1805 Harris View of the Ancient Works along the Muskingum River, Ohio

This is an 1805 Thaddeus Mason Harris view of the 'ancient works' along the Muskingum River in Ohio, known today as the Marietta Earthworks. The view depicts the earthworks in some detail, although all that is easily discernable is the different shapes of individual 'works'. In his book The Journal of a Tour into the Territory Northwest of the Alleghany Mountains, Harris describes how even the 'most inquisitive antiquarians' have been 'hitherto baffled' by the earthworks. Harris describes the location and appearance of the earthworks as well, 'The situation of these works is on an elevated plain, above the present bank of the Muskingum, on the east side, and about half a mile from its junction with the Ohio. They consist of walls and mounds of earth in direct lines, and in square and circular forms.' When The Journal of a Tour was published, it was believed that the earthworks were around 400 to 450 years old. Since then, archaeologists have dated the site's construction to between 100 BCE and 500 CE and have also definitively identified the works as having been constructed by the Hopewell Culture. Numerous sites like the one at Marietta are located at several different sites around Ohio.

This view was published by Thaddeus Mason Harris in his book The Journal of a Tour into the Territory Northwest of the Alleghany Mountains... in 1805.