When Europeans first entered the Ohio Valley, they discovered numerous large earthen structures—mounds (often containing burials), timber constructions that were ritually destroyed and covered with earth, and embankment earthworks usually in geometric shapes. For the next 200 years these earthworks mystified and challenged archaeologists, who are still unsure of their function and meaning. Much studied in the 19th and early 20th centuries, serious research diminished after 1930. Only since the 1970s has a new generation of archaeologists tackled the perplexing questions of the Ohio Hopewell. The culture is named after Captain M.C. Hopewell, whose farm contained the largest and richest of the earthwork complexes. It was purchased and preserved by The Archaeological Conservancy in 1980 and is now part of Hopewell Culture National Historical Park near Chillicothe, Ohio.
A. Martin Byers, an archaeologist at McGill University, has produced the first book length study of the Ohio Hopewell in a generation, focusing on the mounds and earthworks that are the central features of the culture. Byers’s thorough analysis of the earthworks leads him to embrace the theory that they were part of a world renewal ritual known as the Sacred Earth principle. Geometric shapes were the unique expression of the Ohio Hopewell. Their elaborate mortuary practices were a form of sacrificial renewal of the cosmos.
Byers’ views are original and controversial, but they are well documented and convincingly argued. This volume is certain to stimulate more interest and more research on one of North America’s most fascinating ancient cultures. It is long overdue.
