 Hopewell Interaction Area and local expressions of the Hopewell tradition | |
| Geographical range | Midwestern United States |
|---|---|
| Period | Middle Woodland period |
| Dates | 100 BCE to 500 CE |
| Type site | Hopewell Mound Group |
| Major sites | Newark Earthworks |
| Preceded by | Adena culture |
| Followed by | Fort Ancient,Mississippian culture |
| Defined by | Warren K. Moorehead |
TheHopewell tradition, also called theHopewell culture andHopewellian exchange, describes a network ofprecontactNative American cultures that flourished in settlements along rivers in the northeastern and midwesternEastern Woodlands from 100BCE to 500CE, in theMiddle Woodland period. The Hopewell tradition was not a singleculture or society but a widely dispersed set of populations connected by a common network oftrade routes.[1]
At its greatest extent, the Hopewell exchange system ran from the northern shores ofLake Ontario south to theCrystal River Indian Mounds in modern-dayFlorida. Within this area, societies exchanged goods and ideas, with the highest amount of activity along waterways, which were the main transportation routes. Peoples within the Hopewell exchange system received materials from all over the territory of what now comprises the mainland United States. Most of the items traded were exotic materials; they were delivered to peoples living in the major trading and manufacturing areas. These people converted raw materials intoproducts and exported them through local and regional exchange networks. Hopewell communities traded finished goods, such assteatite platform pipes, far and wide; they have been found among grave goods in many burials outside the Midwest.[2]
Although the origins of the Hopewell are still under discussion, the Hopewell culture can also be considered a cultural climax.
Hopewell populations originated in western New York and moved south intoOhio, where they built upon the localAdenamortuary tradition. Or, Hopewell was said to have originated in western Illinois and spread by diffusion... to southern Ohio. Similarly, the Havana Hopewell tradition was thought to have spread up theIllinois River and into southwestern Michigan, spawning Goodall Hopewell. (Dancey 114)
American archaeologistWarren K. Moorehead popularized the termHopewell after his 1891 and 1892 explorations of theHopewell Mound Group inRoss County, Ohio. The mound group was named after Mordecai Hopewell, whose family then owned the property where the earthworks are sited. What any of the various peoples now classified as Hopewellian called themselves is unknown;[3][4] indeed, what language families they spoke is unknown. Archaeologists applied the term "Hopewell" to a broad range of cultures. Many of the Hopewell communities were temporary settlements of one to three households near rivers. They practiced a mixture of hunting, gathering, and horticulture.[5]
The Hopewell inherited from their Adena forebears an incipientsocial stratification. This increased social stability and reinforcedsedentism, specialized use of resources, and probably population growth.[6] Hopewell societiescremated most of their deceased and reserved burial for only the most important people. In some sites, hunters apparently were given a higher status in the community: their graves were more elaborate and contained more status goods.[7]
The Hopewellian peoples had leaders, but they did not command the kind of centralized power to order armies of slaves or soldiers.[3] These cultures likely accorded certain families a special place of privilege. Some scholars suggest that these societies were marked by the emergence of "big-men",[8] leaders whose influence depended on their skill at persuasion in important matters such as trade and religion. They also perhaps augmented their influence by cultivating reciprocal obligations with other important community members. The emergence of "big-men" was a step toward the development of these societies into highly structured and stratifiedchiefdoms.[7]
The Hopewell settlements were linked by extensive and complex trading routes; these operated also as communication networks, and were a means to bring people together for important ceremonies.[5]
Today, the best-surviving features of the Hopewell tradition era are earthwork mounds. Researchers have speculated about their purposes and debate continues. Great geometricearthworks are one of the most impressive Native American monuments throughout American prehistory, and were built by cultures following the Hopewell. Eastern Woodlands mounds typically have various geometric shapes and rise to impressive heights. Some of the gigantic sculpted earthworks, described aseffigy mounds, were constructed in the shape of animals, birds, or writhing serpents.[9]
Several scientists, including Bradley T. Lepper, hypothesize that the Octagon, in theNewark Earthworks atNewark, Ohio, was alunarobservatory. He believes that it is oriented to the 18.6-year cycle of minimum and maximum lunar risings and settings on the local horizon. The Octagon covers more than 50 acres (20 ha), the size of 100 football pitches.[5] John Eddy completed an unpublished survey in 1978, and proposed a lunar major alignment for the Octagon. Ray Hively and Robert Horn ofEarlham College inRichmond, Indiana, were the first researchers to analyze numerous lunar sightlines at theNewark Earthworks (1982) and the High Banks Works (1984) inChillicothe, Ohio.[10]
Christopher Turner noted that the Fairground Circle in Newark, Ohio aligns to the sunrise on May 4, i.e. that it marks the May cross-quarter sunrise.[11] In 1983, Turner demonstrated that the Hopeton earthworks encode various sunrise and moonrise patterns, including the winter and summersolstices, theequinoxes, thecross-quarter days, the lunar maximum events, and the lunar minimum events, due to their precise straight and parallel lines.[12][5]
William F. Romain has written a book on the subject of "astronomers, geometers, and magicians" at the earthworks.[13]
Many of the mounds also contain various types of human burials, some containing precious grave goods such as ornaments ofcopper,mica andobsidian imported from hundreds of miles away. Stone and ceramics were also fashioned into intricate shapes.
