Hopeton Earthworks
The Hopeton Earthworks site is a large Hopewell culture (100 BC -- AD 500) ceremonial center located along the Scioto River in Ross County. It includes a large circular enclosure, 1,050 feet in diameter, attached to a square about 900 feet across. Originally, the walls were 12 feet high, but years of cultivation have reduced their height to less than five feet.
The Hopeton Earthworks are situated just across the Scioto River from the Mound City Group and a set of parallel walls extends from Hopeton towards the river. It is likely that these sites were closely related during Hopewell times.
Since 1994, the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, working with National Park Service archaeologist Mark Lynott and the Midwest Archeological Center, has conducted investigations at the Hopeton Earthworks. Radiocarbon dates obtained for the site demonstrate it was built at about the same time as the Mound City Group confirming the close relationship between the sites.
The Hopeton Earthworks site is a National Historic Landmark and is part of Hopewell Culture National Historical Park.
An archaeologist working in Hopeton Earthworks trench is taking soil samples from the different soil layers to measure difference in soil magnetism.
External Links
If you click on any of the links below, you will leave Ohio History Central. The Ohio Historical Society does not certify the accuracy of information, nor endorse points of view expressed on the site to which you are navigating, with the exception of other OHS sites.
References and Suggested Reading
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
Time Periods
Regions
Citation
"Hopeton Earthworks", Ohio History Central, November 2, 2006, http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=2756
Feedback
Do you have comments that you would like to send us about this entry? Use our secure feedback form to send us your thoughts.
Support
Ohio History Central
If you found this entry helpful, please consider supporting Ohio History Central. Your support will enable us to continue to add new content and features to the encyclopedia.
To make a donation, click here. Be sure to select "Ohio History Central" from the list of "Gift Designations," when you make your gift.
Thank you for supporting Ohio History Central!
