GEOGRAPHY

Objects unearthed at a Native American burial site are remnants of an ancient space rock. (Nature)

Who were the Hopewell? Use our resources to better understand this ancient Native American tradition.

Teachers, scroll down for a quick list of key resources in our Teachers Toolkit.

Discussion Ideas

 

• The Nature article details an analysis of beads found in a Hopewell burial site in Havana, Indiana. Who were the Hopewell? Read through our short article for some help.
  • Hopewell is a tradition, not what we would think of as a distinct tribe. The Hopewell tradition describes the common aspects of a culture that included many Native American tribes, bands, and nations. It thrived from about 200 BCE to 500 CE, with its nexus in the river valleys of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.
  • Hopewellian peoples shared many social characteristics, but perhaps their most startling artifacts are the enormous earthen mounds that mark ceremonial sites. The purpose of these mounds remains a mystery.
    • These ceremonial earthworks are vying to be listed as a World Heritage Site—exciting!
  • The Hopewell Interaction Sphere stretched as far north as the Canadian Great Lakes, as far east as the Chesapeake Bay, as far south as the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and as far west as the Rocky Mountains.

 

• How do scientists know the iron beads found at a Hopewell burial site in Illinois come from a meteorite that crashed in Minnesota?
  • Scientists used mass spectroscopy, the process of determining the masses of electrically charged atoms, molecules, and ions. Using mass spectroscopy, they compared the precise chemical composition of the beads to a sample of the Anoka meteorite, an ancient space rock discovered in Anoka, Minnesota, in 1961.
    • The Anoka space rock is an iron meteorite, which means it is mostly composed of the heavy minerals iron and nickel. Iron meteorites come from the cores of asteroids and account for about 5% of the meteorites on Earth. The unique iron-nickel structure of the Hopewell beads is a near-match for the chemical structure of the Anoka meteorite. Learn more about iron meteorites with our excellent resource here.
  • Scientists also engaged in experimental archaeology, the practice of using tools and techniques available to ancient peoples to test theories about those peoples. In this case, scientists used tools of the Hopewell time period to test if beads could have been made from the Anoka meteorite. As it turns out, although the space rock is basically solid iron, it is “shot through with bands of a brittle mineral called schreibersite,” an iron-nickel-phosphorus mineral common in iron meteorites. Hopewell artisans and engineers could have flaked the meteorite along the schreibersite bands. One scientist “made his own bead by repeatedly heating a chunk of the Anoka in a wood fire to some 600ºC (1,112ºF), hammering it flat with a stone and then hammering the sheet into a cylindrical bead.”

 

• How did meteorite jewelry get from central-eastern Minnesota to central-western Illinois? Read through our article for some help.
  • Well, nothing “as mundane as trade.” Instead, scientists think the beads “may have been a gift to cement an alliance, or an offering from religious pilgrims. Perhaps a shaman on a quest found it and transported it, by foot or boat, to Havana.”
  • Our own article, using interviews with the same archaeologist quoted in the Nature article, describes two theories about how the Hopewell acquired their far-flung artifacts.
    • “A lot of what people had traditionally called trade is probably direct procurement. It’s people going out from Ohio [or Illinois] and bringing these exotic things back.”
    • “Another thing that could be going on is that these big earthwork centers … were probably widely known. They were built over a period of hundreds of years. They are awesome to see, so people knew about them. It’s also likely people went as pilgrims from distant places … to visit these great religious centers,” bringing the objects with them.

 

• Have any other cultures used meteorites as jewelry?
  • Yes! Nature mentions the ancient Egyptians, who crafted tube-shaped beads from meteorites found in the Sahara. (Deserts are excellent places to look for meteorites!) Use our article to learn more about the earliest known use of iron in Egypt.
  • Today, consumers can buy meteorite rings, earrings, and pendants—jewelry that is literally out-of-this-world.

 

TEACHERS TOOLKIT

Nature: Beads made from meteorite reveal prehistoric culture’s reach

Nat Geo: Intriguing Interactions: Who were the Hopewell? article

Nat Geo: What are meteorites? reference article