371
edits
Changes
From Ohio History Central
no edit summary
<p>The Mound City Group is a large Hopewell culture (100 BC -- AD 500) ceremonial center located along the Scioto River in Ross County. It consists of 24 burial mounds framed by a large earthen enclosure shaped like a square with rounded corners. The enclosure is 2,050 feet across and the walls are about three feet high.</p>
<p>Ephraim Squier and Edwin Davis of Chillicothe excavated several of the mounds in the 1800s. They made a number of remarkable discoveries, including a deposit of more than 200 animal effigy pipes. Their collection is now at the British Museum.</p>
<p>Ohio Historical Society (now, Ohio History Connection ) archaeologists William C. Mills and Henry C. Shetrone excavated several mounds in the 1920s. Mills concluded that the Mound City Group was the "best example of Hopewell culture in Ohio." Following their investigations, the mounds were restored. Mound City was declared a National Monument in 1923.</p> <p>Beginning in 1963 and continuing into the 1970s, the Ohio History ConnectionHistorical Society, working with Northwestern University archaeologist James Brown, conducted further investigations at Mound City clarifying the locations of mounds, gateways, and borrow pits and obtaining radiocarbon dates that established Mound City as one of the earliest major centers of the Hopewell culture.</p>
<p>The Mound City Group is a National Historic Landmark and is part of Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. </p>
==See Also==