"Excavations at the Hopewell Mound Group: At the Juncture of Ceremony and Magic"

The 10th Annual Drumbeats Through Time" on October 5th at SRAC 345 Broad Street Waverly, NY includes a presentation by Dr. DeeAnne Wymer, Bloomsburg UNiversity and SRAC Advisor at 2pm:

"Excavations at the Hopewell Mound Group:
At the Juncture of Ceremony and Magic"

In the summer of 2012, a joint archaeological project with Bloomsburg University and the SUNY – Geneseo was initiated at the famous Hopewell Mound Group in Chillicothe, Ohio.  This is the type site for this mysterious moundbuilder culture of circa 2,000 years ago and is the location for one of the largest earthwork and burial mound complexes in North America.  The site was the center for excavations in the late 1800s and early 1900s at Mound 25, a large mound that was located in the center of the earthwork – the remarkable artifacts recovered during the early excavations were exhibited at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.  The National Park Service currently manages the earthwork and we were granted rare access to conduct test excavations at a small site that sits directly outside the main enclosure wall northeast of the earthwork (known as Datum H).  Our fieldschool, which included nearly 30 students, revealed a remarkable encampment little disturbed since its occupation during the Hopewell period.  My presentation will unveil our discoveries and documentation of what appears to be a specialized camp where distinctive and beautiful objects were crafted for eventual emplacement within the mounds associated with the Hopewell earthwork.