Abstract
The Ohio Hopewell archaeological record is full of material remains that, to contemporary Western eyes, are peculiar in design and defy understanding: asymmetrically composed multipart earthworks, sculptures of composite creatures without name, and burial forms infused with untranslated symbolism, to mention a few. Our inability to bridge to the meanings these works had for Hopewell peoples and to the motivations of Hopewell peoples in creating the works derives today from a variety of limitations. Three we address here and in other chapters of this book, and begin to overcome. Very important is our still-insufficient knowledge and systematizing of knowledge about the cultural, social, and historical contexts of the remains. It is through contextual “positioning” of an archaeological remain (Chapter 1:Listening; Carr 1991; Carr and Case 2005a:19–22; Gillespie 2012; Hodder 1982:212–228; 1986; 2012; Taylor 1948; Turner 1967) that the semi-independent, ambiguous relationship between the remain’s form and its meaning can be resolved considerably when material evidence is rich (e.g., Brown 2003; 2007; Diaz-Granados et al. 2015), as in the Ohio Hopewell case (Case and Carr 2008).
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Acknowledgements
We thank the Ohio Historical Society, Columbus, for providing Chris Carr access to field excavation photographs of many of the Ohio Hopewell burials and artifact deposits analyzed in this chapter. We are very grateful to Rebekah Zinser, M.A., for drafting the line drawings of the burials and artifact deposits presented.
Notes
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1.
An earlier, formative, and much abbreviated version of this chapter was published as Carr and Novotny (2015). The many additions and refinements in the chapter here take precedence over the former study.
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2.
A burial arrangement and a cranial modification possibly depicting a soul leaving the body: Burial 34, Mound 25, Hopewell earthwork (Figure 10.3A; Shetrone 1926:88, figure 33; OHS Print 850, P396/3/1/E2; Carr #G39); Burial 25, Mound 25, Hopewell earthwork (Shetrone 1926:83, figure 32).
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3.
Human skeletons laid out apparently in the form of birds: Burial 3, Mound 4, Hopewell earthwork, (Figure 10.1A; Shetrone 1926:34, figure 9). See also Figures 10.2A–E, G–H (see Table 10.1 for references) and related iconography in Figures 10.9 and 10.10 (see Figure Credits for references).
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4.
Bundle burials arranged in the form of possibly the heads of birds: Mound City earthwork (OHS Print 1089-8, P396/3/5/E6, Carr #G6); Mound 4, Hopewell earthwork (OHS Print 828, P396/3/1/E9, Carr #G5).
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5.
Burials possibly depicting bird-human composite faces and a bird mask: Burial 1, Mound 20, Hopewell earthwork (Figure 22.17C; Shetrone 1926:52, figure 17); Skeleton 248, Mound 25, Hopewell earthwork (Moorehead 1922:plate 50).
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6.
Arc of cremated human remains or pearls: Burial 43, Mound 25, Hopewell earthwork (Figure 10.1D; OHS Print 857, P396/3/2/6, Carr #G25); Burial 24, Mound 25, Hopewell earthwork (Figure 10.4B; OHS Print 845, P396/3/2/4, Carr #G3); Burial 6, Mound 25, Hopewell earthwork (Figure 10.2D; OHS Print 874, P396/3/1/E3/15, Carr#G28; OHS Print 889, P396/3/1/E3/15, Carr#G30).
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7.
A burial possibly depicting the souls of deceased persons at the waters at the edge of the earth-island and an encounter with raptor beings: Burial 47A,B, Mound 25, Hopewell earthwork (Figure 10.3C; Shetrone 1926:96, figure 35).
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8.
Human remains arranged in four corners of a square or perpendicular to one another: an unnumbered burial, Conjoined mound, Seip earthwork (Figure 10.1C; Mills 1909:227, figure 6); Burial 49, Pricer mound, Seip earthwork (Shetrone and Greenman 1931:392).
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9.
Cremation set in a stump: Burial 5, Mound 7, Mound City earthwork (Mills 1922:487, figure 30).
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10.
Burial arrangements suggesting ghost-impeding water barriers and/or the axis mundi: Burials 2, 3, 4, and 5, Pricer Mound, Seip earthwork (Shetrone and Greenman 1931:373, 375, 377; figures 11, 12, 13); Burial 13, Mound 7, Mound City earthwork (Mills 1922:496, figure 33). See also Carr 2008b:300–303, figures 5.3A-E.
