174 Hopewell Mound Group 



Mound city, where Squier and Davis made their famous discovery 

 of two hundred pipes is only eight miles east of Hopewell by trail. 



Since this report was written, Mills has examined the remaining 

 tumuli. His observations are not yet published, but it is known that he 

 recovered a wealth of material much of which was an exact duplicate of 

 the Hopewell finds. He also found forms in copper not discovered 

 elsewhere. Notable among these are human heads and double-headed 

 eagles. We found in the Hopewell altars some small mushroom-shaped 

 objects of copper; and several, which were larger and with longer stems, 

 were discovered by Mills at Mound City. Mills concludes that they 

 portray the deadly Amanita, and we concur with him in this theory. 



Whether all the villages of the Hopewell culture grouped in Ross 

 County, where most of them are located, were inhabited at the same 

 time, is not positively known, but I believe that they were. Their 

 inhabitants were probably of the same stock, speaking a common 

 language, as their art -forms are identical. I was formerly under the 

 impression that the famous Serpent Mound did not belong to the Hope- 

 well culture, but apparently it does, and my former statement to the 

 effect that its builders are connected with the Fort Ancient culture 

 may be incorrect. 



Whether the Hopewell people were exterminated by the Iroquois 

 previous to the coming of the French into Canada, and were the people 

 variously mentioned in Leni Lenape and other traditions as the Snake 

 people or "earthwork people," is not positively known, but I believe 

 that they were. Apparently they asserted great influence, and dom- 

 inated aboriginal life in southern Ohio. While there is no positive 

 evidence that they were at war with the Fort Ancient culture people, 

 it is not beyond the bounds of probability. 



I do not believe that the Hopewell people were in existence, when 

 certain mound-building tribes of the south were seen by La Salle and 

 Tonty. So far as it is possible to reconstruct Hopewell life, it would 

 appear to have been more or less parallel to that of one of these tribes. 

 Tonty speaks of large dwellings placed in regular order around an open 

 area, and he refers to treasures, such as pearls and copper eagles. In 

 the centre of a large structure he observed an ocean shell and other 

 things of interest. It is my opinion that the dwellings were grouped 

 about a common square at Hopewell, although this cannot be positively 

 determined. The soil has been continually cultivated for more than a 

 century ; and traces of these dwellings, as well as of sun-dried bricks (if 

 such were used), have long since disappeared. Squier and Davis men- 

 tion remains of burnt clay or sun-dried bricks in connection with some 



