#Hopewell mounds

[jwood718]

"They're great civil engineers. They're artists, they're astronomers, mathematicians, and for my people, that's not the way that Shawnee people, or any Indigenous peoples in this country, are typically portrayed in media." Chief Ben Barnes of the Shawnee Tribe

Tana Weingartner for NPR: "Ohio's Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks are about to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site"

"Of just over a thousand [Heritage] sites worldwide deemed of universal importance and value to humankind, there are only 24 in the United States that carry that distinction."

Outside the Great Circle at Newark (with visitor for scale, to the left in the distance).  The Circle’s earthen berm stands anywhere from around 6 feet, to 14 feet high. Jake Wood

"Now, after more than a decade of work and planning, ancient earthworks in Ohio are poised to join them...

The Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks encompass eight sites — a collection of historic earthen mounds built by Indigenous peoples:

Fort Ancient Earthworks and Nature Preserve

Hopewell Culture National Historical Park (five geographically separate elements)

Mound City Group

Hopewell Mound Group

Seip Earthworks

High Bank Earthworks

Hopeton Earthworks

Newark Earthworks

All the sites were built 1,600 to 2,000 years ago by peoples formerly referred to as Hopewell...

It might be unusual to consider huge mounds of dirt as anything significant, however, UNESCO calls the earthworks a 'masterpiece of human creative genius.' That's one of the criteria for inclusion on the World Heritage List. Another calls for bearing "exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared."

The design and construction of the Earthworks show the people during this early era had a clear understanding of geometry, architecture, and solar and lunar alignments and multi-year cycles."

Full story with audio from Weekend Edition Saturday.

In my various travels, I've visited some of these; more information on some of those astronomical alignments is on available on Jake Rambles n'at, including diagrams on satellite views ('cause I do that):

[not-available-for-comment]

Y’all I am So Excited about this. The Serpent Mound and the other Hopewell mounds are one of the few genuinely cool things about Ohio

Excerpts:

"In the past we might sometimes say 'Hopewell culture' or 'Hopewell people,' but what we really understand 'Hopewell' to be now is not a new peoples," explains Bill Kennedy, site manager and site archeologist at Fort Ancient Earthworks and Nature Preserve. "It's a new religious movement of people. It's happening all throughout eastern North America. It reaches a fluorescence, though, in southern Ohio that it doesn't reach anywhere else."

…Chief Ben Barnes of the Shawnee Tribe, who was involved in the earthworks nomination, also sees its inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List as a step toward combating racist and ignorant stereotypes about his people and his ancestors.

"They're great civil engineers. They're artists, they're astronomers, mathematicians, and for my people, that's not the way that Shawnee people, or any Indigenous peoples in this country, are typically portrayed in media," he says.

In addition, the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks address gaps in the World Heritage List identified by the World Heritage Committee. Specifically, a lack of sites representing pre-contact Indigenous American sacred architecture and sites that represent early understandings of science, culture and astronomy.

…Today no federally recognized tribes remain in Ohio. They were all forcibly removed in the 17 and 1800s. Yet it was their ancestors who created these massive feats of design and engineering.

Glenna Wallace is chief of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma and has been active in the World Heritage process. She says inscription on the World Heritage List is part of her mission to teach people about the earthworks that her ancestors built.

She says their inclusion would not be an ending, but another beginning.

"Our people may have been forced away from that place, and they may have disappeared, but what they built, what they constructed, what their values were, that's still there and that should be protected," she states.

"That's the reason for World Heritage."

In becoming a UNESCO World Heritage site, Wallace says she hopes the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks will finally attain the reverence and respect they deserve.

See the linked article for more details!

[middleland]

Seip Earthworks - Hopewell Culture National Historical Park (2) (3) by Roam Your Home

[charring58]

Field Museum's #Hopewell culture ome from the "Hopewell Mound ted about 50 miles south of hio. Archaeologists found more than at any other Hopewell site

[prairie-tales]

Hopewell mica hand, c. 300 BCE –500 CE.

Region: Ohio River Valley.

Discovered within one of the Hopewell mound complexes of burials found in the central Ohio River valley. Flourishing from around the second century BCE in the Eastern Woodlands  area that spread from the east coast of America and Canada and as far south as North Carolina, the Hopewell Indians are thought to be the ancestors of the Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw and Cherokee tribes. They grew maize to supplement their hunter-gatherer diet and were responsible for the many small stone sculptures that have been found in the region.