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11.
Burials possibly depicting human faces without bird features: Burial 17, Mound 25, Hopewell earthwork (Figure 10.1E; OHS Print 840, P396/3/1/E2, Carr #G38); Burial 1, Mound 23, Hopewell earthwork (Figure 22.17D; OHS Print 833, P396/3/2/1, Carr #G7). See also Burial 13, Mound 7, Mound City earthwork (Figure 10.1F; OHS Print 2429-6, P396/3/6/E7, Carr #G18); Burial 10, Pricer mound, Seip earthwork (Figure 22.17A; Shetrone and Greenman 1931:383, figure 15); Burial 39, Pricer Mound, Seip earthwork (Figure 10.1H; Shetrone 1930:94, figure 45; Shetrone and Greenman 1931:465, figure 69); unnumbered burial, Edwin Harness Mound, Liberty earthwork (Figure 22.19B; Mills 1907:142, figure 12; OHS Print 478-480, P396/2/4/E8; Carr #G29); Burial 42, Mound 25, Hopewell earthwork (Figure 22.19C; OHS Print 856, P396/3/2/6; Carr #G24,G35).
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12.
Human remains and/or artifacts arranged like an extended human-like body: Burial 29, Mound 25, Hopewell earthwork (Figure 22.18B; OHS Print 846, P396/3/2/5, Carr #G22); Burial 1, Rockhold Mound (Figure 10.1G; OHS Print, Carr #G16). See also the related compositions, Burial 88, Pricer Mound, Seip earthwork (Figure 22.21A; Shetrone 1926 field notes, p 108a, Drawing S); Burial 1, Pricer Mound, Seip earthwork (Figure 22.21B; Shetrone and Greenman 1931:381, figure 14); Burial 19, Pricer Mound, Seip earthwork (Figure 22.21C; Shetrone and Greenman 1931:385, figure 17).
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13.
We do not use the term “semi-flexed”, as is commonly done in Midwestern North American archaeological literature, to refer to burials lying on their side in fetal position but not strongly flexed. Ways of describing skeletal position, which is the relationship of the segments of the body to each other (Anderson 1962:159), vary widely across the archaeological literature, particularly with respect to degree of flexure of the limbs (see Sprague 2005:83–102 for summary). To clarify the terms “extended”, “flexed”, and “semi-flexed”, Sprague (2005; after Ubelaker 1999:15) described the degree of flexure of the joints by the angle at which the limb meets the trunk. Sprague advocated using the neutral zero method of notation, in accordance with current medical standards, where the fully extended, prone position is 0° (Sprague 2005:87). Extended indicates that the legs are straight, joining the trunk at an angle 180° [0°]; semi-flexed applies when an angle between the trunk and the axis of the femur is between 90° and 180° [0° and 90°]. Flexed signifies an angle less [greater] than 90° degrees between the axes of the trunk and the femur. Tightly flexed means the angle approaches zero [180°] (Ubelaker 1999:15 cited in Sprague 2005:86). Using the angles to describe the position of the lower leg (below the knee) relative to the femur is also advocated. Sprague does not describe rotation of the femur, which is necessary to accurately describe the positioning of the burials reported here; we describe them also with relation to the trunk. Thus, the burials described here have legs that are laterally rotated at the hip, semi-flexed at the hip, and semi-flexed at the knee. We shorten the description to “semi-flexed” for ease of use.
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14.
