JustJill Loc: Iowa

A few burial mounds of the Hopewell Native American culture from about 200-500 AD. And the trail along the way.

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dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

Nice photograph. For those who are looking, any idea where in the country this is located?

Dennis

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

Very nice set.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

Does this from Wiki help. “ The name "Hopewell" was applied by Warren K. Moorehead after his explorations of the Hopewell Mound Group in Ross County, Ohio, in 1891 and 1892. The mound group itself was named after Mordecai Hopewell, whose family owned the earthworks at the time. What any of the various groups now defined as Hopewellian called themselves is unknown.”

The article has a picture of some mounds. My attempt to grab it failed. Sigh.

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

Thank you very much. It helps a lot. I was basically interested in the location within the United States because I travel somewhat and would see it IF I was close by in my travels.

Dennis

JustJill Loc: Iowa

Thank you, the photos were taken at Gramercy Park, East Dubuque IL. I went for a hike today before it got to hot.

https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/illinois/clifftop-park-il/

JustJill Loc: Iowa

Thank you for looking and commenting.

JustJill Loc: Iowa

The pictures were taken in a different location, in Illinois. See above post with link to site.

JustJill Loc: Iowa

John has the wrong location for the pictures that I took.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

The Adena, Hopewell and Mississippian cultures and some others are collectively known as the "Mound Builders" Their cultures lasted over 1-5000 years in total (depends on whose study you read) and their settlements were mainly in the river valleys of the Ohio, Mississippi, Arkansas etc from the eastern edge of the Great Plains to the Appalachians and the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes.

The mounds were not all burial mounds, some were for temples, some for homes of the important people, some were in various animal shapes as part of their religious beliefs. Some were earthwork fortifications around settlements. In river flood plains entire villages/cities were built on elevated mounds.

Do a search for "Mound Builders" and you will find a lot of articles, maps etc. Most are good, some are great and a few are trash scholarship.

A few miles from my home town there is a site that was developed as a tourist attraction by a rich hobbyist Archaeologist that is a Mississippian site on the bluffs overlooking the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. As you could guess from the location it was apparently a trade center and artifacts from places as far apart as the Great Lakes and Mexico have been discovered at the site. The hobbyist's family gave it to a local hospital as a revenue source and it is now part of the Kentucky State Park system and supervised by a university the last I heard.
It is a "must go" field trip destination for most of the schools in Western Kentucky.
It has one burial that is well known to scholars. The individual was apparently not very well liked at death. Facing the opposite way of the others, face down and with a large rock on his head. I wonder how they figured out he wasn't popular????

The river flood plains in the area have a fair number of mounds scattered around. My Dad told me of one in the "river bottoms" that could be reached by walking on the RR track causeway and overlooked a pond/lake that was a stopping point for migrating ducks and geese and therefore popular with hunters. He recalled seeing pottery shards during hunting trips there.

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

Thank you JustJill. Now I could be somewhat confused but I am going to forget about the post from John_F about the place in Ohio and stick with your version. It seems more plausible.

Dennis

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

I see that now. Thank you for clearing it up. My question arose because there are many Hopewell somethings spread across the country. I lived near Hopewell Junction, NY as a kid.

Dennis

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

I believe, if memory serves correctly, that these mounds are in line with the ones mentioned in Ohio and the ones at Mounds State Park near Anderson, Indiana.
Nice photos.

Blair Shaw Jr Loc: Dunnellon,Florida

JustJill Loc: Iowa

Thank you for viewing and commenting. I am doing more reading and it very interesting. There are more in my area that I want to go take pictures of now.