Tag: Mounds

The Politics of the Ohio Mounds: Now that they are UNESCO sites, more than ever, people should visit them

I stood with my family at the Newark Earthworks recently, the Great Circle embracing us in its quiet immensity, and realized how perfectly the moment aligned with something I had waited decades to see. My grandson was there, wide-eyed as only a child can be in the presence of real mystery, and just days earlier, a remarkable new book had appeared on the visitor center shelves: John E. Hancock’s Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks: Landscape Monuments of the Ancient Ohio Valley, published by Smithsonian Books.[^1]

The golf course that had long sat atop the Octagon and Circle was gone, the land being returned to public use as a proper park befitting a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2023, the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks—eight magnificent locations across southern Ohio—received that global recognition.[^2] These are not modest mounds. They are monumental works of landscape architecture whose geometric precision, astronomical alignments, and sheer coordinated effort rival the Pyramids or the Great Wall. The Newark complex alone required millions of hours of labor. The alignments track the Moon’s complex 18.6-year cycle, something that demands sustained, multi-generational observation. Yet for too long these places have been treated as local curiosities rather than one of the great architectural achievements of the ancient world.

Hancock, a retired professor of architecture from the University of Cincinnati, spent his later career studying these earthworks with an architect’s eye. His book is not a conspiracy volume. It is a beautifully produced, evidence-driven work that documents the sites, the advanced mathematics built into them, the trade networks that moved Lake Superior copper, Appalachian mica, and materials from even farther afield.[^3] The Old Copper Complex in the Great Lakes region dates back thousands of years before the Hopewell period, with native copper being cold-hammered into tools and traded across the continent.[^4] The book presents the facts without leaping into speculation, and it does so in a way that finally gives these places the serious treatment they deserve. I had been waiting forty years for someone to write exactly this book.

I attended Hancock’s lecture and book signing at Fort Ancient, another UNESCO site just a short drive from home in Liberty Township. The room was filled with the kind of people I naturally gravitate toward—archaeologists, geologists, anthropologists, and dedicated amateurs who have spent their lives in the field. We geeked out together over the relics and reconstructions. I asked the question many were thinking, but few were voicing: Is the aggressive implementation of NAGPRA—the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990—driven purely by tribal concerns, or has it become a political tool to advance a particular narrative about America’s founding?[^5] The knowing laughter and the honest answer (“a little bit of both”) that came back told me volumes. Tension hung in the room, but so did goodwill.

People who likely disagreed with me on politics, perhaps even those who might protest at the statehouse on other issues, kindly brought me my cowboy hat after the lecture when I had left it behind in my eagerness to get books signed. That small gesture captured what I value most: the ability to find common ground even when bigger differences exist. Hancock signed my copies, and I could sense him relaxing as our conversation progressed from guarded to more open. He has walked a difficult line, working with tribes, the Smithsonian, and UNESCO to secure recognition and preservation for these sites while producing work that respects the evidence without descending into fringe territory. I respect that. Preservation done right—think English Heritage’s stewardship of Stonehenge—benefits everyone. I am grateful these Ohio earthworks are receiving similar attention.

Yet the deeper paradoxes remain. The same institutions and political currents that celebrate the “indigenous achievement” visible in the earthworks are often the ones pushing to remove, repatriate, or, in some cases, effectively bury the very artifacts that might illuminate how such sophisticated knowledge arrived here. Trade in copper and other materials was continent-wide. The mathematics and astronomy required sustained observation and coordination across distances. The timing of the Hopewell period overlaps with the era of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the First and Second Temples. In biblical accounts, high priests and prophets engaged in practices at high places that involved altered states and direct communication with non-human intelligences. Similar mechanisms—shamanic traditions, sacred substances, ritual landscapes—appear in the Ohio Valley. The Holy Stones of Newark, discovered in the nineteenth century near these earthworks and now housed at the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum, add another layer of uncomfortable questions, whether one accepts them as authentic or not.[^6]

I sat for a photograph in front of those stones, a dejected look on my face, because I sometimes wish I didn’t feel compelled to speak on these matters. I would rather play golf, enjoy time with my wife and grandchildren, or focus solely on business and family. But that is not how I am wired. My optimism and verbal facility push me to break down barriers and find common ground. I love academia and the sciences. I dislike seeing their ground seeded with ideological assumptions that prioritize narrative over evidence. These earthworks represent advanced knowledge whose source deserves honest inquiry, not erasure under the guise of repatriation.

