02/09/2023.
Today is the day that the moon sets (at 9:29am) north of the equator, crosses it, and then rises (at 9:56pm) south of the equator on its way to the next austral (southern) lunistice. There's not a whole lot to see, so I'm going to use the occasion to show you how to design the Octagon.
You will need to watch the attached animation. There are a few points I want to make about it, but so as not to spoil the animation, I'll add those points at the end.
Click to start.You should be amazed that we had to do nothing to pick up the Minor Standstill alignments. They don't align perfectly, and the indigenous peoples of the Hopewell culture had to nudge the "designed" Octagon slightly to pick them up more accurately, but even without that they are very close.
These near-alignments occur because Newark sits in a fairly narrow band of latitudes where it works. John Low has often said that the Newark site is not sacred because that is where the Earthworks are; the Earthworks are there because the site is sacred. I suspect this union of alignments added to that consciousness of sacredness.
Notice this design says nothing about how the area of Observatory Circle and the area of Wright Square are nearly equal; nor how the perimeter of Wright Square is nearly the same as the circumference of the Great Circle. Those fall out automatically without needing a way to measure areas. They are predetermined. It is difficult to make the argument that they were put there deliberately as part of the design. However, if those measurements are noticed after-the-fact, they could be another reason for the Newark Earthworks to be considered sacred.
You may also have noticed that Wright Square extends not to the middle of each Entry Mound, but to the face each entryway, not top. In this context, the face really is the important part of entering. And besides, that's what works.
I fully realize that I might be doing "special pleading" to make this claim, since the other mounds have been measured from their high points. I have to admit that the size of Wright Square is another accident (and, in fact, I have another, differerent way I can come up with its size). But that is part of the problem with looking at 2,000 year old constructions.
[Note added 09/02/2025. It's still not clear to me whether areas were involved, since many of the connections here are close, not exact. So take this with a grain of salt.]
Most of this animation follows observations and analysis by Hively & Horn, though I did independently notice the inscribing of the Great Circle. I did come up with the little green square, though—I am unaware of anybody else having noticed it.