Scientia Press

The 420 meter-long Great Serpent Mound in Ohio is the world's largest effigy monument.  Archaeological investigations have yielded conflicting results about its initial construction date, and various theories regarding its meaning have failed to gain traction. But the theory that the planet Venus was originally a comet that approached the Earth and caused great devastation neatly matches key characteristics of the Great Serpent Mound.

Recently, this theory, generally credited to Immanuel Velikovsky, has gained additional credibility from a commonsensical explanation of how a comet-like Venus could have emerged from Jupiter as in ancient Hindu and Greek myths; and it has found powerful substantiation from a reinterpretation of the headdress of Queen Nefertari of Egypt, consort of Pharaoh Ramses II, in this image from Abu Simbel (Ramses II's headdress appears to contain Mars with two moons and a tail, presumably borrowed from Venus in an encounter).

In effect, Nefertari's headdress depicts the comet Venus with a bow wave and a double tail, with the comet/planet itself in oval form under the pressure of the solar wind. A similar form for Venus but with horns for a double tail can also be found in the well known headdress of the goddess Isis (Venus), as in this image where she is leading Nefertari.

Why should we believe that the Great Serpent Mound was a depiction of the comet Venus before it was tamed by interaction with the Earth and Mars into a planet with a circular orbit and only the vestige of a tail?

1.  Many peoples around the world viewed the comet Venus as a serpent god because of its tail.

2.  The setting of the Great Serpent Mound is a very ancient impact crater and thus was associated with celestial events such as the meteorites that fell from the tail of Venus.

3.  The timing was approximately right. The original construction would have followed the approach of Venus around 1500 B.C., or somewhat before the Adena culture, which began in 1200-1000 B.C.  Subsequent peoples would have refurbished the monument, accounting for some later radiocarbon-dated objects found in it.

3. The appearance and impact of Venus were dramatic, catastrophic, and repeated several times on a 52-year cycle,  leading the builders to wish to propitiate and venerate the god with a massive monument.

4. Building an effigy this size would help the Serpent God see it upon future approaches to the Earth and hopefully spare his devoted worshippers who had constructed it.

5. The oval "egg" in front of the mouth of the serpent is reminiscent of the oval in the headdresses of Nefertari and Isis, except that it is rotated 90 degrees. This could be explained as the way the oval comet/planet appeared from an angle, or it could have been designed by an artist who had not witnessed the actual approach of the comet, or it could have been an effort to fit the design into a story about the serpent god and an egg.

6.  The comet Venus was far larger than other comets, and so its tail was bifurcated, with the central portion blacked out from solar illumination by the body of the comet/planet.  This led it to be termed the "bull of heaven" by peoples of the Near East who viewed the twin tails as the horns of a bull.  In the Great Serpent Mound, the jaws of the serpent are opened in a manner that depicts how the portion immediately behind the oval ("egg") was blacked out, then the twin tails joined together as they trailed farther behind Venus.  

The Great Serpent Mound has not received special attention as part of the comet Venus theory, but the Egyptian iconography in particular helps us see that the theory provides a good match for it.