Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-21T02:54:01.263Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hopewell Figurine Rediscovered

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Don W. Dragoo  and
Charles F. Wray
Don W. Dragoo
Affiliation:
Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Charles F. Wray
Affiliation:
Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An exceptionally fine and significant stone figurine of the Ohio Hopewell Culture was found recently among the items in the collection of the late James L. Wright of Rochester, New York. Purchased by Mr. Wright's father in 1882, this figurine was found in one of the mounds of the famous Newark (Ohio) earthworks group in August 1881. The figurine is that of a shaman or priest masked by the head and skin of a bear, the probable totem of his clan or group. The shaman holds in his right hand a human head. The presence of typical Hopewellian earspools on both the shaman and the head indicates the possibility that the shaman is performing one of the rites in the ceremonies concerned with the dead and that the head is that of a fellow clan or group member.

Type
Facts and Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 30 , Issue 2Part1 , October 1964 , pp. 195 - 199
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1964

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Mills, W. C. 1906 Exploration of Baum Prehistoric Village Site. Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly. Vol. 15, pp. 13–96. Columbus.Google Scholar
Mills, W. C. 1922 Exploration of the Mound City Group. Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, Vol. 31, pp. 423–584. Columbus.Google Scholar
Mookehead, W . K. 1922 The Hopwell Mound Group of Ohio. Field Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Series, Vol. 6, No. 5, pp. 75-185. Chicago.Google Scholar
Shetrone, H. C. 1930 The Mound Builders. D. Appleton and Co. New York.Google Scholar
Squier, E. G. and Davis, E. H. 1848 Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley. Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge. Bartlett and Welford, New York.Google Scholar
Thomas, C. 1894 Report on the Mound Explorations of the Bureau of Ethnology. Twelfth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. Washington.Google Scholar
Webb, W. S. and Baby, R. S. 1957 The Adena People, No. 2. Ohio Historical Society, Columbus.Google Scholar
Webb, W. S. and Haaq, W. G. 1947 The Fisher Site, Fayette County, Kentucky. University of Kentucky Reports in Anthropology and Archaeology, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 47–104. Lexington.Google Scholar