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?
Showing posts with label Hopewell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hopewell. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Friday, June 17, 2011
A Golden Age
The American Indian Interaction System I've been posting about from time to time may be said to have lasted for over 4000 years. It pulsed and changed with the earth, with life. It was an interaction of varied people of various languages. It was geographically extensive. It supported a value system which included demonstrating respect for ones ancestors and tolerance for ones neighbors.
The interaction of the peoples of this system seems to have been gratifyingly peaceful. There was death and there was violent death, but there was little warlike activity.
A more recent golden age of of the interactions of these people lasted from about 200 BC to about 400 AD. The center of these interactions seem to have been in the valley of what we call the Ohio River. Its manifestation has been called the Hopewell Exchange System. Its influence was felt from the tip of Florida to well up into Canada and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Rocky Mountains. These Amerinds didn't fool around.
The Mississippi River was the main artery of their interaction. The waters of that river and its tributaries were their roads and communication lines, but not their only ones. They, their cultures, and their sacred goods traveled the Great Lakes, and reached the Gulf of Mexico. They knew the Atlantic seaboard, the lands we now call Louisiana, Mississippi, Virginia, Kentucky,m Pennsylvania, and New York, were important to them, but they also knew Labrador and Oklahoma. People of these areas had interacted earlier, but the age we speak of seems more active and the goods more glorious.
Before the Hopewell culture was the Adena culture. It centered to the north of the Hopewell. The Adena culture was strongly active from about 2000 BC to about 200 BC. Before 2000 BC there was another flowering well to the south of Hopewell culture. If you would help me to trace corresponding climate changes we could perhaps find that cultural locus coincided with climate change.
After 400 or 500 AD to about 900 AD this Mississippi valley culture experienced great change. Productive corn came, a new bow and arrow came. New power, ideas, and beliefs came. Perhaps a new people arrived. Exchange systems changed, but continued, for a time. It also seems that more strife came. There was less tolerance of neighbors and more competition. Ancestors seemed less important. Gods had changed.
Before numbers of Europeans arrived the great interaction spheres had become smaller, less active, less peaceful, and the goods less carefully made and handled. Had what had thrived for over 6000 years with the old gods been led to a 'dark age' in less than 500 years?
As in hopefully all of my posts I am sharing my best understanding of the day and with the desire to benefit you. I try to ever make my words honest. I do not expect to hit the bull's-eye of truth, but it is there I aim. I pray that you contribute to to my understanding or to question it.
The interaction of the peoples of this system seems to have been gratifyingly peaceful. There was death and there was violent death, but there was little warlike activity.
A more recent golden age of of the interactions of these people lasted from about 200 BC to about 400 AD. The center of these interactions seem to have been in the valley of what we call the Ohio River. Its manifestation has been called the Hopewell Exchange System. Its influence was felt from the tip of Florida to well up into Canada and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Rocky Mountains. These Amerinds didn't fool around.
The Mississippi River was the main artery of their interaction. The waters of that river and its tributaries were their roads and communication lines, but not their only ones. They, their cultures, and their sacred goods traveled the Great Lakes, and reached the Gulf of Mexico. They knew the Atlantic seaboard, the lands we now call Louisiana, Mississippi, Virginia, Kentucky,m Pennsylvania, and New York, were important to them, but they also knew Labrador and Oklahoma. People of these areas had interacted earlier, but the age we speak of seems more active and the goods more glorious.
Before the Hopewell culture was the Adena culture. It centered to the north of the Hopewell. The Adena culture was strongly active from about 2000 BC to about 200 BC. Before 2000 BC there was another flowering well to the south of Hopewell culture. If you would help me to trace corresponding climate changes we could perhaps find that cultural locus coincided with climate change.
After 400 or 500 AD to about 900 AD this Mississippi valley culture experienced great change. Productive corn came, a new bow and arrow came. New power, ideas, and beliefs came. Perhaps a new people arrived. Exchange systems changed, but continued, for a time. It also seems that more strife came. There was less tolerance of neighbors and more competition. Ancestors seemed less important. Gods had changed.
Before numbers of Europeans arrived the great interaction spheres had become smaller, less active, less peaceful, and the goods less carefully made and handled. Had what had thrived for over 6000 years with the old gods been led to a 'dark age' in less than 500 years?
As in hopefully all of my posts I am sharing my best understanding of the day and with the desire to benefit you. I try to ever make my words honest. I do not expect to hit the bull's-eye of truth, but it is there I aim. I pray that you contribute to to my understanding or to question it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)