The Stubbs Earthwork: Serpent Effigy or Simple Embankment

Abstract

The once monumental Stubbs earthwork in southwestern Ohio was destroyed by sand and gravel mining operations in the early 1970s. Before its demise, the Stubbs earthwork, or effigy, as it was more commonly called, was the subject of more than a century of often acrimonious debate concerning its original configuration. No one disagreed that the embankment was of prehistoric creation, but there was a sharp division between those arguing that it was a serpent effigy and those claiming it to be a simpler and non-representational earthwork. The various viewpoints are herein presented and examined and heretofore unpublished fieldnotes on the site's original excavation by young archaeologist, Harlan Smith, brought to light.