This is precisely why I wrote The Politics of Heaven. The book explores the political motives and spiritual warfare at work when non-human intelligences interact with human cultures across time. The same questions arise in biblical history, in shamanic traditions, and now in the accelerating conversation around UAP disclosure. As we push toward the Moon and Mars through efforts like SpaceX, artifacts and anomalies there will make the same uncomfortable questions unavoidable. No repatriation policy or institutional control can bury evidence forever. The genie is out of the bottle.

Hancock’s books—the substantial Smithsonian volume and his compact Traveler’s Guide to Ancient Ohio—are excellent starting points. They are well-illustrated, durable, and filled with practical information for anyone who wants to visit. I encourage everyone within driving distance to do exactly that. Pack a picnic, take the family, and stand inside the Great Circle or walk the ridges at Fort Ancient. See the scale for yourselves. Let the mystery and the achievement speak directly.

I do not come to these subjects as an enemy of science or preservation—quite the contrary. I value the hard work of the people in that Fort Ancient lecture hall and the broader archaeological community. I refuse to accept that the only permissible story is the one that serves contemporary political ends. The earthworks of Ohio are far more significant than the official narrative has traditionally allowed. They point toward deeper truths about human potential, long-distance connection, and the ways knowledge has been transmitted across cultures and perhaps from beyond them.

That is the next great story. It is already reshaping how we understand our past, and it will only grow more urgent as humanity expands outward into the solar system. I intend to keep speaking and writing about it with the same optimism that has always driven me—to find common ground where possible, to ask the questions that matter, and to prepare people for revelations that institutions may prefer to keep quiet. The sites are magnificent. The books are timely. The truth, whatever form it ultimately takes, will not stay buried.

Footnotes

[^1]: John E. Hancock et al., Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks: Landscape Monuments of the Ancient Ohio Valley (Smithsonian Books, 2026).

[^2]: UNESCO World Heritage Center, “Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks,” inscribed September 19, 2023.

[^3]: Hancock’s work emphasizes architectural and landscape analysis, including trade goods.

[^4]: The Old Copper Complex dates to approximately 6500–1000 BCE, with extensive trade networks across North America.

[^5]: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), Public Law 101-601 (1990).

[^6]: The Newark Holy Stones (including the Decalogue Stone) were reportedly discovered by David Wyrick in 1860 near the Newark Earthworks and are housed at the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum in Coshocton, Ohio. Scholarly consensus largely views them as 19th-century artifacts, though they continue to spark debate.

Bibliography

•  Hancock, John E., et al. Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks: Landscape Monuments of the Ancient Ohio Valley. Smithsonian Books, 2026.

•  Hancock, John E. Traveler’s Guide to Ancient Ohio. Ohio University Press, 2026.

•  UNESCO World Heritage Center. “Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks.” https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1689/. Inscribed 2023.

•  Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Public Law 101-601, November 16, 1990.

•  Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum. Information on the Newark Holy Stones. Coshocton, Ohio.

•  Bebber, Michelle R., and others. Studies on the Old Copper Complex radiocarbon dating (various peer-reviewed papers, e.g., Radiocarbon journal).

•  Hoffman, Rich. The Politics of Heaven (manuscript completed 2026, targeting 2027 publication).

