Hopewell Mound Group
A huge Hopewell ceremonial center in Ohio. This reading uses the opening description and the sections “New to Science” and “A List of Superlatives.” It leaves out the detailed measurements, the history of the digs, and the visitor information and maps.
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Hopewell Mound Group
Two thousand years ago, people of an advanced culture gathered here to hold religious rituals and ceremonies. At this site, they built an enormous earthwork complex. It enclosed 55.34 hectares (about 130 acres). An earthen wall stretched for over four kilometers (over 2 miles). It surrounded an immense sacred space that included 29 burial mounds. Large amounts of finely crafted art made of exotic materials were buried here as part of elaborate mortuary ceremonies.
The 300-acre Hopewell Mound Group is the type site for the Hopewell culture. Early archeologists named the site for its owner, M. Cloud Hopewell.
New to Science
The culture found at this site was new to the science of archeology in the late 1800s. Newly described cultures are usually named after the place where they are first discovered. So the culture was named after this farm field. It happened to be owned by a local businessman in the dry goods business named M. Cloud Hopewell at the time. The true tribal names of these people were lost over thousands of years. But the ancient American Indians who built this large structure were part of a cultural golden age. It flourished in this region from A.D. 1 to 400. The great buildings and artifacts of the Hopewell culture show a high point of achievement in art, astronomy, mathematics, and engineering. Eastern North America seldom saw the like of it again.
A List of Superlatives
Even compared to all of the other astonishing prehistoric earthworks in the Chillicothe area, Hopewell Mound Group stands out in many ways. This complex had the largest single earthen-walled enclosure the Hopewell built. It covered over 110 acres. Within its walls was the largest burial mound the Hopewell people ever built. Mound 25 was 500 feet long and 33 feet high.
This site provided the greatest set of Hopewell artistic objects ever discovered, in both quality and amount. Many of the most famous images of the Hopewell culture are from objects found at this site. These include the mica bird claw, the copper bear paw, and the mica hand with its long fingers stretching upward. The artifacts were often made of exotic materials not found in Ohio. A vast trade network appears to have thrived during this period. Huge ceremonial blades made of obsidian from Yellowstone National Park were discovered here. The total amount of obsidian here was the largest ever found east of the Mississippi River.
Most Hopewell complexes seem to have been used for less than two centuries. But evidence suggests that Hopewell Mound Group remained an important ceremonial center throughout the entire era of the Hopewell Culture in Ohio. That was about four hundred years! All of these extraordinary features support the idea that Hopewell Mound Group was possibly the most important ceremonial center of all the earthworks in southern Ohio.