Traveler's Guide to Ancient Ohio

Featuring the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks

Traveler’s Guide to Ancient Ohio is a compact, richly illustrated, and in-depth travel guide to the Indigenous earthwork wonders of southern Ohio-some of the most extraordinary ancient monuments in North America. Featuring the eight newly inscribed UNESCO World Heritage sites, this is the first publication to present these places from a traveler’s perspective, offering deeply informative site descriptions alongside curated routes to historical, scenic, and natural treasures across the region.

Southern Ohio’s landscape is layered with millennia of human history. At its heart are the monumental Adena and Hopewell earthworks-vast ceremonial constructions that reflect the ingenuity and spiritual life of ancient Indigenous cultures. This guide helps readers understand these sites as rewarding architectural experiences, enriched by archaeological, historical, and Indigenous knowledge gathered over three decades of collaborative work.

Organized into eight scenic driving routes-including the World Heritage Route and seven tributary paths-the book connects earthworks with nearby historic towns, nature preserves, waterways, and cultural landmarks. Each route emphasizes two-lane roads and includes road-tested site addresses, with links to local tourism resources for updated travel information.

Introductory sections provide essential context on regional geography, Indigenous cultures, archaeological terminology, and travel logistics. The guide’s focus on on-site appreciation is rare among existing resources, making it invaluable for both pre-visit planning and on-the-ground exploration.

Detailed route and trail descriptions are coordinated with all-new maps, plans, and photographs. The book links to multimedia assets, including animated flyovers that help visualize the earthworks and interview excerpts that deepen interpretive storytelling through Indigenous and interdisciplinary voices.

For first-time visitors and seasoned explorers, Traveler’s Guide to Ancient Ohio offers a fresh, immersive way to experience the region’s ancient wonders and the landscapes that continue to tell their story.

Author Biography

John E. Hancock has architectural degrees from the University of Nebraska and McGill University in Montreal. He taught architectural history and design at the University of Cincinnati from 1978 to 2015, directed the architecture graduate programs, and, since the late 1990s, has produced many multimedia programs about Ohio’s earthworks. He also served as the principal author and photographer for the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks UNESCO World Heritage nomination dossier.