Search places, or jump to a section
Tagsearthwork
54 places carry this tag, across every kind and continent it appears in.
🇧🇷 Brazil · Ancient city
Late Pre-Columbian (800–1600 CE) · Upper Xingu / ancestral Kuikuro Arawak
Eastern plaza K10 of Kuhikugu cluster on Seki East — 12 ha plaza with ditch and 1.2 km causeway.
🇧🇷 Brazil · Geoglyph
Late Pre-Columbian (200 BCE – 900 CE) · Acre (Beni) geoglyph builders
Western Acre Capixaba 300 m circle ditch 3 m deep with embankment and 120 m square 2 m high under pasture — causeway 400 m links.
🇧🇷 Brazil · Geoglyph
Late Pre-Columbian (200 BCE – 900 CE) · Acre (Beni) geoglyph builders
Western Acre Capixaba 300 m circle ditch 3 m deep with embankment and 120 m square 2 m high under pasture — causeway 400 m links.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Earthwork
Early to Late Edo Kingdom (800–1897 CE; peak 13th–16th c) · Edo (Bini) / Igodomigodo → Kingdom of Benin
16,000 km of ramparts and 20 m high ditch-bank earthworks enclosing 6,500 km² – world's longest pre-mechanical earthwork.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Middle Woodland to Early Mississippian (Swift Creek–Cartersville) · Woodland (Swift Creek) / Early Mississippian
Moated Swift Creek town (300 BCE–650 CE) with 3 mounds and circular ditch on Etowah River, Georgia.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Early to Middle Woodland (1000 BCE–300 CE) · Adena – early Hopewell
Paired Adena (1000–100 BCE) and Hopewell-era enclosures on left bank of Scioto 5 mi north of Chillicothe: large 350-m-diameter circular enclosure (12 ac) with interior ditch and 1.5 m embankment plus…
🇯🇵 Japan · Ancient village
Initial to Final Jomon 7000–400 BCE (Jomon 1–6) · Jomon (southern Hokkaido, Minamikayabe)
Long-lived Jomon settlement and ceremonial terrace (c.7000–1000 BCE) at Kakinoshima, Hakodate, Hokkaido — 7.6 ha terrace settlement inhabited 6000 years from Early to Final Jomon, with 400+ pit…
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Middle Woodland Hopewell (100 BCE–200 CE) · Hopewell (Little Miami)
Massive Hopewell enclosure at confluence of Turtle and Little Miami Rivers, 700 m long irregular rectangular enclosure (12 ha) with 1.5 m embankments and deep 2 m exterior ditch, featuring timber…
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Middle Woodland Hopewell (100 BCE–500 CE) · Hopewell tradition
Unusual Hopewell (100 BCE–500 CE) enclosure complex at confluence of Paint Creek and North Fork, comprising nine geometric elements—four circles, two squares, crescents and parallel walls—covering 26…
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Mississippian (Shiloh phase, 1000–1350 CE) · Mississippian (Western Tennessee)
Fortified Mississippian town (1000–1350 CE) with 7 mounds and 2 km palisade on Tennessee River bluff, Shiloh.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Earthwork
Hausa Kingdom of Kano to Sokoto (1095–1807 CE; peak 14th–18th c.) · Hausa (Kano)
Ancient Kano City Walls (Badala) are West Africa's most impressive earthwork: 14 km main wall, 10 m high with 40 m base and moat, plus outer and inner walls totalling 40 km, founded 1095 CE by…
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Middle Woodland (Deptford–Weeden Island, 200 BCE–750 CE) · Deptford–Weeden Island (Florida Woodland)
Woodland plaza center (200 BCE–750 CE) with 6 mounds and Hopewell exotics on Crystal River estuary, Florida.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Plaquemine to Historic Natchez (1200–1730 CE) · Plaquemine / Natchez (Muskogean)
Natchez historic capital (1200–1730 CE) — 3 Plaquemine mounds and plaza where French witnessed 1725 sacrifice.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Mississippian 900–1200 CE (peak 1050–1200) · Mississippian (Cahokia)
Largest earthen structure in the Americas north of Mexico and centerpiece of Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site.
🇯🇵 Japan · Megalith
Final Jomon 1200–800 BCE · Jomon Final Hokkaido
Late Jomon collective burial banked circles (1200–800 BCE) on terrace above Ushiku River at Chitose — 9 embanked circular enclosures diameter 12–75 m built of external ditch and internal bank housing…
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient city
Yoruba Oyo Empire (14th–1835 CE; capital 16th–1835) · Yoruba (Oyo)
Old Oyo (Oyo-Ile, Katunga) is the 16th–19th c. capital of Oyo Empire, 10 km triple earthen walls enclosing 6,000 ha savanna plain with 17 palace compounds (Kobi), council houses and reservoirs.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Middle Woodland Hopewell 100 BCE–500 CE · Hopewell tradition
Hopewell 22 ha circle-square with 321 m Great Circle, UNESCO 2023 unit-of-measure type-site.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Earthwork
Early Neolithic 3800–3600 BCE · Early Neolithic Britons
2.7-km Neolithic processional enclosure predating Stonehenge by 500 years.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient city
Late Medieval Kanem–Bornu (1460–1808 CE) · Kanuri (Kanem–Bornu)
Birnin Gazargamu (1460–1808) was Kanem–Bornu Empire capital, 6.5 km earthen walls 5 m high enclosing palace mound, great mosque 100×50 m and 200 compound mounds on Yo/ Kamadugu Yobe. 15th-c.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Early Woodland, Adena culture 1000 BCE–1 CE (peak 250–150 BCE) · Adena
Largest conical burial mound in North America (62 ft/19 m high, 240 ft/73 m diameter, 60,000 tons earth moved by basket) built by Adena peoples at Moundsville, WV.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Earthwork
Late Neolithic 2400–2300 BCE · Late Neolithic Britons (Grooved Ware)
Europe's tallest prehistoric mound – 39-m artificial hill with unknown purpose.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Hopewell culture 100 BCE–500 CE · Hopewell (Adena descended, Algonquian? cohort)
Hopewell giant geometric enclosures marking 18.6-yr lunar cycle.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Early Woodland Adena 1000–200 BCE · Adena
Second-largest conical mound in Ohio (65 ft/20 m high, 877 ft circumference) and tallest surviving Adena mound, preserved at Miamisburg Mound State Park.
🇺🇸 United States · Earthwork
Middle Woodland Hopewell–Adena 250 BCE–200 CE · Hopewell tradition (Adena antecedent)
Hopewell circular enclosure and Great Mound, 250 BCE–200 CE.