Adena History
People called the Adena lived along the Ohio river
valley (in modern Ohio) during the Early Woodland period, beginning about
700 BC. These people probably chose leaders in a "big
man" system. They got some of their food from hunting
and gathering and fishing,
and some of their food from planting squash and other plants (but they didn't
have corn yet). They grew tobacco to use
in religious ceremonies, too. Adena people often
built large mounds of earth. Some of these were burial mounds to put dead
people in. When people died, their relatives would smear red ochre or graphite
on their bodies and then bury them inside these big mounds. Sometimes they
buried dozens of people in the same mound (not all at the same time!
They buried the people one by one, when they died.). People buried carved soapstone
pipes with the bodies for their souls to use in the next world.
Other mounds that the Adena people built were not for burials, like the Snake mound in the picture on this page. These mounds might have been to show what group or clan people belonged to in that area.
Other mounds that the Adena people built were not for burials, like the Snake mound in the picture on this page. These mounds might have been to show what group or clan people belonged to in that area.
About 200 AD, as the Adena people moved into the Middle Woodland period,
their culture developed into the Hopewell
culture.
