Copper as an essential and exotic Hopewell metal

Ritual Economy and the Organization of Scioto Hopewell Craft Production: Insights from the Outskirts of the Mound City Group

“…Though it may be the case at Mound City, there is not yet enough data to suggest that craft production was practiced at, and specifically for, each earthwork. The crafting debris recovered from the North 40 site is in keeping with the emerging consensus that raw materials were obtained through direct acquisition (e.g., Bernardini and Carr 2005:632–634; Carr 2005b:579–586; Seeman et al 2019:1098; Spence and Fryer 2005:731; Spielmann 2009:180–181) and locally crafted (Braun 1986), although this was likely not the case everywhere for all materials. Recent research at the Garden Creek site in the Appalachian Summit has demonstrated that communities near the source of mica were unequivocally engaged in ritualized crafting (Wright and Loveland 2015).…”

“…The organization of craft production beyond the household at the North 40 site is an unusual example among small-scale societies, thus adding to the known complexity of ritual economies of small-scale societies (see Spielmann 2002). Artists possessing esoteric knowledge crafted intricately designed objects at this locale using multiple powerful materials (DeBoer 2004:99; Seeman et al 2019; Spielmann 2002:198, 2009:179) on a grand scale. Moreover, evidence from the site shows that craft production was not simply a prerequisite to Hopewellian ceremonialism but likely integral to a ritual complex involving feasting and smoking among probably a host of other ritual practices.…”

“…Workshops are relatively unknown from small-scale societies, being far more common in complex societies. The restriction of craft production to ceremonial precincts may be a function of ritual practitioners exercising control over the materialization of ideology, logistical exigencies arising from dispersed patterns of residential settlement, or even the need to “deal with” the power inherent in certain raw materials and ritual paraphernalia (DeMarrais et al 1996; Seeman et al 2019; Spielmann 2009:183).…”

“…Art also served as gifts among human and other-than-human beings (Carr 2008b:255–262; Seeman 2004:62–65). Hopewellian art had “social lives” (Penney 2004:50) or personhood (Seeman et al 2019:1095), often being intentionally burned, broken, or “killed” before being interred and eventually mounded over.…”

Havana Tradition Platform Pipe Production and Disposition: Implications for Interpreting Regional Variation in Midwestern Hopewell Ceremonialism

“…Obviously, terms such as “exotic” and “nonlocal” are culturally relative. In the case of early Hopewell Ohio societies (e.g., Tremper Mound), especially for pipes, the concept of “exotic” may be linked to distance, so that pipestones, obsidian, cherts, animal parts, and metals from hundreds of kilometers away had significant value—local, easily available Feurt Hill pipestone or Portsmouth claystones did not (Emerson et al 2013; Seeman 2020; Seeman et al 2019). Interestingly, this valuation changed with time so that the somewhat later ceremonial disposition of platform pipes in Mound City was dominated by those made from local pipestones.…”