few pieces of charcoal in what was believed to be an undisturbed portion of the Serpent Mound. However, bioturbation, including burrows, frost cracks, etc., can reverse the structural timeline of an earthen mound such as Serpent Mound. It can shift carbon left by a later culture on the surface to areas deep within the structure, making the earthwork appear younger. When the team conducted carbon dating studies on the charcoal pieces, two yielded a date of ca. 1070 CE, with the third piece dating to the Late Archaic period some two thousand years earlier, specifically 2920+/-65 years BP (before the present). The third date, ca. 2900 BP, was recovered from a core sample below cultural modification level. The first two dates place the Serpent Mound within the realm of the Fort Ancient culture. The third dates the mound back to very early Adena culture or before. The Fort Ancient people contributed to maintaining and refurbishing The Great Serpent Mound though were not responsible for its creation. The rattlesnake is significant as a symbol in the Mississippian culture, helping us to understand the significance of the mound's shape. When attempting to identify the species of snake, there is no sign or indication of a rattle. Very few, if any, artifacts from The Fort Ancient people can be found at the site of The Great Serpent Mound. As just like the Adena people, the Fort Ancient Culture often buried artifacts in its mounds. Along with a lack of artifacts found, the Fort Ancient people were not known to bury their dead in the same manner as the Adena culture, especially in proximity to the effigy. Another effigy mound found in Ohio, the Alligator Effigy Mound in Granville, was carbon dated to the Fort Ancient period. Meaning of the mound Having been built around 1070 CE, many archaeologists believe that the mound's creation could have been influenced by two different astronomical events: the light from the supernova that created the Crab Nebula in the year 1054 CE and the appearance of Halley's Comet in 1066 CE The light of the supernova would have been visible for two weeks after it first reached earth, which could even be seen in broad day light. As a secondary theory, archaeologists assumed that the tail of Halley's Comet could have influenced the shape of the mound, though the tail of the comet has always appeared as a