People who ascend a high mountain ridge in Wyoming are greeted by a collection of rocks carefully laid out in a geometric design. Visitors to southwestern Ohio marvel at the sight of a mammoth earthwork shaped like an undulating snake. A maze of stone walls, chambers, and other structures perched on a hill in New Hampshire lives up to its nickname of “America’s Stonehenge.”
If you’re under the impression that archaeology is a dull, mind-numbing subject of interest only to scientists, think again. Sites throughout the United States relate fascinating chapters of human history through artifacts and other remnants of people who once lived in the area. An internet search is likely to reveal the location of one or more within a short commute from where you live.
Take that mountaintop rock pile in the Bighorn National Forest in Wyoming. It’s one of many places around the country where the life of Native Americans is told through objects, inscriptions, and other remnants.
The main feature of the Bighorn Medicine Wheel is a circular pattern of stones some 82 feet in diameter. A pile of rocks called a cairn is in the center, and 28 radial lines extend out from it. Some of those spokes indicate the direction of the rise of the Earth’s sun and other stars at various times. While the wheel was used by members of many different tribes, as is true for other archaeological sites, who built it remains a mystery.
Another unanswered riddle is why an important earthen monument in northern Louisiana was abandoned around 1100 B.C. after so much effort went into building it. The Poverty Point World Heritage Site was made by Native Americans who sculpted nearly 2 million cubic yards of soil into a 72-foot-high mound, concentric half-circles, and other shapes.
