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Cowan Creek Circular Enclosure

Clinton County, US

Cowan Creek Circular Enclosure

The Cowan Creek Circular Enclosure (33CN11) is an earthworks complex in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. Named for its location near the stream known as Cowan Creek, the enclosure is an important archaeological site, and it is protected as part of a state park. The Cowan Creek Circul

ar Enclosure is not easily visible to the average observer on the ground. A survey conducted in 1949 observed that the enclosure was approximately 90 feet (27 m) wide, but even at that time, it had virtually no height; the only practical method of observing the site's extent was via aerial photography. Most of what is known of the site is derived from a related site not far away from the enclosure. The latter site, known as the "Cowan Creek Mound", was excavated in 1949; archaeological work revealed that the mound had been constructed circa AD 500, near the end of the period during which the Adena culture inhabited the region. This mound was part of a substantially larger group: more than twenty burial mounds were located along Cowan Creek near the enclosure, but little is known about most of them: by the time that Raymond Baby was leading the Cowan Creek Mound excavation, a dam on the...

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