Copper Cut-out   Save
Hopewell Mound Group
Description: This large, circular copper cut-out has 18 very small, drilled holes evenly spaced around the circumference. The pattern cut from the interior circle is composed of four circles alternating with four finger-like projections pointing toward the center. Cut in the center is a four-lobed circle with the lobes pointing in the opposite direction from the finger-like projections. All of the circles have smaller circles cut from the center. The obverse (outward facing) side is moderate yellowish green and the reverse (inward facing) side is dusky green. This piece 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_000366
Subjects: Hopewell Culture (A.D. 1–400); Mound-builders; Indian copperwork
Places: Hopewell Mound Group