The Hopewell created some of the finest craftwork and artwork of the Americas. Most of their works had some religious significance, and their graves were filled with necklaces, ornate carvings made from bone or wood, decoratedceremonial pottery, ear plugs, and pendants. Some graves were lined with woven mats,mica (a mineral consisting of thin glassy sheets), or stones.[14] The Hopewell produced artwork in a greater variety and with more exotic materials than their predecessors the Adena.Grizzly bear teeth,fresh water pearls, sea shells, sharks' teeth,copper, and small quantities ofsilver were crafted as elegant pieces. The Hopewell artisans were expert carvers of pipestone, and many of the mortuary mounds are full of exquisitely carved statues and pipes.[15]
Excavation of theMound of Pipes atMound City found more than 200 stone smoking pipes; these depicted animals and birds in well-realized three-dimensional form.[16] More than 130 such artifacts were excavated from theTremper site inScioto County.[17] Some artwork was made from carved human bones. A rare mask found at Mound City was created using a human skull as a face plate.[15] Hopewell artists created both abstract and realistic portrayals of the human form. One tubular pipe is so accurate in form that the model was identified by researchers as anachondroplastic (chondrodystropic)dwarf.[18] Many other figurines are highly detailed in dress, ornamentation, andhairstyles.[15] An example of the abstract human forms is the "Mica Hand" from the Hopewell Site inRoss County, Ohio. Delicately cut from a piece of mica 11 in × 6 in (280 mm × 150 mm), the hand carving was likely worn or carried for public viewing.[15] They also made beaded work.
In addition to the noted Ohio Hopewell, a number of other MiddleWoodland period cultures are known to have been involved in the Hopewell tradition and participated in the Hopewell exchange network.
TheArmstrong culture was a Hopewell group in theBig Sandy River Valley of northeastern Kentucky and western West Virginia from 1 to 500 CE. They are thought to have been a regional variant of the Hopewell tradition or a Hopewell-influenced Middle Woodland group who had peacefully mingled with the localAdena peoples.[19] Archaeologist Edward McMichael characterized them as an intrusive Hopewell-like trade culture or a vanguard of Hopewellian tradition that had probably peacefully absorbed the local Adena in theKanawha River Valley. Their culture and very Late Adena (46PU2) is thought to have slowly evolved into the later Buck Garden people.[20]
The Copena culture was a Hopewellian culture in northernAlabama, Mississippi, andTennessee, as well as in other sections of the surrounding region including Kentucky. Researchers developed the Copena name based on the first three letters of copper and the last three letters of the mineralgalena, as copper and galena artifacts have often been found with Copena burials.[21]
During the Middle Woodland period, the Crab Orchard culture population increased from a dispersed and sparsely settled Early Woodland pattern to one consisting of small and large base camps. These were concentrated on terrace and floodplain landforms associated with theOhio River channel in southernIndiana, southernIllinois, and northwestern and western Kentucky.[22] In the far western limits of Crab Orchard culture is theO'byams Fort site. This large earthwork, shaped like a tuning fork, is reminiscent of Ohio Hopewell enclosures.[23] Examples of a type of pottery decoration found at theMann site are also known from Hopewell sites in Ohio (such as Seip earthworks, Rockhold, Harness, andTurner), as well as from Southeastern sites with Hopewellian assemblages, such as the Miner's Creek site,Leake Mounds, 9HY98, andMandeville site in Georgia, and the Yearwood site in southern Tennessee.[24]
TheGoodall focus culture occupied Michigan and northern Indiana from around 200 BCE to 500 CE. The Goodall pattern stretched from the southern tip ofLake Michigan, east across northern Indiana, to the Ohio border, then northward, covering central Michigan, almost reaching toSaginaw Bay on the east andGrand Traverse Bay to the north. The culture is named for the Goodall site in northwest Indiana.[25]
