The Adena culture was a Pre-Columbian Native American culture that existed from 1000 to 200 BC, in a time known as the Early Woodland period. TheAdena culture refers to what were probably a number of related Native American societies sharing a burial complex and ceremonial system.

It is important to emphasize that the Adena culture is not the name of any American Indian tribe. We do not know what these people might have called themselves, or how they defined their societal or cultural groups. "Adena culture" is a term of archaeological convenience that encompasses similarities in artifact style, architecture, and other cultural practices that distinguish the Adena culture from earlier and later cultures in the region. Since the Adena Mound site exemplified all the significant features of the culture, it became the “type site” and the name of the site was applied to the entire culture.

Through research, we know the Adena people were hunter-gatherers, but also began domesticating various crops, such as squash, sunflower, sumpweed, goosefoot, knotweed, maygrass, and tobacco. These people lived in small villages near their gardens, but likely moved frequently as they followed animal herds and other food sources, such as nuts, which supplemented the harvest from their gardens. In addition to undertaking small-scale horticultural production, the Adena were also the first people to produce clay pottery in Ohio, which is characterized by large, thick-walled vessels that were likely used to cook ground seeds into an oatmeal-like substance.

The Adena cemented their ties to particular regions by burying their dead in prominent mounds that archaeologists believe may have served as territorial markers. Sometimes the mounds were accompanied by small, circular earthen enclosures that may have surrounded ritual spaces. The Miamisburg Mound in Montgomery County, Ohio, is the largest example of an Adena burial mound in the state. Based on the archaeology conducted at the time, we know that Adena burial mounds contained multiple burials and these individuals were usually accompanied with funerary objects such as bracelets, ear spools, gorgets, or large ornaments worn around the neck, and bone or stone tools. Deceased individuals were either cremated or laid on their backs in timber-lined tombs.

By around A.D. 1, some Adena groups began to build larger earthworks and to expand their efforts to acquire exotic raw materials, such as copper and mica. These later peoples are who we today refer to as the Hopewell culture, but many continued to follow the old ways in some regions, such as southwestern Ohio, and the Adena way of life persisted well into the first century A.D.

It is important to emphasize that the Adena culture is not the name of any American Indian tribe. We do not know what these people might have called themselves, or how they defined their societal or cultural groups. "Adena culture" is a term of archaeological convenience that encompasses similarities in artifact style, architecture, and other cultural practices that distinguish the Adena culture from earlier and later cultures in the region. Since the Adena Mound site exemplified all the significant features of the culture, it became the “type site” and the name of the site was applied to the entire culture.

Through research, we know the Adena people were hunter-gatherers, but also began domesticating various crops, such as squash, sunflower, sumpweed, goosefoot, knotweed, maygrass, and tobacco. These people lived in small villages near their gardens, but likely moved frequently as they followed animal herds and other food sources, such as nuts, which supplemented the harvest from their gardens. In addition to undertaking small-scale horticultural production, the Adena were also the first people to produce clay pottery in Ohio, which is characterized by large, thick-walled vessels that were likely used to cook ground seeds into an oatmeal-like substance.

The Adena cemented their ties to particular regions by burying their dead in prominent mounds that archaeologists believe may have served as territorial markers. Sometimes the mounds were accompanied by small, circular earthen enclosures that may have surrounded ritual spaces. The Miamisburg Mound in Montgomery County, Ohio, is the largest example of an Adena burial mound in the state. Based on the archaeology conducted at the time, we know that Adena burial mounds contained multiple burials and these individuals were usually accompanied with funerary objects such as bracelets, ear spools, gorgets, or large ornaments worn around the neck, and bone or stone tools. Deceased individuals were either cremated or laid on their backs in timber-lined tombs.

By around A.D. 1, some Adena groups began to build larger earthworks and to expand their efforts to acquire exotic raw materials, such as copper and mica. These later peoples are who we today refer to as the Hopewell culture, but many continued to follow the old ways in some regions, such as southwestern Ohio, and the Adena way of life persisted well into the first century A.D.

It is important to emphasize that the Adena culture is not the name of any American Indian tribe. We do not know what these people might have called themselves, or how they defined their societal or cultural groups. "Adena culture" is a term of archaeological convenience that encompasses similarities in artifact style, architecture, and other cultural practices that distinguish the Adena culture from earlier and later cultures in the region. Since the Adena Mound site exemplified all the significant features of the culture, it became the “type site” and the name of the site was applied to the entire culture.

Through research, we know the Adena people were hunter-gatherers, but also began domesticating various crops, such as squash, sunflower, sumpweed, goosefoot, knotweed, maygrass, and tobacco. These people lived in small villages near their gardens, but likely moved frequently as they followed animal herds and other food sources, such as nuts, which supplemented the harvest from their gardens. In addition to undertaking small-scale horticultural production, the Adena were also the first people to produce clay pottery in Ohio, which is characterized by large, thick-walled vessels that were likely used to cook ground seeds into an oatmeal-like substance.

