Bear Claw Effigy   Save
Edwin Harness Collection
Description: This slate bear claw effigy has a stylized root with a hole drilled near the upper edge. The curved claw portion has a narrow groove on the interior surface that stops short of the root. The surface of the slate is smooth, shiny, and black in color, with some small areas of very pale brown. 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: A0007_000057
Subjects: Hopewell Culture (A.D. 1–400); Mound-builders; Effigies
Places: Edwin Harness Collection