TheHavana Hopewell culture was a Hopewellian people in the Illinois and Mississippi river valleys in Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri.[26] They are considered ancestral to the groups who eventually formed theMississippian culture that builtCahokia (in present-day southwestern Illinois) and influenced the hinterlands of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, including into the Appalachian Mountains.[citation needed]
TheToolesboro site is a group of seven burial mounds on a bluff overlooking theIowa River near its confluence with the Mississippi River. The conical mounds were constructed between 100 BCE and 200 CE. At one time, as many as 12 mounds may have existed. Mound 2, the largest remaining, measures 100 ft (30 m) in diameter and 8 ft (2.4 m) in height. This mound was possibly the largest Hopewell mound in Iowa.[27]
At the western edge of the Hopewell interaction sphere is theKansas City Hopewell. TheRenner Village archeological site inRiverside, Missouri, is one of several sites near the junction of Line Creek and the Missouri River. The site contains Hopewell and succeeding MiddleMississippian remains. TheTrowbridge archeological site near Kansas City is close to the western limit of the Hopewell. "Hopewell-style" pottery and stone tools, typical of the Illinois and Ohio River valleys, are abundant at the Trowbridge site. Decorated Hopewell-style pottery rarely appears further west.[28]
TheCloverdale site is situated at the mouth of a small valley that opens into the Missouri River Valley, near present-daySaint Joseph, Missouri. It is a multi-component site with evidence of Kansas City Hopewell (around 100 to 500 CE) andSteed-Kisker (around 1200 CE) occupation.[29]
The Laurel complex was a Native American culture in what is now southernQuebec, southern and northwesternOntario, and east-centralManitoba in Canada; andnorthern Michigan, northwesternWisconsin, and northernMinnesota in the United States. They were the first pottery-using people of Ontario north of theTrent-Severn Waterway. The complex is named after the formerunincorporated community ofLaurel, Minnesota.
TheMarksville culture was a Hopewellian culture in theLower Mississippi valley,Yazoo valley, andTensas valley areas of present-dayLouisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, andArkansas. It evolved into theBaytown culture and later theColes Creek andPlum Bayou cultures. It is named for theMarksville Prehistoric Indian Site inMarksville, Louisiana.[30]
The Miller culture was a Hopewellian culture located in the upperTombigbee River drainage areas of southwestern Tennessee, northeastern Mississippi, and west-central Alabama, best known from excavations at thePinson Mounds,Bynum Mounds, Miller (type site), andPharr Mounds sites.[31][32] The culture is divided chronologically into two phases, Miller 1 and Miller 2, with a later Miller 3 belonging to theLate Woodland period. Some sites associated with the Miller culture, such asIngomar Mound and Pinson Mounds on its western periphery, built largeplatform mounds. Archaeologist speculate the mounds were for feasting rituals. With that purpose, they fundamentally differed from laterMississippian culture platform mounds, which were mortuary and substructure platforms.[32] By the end of the Late Woodland period, about 1000CE, the Miller culture area was absorbed into the succeeding Mississippian culture.[33]
TheMontane Hopewell on theTygart Valley area, an upper branch of theMonongahela River of northernWest Virginia, is similar to Armstrong. The pottery and cultural characteristics are also similar to late Ohio Hopewell.[20] They occurred during the neighboring Watson through Buck Garden periods of peoples to the south and westerly in the state. Montane Hopewell is a variant that is a considerable distance from Cole Culture and Peters Phase, or Hopewell central Ohio. According to McMichael, the culture built small, conical mounds in the late Hopewell period; this religion appeared to be waning in terms of being expressed in the daily living activities at these sites. The influence of an elite priest cult, burial phase was centered toward the Midwest states and was less important here.[19]
| Preceded by | Ohio Hopewell 200 BCE-500 CE | Succeeded by |
The greatest concentration of Hopewell ceremonial sites is in theScioto River Valley (fromColumbus toPortsmouth, Ohio) and adjacent Paint Creek valley, centered onChillicothe, Ohio. These cultural centers typically contained a burial mound and a geometric earthwork complex that covers ten to hundreds of acres, with sparse residential settlements. There is little evidence of large resident populations at the monument complexes.[34]
