| My Parameters For Selecting The Seven Wonders of the North American Natives |
| 1. That it be a construction dating to before Columbus. 2. That the construction be a wonder in it's purpose or effort of labor. 3. That it be in existence today. 4. To practice diversity. |
| Four of my wonders are the largest in their category and can be very easily argued for. Monks Mound is the largest temple mound. Serpent Mound is the largest effigy mound. Pueblo Bonito is the largest communal dwelling. Newark Earthworks are the largest geometric mounds. The remaining three of my wonders were selected for other reasons, diversity included. I chose diversity as one of my parameters because I did not want the list to be dominated by one culture or one type of wonder. There are so many mounds in North America that it would be very easy for mounds to dominate the list. I feel that this would not do justice to the North American Natives or to people trying to learn about them. The Big Horn Medicine Wheel is the largest medicine wheel of some 67 known medicine wheels in North America. Some would feel that a medicine wheel is not worthy of inclusion. They do not not require an extraordinary amount of effort like the four wonders mentioned above. I chose to include a medicine wheel because they demonstrate knowledge of astronomical phenomena from perhaps at least the time of the Great Pyramids in Egypt. Although not on as grand a scale as Stonehenge, Big Horn has similar functions and still works as an analog device today. The fact that it was built on a mountain top almost 10,000 feet above sea level must be considered also. Choosing the Great Gallery was rather subjective, but to be able to present a huge panel of beautiful petroglyphs that has survived at least 3,000 years was hard to resist. The Cliff Palace is in some respects a duplication of Pueblo Bonito, as they are both communal dwellings that are Anasazi in origin. Well, there is also some duplication in the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, two tombs and two statues, so I don't feel too bad about having a little duplication in my list also. The fact that it is the most recognized and photographed wonder on my list must also be considered. In addition, it was the first American site selected by UNESCO as a world heritage site. The only three categories that I feel I did not include that meet the parameters above were Road Networks, Hilltop Enclosures and Burial Mounds. I gave serious consideration to the Chaco Canyon Road Network, Fort Ancient, and the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. I also very much regret not including any Adena monuments or mentioning ancient Louisiana sites such as Poverty Point or Watson Brake. Adena innovations such as part time agriculture, pottery and burial mounds had great impact on later cultures in North America. Watson Brake, an earthworks site older than the Egyptian Pyramids, is important from the issue of age alone. I want to admit that my selection of the Seven Wonders is biased towards good photographs and apologize for this. Excluding the Canadian Medicine Wheel at Moose Mountain is an example. However, as this website is aimed at Joe Tourist and not Joe Archaeologist, I feel justified about my choices. I would also like to add that some people will notice an abundance of astronomical alignments in this website and I would like to state that I do not believe in astrology. What I do believe is that Native Americans considered celestial objects sacred and following their movements was an act of worship. How lucky we are to be able to view these wonders today. Let us hope that they remain untouched for generations to come. After viewing the website take the quiz to find out if you learned anything! |
 |