THE HOPEWELL MOUND GROUP OF OHIO 



BY WARREN K. MOOREHEAI) 



PREFACE 



In view of the height of aboriginal culture attained by the Hopewell 

 people and the importance of the collection secured from these mounds, 

 it seems advisable to present a brief historical sketch. The activities 

 of the Department of Anthropology of the World's Columbian Exposi- 

 tion, Chicago, were wide-spread and known throughout the length and 

 breadth of the scientific world. Yet, notwithstanding the magnitude of 

 its operations — researches carried on by a score of workers — no report 

 was ever published. As a matter of record, therefore, there should be 

 this brief account of the Department and how the Hopewell survey 

 came into being. 



About 1890, shortly after the Exposition was organized, Professor 

 Frederick W. Putnam of Harvard University was appointed Chief of 

 Department M, as that branch of the Exposition was called officially. 

 Eight or ten young men, who had done work in American archaeology 

 and ethnology, were employed as field assistants by him, and they were 

 assigned different sections of the North and South American fields. 

 The young field assistants, as well as older and more experienced men, 

 carried to completion studies and explorations which were important. 

 At the end of the Exposition, all this material was presented by Pro- 

 fessor Putnam to Field Museum of Natural History, in order that it 

 might be permanently preserved. 



Professor Putnam appointed me field assistant for Ohio about 

 January, 1891. I organized a force of eleven or twelve men, located at 

 Fort Ancient, Warren County, Ohio, and later at Oregonia, distant four 

 miles, and carried on explorations for four or five months. These two 

 sites were dominated by what is known as the Fort Ancient culture, 

 which is quite the opposite of the Hopewell culture. The collections 

 made at Fort Ancient and Oregonia, together with skeletal material, 

 are now in Field Museum of Natural History. 



The work at Oregonia was a repetition of that at Fort Ancient ; that 

 is, we found and opened a hundred stone graves similar to those of 

 Tennessee and Kentucky, yet containing few artifacts. 1 



! The exception was one of those Tennessee flint "swords" or ceremonial knives, 

 14 inches in length. 



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