Kayla Payne, a senior at Ohio University's School of Visual Communication, describes a six-month class project that examined Adena earthworks in The Plains, an unincorporated community north of Athens. Payne, who graduated from Bellbrook High School south of Dayton in 2023, writes that she grew up in Ohio without knowing much about the mounds near her campus.
The project team, which included Ashim Faiaz Talukdar and Victor Morgan, focused on the Hartman Mound. According to Payne, the site once contained planned burial mounds, earthen enclosures, and ceremonial spaces, and excavations there have yielded copper ornaments and pottery. Payne describes the Adena culture as a prehistoric Native American civilization that thrived in the Ohio River Valley and nearby areas from about 1,000 BCE to 200 CE.
Payne says other nearby mounds sit on private property and are not always maintained or preserved in the same way. The team created a digital storytelling format known as scrollytelling for the annual design challenge sponsored by the Society for News Design, working with a local group, Friends of The Plains Mounds, and its president, Alex Armstrong. Payne notes the title The Mound Next Door is not original and has also been used for the Grave Creek Mound in Moundsville, West Virginia.
The essay, published for Indigenous Peoples' Day, notes that the City of Columbus designated October 12 as Indigenous Peoples' Day in 2020, while Ohio does not recognize the holiday. Payne says she is on track to graduate in December. The Plains is also known as the hometown of football star Joe Burrow, who graduated from Athens High School in 2015, according to the source.