An+Overview+of+the+Hopewell

Original Author: Bobby Dillon, A&S195 SP11 Revision Author:
 * An Overview of the Hopewell **

The Hopewell civilization, a civilization that existed during what is known as the Woodland period (1000 BCE to 1000 CE), is still a mystery to scholars. While much of their lifestyle can be pieced together with assistance from unearthed tools and utensils, there remains still the shroud of the unknown.

The Hopewell people are called such comes from the initial excavation of a mound owned by an Ohio man named Mordecai Hopewell. No evidence of written language was preserved. The term refers to the shared burial customs of the people, rather than to their culture as a whole (State Historical Society of Iowa).

Wolf Koch writes that when the white settlers first arrived to North America, the “native tribes… had no direct knowledge or oral traditions of mound building or the history of the ancient civilizations,” (3). The Hopewell society spanned from Georgia well into Central Canada, and was active from roughly 200 BCE to 400 CE (Gibbon 347) but yet seemed to have left little behind by which they could be remembered.

Archaeologists and anthropologists are able, however, to say confidently that typical Hopewell villages “were small, consisting of several houses, at best, with most sites occupying only a few acres,” and are able to determine that “based on the amount of debris found at many sites, they were occupied for short periods only, probably as seasonal hunting and fishing camps” (Koch 7), which would indicate that the Hopewellian people were nomadic in nature. Koch also notes that the sites used as (relatively) permanent settlements were occupied “until crops failed and the necessary items such as firewood became scarce” (7).

It is widely accepted as fact by many scholars and anthropologists that the Hopewell people were far advanced for the time in which they lived. For instance, though they were largely nomadic they are also the first people proven to have been agriculturally inclined, growing and maintaining crops. According to Koch, “evidence suggests they grew sumpweed or marsh elder, may grass, goosefoot, knotweed, sunflowers and beans.” He also notes that “maize, or corn, was grown mostly for religious ceremonies rather than normal human consumption” (8).

Aside from their achievements in the areas of agriculture and farming, the Hopewell had a near comprehensive knowledge of the solar and lunar cycles. As Koch notes, “many of their burial mounds, earthworks, and other structures, such as charnel houses, appear to be aligned to solar and lunar events” (11). This leads one to think that the skies played an integral part in their religion, considering the fact that the burial of their dead seems to be based upon the cycles of the skies.

The standard unit of measurement was “the approximate average arm length” (approximately 2.016 feet), similar to the measurements of the civilizations of the Mississippian period, and by certain Midwest native tribes (Koch 10-11).

Another colossal and notable achievement is that the Hopewell appear to have built the first road ever in North America. This road spans between the monumental Newark earthworks (a massive architectural achievement) to Chillicothe, Ohio, a span of approximately sixty miles. It is known that this road “preceded those of the Anasazi and Mayan by more than a century” (Koch 12).

The Hopewell also had a very intricate and extensive trading network.

Koch says that “The Hopewell were an egalitarian society where almost everyone was an equal,” because, according to him, “there does not appear to have been a class of high chiefs or someone with supreme authority and status may have been based on accomplishments.” He does note, however that, even though there was not a “high chief” or a political leader of any sort, there //was// “a group of shamans who saw after the spiritual and physical needs of the people,” noting, however that “the extent of their leadership is not clear.” Of note is the fact that “in some instances, women appear to have been in leadership positions” (9). As noted previously, however, there is little that is known, little that is fact, about the Hopewell.

“Artifacts recovered from various mounds,” says Koch, “indicates the presence of shamans…and the practice of human sacrifice.” He notes that “one figurine depicts a shaman dressed in a bear skin holding a human head,” also saying that “other artifacts include a copper bear headdress and several copper headdresses in the form of deer antlers” (13).

The shamans, aside from being spiritual leaders, were also often healers. “Shamans were herbalists who assisted the sick and provided a conduit to the other world.” Koch notes that as a way of reaching that “other world” the shamans often participated in ritual smoking, commonly //nicotiana rustica// (13), which contains an extremely high nicotine content, and is often used in the creation of organic pesticides.

These shamans (and the practice of human sacrifice) indicate that, despite their highly influential achievements in the areas of astronomy, agriculture and the building of the first North American road, the Hopewell were still very much a primitive people.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Despite their achievements, the Hopewell are most notable for the burial mounds spread along the Mississippi River, along the Illinois/Iowa border. The area encompassing a large portion of Illinois, a good chunk of Northeastern Missouri, reaching as far North as just over the Illinois/Wisconsin border, and well into central Iowa was the home of the Havana Hopewell culture. The various portions of the Hopewell population are distinguished by their varying burial practices, as opposed to their specific cultural differences.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Of note within the Havana Hopewell section are the Sinissippi Mounds, the Toolesboro Mound Group, and the Dickson Mounds.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">People were commonly buried within these mounds with various goods to display their status and/or wealth (Koch 14). Individuals were often cremated and/or dismembered (Koch 13). The construction of the mounds was exceptionally intricate. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">“Mound construction typically began with the laying of a sand or clay floor, or a platform in the center, upon which the body and artifacts were placed. Over this, layers of earth, clay, sand, and gravel were piled up to make a mound. Alternatively, the mound was built up around a tomb made of logs or large stone slabs. Many mounds contain several burials dispersed through the different layers” (State Historical Society of Iowa). <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Koch describes the inner contents of an excavated mound: “The top soil layer of the mound contained pieces of pottery and a clay fireplace from the Mississippian period. Burials were found in a crypt, which had been constructed from logs in a rectangular pit. Six extended burials were side by side with two additional burials of disarticulated bones at each end. Large logs had covered the crypt prior to mound construction. The crypt contained pottery sherds (sic), a river clam shell, some sharpened beaver teeth and a platform pipe made from limestone” (14). <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Such intricacy indicates the amount of importance placed by the Hopewell upon the treatment of the dead. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The Sinissippi mounds were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, the Toolesboro mounds in 1966, and the Dickson Mounds in 1972. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The Hopewell have left very little in the way of historical record of their existence. What scholars know of the Hopewell has been pieced together from artifacts and tools dug from the burial mounds and excavated by archaeologists and anthropologists. It is impossible to know how these people referred to themselves, due to the lack of any written language.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">William Romain, //Mysteries of the Hopewell//, 2000.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Further Reading: **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Smiling Dan burial site, Scott County, Illinois <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The Red Ochre culture <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The Black Sand culture
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Areas for Further Research: **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Gibbon, Guy E and Kenneth M Ames. __Archaeology of Prehistoric Native America: An Encyclopedia.__ New York: Garland Publishing, 1998.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Works Cited **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Koch, Wolf H and Linnea K Koch. __The Hopewell Civilization in the Sauk Valley: A Description of Early Native Cultures at the Crossroads of Manufacturing and Commerce Two Millenia Ago.__ Sterling: Sterling-Rock Falls Historical Society, 2008.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">State Historical Society of Iowa. __Toolesboro Mounds History.__ 2008. 6 April 2011 <http://www.iowahistory.org/historic-sites/toolesboro-mounds/site-history.html>.

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