Rich Hoffman

More about me

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About the Author: Rich Hoffman

Rich Hoffman is an author, political consultant, and strategic advisor based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the creator of The Politics of Heaven—a unique framework that connects biblical theology, ancient history, and modern power structures to explain how moral alignment and spiritual forces shape global events. Blending real-world political experience with deep research into archaeology, UFO phenomena, and suppressed historical narratives, Hoffman offers compelling commentary on topics ranging from ancient civilizations and the Dead Sea Scrolls to modern populist movements, paranormal continuity, and leadership strategy in chaotic environments. As the author of The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business and the forthcoming Politics of Heaven, he brings a grounded yet provocative voice to media discussions, supported by firsthand experiences and a cross-disciplinary approach that bridges science, history, and theology. For interviews, speaking engagements, or expert analysis, visit richhoffmanbooks.com or contact directly via phone at 513-307-5815 or email at rhoffman@richhoffmanbooks.com.  If you’ve seen the movie, Disclosure Day and want to talk about it and the implications of Presidnet Trump’s UAP disclosures, let me know and we can bring some color to your coverage. https://richhoffmanbooks.com/media-inquiries-broadcast-topics-and-contact-info/?frame-nonce=ad51e7ecba I do have a firsthand UFO encounter to discuss.

The Indians Were Not Indigenous to North America, Aliens Were: What we have learned about the giants found around the world

It’s not hard to see how it happened; if you understand politics, you know that mass populations are easily controlled by a political system that can capture a narrative, and humans, by nature, are best communicated with through story. So, if you own the story, you control the population, the primary focus of religions, and the politics that have spawned from them since recorded time. But this line of questions for me started in 2009 while at the Mothman Festival in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and I picked up a map that had known burial sites of giants, people of gigantic stature. I thought that was interesting, so I have kept my ears open since then for evidence as it has come in. And as that evidence has been collected, it is pretty evident that in the Ohio River Valley and across the world, just about everywhere, especially in mound-building cultures, are the remains of giant people. That is why there isn’t better archaeology looking into the contents of these mounds, even in China and Japan and all over the Near East, specifically the many mounds of Israel that are essentially of the same construction and design. It came alive for me after visiting Stonehenge that something was strange because I saw the same features that I saw at home in Southern Ohio. And once you learn that the mounds weren’t burial in their orientation as much as they were intended to be celestial clocks, then suddenly things start making a lot more sense, which is the case of a massive earthwork near my home at Fort Hill, in downtown Hamilton, Ohio, and Serpent Mound about an hour and a half to the east.

Knowing what I do now, I am very comfortable calling it; the earth was settled by life from other places in space, likely many different species, and they have probably been interacting with us all along.  But they come and go, and when they arrive on earth to settle or for visits, they need to know when they are.  And that is the purpose of things like Stonehenge, the features at Göbekli Tepe, and even the mysterious Keyhole tombs in Japan.  We are dealing with a culture that lived quite well and vibrantly in what we call the Archaic Period, from the age of Leo and Tauras, and dying out around the age of Aries, only to emerge into what we now call Biblical ancient.  We know that because once you stop trying to look at history through what you find lying around the ground, which decays and erodes rather quickly, and start understanding that you measure activity in celestial time, which is the purpose of inventing the zodiac always was, relevant to stable ground features described, then you start to get the picture.  And the people doing all this were huge, called giants.  And that the Bible refers to as the Nephilim.  Only they were a global culture that understood how to navigate across the oceans, and they did so frequently.  Our assumption that hunters and gatherers rubbed sticks together and migrated across a land bridge into North America during an Ice Age period is, by now, just ridiculous.

