prehistoric earthworks
Primitive landscape constructions
Prehistoric earthworks are large-scale modifications of the landscape—mounds, embankments, ditches, and enclosures—built by ancient peoples before written records.
Found across the globe, from the burial mounds of the Ohio Valley to the henges of Britain, these structures served ceremonial, defensive, or astronomical purposes.
The term emphasizes both their antiquity and the massive labor required to move earth without modern tools.
The prehistoric earthworks at Poverty Point suggest a sophisticated society.
- standing stonesUpright prehistoric monuments
- burial siteInterment location
- burial moundsEarthen heaps over graves
- moundHeaped earth formation
- barrowLoad carrier or tumulus
henge · tumulus · cairn · ditch · boundary marker · embankment · fortification · digging · sacred landscape · sacred geometry · piling · rampart · lost civilization · Serpent Mound · carbon dating · trenching · hillfort · Stonehenge
prehistoric earthworksgeological formations
Natural earth structures
prehistoric earthworkscontemporary architecture
Current-era building style
modern infrastructure · smart buildings · skyscrapers · highways
prehistoric earthworkssteel structures
Constructions using iron alloy
concrete structures · glass towers · skyscrapers · stone masonry · prefabricated buildings
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