Magnetometry Survey at the Mann Site: A Rich New Dataset on Hopewell Ceremonialism

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Monumental Surveys: New Insights from Landscape-Scale Geophysics" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Mann site in southwest Indiana is one of the largest Hopewell ceremonial centers in the Midwest and also one of the least studied. The site, which was occupied between A.D. 200 and 500, consists of flat-topped, conical, and geometric earthworks, similar to those from Hopewell complexes in Ohio and elsewhere. The most unique element of the Mann site is the presence of large quantities of habitation debris on the surface, a fact which sets it apart from contemporary Ohio Hopewell sites. Mann encompasses a huge area, approximately 350 acres, and no controlled surface collection or detailed mapping of the site has ever been undertaken, leaving us with piecemeal information as to the relative locations of earthworks, artifacts, and features. In 2006 and 2017, two large-scale magnetometry surveys were undertaken to better understand the distribution and nature of the features at Mann. The resulting data have provided a wealth of information, indicating numerous geometric post enclosures on top of and adjacent to the largest platform mound. The results also show dense concentrations of habitation-related features that are spatially segregated from the ceremonial area. Many of the features we have identified are thus far unique in the Hopewell world.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Monumental Surveys: New Insights from Landscape-Scale Geophysics   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25589