452 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 112 



Adena People 



Adena burial mounds are common in the Ohio River Valley region. 

 It was not, however, until 1901 that the first Adena mound was 

 excavated for historical purposes by William C. Mills of the Ohio 

 State Museum (Mills, 1902). This mound was on the estate of 

 Thomas Worthington (Governor of Ohio, 1814-18) in Ross County, a 

 mile northwest of Chillicothe, Ohio. Governor Worthington gave the 

 name "Adena" (probably from the Hebrew "Adinah") to his acreage 

 on the west side of the Scioto River. Presumably he meant to imply 

 "nothing lacking" or, freely translated, "paradise." The name 

 "Adena" was adopted by archeologists to refer to the prehistoric 

 Indians who built such mounds. 



The middle section of the Ohio River flows through narrow, steep- 

 sided valleys with hills rising 600 to 700 feet above the river. Level 

 areas occur at various bends in the river, known as bottoms, one such 

 being Grave Creek where one of the highest mounds in the United 

 States is located, the famous Grave Creek Mound in the center of 

 Moundsville, West Virginia. 



The relatively wide, level areas periodically flooded by the Ohio 

 River served as ideal village sites for these prehistoric people. The 

 environment consisted of a river well-stocked with fish and mollusks, 

 and with plenty of fresh water; heavily wooded hills that even now 

 support deer, bear, and many other meat-producing animals; and 

 sites for garden plots that were annually enriched by flood waters. 

 Such an environment was probably an important factor in the tran- 

 sition of a nomadic group to a semisedentary one. 



These ecological factors probably enabled a gathering, gardening, 

 and hunting people to plant, cultivate, and store vegetables. They 

 probably also depended on animals, fish, berries, and wild plants to 

 supplement their diet. The large mounds that they built over the 

 bodies of their dead are evidence that they remained in one place for a 

 considerable time. It is not known how long it took them to build 

 Welcome, Natrium, Cresap, or Grave Creek Mounds, which are all 

 within a few miles of each other, for we do not know how many people 

 worked on these mounds or what kinds of implements they used. 



The prevalence of Adena mounds along the Ohio River and its 

 tributaries in Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and 

 Maryland suggests that this area (fig. 1) became one of the favored 

 locations of these people between 800 B.C. and A.D. 800. Here many 

 family groups apparently found an environment conducive to settle 

 in and built a compact social organization. The mounds that they 

 built probably honored certain deceased members of their tribe and 

 served as protection for their remains. 



