The Scioto Hopewell and Their Neighbors : Bioarchaeological Documentation and Cultural Understanding

The Hopewell peoples lived in the Scioto valley and neighboring areas in Ohio in the first centuries A.D. This is the first book to examine them using a holistic approach. It is based on 10 years of research and analysis of data uncovered at several sites.

Investing in the future of Hopewell archae- adetailedagendaofpressingempiricalissues ology is the spirit in which this book has andintriguinginterpretivequestionsthatremain beenwrittenandisitssubstance. Ourpassion to be addressed in the attempt to understand to do so derives from our admiration of Hopewellpeoples. Hopewell peoples, themselves, and all they The first half of the book provides a achieved. Hopewell peoples of the Scioto synthesisandexpansionofcurrentknowledge valley and their neighbors were remarkable about the anthropology of Scioto Hopewell by any measure. Their graceful and powerful peoples: their natural and symbolically int- artwork,monumentalearthenarchitecture,and preted environments, subsistence, settlement knowledge of geometry and astronomy; their andmobilitypatterns,communityorganization social finesse in choreographing ritual perfor- at several scales, social-political-ritual orga- manceswithmanyhundredsofpersons,local zation, and world view, and the history of and foreign; the long-lasting intercommunity changes of each of these over time. Coming peacetheyachievedthroughtherichandcross- to an understanding of how Scioto Hopewell cuttingsocialandritualtiestheywove;andtheir social-ceremonial life abruptly began and extraordinary sensitivity to and relations with abruptlyended,neitherofwhichweretriggered theanimalpersonsandspiritbeingswithwhom proximally by subsistence or demographic they cohabited-each humble the Western change,isoneofthefruitsbornfromattempting mind. Forus,itseemsonlyrightandworthwhile thebroadsynthesis. Theethnohistorypresented thatanempiricalandconceptualpathbecleared hereismadetangiblewithover195photographs wherebyfuturearchaeologicalworkmighthelp of artistic renderings that Scioto Hopewell Hopewellpeoplestospeakbetterforthemselves peoples made of themselves, of artifacts that oftheirlives,accomplishments,concerns,and marked their social roles and were used in disappointments. theirceremonies,andofviewsoftheirsacred This book shares with you the empirical landscape. toolsandabroadvisionforexploringtheways The reconstruction of Scioto Hopewell of Scioto Hopewell and other Ohio Hopewell life presented in this book is an integration, peoples.