You could think of Sacra Via Park as the remains of an ancient road. Sacra Via (Latin for “Sacred Way”) is part of the extensive Marietta Earthworks network (sometimes called Indian mounds) constructed around 1,500 years ago. This was no ordinary road as we think of it today. It was 150 feet wide, 3 blocks long, descending on a uniform grade, with the center slightly raised like modern roads are for drainage. And it was built with manual labor – all testimony to the engineering genius of the Hopewell Culture.
Imagine that you are standing where the small figures appear in Charles Sullivan's charcoal sketch of the original Sacra Via. You are facing Harmar Hill and the Muskingum River. The sun is low in the sky, perhaps a reminder that Sacra Via and other Marietta earthworks align perfectly with the winter solstice sunset. You are dwarfed by the rounded earth structures on either side. This was dramatically different from the level park of today.
Parallel earthen walls bounded the Sacra Via parkway for a length of 680 feet from Third Street to the Muskingum River. The rounded walls were 40 feet wide and 8-10 ft high. The road/pathway was excavated below the surrounding terrain. It was 8 ft below grade at the upper end but steepened to 18-20 ft near the river, creating the effect seen in the sketch. The earth would have towered 30 feet in the air as you stood in this area, as tall as the two-story houses there today.
Fortunately, Marietta’s first pioneers set aside these earthwork sites for preservation, implementing what one historian called the first historic preservation ordinance in the country in 1788. Not only were they to be protected in perpetuity but also landscaped for public enjoyment. Unfortunately, the Sacra Via earthworks are not there today. What happened? It was a colossal failure of governance in the mid-1800s. City Council allowed the earth to be removed, leveled, and sold to a local brick maker.
The Marietta Earthworks, in addition to serving cultural purposes, are among structures built by civilizations around the world that marked solstice solar and lunar events. Newark Earthworks in Ohio is one excellent example among Hopewell structures, recently named as a UNESCO World Heritage site. We are fortunate that some major features of Marietta Earthworks survive today. They remind us of our unique heritage, hiding in plain sight and often taken for granted, shared with ancient cultures around the world.
For more extensive discussion of the Marietta Earthworks, search the earlymarietta blog using that term.
Thanks to Wesley Clarke, Archaeologist at The Castle Museum, for his review of this article.
Sources:
Baker, David, “Marietta Earthworks,” earlymarietta blog,
Book of Mormon Evidence, “Buildings/Hidden Cities/Great Hopewell Road/Graded Ways,” 11/9/2023
Squire and Davis sketch of Marietta Earthworks with measurements of Sacra Via
Pickard, Bill, “It’s That Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” ohiohistory.org, archaeology blog, 12/10/10
