Ancient American Indians in eastern North America built a variety of earthworks over many centuries and for many different purposes.
Ohio’s Adena culture, around 2,300 years ago, built conical burial mounds and small, circular earthen enclosures. The succeeding Hopewell culture built huge enclosures in a variety of shapes. And about 1,000 years ago, the Fort Ancient culture built at least two mounds in the shapes of animals – the Great Serpent Mound in Adams County and the so-called Alligator Mound, actually an Underwater Panther, in Licking County.
Both the Great Serpent and the Underwater Panther are powerful spirits of the Beneath World in the traditions of many American Indian tribes.