The Adena cemented their ties to particular regions by burying their dead in prominent mounds that archaeologists believe may have served as territorial markers. Sometimes the mounds were accompanied by small, circular earthen enclosures that may have surrounded ritual spaces. The Miamisburg Mound in Montgomery County, Ohio, is the largest example of an Adena burial mound in the state. Based on the archaeology conducted at the time, we know that Adena burial mounds contained multiple burials and these individuals were usually accompanied with funerary objects such as bracelets, ear spools, gorgets, or large ornaments worn around the neck, and bone or stone tools. Deceased individuals were either cremated or laid on their backs in timber-lined tombs.

By around A.D. 1, some Adena groups began to build larger earthworks and to expand their efforts to acquire exotic raw materials, such as copper and mica. These later peoples are who we today refer to as the Hopewell culture, but many continued to follow the old ways in some regions, such as southwestern Ohio, and the Adena way of life persisted well into the first century A.D.

At its greatest extent, the Hopewell exchange system ran from the Crystal River Indian Mounds in modern-day Florida as far north as the Canadian shores of Lake Ontario. Within this area, societies participated in a high degree of exchange with the highest amount of activity along waterways. The Hopewell exchange system received materials from all over what is now the United States. Most of the items traded were exotic materials and were received by people living in the major trading and manufacturing areas. These people then converted the materials into products and exported them through local and regional exchange networks. The objects created by the Hopewell exchange system spread far and wide and have been seen 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.

The name "Hopewell" was applied by Warren K. Moorehead after his explorations of the Hopewell Mound Group in Ross County, Ohio, in 1891 and 1892. The mound group itself was named for the family who owned the earthworks at the time. What any of the various groups now defined as Hopewellian called themselves is unknown.^[3][4]

Politics and hierarchy[edit]

The Hopewell inherited from their Adena forebears an incipient social stratification. This increased social stability and reinforced sedentism, social stratification, specialized use of resources, and probably population growth.^[5] Hopewell societies cremated most of their deceased and reserved burial for only the most important people. In some sites, hunters apparently received a higher status in the community because their graves were more elaborate and contained more status goods.^[6]

The Hopewellian peoples had leaders, but they were not like powerful rulers who could command armies of slaves and 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".^[7] These leaders acquired their position because of their ability to persuade others to agree with them on important matters such as trade and religion. They also perhaps were able to develop influence by the creation of reciprocal obligations with other important members of the community. Whatever the source of their status and power, the emergence of "big-men" was another step toward the development of the highly structured and stratified sociopolitical organization called the chiefdom.^[6]

Mounds[edit]

Hopewell mounds from the Mound City Group in Ohio

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. Eastern Woodlands mounds have various geometric shapes and rise to impressive heights. The gigantic sculpted earthworks often took the shape of animals, birds, or writhing serpents.^[8] The function of the mounds is still under debate. Due to considerable evidence and surveys, plus the good survival condition of the largest mounds, more information can be obtained.

Several scientists, including Dr. Bradley T. Lepper, Curator of Archaeology, Ohio Historical Society, hypothesize that the Octagon earthwork at Newark, Ohio, was a lunar observatory oriented to the 18.6-year cycle of minimum and maximum lunar risings and settings on the local horizon. Dr. John Eddy completed an unpublished survey in 1978, and proposed a lunar major alignment for the Octagon. Ray Hively and Robert Horn of Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, were the first researchers to analyze numerous lunar sightlines at the Newark Earthworks (1982) and the High Banks Works (1984) in Chillicothe, Ohio.^[9] Christopher Turner noted that the Fairground Circle in Newark, Ohio aligns to the sunrise on May 4, i.e. that it marked the May cross-quarter sunrise.^[10] In 1983, Turner demonstrated that the Hopeton earthworks encode various sunrise and moonrise patterns, including the winter and summer solstices, the equinoxes, the cross-quarter days, the lunar maximum events, and the lunar minimum events.^[11]

William F. Romain has written a book on the subject of "astronomers, geometers, and magicians" at the earthworks.^[12]

Many of the mounds also contain various types of burials.

