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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

More Notes on "Hopewell Culture"

The use of the term "Hopewell Culture" is a way to keep from telling you that we talking about a kind of confederation of the ancestors of the owners of your local casino."Hopewell Culture" might be thought of as a set of snap-shots of the doings of those ancestors from about 400 BC to 400 AD.

Hopewell people have been refereed to as 'mound builders.' Exotic grave goods such as sheet mica art, fresh water pearls, and copper craft added a mystique of their earthworks. We are finding that their influence spread from Nova Scotia to Cuba, from the Rockies to the Atlantic.

Their heartland at the time of the photo tended to be the Ohio River Valley in what is now the state of Ohio.

We are gaining some idea of how climate changes effected them.

We are better understanding that dress and grooming were important to them. They wanted to look good and did.

We may find that the history of the Iroquois and other tribes may inform of us of the people we have called Hopewell.

What can you tell us about the unusual bony ear growth genetically transmitted among Hopewell nobility.

We may be helped in adopting to our own climate change by looking at the medicinal and nutritional qualities cultivated and harvested by Hopewell peoples. We might start by looking more closely at plants such as: sump-weed, goose-foot, sunflower, knot-weed, little barley, may-grass, and their brand of tobacco.Hopewell people and those related to them have lived long and strong by harvesting wild deer and hickory nuts. Maybe we can live longer and stronger by learning to do similar ha vesting of our own.

The ancestors of the Adena and Hopewell peoples lived in a cooler climate and used their atlatals to cast spear/darts at the giant armadillo, camel, horse, dire-wolf,  ground-sloth, long-horned bison, saber-toothed tiger,  and short faced bear around what is now Cincinnati, Ohio, Jackson, Mississippi, and Jefferson City, Missouri.

From well before 4000 BC to about 400 BC, Hopewell people may have been the least war-like people on earth. It seems that they put their energies into spiritual activities, long distance trade, looking good, art, and developing ways of getting along.

There is a very great deal of practical knowledge yet to be learned from thees people. For example, why did they build a straight 'road' in what is now Ohio, fom Newwork to Chillicothe. How did they benefit from it?






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