of Chillicothe, Ross County & South-Central Ohio
of Chillicothe, Ross County & South-Central Ohio
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Get there early, or you'll have to park on the grass! |
June 2005The lectures are every Thursday evening through June 30 at 7:30 p.m. at the visitor's center of Hopewell Culture National Historical Park ("Mound City"). The schedule and descriptions of the Summer Lecure Series are available online.
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A crowd of about 80, mostly archaeological students, listen to Dr. Pacheco. |
new 6/2/05Timing is everything! While one archaeological field school came to its close, another began, and students of both attended the first in the annual Summer Lecure Series at Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. That made it an SRO event ("Standing Room Only" - or "Sitting Room Only," if you're a hardy archaeologist).
I arrived late to "Investigating Hopewell Settlement Patterns in Central Ohio" by Dr. Paul Pacheco, but saw enough to get a sample of the sites that have been unearthed only last month near the Liberty Township Earthworks, on the Harness farm on Old US 35. (Since I was late, I had to stand in the projection room and lean over to see.)
The owner of the farm is an avid collector and locator of artifacts, and generously allowed Bloomsburg University and SUNY Geneseo to operate an archaeological field school on his farm to excavate parts of the "Brown's Bottom" site. There they unearthed the remains of a Hopewell homestead, the first of its kind found in Ross County.
Although our county is 'Hopewell central,' their easily-observed earthworks have far overshadowed the culture's buried domestic remains. It would be as if people 16 centuries from now knew a lot about our cemeteries, but almost nothing about our homes, factories, roads, and farms - they would know how we died, but not how we lived.
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Dr. Lepper refers to an illustration familliar to Mound City visitors showing the origin of unique materials and items that found their way, sometimes halfway across the continent, to the prehistoric Hopewell culture centered in Ross County. |
new 6/9/05An overview of Ohio's native prehistory attracted an almost full house, even though most in attendance already knew the story. Best known for his somewhat controversial propounding of "The Great Hopewell Road," Dr. Brad Lepper spoke at a level that would make archaeology understandable and meaningful to the average Chillicothe and Ross County resident - though few were in attendance.
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Dr. Bradley Lepper holds the book "Ohio Archaeology: An Illustrated Chronicle of Ohio's Ancient American Indian Cultures." (You probably can't tell in this digitial snapshot, but he's wearing a necktie printed with cave painting from the famed Lascaux site in France.) |
As Orange Frazer Press and Voyageur Media Group notes, the Ohio Archaeology book is one of four components to the Ohio Archaeology project, a comprehensive "media initiative" that examines the state's ancient American Indian cultures. This collaborative project features four integrated components that present what archaeologists know about Ohio's prehistory.
The Ohio Archaeology project includes the development of this companion book; the "Ancient Ohio" art series; a companion website for the delivery of educational materials; and three-hour, public television documentary series. More on the four parts of the Ohio Archaeology project is available online at Voyageur Media Group.
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