Mariemont is a hilltop Fort Ancient serpentine-shaped earthwork located in Hamilton County, Ohio. High-resolution magnetic susceptibility analysis, ground-truthed with radiocarbon dating, demonstrates that it was built during the Little Ice Age, a cold and dry climatic downturn. Detailed geological and geographic analyses show that the earthwork was a gravity-fed hydraulic structure, which channeled precipitation and surface runoff to the protohistoric Madisonville site where cultigens were grown in a highly fertile, but drought prone loess soil. The serpentine shape of the earthwork may also be related to water symbolism found in the creation stories of Algonquian and Iroquoian speaking peoples.
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