Ritual Economy and the Organization of Scioto Hopewell Craft Production: Insights from the Outskirts of the Mound City Group

Abstract

This article offers insights into the organization of Scioto Hopewell craft production and examines the implications of this organization through the lens of ritual economy. We present a novel analysis of investigations at the North 40 site, concluding that it is a craft production site located on the outskirts of the renowned Mound City Group. High-resolution landscape-scale magnetic survey revealed a cluster of three large structures and two rows of associated pits; one of the buildings and three of the pits were sampled in excavations. Evidence from the North 40 site marks this as the best-documented Scioto Hopewell craft production site. Mica, chert, and copper were crafted here in contexts organized outside the realm of domestic household production and consumption. Other material remains from the site suggest that crafting was specialized and embedded in ceremonial contexts. This analysis of the complex organization of Scioto Hopewell craft production provides grounds for further understanding the elaborate ceremonialism practiced by Middle Woodland (AD 1–400) societies and adds to the known complexity of craft production in small-scale societies. Furthermore, this article contributes to a growing body of literature demonstrating the utility of ritual economy as a framework for approaching the sociality of small-scale societies.

Building the Ohio Hopewell Chronology: An Incremental Approach to Historical Reckoning

“…Mound City clearly covers much more time than Tremper based on available best-quality 14 C dates. The dates from the North 40 area at Mound City to the north of the earthen walls represent as a group the earliest dates from a Big Six context (Everhart and Ruby 2020), and dates from the southeast barrow pit are some of the latest (Supplemental Table 1). As noted above, some dates from Mound 10 and 13 are relatively early, and artifactual cross-ties between undated Mound City Mound 8 and Tremper suggest even closer temporal proximity (with due appreciation to prospects of style lag and/or later emulation).…”

Bladelets, Blood, and Bones: Integrating Protein Residue, Lithic Use-Wear, and Faunal Data from the Moorehead Circle, Fort Ancient

“…Nearly all modified bear, canid, and human bones from the Middle Woodland contexts in Ohio are finished objects recovered from mounds or ceremonial caches at earthen enclosures or mound centers (Farnsworth et al 2015; Seeman 2007; Struever and Houart 1972). This leaves few clues as to where these objects were manufactured, although some evidence indicates that Middle Woodland craft production often occurred at—or very near to—enclosures or mound groups (Everhart and Ruby 2020; Miller 2015, 2018b; Spielmann 2008, 2009; Struever and Houart 1972; Wright and Loveland 2015). But prior to this study, scholars had uncovered little direct evidence for the places where bone objects were crafted, even at earthworks and mound centers.…”

Havana Tradition Platform Pipe Production and Disposition: Implications for Interpreting Regional Variation in Midwestern Hopewell Ceremonialism

“…Moreover, the Illinois Havana Hopewell habitation sites show that finished pipes are treasured and curated by those who possess them, as evidenced by pipe wear, repair, and modification for continued use when damaged (Figure 6). Given the widespread presence of pipe-making debris, however, there is no clear evidence at Illinois Middle Woodland sites for the practice of restricted ritualized or specialized crafting (sensu Everhard and Ruby 2020). At the same time, we recognize that pipes manufactured of Sterling pipestone are present in the early Tremper Mound caches in Ohio (Emerson et al 2013).…”