But, the world’s politics has wanted us to think of them as gods and to worship them and their time of rule on earth.  So, they have been working to conceal this information behind the mechanisms of institutionalism.  To maintain that story, they have been trying to sell us all on this idea of indigenous people and that America should never have been settled by Christopher Columbus in 1492 because we interrupted the harmony of a nature-loving group of nomads with capitalism.  But that was all a lie; the Indians were not indigenous to North America.  Aliens were.  The Indians were the latest visitors migrating around the earth for thousands of years.  The way things look, we are dealing with at least 400,000 years of human history.  Probably longer.  We only see what hasn’t eroded yet, but there has been a lot of intelligent life on Earth over a long period.  That doesn’t mean there weren’t hunters and gatherers doing their thing, just as we can find such people worldwide today.  There were always homeless people not living within a structured society.  But our assumptions about life and how we arrived where we are, based on abundant evidence, are entirely wrong.  I think today, if we had reasonable archaeology into the many mounds of the world, we would find in them skeletons, like have been found at the Miamisburg Mound just south of Dayton, Ohio, lots of 8- to 10-foot-tall people.  The fact that nobody is seriously studying this matter tells you everything you need to know.  The social narrative of the exploitation of so-called indigenous people is far more valuable to the current political order of global communism than the truth of scientific discovery.  The evidence is so abundant, mainly by private investigations, not science funded by government grants committed to a political narrative, that there is no longer a question. 

I was always weary of this kind of alien settlement thinking until I watched the world’s governments lie to our faces about COVID-19.  We all know that the virus was artificially made in China and released to the public in a way that the world’s governments knew about.  They had even role-played the response, which Bill Gates led the effort.  They were so arrogant about their ability to lie to the public through controlled narratives that they essentially painted themselves in a corner and had to tip-toe through that wet paint to reveal their guilt.  Part of the reason for the arrogance, a big part of it, was their success in manipulating religious and scientific narratives to the public, such as they have gotten away with the indigenous people’s history, arbitrarily picking a habitation date of 1600 AD to 1800 AD, and saying that they were the indigenous people of North America and that all migration was evil so that the greatness of America can be delegitimized to the world and they would clamor for Chinese style communism because of their associated guilt.  People didn’t question the narrative much, which inflated the egos of those who seek to control narratives in the world so they can easily control masses of people.  So now that we know that aliens, or rather, our ancestors, came here from other planets, do we call them the indigenous people?  Or were they the invaders of what was here before?  But we know there was a global civilization that dates back all over the world into times during and even before the last ice age.  And that what was left behind were fragments of their previous cultures that were quite advanced, as we can see in all these ground-based celestial clocks that still have crop circles appearing next to them all the time as if someone were writing notes on the ground to figure out when they were in time and space.  Since time doesn’t move the same everywhere in the solar system, the galaxy, or the universe, which is the giveaway, they were concerned with time and the way we would wear a watch to measure our rotation to the sun.  These very tall people and others needed to know relative to their orientations in space when they arrived on Earth.  Was it 100 years later, or many thousands?  And that is the way we must look at history in the future.  Not in the way we have been.  Or allow governments and institutions to lie to us to control a narrative that benefits them politically when science says otherwise.

Rich Hoffman

The Evolving Case of Giants in Ohio from Across the World: History as we know is changing forever

I’m not going to spend much time talking about it because I’m still negotiating to get a very rare book about lost races of people who have dropped out of our historic record, but I spent all weekend trying to get it. The book is considered a rare print which is something I feel a lot of passion about, and it was written during the 1800s before what I call the purge occurred. However, I can’t help but see some similarities to modern politics that are coming out of a movement that the rest of the world isn’t ready for. Its very much the same problem where establishment control over information is falling apart in this early new century where personal ambitions and hobbies are doing a better job than the traditional college institutions have, and that is what I would call the greatest mystery the world has been covering up for thousands of years, and its unraveling in front of our faces as we speak, which is why I was working so hard to secure that mysterious book all weekend long going from obscure brick and mortar bookstore to bookstore hidden in obscurity behind the chaos of a media culture that is extensive, and very noisy, most of the time quite on purpose.

