Ater Mound
The Ater Mound was a large, conical burial mound located in Concord Township, Ross County, Ohio. It was built by the people known to archaeologists as the Hopewell Culture (circa 100 BC-AD 500). It is estimated to have been 120 feet long by 77 feet wide and 6 feet high.
It was inadvertently damaged by a construction project and the remnant was excavated by the Ohio Historical Society in 1948. Raymond Baby, then the Curator of Archaeology, directed the excavations recovering many remarkable artifacts, including more than 1,500 beads that once had decorated a blanket used to cover the burial of a child.
Interior spiral shell sections have been cut away from a very large conch shell to make a hollow container. There are three small perforations drilled in the body of the shell and one small hole at the larger end of the item. There are some encrustations adhering to both interior and exterior surfaces. The shell is white, very pale brown and light brownish gray in color. It may have been used as a dipper. Item was excavated from the Raymond J. Ater Mound in Concord Township, Ross County, Ohio.
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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.
- Korp, Maureen. The Sacred Geography of the American Mound Builders. Lewiston, NY: E. Mellen Press, 1990. - 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
- Ricky, Donald B., ed. Encyclopedia of Ohio Indians. St. Clair Shores, MI: Somerset Publishers, Inc., 1998. - Available from Amazon.com
- 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.
- 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
Citation
"Ater Mound", Ohio History Central, July 31, 2007, http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=2934
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