Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (318 page)
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Hopewell, Ohio, USA
[Si].
[Si].
A farm formerly belonging to Captain M. C. Hopewell near the town of Chillicothe, Ohio, containing an extensive mound complex which gives its name to the middle Woodland Stage Hopewellian Culture. Excavated in the 1890s by W. K. Moorehead , the site was found to comprise a rectangular enclosure covering 45ha, within which were 38 mounds.
In the central mound was the burial of a tall young man and a young woman. She was buried with thousands of pearl beads, and copper buttons. She wore copper bracelets. Both individuals wore copper ear spools, copper breastplates, and necklaces of grizzly bear teeth. Rather strange was the presence of artificial copper noses. A cremated male buried in Mound 11 may have been a master obsidian worker. A male in Mound 17 was buried with 3000 sheets of mica and 90kg of galena.
[Rep.: W. K. Moorehead , 1922,
The Hopewell mound group of Ohio
. Chicago: Field Museum of History]
In the central mound was the burial of a tall young man and a young woman. She was buried with thousands of pearl beads, and copper buttons. She wore copper bracelets. Both individuals wore copper ear spools, copper breastplates, and necklaces of grizzly bear teeth. Rather strange was the presence of artificial copper noses. A cremated male buried in Mound 11 may have been a master obsidian worker. A male in Mound 17 was buried with 3000 sheets of mica and 90kg of galena.
[Rep.: W. K. Moorehead , 1922,
The Hopewell mound group of Ohio
. Chicago: Field Museum of History]
Hopewellian Culture
[CP].
[CP].
Middle Woodland Stage communities occupying the Ohio Valley and much of the eastern woodlands and midwest of North America in the period
c.
200 bc to ad 400. Named after the owner of a farm in Ross County, Ohio, Hopewellian Culture developed out of the Adena Complex of the eastern woodlands to become one of the most remarkable cultural traditions in North America.
Characteristic Hopewellian material culture includes pottery with deeply incised or rocker-stamped decoration, broad-bladed chipped stone points, and small stone platform-pipes for smoking tobacco. These pipes were often carved in zoomorphic forms.
Settlements were semi-permanent or permanent hamlets and villages, often in river valleys and at intervals of about 20km. Houses were rectangular or oval in plan, built with wood forming a frame, over which mats and animal skins would be stretched. The subsistence base mainly depended on hunting and gathering. Small mammals, turkeys, fish, and shellfish were important foods, as too were hickory nuts. Some maize may have been cultivated, but was probably not a major component of diet.
The Hopewellian is best known for its ceremonial centres, of which the largest were those built in the Ohio Valley. Each centre typically comprises one or more earthwork enclosures containing burial mounds. Both cremation and inhumation burials are known, although inhumation appears to have been reserved for the elite. The burial rites involved placing the dead person in a charnel house made of wooden posts, burning it, and then constructing a mound over the top. The elite were often buried in log-lined tombs within the charnel houses, accompanied by a selection of rich grave goods.
Extensive trading links known as the
HOPEWELL INTERACTION SPHERE
are reflected in the range of imported goods and raw materials. The Hopewellian Culture had many local styles and regional variations (e.g. Havana Hopewellian, Illinois Hopewellian, Marksville Hopewellian), the differences sometimes being greater than the similarities. Throughout, however, artistic expression and craftsmanship were of a high level and many fine artefacts were created or acquired by Hopewellian communities.
c.
200 bc to ad 400. Named after the owner of a farm in Ross County, Ohio, Hopewellian Culture developed out of the Adena Complex of the eastern woodlands to become one of the most remarkable cultural traditions in North America.
Characteristic Hopewellian material culture includes pottery with deeply incised or rocker-stamped decoration, broad-bladed chipped stone points, and small stone platform-pipes for smoking tobacco. These pipes were often carved in zoomorphic forms.
Settlements were semi-permanent or permanent hamlets and villages, often in river valleys and at intervals of about 20km. Houses were rectangular or oval in plan, built with wood forming a frame, over which mats and animal skins would be stretched. The subsistence base mainly depended on hunting and gathering. Small mammals, turkeys, fish, and shellfish were important foods, as too were hickory nuts. Some maize may have been cultivated, but was probably not a major component of diet.
The Hopewellian is best known for its ceremonial centres, of which the largest were those built in the Ohio Valley. Each centre typically comprises one or more earthwork enclosures containing burial mounds. Both cremation and inhumation burials are known, although inhumation appears to have been reserved for the elite. The burial rites involved placing the dead person in a charnel house made of wooden posts, burning it, and then constructing a mound over the top. The elite were often buried in log-lined tombs within the charnel houses, accompanied by a selection of rich grave goods.
Extensive trading links known as the
HOPEWELL INTERACTION SPHERE
are reflected in the range of imported goods and raw materials. The Hopewellian Culture had many local styles and regional variations (e.g. Havana Hopewellian, Illinois Hopewellian, Marksville Hopewellian), the differences sometimes being greater than the similarities. Throughout, however, artistic expression and craftsmanship were of a high level and many fine artefacts were created or acquired by Hopewellian communities.
Hopewell Interaction Sphere
[Ge].
[Ge].
Hopewellian communities living in and around the Ohio and Mississippi valleys acquired a very wide range of exotic goods and raw materials from all over North America. Native copper from around the Great Lakes to the north, silver from near Cobalt, Ontario, obsidian from the Yellowstone area of Wyoming, meteoric iron from a number of different meteor falls, marine shells, shark and alligator teeth from Florida, grizzly bear teeth from the Rocky Mountains, and mica, quartz crystal, and chlorite from the Appalachians. How these items and materials were acquired is not exactly known. Expeditions to remote sources may have been responsible in some cases, but the majority probably arrived through ‘down-the-line’ exchange between villages, the trade being controlled by some kind of elite or local ‘big men’.
hoplite
[Ge].
[Ge].
In Greek military orders, an infantry soldier whose armour included helmet, breastplate, shield, and greaves, with sword and spear as standard equipment.
horizon
[Ge].
[Ge].
In American archaeology this term refers to patterns of locally distinct phases or cultures that are linked together into bigger groups through recurrent cultural patterns and/or distinctive artefacts. Stone tools or pottery types provide typical features defining widespread horizons. The term was introduced by G. Willey and P. Phillips in 1955.
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