Hopewell Ceremonial Enclosures: Construction, Function, and
In every great society there is a burial ritual, or a “death culture”. Some cultures are simple and some are grand and elaborate. The Hopewell Indian culture of North America is no different, and their burial rituals involved the construction of large earthen mounds to contain the dead and their goods for the afterlife. The Hopewell are believed to have had an extensive trade network, resulting in many “exotic” goods in these burial mounds. There are several earthworks that stand out in Ohio, they include: Mound City (Hopewell Culture National Historic Park) in Chillicothe, Seip Mound Group in the Paint Creek Valley, and the Newark Works (Octagon State Memorial) in Licking County. These works vary in size and complexity, but vary slightly in age. Mound City and Newark date to around A.D. 1-50, while Seip dates to A.D. 100-200. The Hopewell burials are rich in ceremony and culture, features that have survived the test of time.The construction of the mounds and earthworks is achieved through the usage of borrow pits, or a large pit that has had the earth removed, to construct the large mounds of dirt that cover the ceremonial buildings. Mound City is comprised of 15.6 acres surrounded by a 2,050 foo
Some topics in this essay:
Seip Mound,
Mound City,
Newark Earthworks,
Hopewell Hopewell,
Licking River,
City Newark,
Bradley Lepper,
Hopewell Road,
Hopewell Ear,
Ohio River,
mound city,
trade network,
effigy pipes,
burial ritual,
lepper 1996,
seip mound,
mound city seip,
hopewell road,
material culture,
burial rituals,
otto 1968,
marine shell beads,
textiles marine shell,
hopewell trade network,
pipes local materials,
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Approximate Word count = 1543
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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