Hopewell Settlement Patterns, Subsistence, and Symbolic Landscapes, livre ebook

Examining the meaning of the Ohio Hopewell monumental earthworks within the societies that built them

Were the builders of the famous earthworks and mounds of the Middle Ohio Valley, people we today call Ohio Hopewell, residentially mobile or sedentary populations? What role and meaning did Hopewell earthworks play within these ancient societies? Ultimately, can they teach us anything or help us see things anew?

This collection of essays addresses important questions, like these and others, by examining the cultural and social nature of the well-known Ohio Hopewell monumental earthworks. Scholars discuss the purpose, meaning, and role of earthworks and other artifacts, theorizing on how they may have reflected political, social, and practical ecological organization.

Presented in a unique “dialogical” structure, this series of open conversations and debates about divergent archaeological practices provides a unique opportunity for the contributors to directly assess their colleagues’ various approaches to studying these ancient communities.

List of Figures

List of Tables

Acknowledgments

Introduction
A. Martin Byers and DeeAnne Wymer

Section 1. Symbolic and Practical Settlement Interaction

Chapter 1. Riverworld: Life and Meaning in the Illinois Valley
Douglas K. Charles

Chapter 2. Why Move? Ohio Hopewell Sedentism Revisited
Paul J. Pacheco

Chapter 3. The Land between the Mounds: The Role of “Empty” Spaces in the Hopewellian Built Environment
Lauren Sieg and Jarrod Burks

Section 2. The Earthworks and Their Geospatial Relations

Chapter 4. The Ceremonial Landscape of the Newark Earthworks and the Raccoon Creek Valley
Bradley T. Lepper

Chapter 5. Hopewell Cosmography at Newark and Chillicothe, Ohio
Ray Hively and Robert Horn

Chapter 6. Strange Sightings on the Scioto
Warren DeBoer

Section 3. The Earthworks and Their Material Cultural Relations

Chapter 7. Enclosed by Stone
Robert V. Riordan

Chapter 8. The Turner-Hopewell Axis: Exploring Interaction through Embankment Form and Mortuary Patterning
A. Martin Byers

Section 4. The Hermeneutic and Phenomenological Perspective

Chapter 9. The Earthworks Hermeneutically Considered
John E. Hancock

Chapter 10. The “Heartland” Woodland Settlement System: Cultural Traditions and Resolving Key Puzzles
A. Martin Byers

Section 5. Critical Methodology and Epistemology

Chapter 11. Where Do (Hopewell) Research Answers Come From?
DeeAnne Wymer

Section 6. Hopewell Settlement Patterns and Symbolic Landscapes

Chapter 12. Coda: Still Seeking “Hopewell”
N’omi B. Greber

References

List of Contributors

Index