Tim Jordan, Guest Columnist Published 12:27 p.m. ET Oct. 18, 2020

The sun shines over the Great Circle in Newark, Thursday, August 20, 2020.(Photo: Courtney Hergesheimer/ The Columbus Dispatch)

We talk a lot about greatness, but what do we mean by great?

In my work as both an interpreter and a writing instructor, tangibles and intangibles are important. Tangibles are things that can be measured or understood through the senses. Intangibles are value statements that, while important, are best understood when paired with tangibles.

Greatness is an intangible. So, again, what do we mean by great?

With the Great Circle, size certainly comes into play. Encompassing an area of 30 acres and with a diameter of 1,200 feet, it is huge, tremendous (two other intangibles). Put differently, four football fields would fit end-to-end across it, or the Great Pyramid of Giza could sit inside of it.

Greatness can be more than size. It can include vision.

The Great Circle is just one of four interconnected sites that once made up the Newark Earthworks. The Octagon and its attached Observatory Circle also still stand, but they were connected by walkways to a square and to an oval shape. The more than four miles that these shapes and walkways covered are impressive enough, but an underlying use of geometry further unifies Newarks sites. For one example, the 1,050-foot diameter of Observatory Circle when multiplied by six equals the distance between the centers of Observatory and the Great Circles. As another, the perimeter of the square shape and the circumference of the Great Circle are equal. All parts of the Newark Earthworks are pulled together on both material and geometric levels into a unified statement.

Tim Jordan, guest columnist(Photo: Submitted)

Greatness can include artistry.

There is beauty in the earthworks use of geometry, but their architecture is also stunning. Standing inside the Great Circle and looking back toward its gateway, the twelve-foot sides of its opening are noticeably the high-points of the wall. Both sides quickly taper down and level-off, so an artificial horizon encompasses most of the sites 30 acres. We dont know if this horizon relates to any sort of celestial alignment, as we see with a number of other earthworks sites, but it is a remarkable aesthetic. Below this level wall is the Great Circles moat, which we speculate held water. The resulting juxtaposition of water, earth, and sky overlaps with the rich imagery and themes of much American Indian mythology.

Greatness can include community.

The scale, geometric knowledge, architectural aesthetic, and apparent symbolism of the Great Circle all point toward the deep investment of many people to achieve such end results. Archaeologists would also point to this effort being one that was peaceful, noting that human remains from burials of this time period show few signs of traumatic injuriesno spearpoints embedded in rib cages or crushed skulls, the kinds of injuries that would point to warfare and violence.

These dimensions of ancient American Indians greatness go beyond the Great Circle. The Octagon with its eight lunar alignments in an 18.6-year cycle is magnificent. So is Fort Ancient, a 3.5-mile hilltop enclosure in Oregonia that incorporates solar alignments. So too are the sites that make up Hopewell Culture National Historical Park in Chillicothe, a sampling of five of the dozens of earthworks that once stood along twelve miles of the Scioto River. Together, these eight earthworks sites across three communities make up the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks nomination for World Heritage. Our communities opportunity to bring these sites to an international stage is a chance to join todays American Indians in celebrating the achievements of Ohios ancient people, their ancestors.

That too would be great.

Dr. Tim Jordan provides interpretation and site management for the Newark Earthworks and Flint Ridge Ancient Quarries and Nature Preserve. He is also on the English faculties of Ohio University Zanesville and Zane State College.

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Jordan: The Greatness of the Great Circle - The Newark Advocate