Artwork[edit]

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, decorated ceremonial pottery, ear plugs, and pendants. Some graves were lined with woven mats, mica (a mineral consisting of thin glassy sheets), or stones.^[13] 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 even small quantities of silver were turned into beautifully crafted pieces. The Hopewell artisans were expert carvers of pipestone, and many of the mortuary mounds are full of exquisitely carved statues and pipes.^[14] The Mound of Pipes at Mound City produced over 200 stone smoking pipes depicting animals and birds in well-realized three-dimensional form,^[15] and the Tremper Site in Scioto County produced over 130.^[16] Some artwork went beyond the ordinary exotic, as Hopewell artists were expert carvers of human bone. A rare mask from Mound City was created using a human skull as a face plate.^[14] Hopewell artists created both abstract and realistic portrayals of the human form. One tubular pipe is so realistically portrayed that the model was identified as an achondroplastic (chondrodystropic) dwarf.^[17] Many other figurines give details of dress, ornamentation, and hairstyles.^[14] An example of their abstract human forms is the "Mica Hand" from the Hopewell Site in Ross County, Ohio. Delicately cut from a piece of mica, more than 11 inches long, and 6 inches wide, the hand piece was likely worn or carried for public viewing.

The Havana Hopewell culture was a Hopewellian people in the Illinois River and Mississippi River valleys in Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri. They are ancestral to the groups which eventually became the Mississippian culture of Cahokia and its hinterlands.

The Toolesboro site is a group of seven burial mounds on a bluff overlooking the Iowa River near where it joins 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 feet in diameter and 8 feet in height. This mound was possibly the largest Hopewell mound in Iowa.^[25]
The Adena culture was a Pre-Columbian Native American culture that existed from 1000 to 200 BC, in a time known as the Early Woodland period. The Adena culture refers to what were probably a number of related Native American societies sharing a burial complex and ceremonial system. The Adena lived in an area including parts of present-day Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Kentucky, New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

At its greatest extent, the Hopewell exchange system ran from the Crystal River Indian Mounds in modern-day Florida as far north as the Canadian shores of Lake Ontario. Within this area, societies participated in a high degree of exchange with the highest amount of activity along waterways. The Hopewell exchange system received materials from all over what is now the United States. Most of the items traded were exotic materials and were received by people living in the major trading and manufacturing areas. These people then converted the materials into products and exported them through local and regional exchange networks. The objects created by the Hopewell exchange system spread far and wide and have been seen 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.

The name "Hopewell" was applied by Warren K. Moorehead after his explorations of the Hopewell Mound Group in Ross County, Ohio, in 1891 and 1892. The mound group itself was named for the family who owned the earthworks at the time. What any of the various groups now defined as Hopewellian called themselves is unknown.^[3][4]

Politics and hierarchy[edit]

The Hopewell inherited from their Adena forebears an incipient social stratification. This increased social stability and reinforced sedentism, social stratification, specialized use of resources, and probably population growth.^[5] Hopewell societies cremated most of their deceased and reserved burial for only the most important people. In some sites, hunters apparently received a higher status in the community because their graves were more elaborate and contained more status goods.^[6]

The Hopewellian peoples had leaders, but they were not like powerful rulers who could command armies of slaves and 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".^[7] These leaders acquired their position because of their ability to persuade others to agree with them on important matters such as trade and religion. They also perhaps were able to develop influence by the creation of reciprocal obligations with other important members of the community. Whatever the source of their status and power, the emergence of "big-men" was another step toward the development of the highly structured and stratified sociopolitical organization called the chiefdom.^[6]

Mounds[edit]

Hopewell mounds from the Mound City Group in Ohio

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. Eastern Woodlands mounds have various geometric shapes and rise to impressive heights. The gigantic sculpted earthworks often took the shape of animals, birds, or writhing serpents.^[8] The function of the mounds is still under debate. Due to considerable evidence and surveys, plus the good survival condition of the largest mounds, more information can be obtained.

Several scientists, including Dr. Bradley T. Lepper, Curator of Archaeology, Ohio Historical Society, hypothesize that the Octagon earthwork at Newark, Ohio, was a lunar observatory oriented to the 18.6-year cycle of minimum and maximum lunar risings and settings on the local horizon. Dr. John Eddy completed an unpublished survey in 1978, and proposed a lunar major alignment for the Octagon. Ray Hively and Robert Horn of Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, were the first researchers to analyze numerous lunar sightlines at the Newark Earthworks (1982) and the High Banks Works (1984) in Chillicothe, Ohio.^[9] Christopher Turner noted that the Fairground Circle in Newark, Ohio aligns to the sunrise on May 4, i.e. that it marked the May cross-quarter sunrise.^[10] In 1983, Turner demonstrated that the Hopeton earthworks encode various sunrise and moonrise patterns, including the winter and summer solstices, the equinoxes, the cross-quarter days, the lunar maximum events, and the lunar minimum events.^[11]

William F. Romain has written a book on the subject of "astronomers, geometers, and magicians" at the earthworks.^[12]

Many of the mounds also contain various types of burials.

Artwork[edit]

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, decorated ceremonial pottery, ear plugs, and pendants. Some graves were lined with woven mats, mica (a mineral consisting of thin glassy sheets), or stones.^[