Transit : Serpent Mound crossing space, time, discourse / Chadwick Allen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Allen, Chadwick, Author.

Series:

Critical antiquities

Critical Antiquities

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Earthworks (Archaeology)--Ohio.

Earthworks (Archaeology).

Mound-builders--Ohio.

Mound-builders.

Indian art--Ohio.

Indian art.

Indians of North America--Ohio--Antiquities.

Indians of North America.

Serpent Mound State Memorial (Ohio).

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Other Title:

Serpent Mound crossing space, time, discourse

Place of Publication:

Chicago ; London : University of Chicago Press, 2026.

Summary:

How an ancient Indigenous earthwork traveled from Ohio to Washington state in the mid-1970s. In Transit, Chadwick Allen chronicles the surprising history of how the ancient snake effigy known as Serpent Mound, located in what is now southern Ohio, traveled to Seattle, Washington in the 1970s, at the height of American Indian activism associated with the Red Power movement. Allen considers Indigenous earthworks built for thousands of years across the eastern half of the North American continent, questioning what it would mean if they were understood not as static entities fixed in space and time, but as animate forces with the ability to travel. Allen also looks at the origins of the "modern" effigy in the nineteenth century, when archaeologists reconstructed Serpent Mound's deteriorating form to create a static icon suitable for touristic display within the confines of a settler state memorial. Drawing from archival research, interviews, and site-specific encounters, Transit meditates on the significance of building an earthen effigy in the Pacific Northwest, as part of what became the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center, and on the complexity of the mound's generative contexts. Allen's research intersects the mid-twentieth century, when artist Robert Smithson created his iconic Spiral Jetty earth sculpture and when the Muscogee (Creek) Nation designed its innovative Mound Building. The story remains ongoing in the twenty-first century, as new mounds are rising in Oklahoma and artists, activists, and intellectuals are again asserting the power of Indigenous design.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Prologue

Presence

Reactivation

Inquiry

Embodiment

Stones

Archives

Vision

Emergence

Worlding

Citation

Siting

Listening

Standing

Acknowledgments

Sources

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Online resource; title from PDF title page (De Gruyter Brill, viewed March 24, 2026).

Other Format:

Print version: Allen, Chadwick. Transit.

ISBN:

9780226849829

0226849821

OCLC:

1579799144

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license