The Museum’s entrance directly faces the monumental gateway of the Great Circle enclosure. This may be the best preserved of the geometric earthworks not just in Newark, but anywhere in Ohio. It’s a gigantic circular enclosure, 1200 feet from crest to crest. Four football fields would fit across it end to end. The walls vary in height from 4 feet up to 14 at the monumental gateway.

The design is typical of many earlier, Adena earthworks: a ring, with an interior ditch and a gateway opening to the east. But here, people coming from other parts of the complex would enter the most dramatic portal anywhere in their cultural world: a sign preparing them for the ceremonies at the circle’s heart.

The Great Circle Gateway, seen from the Museum, Eagle Mound in the center distance. Photo by Tim Black.