For the Hopewell earthwork and the Pricer mound in the Seip earthwork, stratigraphic information suggests that, in general, a log crib tomb was a vacant space (i.e., an open space of decomposition) and did not contain a small mound of soil over the corpse prior to being sealed with log or bark planks on top and then covered with mound strata (e.g., Shetrone and Greenman 1931:482–484, figure 76). Once sealed and interred, the inside of a tomb remained an air-filled, open space of decomposition for significant time—longer than the couple of months that decomposition of the corpse would have taken—before the tomb collapsed under the weight of overlying mound strata. No field notes or reports on the Hopewell site or Seip-Pricer mound describe small mounds having been constructed over corpses and within log tombs. At Seip-Pricer, small circular mounds 1–2 ft high and averaging 10 ft in diameter were built over each log crib tomb before they were joined with broader mound strata (Shetrone and Greenman 1931:482). In the case of at least three tombs in Mound 25 at the Hopewell site, earthen evidence suggests that collapse of the tombs occurred several seasons or years after they were initially sealed. The cases are Burial 34 (Shetrone 1926:87, 88, 91; figures 33, 34), Burial 15 (Shetrone 1926:78, figure 29), and probably Burial 12 (Shetrone 1926:69, 72, 73, figures 25, 28). In these cases, slumps from tomb collapse extend through the primary mounds built over Charnel Houses C and D (Greber and Ruhl 1989:43, figure 2.14, strata v and w), through the earthen layer that caps and unifies the primary mounds (Greber and Ruhl 1989:43, figure 2.14, stratum u), and through one or both of the two gravel layers above the unifying earthen cap (Greber and Ruhl 1989:43, figure 2.14, strata u and t). (The slump over Burial 34 extended about 9 ft high and that over Burial 12 about 6 ft high. Greber and Ruhl [1989:44] estimate generally that the primary mound strata v and w over Charnel Houses C and D were only 1.2 m to 2 m high, or 4 ft to 6.5 ft high; that is, the slumps over Burial 34 and Burial 12 extended through strata v and w into higher strata.) Significantly, these slumps were not filled in and leveled off when they occurred, as was the slump over the Great Multiple Burial (2–7) in the Pricer mound, Seip earthwork (Shetrone and Greenman 1931:370–371, figure 10). The lack of infilling of the slumps suggests that they occurred after at least the first major capping stratum (Greber and Ruhl 1989:43, figure 2.14, stratum r) was added above the unifying earthen caps (u) and gravel layers (u and t), making the slumps buried and invisible to Hopewell peoples. Although the amount of separation in time from the building of primary mound strata v and w to the construction of unifying gravel capping strata u and t to the addition of the first major capping stratum r is unknown, Shetrone and Greenman (1931:359–361) point out that gravel was placed over a soil mound-building stage most likely to prevent erosion and gullying, implying a significant pause in mound building after a gravel layer was added to a mound. Thus, the slumps from the collapse of tombs for Burials 34, 15, and 12 probably occurred after four episodes of mound building—the construction of primary mounds v and w over Charnel Houses C and D, of the unifying soil cap and its gravel layer u, of the second unifying soil cap and its gravel layer t, and at least the first major capping stratum r—with significant lapses of time after at least each of the two soil-gravel capping strata u and t were added.
The osteological criteria by which a space of decomposition was evaluated here as open rather than closed, following the methodology of anthropologie de terrain, include: an open pubic symphysis; the lateral flattening of the iliac blades; falling of the ribs laterally and inferiorly; lateral movement of the long bones of the arms and legs; movement of the skull laterally, toward a shoulder; dropping of the mandible onto the anterior aspect of the cervical vertebrae; and secondarily, disarticulated or missing phalanges of the hands and feet.
One might also expect vertebrae, particularly the lumbar vertebrae of the lower spine, to have fallen laterally. When the body is in an extended prone position, each vertebra is balanced on the spinous process, a boney projection on the posterior aspect of a vertebra; thus, the vertebrae are in a very unstable position when the ligaments holding the vertebrae together have decomposed, particularly if the surface upon which the corpse had been laid was hard and flat. However, this displacement was not observed in any of the field excavation photographs for any of the Early and Middle Woodland burials analyzed here. Instead, the vertebrae appear to have remained articulated and in correct orientation. Six of the nine burials placed with arms and/or legs in the semi-flexed position were interred on clay platforms. A likely scenario for the maintained articulation of the vertebrae is that the clay substrate became saturated with fluid and necrotic tissue from the decomposing body, and the spinous processes became embedded in the mix of decomposing tissue and clay beneath the body (Perissinotto 2007:175, 180). Layers of bark were placed beneath several bodies in Hopewell charnel houses, but none of the bird-persons displayed this treatment (Case and Carr 2008:appendices 6.1, 6.2:HOPEBIOARCH database). The viscera decomposing near the lumbar vertebrae, in particular, are the transverse colon and the stomach, two organs that contain enormous amounts of bacteria. This may speed up the decomposition of ligaments in this area. Garland and Janaway (1989, cited in Peressinotto 2007:175) observed this phenomenon while excavating in a tropical climate. The base of a coffin beneath the lower back will sometimes deteriorate faster than the rest of the coffin due to the fluids of decomposition. A mix of wood and the sandy soil beneath creates a substrate into which the spinous processes of the vertebrae become lightly embedded, maintaining their curvature and articulation. This phenomenon, like many other observations of disarticulation during the decomposition process, has not been systematically tested. However, it seems a likely scenario for the maintained articulation of most of the vertebrae among the Hopewell bird-persons who were left to decompose in open space. (Peressinotto [2007:169] suggests that this hypothesis could be tested in the field by comparing the depth of the spinous processes with the depth of the base of the grave space. This kind of data was not available for the Hopewell burials.)
