Adena Mound
The Adena Mound was located in Chillicothe at the base of the hill where Governor Thomas Worthington built his home. "Adena" is the name Worthington gave to his estate. The Adena culture (800 B.C. to 1 A.D.) of prehistoric Native American people is named for the Adena Mound.
The Adena Mound was nearly 27 feet tall and 140 feet in diameter. In 1901, William C. Mills excavated the Adena Mound. At the time, Mills was the Curator of Archaeology of the Ohio Historical Society. Mills discovered a number of artifacts in the mound. He and his team of workers found copper bracelets and rings, slate gorgets, spear points made from Flint Ridge flint, and many bone and shell beads. The most remarkable artifact found in the Adena Mound was the Adena effigy pipe. It is a tubular smoking pipe carved in the shape of a man wearing a decorated loincloth and a feather bustle. The Adena pipe is made of catlinite or pipestone.
The Adena Mound is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
This wonderful carved pipe was found in the Adena mound in Chillicothe. It shows us an Adena man wearing typical clothing and jewelry.
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References and Suggested Reading
- CERHAS. EarthWorks, Virtual Explorations of the Ancient Ohio Valley. The Center for the Electronic Reconstruction of Historical and Archaeological Sites (CERHAS). Cincinnati, OH, 2006.
- Greber, N'omi "A Study of Continuity and Contrast Between Central Scioto Adena and Hopewell Sites." West Virginia Archeologist 43:1-26, 1991
- 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
- Mills, William C. "Excavations of the Adena Mound," Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications, Volume 10, pp. 452-479, 1902.
- Pangea Productions. Searching for the Great Hopewell Road. N.p.: Pangea Productions, 1998.
- 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
"Adena Mound", Ohio History Central, June 29, 2006, http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=2411
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