Encountering Hopewell in the Twenty-first Century, Ohio and Beyond ― Settlements, Foodways, and Interaction

The archaeology of the ancient American Indian Hopewell earthwork-builders of the Ohio Valley has intrigued scientists and the public alike for more than two hundred years. Since the dawn of the twenty-first century, professional inquiry into the Hopewell phenomenon has accelerated. Contemporary researchers are approaching old questions with new methods and interpretive perspectives, state-of-the-art survey technologies, and novel analytical techniques. As a result, our understanding of the Hopewell world has significantly deepened. This two-volume set presents some of the most current research on Hopewell archaeology within the Ohio Valley and beyond.

Volume Two turns to the world of everyday settlements and domestic life at the Brown's Bottom locality in the Ohio Hopewell core area, as well as farther afield in northern Ohio and southern Michigan. New evidence is presented for long distance linkages between Hopewell centers in Ohio, Indiana, and Georgia. The relative importance of native cultigens in the economies of Ohio Hopewell communities is explored with new botanical and contextual data from recent research. The concluding chapter by Dr. Mark Seeman comments on the more seminal developments in Ohio Hopewell research since 2000 then turns an eye to the future.

Dr. Jarrod Burks is the Director of Archaeological Geophysics at Ohio Valley Archaeology, Inc., a cultural resource management firm in Columbus, Ohio. He also is president of Heartland Earthworks Conservancy, an organization working to study and save Ohio earthworks. In addition to his earthwork research, Jarrod codirects a long-term Hopewell settlement research project with Drs. Paul Pacheco (SUNY Geneseo) and DeeAnne Wymer (Bloomsburg University) that has intensively investigated several Ohio Hopewell settlements.Bret J. Ruby holds a PhD from Indiana University and is a National Park Service archaeologist at Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. He has a keen interest in the ancient and modern histories of American Indian peoples. His primary research interests focus on Hopewellian ritual landscapes, community organization, earthwork construction, and interregional interaction. Brian G. Redmond is Curator and James Otis Hower Chair of Archaeology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. He received a PhD in Anthropology from Indiana University and conducted field research at numerous Precontact Native American sites in the lower Ohio Valley and Lake Erie region. His major research interests include pottery analysis, Paleoindian bone modification, the development of settled village life and community organization, and Woodland ceremonialism in the lower Great Lakes region.