Chillicothe Earthworks
The area near what is now Chillicothe, Ohio was in the heartland of the prehistoric Woodland cultures of Native Americans known to archaeologists as the Adena and Hopewell. The importance of this region for these ancient societies is evident in the number and variety of earthworks located in the Scioto River Valley north and south of modern Chillicothe. There are more earthworks per square mile here than in any other part of North America.
The Adena culture (800 B.C. to 100 A.D.) built many of the mounds and some of the smaller circular enclosures in the Chillicothe area. The Adena Mound was formerly located on the estate of Governor Thomas Worthington. Before it was excavated and removed, it was a notable example of a conical burial mound. The Adena culture is named for the Adena Mound.
From about 100 B.C. to 500 A.D. the Hopewell culture built monumental earthworks in a variety of geometric shapes. They included circles, squares, octagons, and ovals. In addition, conical and loaf-shaped mounds were used for the burial of the dead. They often are found associated with the geometric enclosures. The Hopewell site, for which the culture is named, is in the Paint Creek Valley just a few miles from Chillicothe.
Other earthworks in the Chillicothe area include Hopeton, Mound City, Seip Mound and Earthworks, and Story Mound. The Hopeton Earthworks site is recognized as a National Historic Landmark. The site of the Adena Mound, the Hopewell Mound Group, Mound City Group, Seip Earthworks, Story Mound, and other mounds and enclosures near Chillicothe are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
This map shows the Hopewell mounds and earthworks around Chillicothe Ohio.
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References and Suggested Reading
- Earthworks Virtual Explorations of Ancient Newark, Ohio. The Center for the Electronic Reconstruction of Historical and Archaeological Sites. Cincinnati, OH: Center for the Electronic Reconstruction of Historical and Archaeological Sites, 2005.
- Byers, A. Martin. The Ohio Hopewell Episode: Paradigm Lost and Paradigm Gained. Akron, OH: University of Akron Press, 2004. - Available from Amazon.com
- Carr, Christopher, and D. Troy Case, eds. Gathering Hopewell: Society, Ritual, and Ritual Interaction. New York, NY: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 2005. - Available from Amazon.com
- Case, D. Troy and Christopher Carr, eds. The Scioto Hopewell and their Neighbors: Bioarchaeological Documentation and Cultural Understanding. New York, NY: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 2008. - Available from Amazon.com
- CERHAS. EarthWorks, Virtual Explorations of the Ancient Ohio Valley. The Center for the Electronic Reconstruction of Historical and Archaeological Sites (CERHAS). Cincinnati, OH, 2006.
- Dragoo, Don W. Mounds for the Dead: An Analysis of the Adena Culture. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Museum of Natural History, 1989.
- Greber, N'omi "A Study of Continuity and Contrast Between Central Scioto Adena and Hopewell Sites." West Virginia Archeologist 43:1-26, 1991
- Korp, Maureen. The Sacred Geography of the American Mound Builders. Lewiston, NY: E. Mellen Press, 1990. - Available from Amazon.com
- Lepper, Bradley T. Ohio Archaeology: An Illustrated Chronicle of Ohio's Ancient American Indian Cultures. Wilmington, Ohio, Orange Frazer Press, 2005. - Available from Amazon.com
- Lepper, Bradley T. People of the Mounds: Ohio's Hopewell Culture. N.p.: Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, 1995.
- O'Donnell, James H., III. Ohio's First Peoples. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2004. - Available from Amazon.com
- Pacheco, Paul J. , ed. A View from the Core: A Synthesis of Ohio Hopewell Archaeology. The Ohio Archaeological Council, Columbus, 1996. - Available from Amazon.com
- Pangea Productions. Searching for the Great Hopewell Road. N.p.: Pangea Productions, 1998.
- Romain, William F. Mysteries of the Hopewell: Astronomers, Geometers, and Magicians of the Eastern Woodlands. Akron, OH: University of Akron Press, 2000. - Available from Amazon.com
- Warriner, Gray, producer. Legacy of the Mound Builders. Seattle, WA: Camera One for the National Park Service and the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, 1994.
- Webb, William S., and Charles E. Snow, eds. The Adena People. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1974. - Available from Amazon.com
- Woodward, Susan L., and Jerry N. McDonald. Indian Mounds of the Middle Ohio Valley: A Guide to Mounds and Earthworks of the Adena, Hopewell, Cole, and Fort Ancient People. Lincoln: The University of Nebraska Press, 2002. - Available from Amazon.com
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Citation
"Chillicothe Earthworks", Ohio History Central, July 1, 2005, http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=2216
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