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Hopewell Mound Group
Description: This ground, polished, and engraved object has a flat base that was hollowed out, creating a funnel-shaped central concavity with two shallow, rounded troughs at 180 degree angles. The opposite face has two lobes with a depression in the middle; there is a small hole in the center (through the depression). On the sides are curved, vertical grooves. The artifact is made of black chlorite and comes 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: A0283_000318_1
Subjects: Hopewell Culture (A.D. 1–400); Mound-builders; Stone carving
Places: Hopewell Mound Group