I cover these issues from time to time as kind of a fun fill in to the politic discussions that normally are a majority of my work, but to me its all the same problem. Since I live in Southern Ohio I have grown up with an understanding about the mound builders that were traditionally associated with Indians and are tightly controlled by the government regarding research into who the mound builders were and why they built these things. Occasionally I have written very popular articles on the nature of the giant skeletons that were found coming out of these mounds which over time has opened up my mind to the obvious cover-up that has occurred, which the more I learn, has made me more and more angry. When we talk about the government getting involved in weaponizing the IRS or the FBI for political moves that benefit a more centralized government we find the same thing happening in the fields of the sciences. For instance, universities who do research into global warming find grants come easily to them from the government whereas those who are doing more independent research do not get money, so the university system has built their business model around liberalism for all those reasons, and it certainly does skew what research happens in the pursuit of truth and leaves much to be desired toward real inquiry.

However, we live in a time where information has been decentralized and people can talk and find each other much easier than in the past, making networking through the university system much less applicable to the endeavors of science. And more than ever, books published before the great purge of university institutionalism that started to really become a problem around 1915 have lost their power making it very important to go back to times before it and read what people were saying about archaeology and anthropology before money from the government became such a corrosive issue. And specifically, to that topic is the problem of who we are as a human species and what our true history is. I started asking those questions about 10 years ago when I ran across a map at the Mothman Festival in West Virginia that indicated in Ohio the burial locations of several giants, and I have written about them on occasion not as a conspiracy, but as an evolving topic. For instance, I know as I can see it from my front porch the very large Middletown Mound that used to be a near twin to the Miamisburg Mound just up the Great Miami River that within it are likely the skeletons of a giant race of people who lived in North America well before what we call the Indians ever inhabited the region. The evidence collected over the last ten years by many independent journalists has blown the lid off the case and we are in new territory that goes well beyond the skepticism of the television show Ancient Aliens. The government knows full well what’s in those mounds in Ohio, but it is using rules and regulations to hide the contents from society in general and for good reasons of their own. They were part of the purge and they want to keep the secrets that way for as long as possible. But like we see in politics where Donald Trump has become a great president by being unconventional, the establishment wants to maintain their power over history for as long as they can.

I wouldn’t say I have been a maniac about the topic, but I have gone around Ohio studying the various mounds and wondering if history was wrong about the makers and I have chronicled that journey on this blog site occasionally with some speculative analysis. But it was while traveling in England and visiting Stonehenge and the sites around the area where I become very convinced that it was the same people who were making monuments in the Ohio Valley, near my home, which meant that there was transatlantic diffusion by boat over three thousand years ago, well before the Vikings, well before even the Phoenicians, and certainly well before Christopher Columbus and they had an empire in place that extended all the way down to South America well before there were ever Mayans, Aztecs, and Incan people. To admit such a thing would have dire consequences to many forces who have justified their leadership to thousands of years of human civilization and to reveal that we have been living in another kind of Dark Ages, where information was controlled first by the Roman Empire, then by the Church which replaced it as a power in Europe, then by a government using secret societies to steer people’s minds away from the evidence until this present time where full disclosure is inevitable because of the free nature of our country in America and the desire to know things that have been obvious.

The more I have learned the angrier I have become due to the obvious misleading that has been going on for such a long time. I think the most important aspect of the wild fires in Brazil has been the revelation of the many lost cultures that were once established along the Amazon and we are not talking about primitive people but the same type of advanced culture that came straight out of Mesopotamia and migrated by ship across both oceans and settled in the Americas to launch just as complex cities states that have been now listed among the lost races of mankind, which is why I spent the weekend looking for that old book. I want to read it for myself and to start at that point at untangling the web of deceit that is being hidden behind the Native American façade that has paralyzed proper research in America through political correctness and a misguided assumption from the start. I will have a lot more on this in the future, but for the readers here I would direct their attention to the work of a guy who started sending me little messages almost a decade ago when I first published a list of giant skeleton locations, which surprised me when I learned about it. But since, Fritz Zimmerman has published several books on the subject and that has ignited L.A. Marzulli to start making films of their investigations and the evidence is quite overwhelming. I would suggest that it is the biggest cover-up of our civilization, and its something that deserves to be exposed because once it is well understood, it will change everything we know about history and our place within it.

Rich Hoffman