Bear Canine Tooth Effigy   Save
Hopewell Mound Group
Description: This fragment from an animal long bone was split and cut into the shape of a bear's canine tooth. The bone was broken nearly in half and has been glued back together. The effigy preserves the original curved shape of the bone; it is pointed at one end and round at the other. There are two holes drilled through the bone close to the center of the effigy and the cut edges were ground smooth. The bone is yellowish red, dark brown, and grayish orange in color. This piece is 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_000532_015
Subjects: Hopewell Culture (A.D. 1–400); Mound-builders; Bones
Places: Hopewell Mound Group