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)
318 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
Southern Indians building mounds. The
altars here referred to
are those of the type described by
Squier and Davis and in my
own writings, and not those formed of
blocks of wood, squares
of stone, and similar structures.
Second. The presence of chalcedony from Flint Ridge. So
far as can be ascertained the Flint
Ridge material was not used
in historic times.
Third. Substances not native to Ohio. In reviewing Mr.
Fowke's book I used the term
"foreign" in allusion to objects
found outside of Ohio; if I had been
writing on the United States
in general, I should not have employed
the word, for in matters
of such importance as the antiquity of
the Hopewell group, one
cannot be too careful in the use of
explanatory terms. In no other
mounds have so many different substances
been found. Without
going into detail I may mention as
having been unearthed dur-
ing the Hopewell excavations, copper,
mica, obsidian, galena, a
fossil, sea-shells, sharks' teeth, and
Tennessee flint. Cannel coal,
Flint Ridge material, and graphite slate
were also found, but
these cannot be considered to have come
from a distance exceed-
ing eighty or a hundred miles. Excepting
the copper, these
materials in themselves, whether
obtained by barter or by travel,
might not be evidences of antiquity, but
the copper alone is suffi-
cient to prove the pre-Columbian origin
of the Hopewell group.
The careful analysis made by Mr. Moore
and published some
years ago in his "As to Copper from
the Mounds of the St. John's
River, Florida," showed that copper
not only from other mounds
but that from the Hopewell group
contained a higher percentage
of pure copper than the European
commercial copper of two
centuries or more ago. This cannot be
gainsaid. The presence
of half-hammered nuggets in the Hopewell
effigy mound was,
to my mind, conclusive evidence. These
nuggets do not present
the smooth surface of copper beaten with
an iron hammer, nor
are the forms regular. They have
undoubtedly been rudely
shaped with stone hammers, showing a
process but begun. In
June last I visited Wisconsin and was
astonished at the amount
of drift-copper occurring on the surface
between Two Rivers and
Princeton, a distance of about one
hundred miles. I obtained a
hundred and thirty-eight pounds of
specimens of varying sizes,
Are the Hopewell Copper Objects
Prehistoric? 319
some of which have been partly worked by
man. The hammered
pieces were larger than those found in
the Hopewell group.
None of them was cut from European
commercial bars; all are
from the drift or were mined in the
Superior-Michigan region.
Can the advocate of the modern origin of
all our mound-
groups, in which the highest culture is
in evidence, claim that
French, Spanish, English, Dutch, or
American traders obtained
metal carrying a higher percentage of
copper than the European
copper of the times in which they lived,
worked some of it into
such strange symbols as the swastika and
many cosmic figures
and combinnations, or into thin sheets;
made immense copper
axes (one of which weighed nearly
thirty-eight pounds), and
long bar-shaped objects of solid copper
weighing from ten to
thirty pounds, such as have been found
in Wisconsin; and after
doing this skillful work have hammered
with stones some ill-
shaped nuggets and traded these masses
of varying forms, rep-
resenting many stages of workmanship, to
the natives to be placed
by them in the mounds? Is there any
field evidence of such a
contention? Can we logically conceive of an illiterate trader
(for not one in a dozen of the early
traders could either read
or write) knowing aught concerning the
swastika or the cosmic
symbols? It is well known that traders
did carry brass, beads,
kettles, and the like into the Indian
country; but imagine a trader
visiting the Hopewell group with
sixty-eight copper axes in his
possession ranging from four ounces to
thirty-eight pounds in
weight! And there is no European or
American axe of white
man's make of the peculiar form of the
Hopewell specimens.
The designs in sheet-copper are so
intricate that up to the
present no one has been able to
correctly interpret them. Pro-
fessor Putnam and Mr. Willoughby have
published a paper on
these strange designs which, up to the
present time, is the only
attempt at explanation that has been
made.* To assert that any
of the objects found during the Hopewell
explorations are of
Euorpean origin, or that the art
products of these mounds were
inspired by a knowledge of the white
man's methods, is to assume
* "Symbolism in Ancient American
Art," Proceedings of the A. A.
A. S., 1896.
320 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
a position, it appears to me, directly
contrary to that which the
facts warrant.
There is another strange argument in
favor of the pre-Co-
lumbian origin of the copper objects
from the Ohio mounds.
La Salle's chroniclers are silent in
regard to the Lower Scioto
region, and it is not probable that any
explorer or trader visited
the Ohio valley prior to La Salle's
time. If the villages of this
section had been occupied by the Indians
in 1669, when La Salle
conversed with the Shawnee prisoner, he
surely would have
mentioned them.
Let us consider the field evidence
again. An inspection of
the village sites on the Scioto and its
tributaries, where the
Shawnees lived for so long, reveals very
little village refuse.
Save at Frankfort (in Ross county, six
miles from Hopewell),
there are no mounds or other works near
the village sites. Now,
curiously enough, the Frankfort site
(Chillicothe-on-Paint*) was
to the east, and extended over the edge
of a fortification of pre-
Columbian character. There were four
mounds in or near the
enclosure, and it is well known that the
Shawnees did not use
them, and in these mounds we found the
usual Lower Scioto
copper objects, etc., when we opened
them in 1888 and 1889.
The Shawnees buried their dead in
trenches and graves in
the eastern part of the town, and as
these graves have frequently
been opened, an excellent opportunity
has been afforded of con-
trasting the modern with the
pre-Columbian mortuary accom-
paniment. In these trenches and graves
glass beads, brass kettles,
and iron knives have been found with the
human remains; in the
mounds there were two small altars,
pyrula shells, pipes, etc.;
but in the graves no pyrula shells, no
monitor pipes, no copper,
no slate ornaments were found.
On the known historic sites in Southern
Ohio so little is
found that, were it not for our records
of Logan, or Tecumseh,
or Cornstalk, we would be inclined to conclude
that roving hunt-
ers incapable of producing men of
ability lived there. The great
Illinois sites mentioned by La Salle are
covered with the usual
village debris of bone, shell, stone,
and clay, but not in such
* Chillicothe means "Place of
residence," There were several towns
bearing the name- Old, Upper, Lower,
etc.
Are the Hopewell Copper Objects
Prehistoric? 321
quantity as at Madisonville, at Two
Rivers (Wisconsin), or at
Highbys and other points on the Scioto.
These Scioto sites not
only display evidence of long occupancy
by a few people or of
a large population for a limited period,
but they are surrounded
by or are in combination with great
enclosures or mound-groups.
In them the art is not confined to the
scanty scrapers, rude ham-
mers, and knives or axes of the Shawnee
and Illinois sites. On
the contrary, the art is the best found
east of the Pueblo country.
If these tribes were living when Sir
John Hawkins' men passed
through the middle of the continent,
about the year 1570, on
their way from Nicaragua to Cape Breton,
supposing that the
sailors traversed the Ohio valley, they
would have left us a
glimpse of these Scioto sites. But the
book on their wanderings
is, of course, silent on the subject. It
mentions the Iroquois, but
that is about the only tribe we can
recognize with certainty.
Dr. Cyrus Thomas has said that the
Shawnees came to Ohio
in times of antiquity. I do not believe
he has determined the date
of this move -if he has, I court
correction. That their village
was alongside one of the earth
enclosures, yet totally distinct
from it; that the art products of the
two are quite dissimilar -
one being crude, the other more
advanced, -are further evi-
dences, to my mind, of the pre-Columbian
origin of the mound-
groups and their contents in Ohio,
Kentucky, and Indiana.