The Ohio Hopewell Culture

Sherd. Mound City. NPS. Zoned decoration contrasting cross hatched and plain areas.

Sherds. Seip Earthworks. OHS 957. Complicated stamping is an extremely rare surface decoration in Ohio Hopewell collections. This type of design, and possibly the sherds themselves, were imported from southeastern areas.

Wearable and Portable art:

Gorgets: As used here, these are essentially two dimensional objects with two holes for attachment or hanging. They are a common artifact type. They occur in a wide range of materials, most of which would have had a glittering or highly reflective surface when the gorgets were new and freshly polished.

Gorgets, sheet copper. Hazlett, Tremper Mound. OHS 242/1, 125/159. Reel shaped. Note the comparative length of upper and lower arms on the Hazelet piece (left). Gorgets similar in outline but made of stone were found with the Tremper piece (right).

Gorget, calcite/aragonite. Mound 15, Turner Group. PMAE 90 37 10/A47. One of a group of at least fifteen reel shaped gorgets found in a mound on the south bank of the Little Miami north of the main Turner enclosure. The surfaces of all the pieces are now eroded. Some fragments show unsuccessful drilling attempts. Several gorgets were made in a manner which would have displayed the iridescent banding of the fresh stone in an esthetically pleasing way. In others, the match between artifact form and raw material is missing. The overall impression of the workmanship shown by the group is that of an experienced hand working with an unfamiliar material. Such a speculation is consistent with the rare occurrence of this material in Ohio Hopewell sites. Collections Peabody Museum, Harvard University.

Gorgets, slate. Tremper Mound. OHS 125/144,145. These were found in the major deposit which contained similar objects of various outlines including diamond shaped.

Gorget, probable gorget, Ohio pipestone. Shetrone Mound 17, Hopewell Site. OHS 283/314A B. These pieces, others found with them, and a number of pieces from Tremper each show distinctive variations on a basic expanded center shape. No laboratory tests have been done. However, the source of the raw material, also called clay ironstone or fireclay, was most likely in the hills above the Tremper Mound, near the mouth of the Scioto River some 40 miles south of the Hopewell Site.

Probably unfinished Gorgets, chlorite (top), serpentine with mica. Mound 17, Hopewell Site. OHS 283/317,316A. Objects made from stone having varying mixtures of serpentine and chlorite have come from Hopewell sites, and in particular from deposits in this mound. These raw materials can be found in the same areas of the Appalachian Piedmont where there are sources of steatites and mica. The occurrence of a few bladelets made of Flint Ridge chalcedony at sites in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee suggest that this probably was a source area for Ohio Hopewell.

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Another excellent place to learn about the Hopewell People is at the website of the Hopewell Culture National Park in Ohio. This offsite link will take you there.