Intriguing riddles from the Hopewell Culture

Curiosity overcame us as we stood at the base of a towering Ohio hill that was not formed by geology. The massive mound was constructed by people about 2,000 years ago. How could they have moved millions of pounds of dirt without metal shovels, wheelbarrows or modern bulldozers? Why did they work so hard to create earthen structures that don’t appear to have helped their economy?

We were at the Seip Earthworks — Hopewell Culture National Historical Park near Chillicothe, Ohio. We found answers to our questions through the exhibits at the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park Visitor Center just outside this smallish town. Park Superintendent Chris Alford helped us further understand this amazing culture. From him we learned that people used stone and wood tools to dig dirt and transport it in baskets.

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Decades ago, our middle and high school history classes taught us that European explorers and settlers discovered scattered bands of Native Americans scratching out a living hunting, fishing, gathering wild plants and, perhaps, cultivating small gardens. No mention was made in those classes of the sophisticated and populated cultures of Native Americans who had lived in North America for thousands of years.

We became intrigued with prehistory while taking one of the online Great Courses taught by archaeologist Edwin Barnhart. From him and through further reading we learned about ancient North American cultures and have since visited Pennsylvania’s Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village, where artifacts dating back at least 16,000 years have been found. We also have visited Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, Effigy Mounds National Monument in the Midwest, and Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park and Hovenweep National Monument among other sites in the Southwest. In June we toured the Hopewell sites in Ohio.

Two thousand years ago, at about the time of Christ, Hopewell people made giant earthworks across a vast area of North America. Chillicothe, Ohio, is its epicenter. Archaeology revealed that some earthworks were made for burials while others plotted astronomical events. The reasons for others remain perplexing.

Hopewell’s earthen structures include pimple-shaped mounds, squares enclosed by levee-like earthworks, and circles. Although scattered across Ohio, each square is exactly 27 acres. If it were possible to lift the squares, each would fit precisely into each of the larger circles. This amazing feat is common among several of the structures. Long before Columbus, ancient Americans were masters of design, engineering, measurement and construction. Building such massive and complex structures required sophisticated social organization, leadership and communication.

What is not known stimulates curiosity. For starters, no one knows what these people called themselves. They are labeled the Hopewell Culture simply because some of their earthworks were on the farm of Mordecai Hopewell, an early white settler.

The earthworks are so extensive that we wondered who engineered all these scattered earthworks, how people shaped them, and how there was enough food to feed the workforce.

“Hopewell Culture was defined by its religious and spiritual practices. A large number of people spread over a vast area were practicing similar religious ceremonies. South Central Ohio would have been a sacred place. The earthworks and mounds helped connect the dead with the earth and sky. People would have come from all over at certain times to participate in ceremonies and help make earthworks. Communication happened by people talking to one another. People traveled over vast distances and would have encountered others and talked about what was happening in Ohio,” said Superintendent Alford.

At Hopewell, archaeologists have found obsidian that came from what’s now Yellowstone National Park, copper from the upper Great Lakes, shells from the Gulf of Mexico, and mica from the Carolinas. Lacking wheels and horses, people carried them along extensive networks of trails.

We wondered how people laboring to build earthworks found enough food.

“The people combined hunting, gathering, fishing and farming. Whitetail deer were the most important food animal, but they also caught and ate small mammals, mussels, fish and birds. They hunted using atlatls with flint tipped darts before bow and arrows came into use. They gathered and ate hickory nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts and acorns,” Alford said. “Hopewell was before the later three sister crops of beans, corn and squash emerged. Instead, they used seven oily and starchy seeded crops. Four domesticated ones include acorn and crookneck squash, sunflowers, sumpweed, and goosefoot. It was about community. People shared food.”

Although many earthworks are near Chillicothe, others are spread over a large area in Ohio. At the Fort Ancient earthworks, managed by the Ohio History Connection, we studied the stone covered mounds that mark the sun and moon’s movements though an astronomical year. Likewise, the Newark Earthworks in the town of Newark, Ohio, mark the progression of the sun and moon. Generations of observations were needed to affirm celestial movements. Construction of mounds to mark these must have been arduous. All these structures are an astronomer’s dream to study and admire.

Fort Ancient and Newark’s Octagon Earthworks are two of the largest known collection of earthworks in the world. At this September’s meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will vote on a proposal to declare five areas managed by the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park and three managed by the Ohio History Connection as a World Heritage Site.

Camp Sherman and Mound City Group

More recent history happened at the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park’s Mound City Group. On April 6, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany, starting a race to train soldiers. The Army chose a site near Chillicothe and bought land from farmers. Within two months in 1917 about 2,000 buildings were constructed to house and train troops. Almost overnight the Chillicothe’s population of about 16,000 nearly quadrupled. By war’s end about 120,000 men had trained there.

Unfortunately, camp construction damaged many mounds and earthworks. But some early explorers and settlers had studied and recorded the mounds’ placements and shapes. In 1923 the no longer needed camp was transferred to the National Park Service with the support of President Warren Harding. Thanks to the work of visionary activists many earthworks have since been carefully restored. Here too, visitors can walk and reflect on the astronomical alignment and the enormous work involved in creating earthworks with simple tools.

Chillicothe

It’s a 581-mile drive from Cedar Rapids to Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. That’s farther than we like to drive in a day, so we tented overnight at pleasant Whitewater Memorial State Park in western Indiana. From there we stopped at Fort Ancient and Seip Earthworks on our way to Chillicothe. We spent the afternoon and evening at the park’s visitor center and exploring other nearby earthworks.

The town is about an hour’s drive south of Columbus and is a regional economic hub. Several state parks with campsites, RV parks, and motels are in or near town. We picnicked in Chillicothe’s spacious Yoctangee Park and later enjoyed a barbecue dinner at the Old Canal Smokehouse. Delicious food served with Southern hospitality.

We’d previously visited Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Pennsylvania, and Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Illinois, and Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa. Our time at Hopewell Cultural sites in Ohio helped us learn more about ancient life in North America that spanned at least 16,000 years before Columbus made landfall.

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