The Octagon Earthworks has 8 walls that are 550 feet long and 5 to 6 feet high while the Serpent Mound has 7 curves in its body, which according to the Mekoce Shawnee could represent the 7 gates that one must go through to reach spirituality.
How was this construction knowledge passed down to one generation to the next? This level of detail would be very difficult to share! Oral traditions were very important. Elders (those older and recognized as wiser) would pass on the information to others in hopes that the newer generation would continue the work. It was through oral traditions that such works like the Octagon Mounds, the pyramids, and other sites of this magnitude were accomplished.
This video describes how the Newark earthworks were made.
Imagine what it would be like to bring a basket of soil from your home and walk a hundred miles for the sole purpose of heaping the soil on top of other soil to make a shape. How many trips would it take to make a significant shape and how many people? The answers to these types of questions we will not be able to know for certain. But we can speculate about and consider possibilities.
Earthworks Builders used the moon for direction and to navigate.