TheHopewell Culture National Historical Park, encompassing mounds for which the culture is named, is in thePaint Creek Valley just a few miles from Chillicothe, Ohio. Other earthworks in the Chillicothe area includeHopeton,Mound City,Seip Earthworks and Dill Mounds District,High Banks Works, Liberty,Cedar-Bank Works, Anderson,Frankfort, Dunlap,Spruce Hill,Story Mound,[35] andShriver Circle.[36] When colonial settlers first crossed the Appalachians, after almost a century and a half in North America, they were astounded at these monumental constructions, some of which were as high as 70 feet and covering acres.[9]
ThePortsmouth Earthworks were constructed from 100 BCE to 500 CE. It is a large ceremonial center located at the confluence of the Scioto and Ohio rivers. Part of this earthwork complex extends across the Ohio River into Kentucky. The earthworks included a northern section consisting of a number of circular enclosures, two large, horseshoe-shaped enclosures, and three sets of parallel-walled roads leading away from this location. One set of walls went to the southwest and may have linked to alarge square enclosure located on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River. Another set of walls led to the southeast, where it crossed the Ohio River and continued to theBiggs site, a complicated circular enclosure surrounding a conical mound. The third set of walls went to the northwest for an undetermined distance, in the direction of theTremper site.[23][37]
The Point Peninsula complex was a Native American culture located in present-day Ontario, Canada and New York, United States, during the Middle Woodland period. It is thought to have been influenced by the Hopewell traditions of the Ohio River valley. This influence seems to have ended about 250 CE, after which burial ceremonialism was no longer practiced.[38]
TheSaugeen complex was a Native American culture located around the southeast shores ofLake Huron and theBruce Peninsula, around theLondon, Ontario area, and possibly as far east as theGrand River in Canada. Some evidence exists that the Saugeen complex people of the Bruce Peninsula may have evolved into the historicOdawa people, also known as the Ottawa.[38]
TheSwift Creek culture was a Middle Woodland period archaeological culture in the southeast of the United States (present-day Georgia, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, and Tennessee) dating to around 100–700 CE.
The Wilhelm culture (1 to 500 CE), Hopewellian influenced, appeared in theNorthern Panhandle of West Virginia. They were contemporaneous to Armstrong central in the Big Sandy valley, nearly 200 miles downstream on the Ohio River. They were surrounded by peoples who made Watson-styled pottery, with a Z-twist cordage finished surface.[39] Wilhelm pottery was similar to Armstrong pottery, but not as well made.[20] Pipe fragments appear to be the platform-base type.
Small earthwork mounds were built around individual burials in stone-lined graves (cists). These were covered over together under a single large mound.[40]
Little studied are their four reported village sites,[20] which appear to have been abandoned by about 500 CE. As of 2009, new local researchers are looking at this area period and may provide future insight.[41]
Around 500 CE, the Hopewell exchange ceased, mound building stopped, and characteristic art forms were no longer produced. War is a possible cause, as villages dating to the Late Woodland period shifted to larger communities protected by palisade walls and ditches.[42] Colder climatic conditions could have driven game animals north or west in search of grazing land. The introduction of thebow and arrow may have led to over-hunting of game populations, as well as making warfare more deadly. With fewer people using trade routes, the transmission of traditions may have dwindled away.[5] The breakdown in social organization could also have resulted from adoption of full-scale agriculture.[43] Conclusive reasons for the evident dispersal of the people have not yet been determined.
| Preceded by | Hopewell tradition 200 BCE – 500 CE | Succeeded by |
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