Horns Hill Moundbuilder Burial Site

This monument represents the burial site of a moundbuilder. An excavation of a mound was conducted in 1933 by E.F. Greenman curator of the archaeology of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society. An article in the Newark Advocate on October 7, 1933, described the event. "The burial was a sub-floor internment, that is the body was placed in a grave or a crypt before the floor of the mound. in this case, the friends of the deceased Moundbuilder dug a shallow grave, placed the body apparently in a flexed position on its side, and then laboriously carried the clay, some of it from the creek bed 300 feet below, and constructed the mound.

Dr. Greenman and his workmen found only a few fragments of bones. These included a small portion of the pelvis, a part of one of the leg bones, and some fragments of the ribs. A single piece of flint, apparently a broken arrowhead, was the only thing in the nature of artifacts found.

The archaeologist offered it as his theory that the mound represented the burial place and monument of a tribe of Moundbuilders of the Adena culture which made a temporary camp in this section. Sometime after the burial, the tribe decided to move on to a new location, and the tribesman sank a shaft in the mound, removed the skull and more important bones, which were taken with them to their new home. Apparently, some sort of sacrificial ceremony accompanied the removal of the bones, because two layers of charcoal, each separated by a thin layer of clay, were found immediately over the burial chamber.

Some evidence was found in the soil of the burial crypt indicating the position in which the body lay. Faint traces of the spinal column were recognized."

In November of 1933, this monument was erected. In October 2009, the City of Newark restored and rededicated the monument.