The Hopewell Indians built special mounds for their leaders, and they were focal points for their religious activities. Their elaborate burials used special rites on the heads and hands of the dead, giving this hand particular significance. Mica are minerals found in certain types of rock and when crystalized, they form flexible sheets. The grave in which this hand was found lies some 480km (300 miles) from the nearest source of mica and the presence of this artefact is an indication of the status of the leader with which it was buried. Some graves have been discovered that were entirely lined with mica.

Source: ‘Folk Art’, Susann Linn-Williams, pp. 152-53.

[johncosma]

Sacred mounds abed, at peace #hopewell #hopewellpeople #woodland #woodlandpeople #precolumbian #mound #mounds #earthworks #rockyriverreservation #metroparks #clevelandmetroparks https://www.instagram.com/p/Cnu0U_XpaEO/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[stankhead]

Beaver Effigy Pipe (circa A.D. 200-400)  Pipestone with mother of pearl and bone inlay. Hopewell Culture, from Tremper Mound in Scioto County, Ohio.

via. Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa

[uwlmvac]

Nicholls Mound near the city of Trempealeau on the Mississippi River is an example of a Hopewell site in Wisconsin. When archaeologists from the Milwaukee Public Museum excavated the mound in the late 1920 - 1930's they discovered a burial tomb dug into the ground and covered with logs. A 12 foot high mound was built over the tomb. The tomb contained several individuals who were buried with ceremonial items made from exotic materials. Some of the items included large stone knives over 6 inches long made of obsidian from the Rocky Mountains, copper earspools, 6 copper axes, marine shell beads, and 20 freshwater pearl beads. You can still visit Nicholls mound from the Great River State Bike Trail just east of Trempealeau. Learn more about Nicholls Mound at: https://www.uwlax.edu/mvac/past-cultures/specific-sites/trempealeau/#Nicholls.  Pictured: A recent picture of Nicholls Mound.

[randomnoteforfuturereference]

So Echo is already notable for its connection to the Choctaw Nation, but something that really struck me is that this is probably the first time the Mississippian Mound Builders have been depicted in a mainstream non-documentary film/series.

I really hope this kicks off interest in that civilization and its cities such as Cahokia, Moundsville (which was probably the location in the show), Etowah, and Spiro. Not to mention other civilizations like the Hopewell and Adena.

[1five1two]

The Ohio Hanukkiah Mound was a mound believed to be in the shape of a menorah and oil lamp, located near the Little Miami River in Milford, Ohio. Its origins are typically attributed to the Hopewell culture.

[unknownancientamerica]

Timeline for North America Mound Builders Civilizations

5400 years ago the, Ouachita Mound Ring site, Northeastern Louisiana, 11 mounds in a circle

 1700 -1200 B.C.,  several villages with concentric c-shape ridges appears 55 miles from Ouachita Site, most notable is at Poverty Point

 800-100 B.C., Adena Culture flourished, Ohio Valley, part of eastern agricultural complex/ revolution, mounds were mostly burial

100 B.C.-400 A.D Hopewell Culture, sites stretch from Canada to Louisiana, mounds had ritual spaces, grand trade routes, spiritual influence spread

950-1250 Mississippian Culture mostly south eastern region of U.S., East St. Louis Mound Complex, St Louis Mound Complex, Monks Mounds Complex and Cahokia Complex with Sun calendar woodhenge 

Many of these site were inhabited by different ethnic at different time making it difficult to determine the people who first built the mounds

Written by Michelle Evans

[lapsed-bookworm]

"UNESCO World Heritage Committee Names Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks to Prestigious List" (19 September 2023):

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee on Tuesday, September 19, 2023 named the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, a group of eight ancient earthwork sites in southern Ohio, to its World Heritage List. The decision by the World Heritage Committee was made by consensus at its 45th session in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 

The monumental earthworks were built 2,000 years ago by Native American communities. Five of the earthwork sites are managed by the National Park Service and three are managed by the Ohio History Connection.

The destination was applauded by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo), whose department oversees the National Park Service.

“Today’s designation by UNESCO is a tremendous opportunity and recognition of the contributions of America’s Indigenous Peoples,” Haaland said in a press release. “World Heritage designation is an opportunity for the United States to share the whole story of America and the remarkable diversity of our cultural heritage as well as the beauty of our land. The Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks are unique creations of America’s indigenous people and a remarkable survival of our ancient history.”

