Hopewell Culture National Historical Park
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| Hopewell Culture National Historical Park | |
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| Location | Ross County, Ohio, USA |
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| Nearest city | Chillicothe, Ohio |
| Coordinates | 39°22′33″N 83°00′23″W / 39.37583°N 83.00639°WCoordinates: 39°22′33″N 83°00′23″W / 39.37583°N 83.00639°W |
| Area | 1,170 acres (4.73 km²) |
| Established | March 2, 1923 |
| Visitors | 29,948 (in 2007) |
| Governing body | National Park Service |
Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, formerly known as Mound City Group National Monument, is a United States national historical park with earthworks and burial mounds from the Hopewell culture, a cultural complex of ancestral Native Americans. The park is composed of five separate sites in Ross County, Ohio. The park includes archaeological resources of the Hopewell culture, and is administered by the United States Department of the Interior's National Park Service.
In January 2008 the Department of the Interior included Hopewell Culture National Historical Park as part of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, one of 14 sites on its "tentative list" from which the United States makes nominations for the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.[1]
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[edit] History
From about 200 BC to AD 500, the Ohio River Valley was a focal point of the prehistoric Hopewell culture. The term Hopewell (taken from an early farmer who owned the land where one of the mound complexes was located) culture is applied to a broad network of beliefs and practices among different Native American groups over a large portion of eastern North America. The culture is characterized by the construction of enclosures made of earthen walls, often built in geometric patterns, and mounds of various shapes. Visible remnants of Hopewell culture are concentrated in the Scioto River valley near present-day Chillicothe, Ohio. The most striking Hopewell sites contain earthworks in the form of squares, circles, and other geometric shapes. Many of these sites were built to a monumental scale, with earthen walls up to 12 feet (3.7 m) high outlining geometric figures more than 1,000 feet (300 m) across. Conical and loaf-shaped earthen mounds up to 30 feet (9.1 m) high are often found in association with the geometric earthworks.
Mound City, located on Ohio Highway 104 approximately four miles north of Chillicothe along the Scioto River, is a group of 23 earthen mounds constructed by the Hopewell culture. Each mound within the Mound City Group covered the remains of a charnel house. After the Hopewell people cremated the dead, as they burned the charnel house their practice was to construct a mound over the remains. They also placed artifacts, such as copper figures, mica, arrowheads, shells, and pipes in the mounds.
The site was first mapped in the 1840s, but much of it was destroyed during World War I when the Army constructed sprawling Camp Sherman, a military training base, on the site. In the early 1920s, the camp was razed and the mounds recreated. In 1923, the Department of Interior declared the Mound City Group a National Monument, administered by the Federal government.
In 1992, Mound City Group was renamed and expanded as Hopewell Culture National Historic Park. Its definition included remnants of four other nearby earthwork and mound systems. Two Ross County sites are within a few miles of Mound City and open to the public. Seip Earthworks is located 17 miles (27 km) west of Chillicothe on U.S. Route 50; it is administered by the Ohio Historical Society. Hopewell Mound Group is the site of the 1891 excavation on the land of Capt. Mordecai Hopewell (for whom the Hopewell culture is named). Although High Bank Works and Hopeton Earthworks are included in the national park and maintained by the National Park Service, they are not open to visitors.
The Ohio Historical Society also maintains a number of mound systems and elaborate earthworks in the southern Ohio area, including the National Historic Landmarks of Fort Ancient, Newark Earthworks, and Serpent Mound. Fifteen mound complexes identified historically in the county have been lost to agriculture or urban development.
The national park contains nationally significant archaeological resources, including large earthwork and mound complexes, that provide insight into the sophisticated and complex social, ceremonial, political, and economic life of the Hopewell people.
The park visitor's center features museum exhibits with artifacts excavated by the Mound City Group, an orientation film, book sales area, and self-guided and guided tours.
[edit] Notes
- ^ "Secretary Kempthorne Selects New U.S. World Heritage Tentative List", Dept. of Interior (posted by Octagonmoonrise), 22 Jan 2008, accessed 5 Dec 2008
[edit] References
- Squire, Ephraim G. and Davis, Edwin H., Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998. (reprint of 1848 book)
- Woodward, Susan L. and McDonald, Jerry N., Indian Mounds of the Middle Ohio Valley, Blacksburg, VA: McDonald & Woodward Publishing, 1986.
[edit] External links
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