BC to the 6th century AD, the site is situated on a wooded bluff above the Little Miami. It is the namesake of a culture known as Fort Ancient, who lived near the complex long after it was constructed. Maintained as a state historical park, the site was designated a National Historic Landmark for its significance. In addition, this is part of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, one of 14 sites nominated in January 2008 by the U.S. Department of the Interior for potential submission by the United States to the UNESCO World Heritage List.〔("Secretary Kempthorne Selects New U.S. World Heritage Tentative List" ), Dept. of Interior (posted by Octagonmoonrise), 22 Jan 2008, accessed 5 Dec 2008〕 ==Construction== The Fort Ancient earthworks were built in three stages over an estimated 400-year period. The shoulder blades of deer, split elk antlers, clam shell hoes, and digging sticks were used to loosen the dirt, and baskets holding 35 to 40 pounds were used to carry and distribute it. Archaeologists estimate the total volume of earth in the walls at . The site was visited and surveyed in by John Lock in 1843. In Edwin Hamilton Davis and Ephraim George Squier's ''Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley'', they described Fort Ancient as "one of the most extensive, if not the most extensive, work...in the entire West", regarding its size. Warren K. Moorehead conducted some of the initial excavations at Fort Ancient in 1887 and published his research in 1891 in the book ''Fort Ancient: Great Prehistoric Warren County Ohio''.〔Moorehead, Warren K. ''Fort Ancient: The Great Prehistoric Earthwork'' 1891, AMS Press.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Fort Ancient (Lebanon, Ohio)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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