The sites that comprise Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks were built between 1,500 and 2,200 years ago by people now referred to as the Hopewell Culture. The earthworks, built on an enormous scale and using a standard unit of measure, form precise squares, circles, and octagons as well as a hilltop sculpted to enclose a vast plaza. The geometric forms are consistently deployed across great distances and encode alignments with both the sun’s cycles and the far more complex patterns of the moon. Artifacts, which are among the most outstanding art objects produced in pre-Columbian North America, show that those who built the earthworks interacted with people as far away as the Yellowstone basin and Florida. These are among the largest earthworks in the world that are not fortifications or defensive structures.

The properties comprising the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks:

Hopewell Culture National Historical Park in Chillicothe, including the Mound City Group, Hopewell Mound Group, Seip Earthworks, High Bank Earthworks and Hopeton Earthworks

The Ohio History Connection’s Octagon Earthworks and Great Circle Earthworks in Newark and Fort Ancient Earthworks in Oregonia

During a recent vote, the World Heritage Committee members agreed that these earthworks deserve to be recognized alongside such places as Stonehenge in England and the Nazca Lines in Peru, as well as other iconic places in the United States, including Independence Hall and the Grand Canyon. The National Park Service manages all or part of 19 of the 25 World Heritage Sites in the United States. It is also the principal U.S. government agency responsible for implementing the World Heritage Convention in cooperation with the Department of State.

The inclusion of a site in the World Heritage List does not affect U.S. sovereignty or management of the sites, which remain subject only to U.S., state and local laws. Detailed information on the World Heritage Program and the process for the selection of U.S. sites can be found at the National Park Service’s website.

[middleland]

August Wildflowers and Grasses by Christa Binder

Via Flickr:

Seip Earthworks - Hopewell Culture National Historic Park. Ross County, Ohio

[charring58]

Clovis points unearthed in the park indicate occupation by people of the Clovis Culture, which was widespread by about 11,000 BC. Clovis hunters specialized in hunting the large Pleistocene mammals, but a variety of other plants and animals were also exploited. Archeological surveys have located Archaic period (8000 – 2000 BC) settlements along the Illinois River. These prehistoric indigenous peoples thrived by foraging and hunting a variety of wild foods;[9] Havana Hopewell settlers during the Woodland period (1000 BC – 1000 AD) built earthwork mounds. They also made pottery and domesticated plants.

[topazadine]

Here in Ohio, we recently received a UNESCO World Heritage Site designation for the Hopewell Mounds Ceremonial Earthworks. They were made by what is now known as the Hopewell culture approximately from around 500-800 BCE. This complex covered 130 acres and include an earthwork that could have enclosed four Roman Colliseums; they are the largest geometrically shaped earthworks on the planet.

This is what it's believed they looked like:

Note the enclosure and consider how much work it must have been to put all of that earth there on southern Ohio's relatively flat fields. It was a grand undertaking that took decades, even centuries, of hard work. Rome wasn't built in a day, and the Hopewell Mounds weren't either.

Burials have been found in the mounds, as well as evidence of ceremonial gatherings that would have drawn people from all over the Eastern United States. BTW, the Hopewell Mounds are not just one single site; they are a vast network of separate earthworks all over the state that were connected by routes and were used in rotation.

Inside the mounds were found wonderful artworks from as far away as Yellowstone and the Gulf of Mexico, signifying long and complex trade networks:

What's most fascinating is that these giant complexes took generations to build ... and they are aligned to specific cosmic events. These enormous structures are essentially a depiction of the cosmos, including sun and moon cycles.

This map from the Newark Earthworks shows exactly how precise and beautiful the geometry of these mounds was:

So why have you, dear reader, never heard about them before now? Surely this incredibly ceremonial earthworks, vaster and more complex than Stonehedge, the largest mound structure in the world, an entire cosmological representation on earth, would be legendary.

Well, the reason you never hear about it is because the most intact and carefully-studied sites look like .... this now.

European colonizers FARMED OVER these beautiful ancient earthworks. They put a GOLF COURSE on top of gorgeous, culturally priceless artifacts of an advanced culture. (That golf course is still there, btw, and they're being quite stubborn about leaving despite the fact that this is now, you know, a World Heritgage Site.)

If you ever wonder why it seems like European has all the ancient historical places and no one else does, that's because they tore down, bombed, or built golf courses on top of everyone else's.

My favorite thing is that Europe is spooky because it’s old and America is spooky because it’s big