What was the Hopewell tribe known for?
What was the Hopewell tribe known for?
The Hopewell Indians are best known for the earth mounds they built. Like the Indians of the Adena culture who came before them, they built large mounds in which they buried the bodies of important people. They also created earthworks in geometric shapes such as circles, rectangles, and octagons.
What is the Ohio Hopewell culture?
The “Hopewell culture” doesn’t refer to a particular Native American tribe; instead, it’s a name for a distinctive set of artifacts, earthworks, and burial practices characteristic of sites in southern Ohio from A.D. 1 to 400.
Who were the Hopewell tribe?
Hopewell culture, notable ancient Indian culture of the east-central area of North America. It flourished from about 200 bce to 500 ce chiefly in what is now southern Ohio, with related groups in Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Pennsylvania, and New York.
What did the Hopewell tribe live in?
Hopewell settlements were small villages or hamlets of a few rectangular homes made of posts with wattle and daub walls and thatched roofs. The people raised crops including sunflower, squash, goosefoot, maygrass, and other plants with oily or starchy seeds.
Where did the name Hopewell come from?
English (East Midlands): habitational name from Hopwell in Derbyshire, named with Old English hop ‘valley’ + well(a) ‘spring’, ‘stream’.
What is the Hopewell religion?
Religion was dominated by shamanic practices that included tobacco smoking. Stone smoking pipes and other carvings evince a strong affinity to the animal world, particularly in the depictions of monstrous human and animal combinations.
Who are the Hopewell Mound Builders?
The people who are considered to be part of the “Hopewell culture” built massive earthworks and numerous mounds while crafting fine works of art whose meaning often eludes modern archaeologists. This “Hopewell culture” flourished between roughly A.D. 1 and A.D. 500.
Why is Serpent Mound important?
Purpose of Serpent Mound Serpent Mound may have further had temporal significance—the head of the serpent aligns with the summer solstice sunset while the tail points to the winter solstice sunrise. As such, ancient peoples may have used the structure to mark time or seasons.
How were the Hopewell different from the Adena?
The Hopewell culture was more highly developed than that of the Adena, with richer burial customs, more sophisticated art, grander ceremonies, a stricter system of social classes, and more advanced farming practices. Items found at Hopewell burial sites included ear spools (a type of earrings) and skulls.
Who built the Great Serpent Mound?
When it was first discovered by European explorers, the indigenous Adena people were cited as the builders. Carbon dating done in 1996 placed the age of the Serpent Mound at 1070 A.D., meaning it was most likely the work of the Fort Ancient people.
Is the Hopewell culture linked to one particular Native American tribe?
Although the Hopewell culture cannot be linked to one particular modern Native American tribe, it is likely that all the tribes with historic ties to the Ohio Valley had ancestors who helped to build or participated in the ceremonies that took place at Ohio’s monumental earthworks.
What is the best book on the Hopewell culture?
Guidebook on the Hopewell culture prepared for Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, Ft. Washington, Pennsylvania, National Park Service, Eastern National, 1999. Lepper, Bradley T. Ohio Archaeology: An Illustrated Chronicle of Ohio’s Ancient American Indian Cultures. Wilmington, Ohio, Orange Frazer Press, 2005.
Where are the Hopewell ceremonial sites located?
The greatest concentration of Hopewell ceremonial sites is in the Scioto River Valley (from Columbus to Portsmouth, Ohio) and adjacent Paint Creek valley, centered on Chillicothe, Ohio.
What are the characteristics of the Hopewell tradition?
Today, the best-surviving features of the Hopewell tradition era are mounds built for uncertain purposes. Great geometric earthworks are one of the most impressive Native American monuments throughout American prehistory.