Hopewell Culture
Hopewell Mound in Ohio
About 200 BC, people living
in the Northeast and Midwest (from modern New York to Missouri and from
Wisconsin to Mississippi) formed a culture called the Hopewell culture (named
after a farm where archaeologists first dug it up). Nobody knows for sure
where the Hopewell culture got started - maybe these people lived first
near Lake Erie and then expanded west and south, or maybe they lived first
near Lake Superior and then expanded east and south. Or possibly they didn't
move around at all, but just invited towns near them to join their network.
Most of the towns and villages of the Hopewell culture were along the banks
of rivers, and traders and rulers used the rivers to travel between the
towns in canoes. The Hopewell people
were mainly farmers, living
on squash, sunflower seeds, and various grasses like wild rice, but they
did not yet grow much corn, because
it wouldn't grow well so far north. They built a lot of big earth mounds
in various shapes, but nobody is sure what the mounds were for - maybe for
burials.
Around 400 AD, the Hopewell
culture collapsed. Nobody knows why this happened. It may have something
to do with changes in the environment.
After several hundred years, the Mississippian
culture took its place.
To find out more about the Hopewell culture, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:
Mississippian culture
North American history before 1500 AD
North American
history after 1500 AD
Main North America page
Main South America page
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