Serpent Mound Attribution Debate

Record summary

Great Serpent Mound became a major subject of nineteenth-century antiquarian mapping, excavation, and debate over which Indigenous tradition created it. Early writers often attributed monumental earthworks to a vanished “Mound Builder” race, while later archaeology increasingly related the monument to Indigenous societies of the Woodland period, with continuing discussion of construction phases and dating. The case matters because it illustrates how a supposed mystery can be explained through regional cultural chronology without erasing uncertainty. Researchers should compare nineteenth-century surveys with modern excavation and dating evidence.