On the interior attached ditch enclosures of the middle and upper Ohio Valley*

I wish to thank Peter Dunham, George Hammel, and Richard Leventhal for reading and commenting on earlier versions of the manuscript, and Michelle Lyons and Susan Dauria who assisted me in assembling the data.

This paper summarizes data collected from the literature on 123 interior attached ditch enclosures ("sacred enclosures") of the Middle and Upper Ohio River Valley. In addition to the data summary it isolates two structural elements‐dirt and water—that were employed consistently in the construction of sacred spaces beginning about 2300 B.P. These same two elements reappear in the historic mythology of the region. It is proposed that the enclosures represent a material expression of the creation of the world as an historical event. Thus, the creation of a sacred place for ritual was also a recreation of the cosmos as related historically in the Earth Diver myth.

Notes

I wish to thank Peter Dunham, George Hammel, and Richard Leventhal for reading and commenting on earlier versions of the manuscript, and Michelle Lyons and Susan Dauria who assisted me in assembling the data.