MOUNDBUILDERS

Therissa Alexander

History!

The Adena built burial and ceremonial mounds. The bodies were covered in red paint, which represented blood and life. Jewelry, beads and clay pipes were placed in for the person to enjoy in the afterlife. The body was placed in a burial house which was later burned and the mound built over it. Over time more people were buried in the mound and it grew. Cone shaped mounds were for human burials and the Animal shaped ones are believed to be used for religious purposes

History!!The Hopewell followed the Adena. Their mounds were larger than those of the Adena. Hopewell mounds were circular, in parallel lines, squares, octagons. Etc. The used the mounds for religious ceremonies, trading posts, places of worship.

In Hopewell mounds some bodies were cremated, sitting or were placed lying down. Some were placed in charnel houses then were later buried. Then the mound would be built over them.

Mound Construction

Hopewell:

•Clay or sand floor, or a platform was built first were the body and artifacts would go. Earth, clay, sand and gravel were put on top of this. The mound was built around a log or stone slab tomb. Sometimes there were multiple burials in different layers in the mounds.

Adena:

•Bodies were placed in log tombs and covered with earth after being cremated. Platforms were also built as well with bark roofing. Due to the weight of the earth on top of the burial many tombs collapsed.

•There were also multiple burials in the mounds.

•People of higher status were not cremated and were buried with flints, beads, pipes, and mica and copper ornaments.

Mound Construction

Adena Mounds: The Enon Mound

Enon, Ohio Clark County

Enon Mound

•Is considered the second biggest mound, second to Miamisburg

•Is 40 feet high. 574 feet circumference at the base

•Also known as the Knob Prairie Mound

•There is a legend that the mound was excavated in the 19th Century.

•Another legend is that George Rogers Clark and his troops used the mound in 1780 for scouting against the Shawnee

Enon Mound•Reports of a partial excavation that was done in 1870-1880. Evidence of this is an indentation in the northwest side of the mound and an irregular area where dirt is displaced.

•It is said that there is top soil in the center leading to a stone room, that was a shape of a tapered bake oven. Is tall enough for a person to stand in.

•There is no evidence of any artifacts found in the mound.

Hopewell Mound: Nicholls Mound

Nicholls Mound•About 90 feet wide and 11 feet tall. One of the largest Hopewell Mounds in Wisconsin

•Excavated in 1928 by the Milwaukee Public Museum

•Several burials were found in a chamber

Nicholls Mound burials

Nicholls Mound

•When excavated they found different colors of layers of earth.

•There was a rectangular pit that was covered with bark and had a bark roof.

•Several burials were found here.

•Several artifacts found. Ceramics and obsidian were among the items that were found.

Artifacts!!

Hopewell ShamanAdena Pipe

Hopewell Raven Pipe

Hopewell Falcon

Adena Statue

Projectile point found at an Adena Site

A-D Four flaked stone knives E Ground slate ornament gorget (neck pendant) F-H Large ceremonial cache blades I Four rolled copper beads J Ground stone axe

Hopewell Breast PlateCopper Beads-

Hopewell

Hopewell Spear Points

Sources

http://www.shakerwssg.org/enon_moundan_adena_burial_mound.htm

http://www.enonhistory.org/6928/?*session*id*key*=*session*id*val*

http://www.byways.org/browse/byways/2279/places/15614/

http://www.uwlax.edu/mvac/SpecificSites/Trempealeau/Hopewell.htm

http://www.watertown.k12.ma.us/americanhistorycentral/01firstamericans/The_Moundbuild.html

http://www.iowahistory.org/sites/toolsboro/toolesboro_history.html

http://www.adena.com/adena/ad/ad01.htm