![]() ![]() Burial mounds were viewed as sacred, and are interpreted as communal sites where ceremonies, whether joyous or contemplative, were held.ĭespite their communal nature, only a select few, normally those of a privileged status such as shamans, were buried within mounds. These structures, particularly the largest examples, were built up over many years as burials were stacked upon those of the initial inhabitants in many cases the mounds could reach over thirty feet tall. The Late Adena culture tended to cluster mounds together, such as in the Wolfe Plains Group. The Adena people built conical mounds and small circular earthen enclosures, which were typically built in prominent locations in the Early and Middle Adena cultures, often at the edges of river valleys, and served as public monuments. ![]() ![]() This represents a major change from comparatively subtle burial habits of the Archaic period when the dead were typically buried outside campsites with largely utilitarian grave goods. Perhaps the Adena culture’s best known activity is the creation of conical burial mounds. Despite their growing interest in agriculture, they maintained a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, building temporary settlements which they returned to during the year. The Adena helped to initiate what is now known as the Eastern Agricultural Complex, a domestic farming revolution which allowed them to cultivate plants such as squash, sunflower, and pumpkins. Mills in 1902 after his excavations on the Adena plantation at Chillicothe revealed definitive cultural attributions which turned the location into a 'type site' against which all subsequent suspected Adena locations were compared. The most prominent culture within the Early Woodland Period is the Adena, which was given its name by the archaeologist William C. The Early Woodland period, which began in the Ohio River Valley about 1000 B.C., witnessed the introduction of several substantial lifestyle changes for some of its inhabitants, including: an increasingly sedentary lifestyle due to the cultivation of plants more elaborate burial rituals which included the construction of conical burial mounds or elaborate earthworks the introduction of pottery and an enlarged trading network. ![]()
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