Shell Beads   Save
Raymond J. Ater Collection
Description: This strand consists of approximately 450 round shell beads hanging on a modern string. The beads are drilled through the middle and are mostly equal in size. They are mottled white, reddish yellow, and dark yellowish brown. These beads come from Hopewell Culture. In Ohio, the Hopewell Indians (100 B.C.-A.D. 500) built burial mounds and large earthen enclosures in geometric shapes (circles, squares, and octagons) to mark the places where the people gathered periodically to participate in many social and ceremonial events. Some of these sites were quite large--the Newark Earthworks complex extends over a 4-square-mile area. The Hopewell people also maintained a large trade network extending as far as the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming, the Florida coast and Appalachians, and northern Lake Superior. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: A3062_000180_001
Subjects: Hopewell Culture (A.D. 1–400); Mound-builders; Shell beads
Places: Raymond J. Ater Collection