ARE THE HOPEWELL COPPER OBJECTS PREHIS-
TORIC?*
BY WARREN K. MOOREHEAD.
At the Washington meeting of the
American Anthropologi-
cal Association, held conjointly with
Section H of the American
Association for the Advancement of
Science, I read a brief paper
on the Hopewell copper objects, and it
is now my wish to present
a more extended communication on the
subjest.
Mr. Clarence B. Moore, whose valuable
work in southeastern
United States is so favorably known to
all who are interested in
American archaeology, has recently
called my attention to two
sentences in my review of Mr. Fowke's Archaeological
History
of Ohio, published in the American Anthropologist (volume
IV,
No. 3), which might be regarded by some
as evidence that Euro-
pean objects were found in the Hopewell
mounds of Ohio. If
any one so construes these sentences, he
gives to them an interpre-
tation exactly the opposite of that
which I wish to convey.
When the land on which the Hopewell
group of mounds is
situated was cleared, about the year 1800, it was
covered with a
heavy forest growth of oak, walnut,
etc., but on the upper one of
the two terraces of the enclosure the
growth was largely of oak.
Evidence based on the age of timber is
very unsatisfactory, and
one cannot say with certainty whether
the largest trees growing
from the mounds were two hundred or four
hundred years of
age. The fields have been cultivated for
many years, and the
height of each tumulus has been reduced
and the diameter greatly
extended. Our best evidence as to the
antiquity of the mounds,
therefore, is obtained from the
excavations. These evidences
are:
First. Five or six of the mounds contain peculiarly shaped
altars of burnt clay. These are confined
to Southern Ohio and
are not mentioned by the earliest
travelers who witnessed the
* The above article appeared in American
Anthropologist (n. s.), Vol.
5, January, March, 1903.- E. O. R.
(317)