Hopewellian Woodhenges: Recent Research at Hopewell Culture National Historical Park
Author(s): Bret Ruby; Friedrich Lueth; Rainer Komp; Jarrod Burks; Timothy Darvill
Year: 2019
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.
Monumental timber post circles or "woodhenges" are ancient and enduring elements in the ritual landscapes of Native North America. Examples are known from as much as 3500 years ago at Poverty Point; from 2400 years ago in Adena ceremonial contexts in the Ohio Valley; from 1000 years ago at Cahokia; and in contemporary use at many American Indian traditional ceremonial grounds. Archaeologists are now documenting a growing number of examples in Hopewellian contexts. Recent landscape-scale geomagnetic surveys at Hopewell Culture National Historical Park identified numerous examples ranging from about 10 m in diameter, to a colossal timber post circle more than 320 m in diameter. Small-scale ground-truth excavations at two of these are beginning to shed light on the age and function of these monumental Hopewellian woodhenges.
Cite this Record
Hopewellian Woodhenges: Recent Research at Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. Bret Ruby, Friedrich Lueth, Rainer Komp, Jarrod Burks, Timothy Darvill. Presented at The 84th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Albuquerque, NM. 2019 ( tDAR id: 451960)
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Keywords
General
Remote Sensing/Geophysics
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Ritual and Symbolism
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Woodland
Geographic Keywords
North America: Midwest
Spatial Coverage
min long: -103.975; min lat: 36.598 ; max long: -80.42; max lat: 48.922 ;
Record Identifiers
Abstract Id(s): 23355