It should be emphasized that each burial context is slightly different and interpretations of the decomposition process should account for this. Hence, there are a few instances among the bird-persons where vertebrae are slightly disarticulated. For example, the 10th and 11th thoracic vertebrae are disarticulated on Burial 3 from Hopewell Mound 4. In this case, the substrate appears to be uneven, which is the best explanation for this minor disarticulation.
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15.
Two individuals outside the Scioto-Paint Creek area who were laid out in bird-like form had bark coverings. An individual from the Cresap mound, West Virginia, had bark over it. An individual from the Haystack mound, Illinois, had bark along his or her sides.
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16.
The cut marks observed by Johnston on Burial 41C were under a coating of preservative that she identifies as shellac (Johnston, personal communication, 2013 [NAGPRA forms]). Preservatives, including shellac, are sometimes used to seal out moisture and to harden and thereby strengthen poorly preserved skeletal material. Some are difficult to remove and, especially once they have been on the bone for a long period of time, removing them risks damaging the bone’s surface. One drawback to using a preservative is that it can obscure visibility of the bone’s surface. Thus, fine details like pathologies or cut marks made by stone tools can be difficult to see. Johnston confirms that she could see grind marks on culturally modified bones through thick layers of shellac (Johnston, personal communication, 2013). Thus, we are confident that her identification of cut marks on all Ohio Hopewell burials is accurate.
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17.
A third possible interpretation of these cut marks on the mandible is that it belonged to an individual other than 41C. When Johnston analyzed the burials from Mound 25, she found that bones labeled as belonging to other individuals were sometimes mixed with bones from the grave she was analyzing. This is the case for Burial 41C. Johnston identified remains for at least 4 individuals, mostly from small vertebral bones.
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18.
When Johnston (2002) analyzed the Mound 25 skeletal material at the Ohio Historical Society, the bones of the three skeletons and two sets of human trophies from Burial 41 were commingled. Johnston positively identified the mandible of Burial 41A by an impacted molar (RM3) on which Shetrone (1924) commented in his field notes. Thus, we can be certain that the mandible of Burial 41A, which was found in anatomically correct position, had cut marks and was not actually one of the trophies mislabeled during curation.
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19.
The constriction at the shoulders would have given the appearance that the individual did not have a neck, possibly analogous to the morphology of a bird.
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20.
Adair (2005 [1775]:213) reported that the charnel houses of the historic Choctaw were equipped with a ladder-like board that stood at an angle over the repository of bones and that had steps on the inside, that is, steps that would have been useful for the deceased, not the living, to ascend given the angle. On top of the ladder was carved the image of a dove, with wings outstretched, as if in flight. Analogously, the center poles of some historic Ojibwa midē′wigân—the ceremonial lodges of Midē′wiwin societies—had notches running up them and a bird effigy on top (Dewdney 1975:82, 83, 84, 96, 97), suggesting the transformation of a person into a bird that climbs and/or flies up the axis mundi. The Menominee also had ceremonial lodges of this form in which they held Mita′wit rites that were similar to those of the Midē′wiwin (Dewdney 1975:168–169, figure 166, right panel).
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21.
An alternative interpretation of smoking pipes that does not coordinate well with the animal effigy pipes of Tremper and Mound City but may pertain to plain platform pipes at these two earthworks and others is the widespread historic Woodland and Plains notion that the pipe and smoke rising from it are associated with the Above realms and/or its beings and with communication with them via rising smoke (e.g., J. E. Brown 1971:5, 7, 8; Mails 1978:101; Morgan 1954 [1901]:190–197).
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22.
Two inhumations under Mound 25 at the Hopewell earthwork may be instances of classic shamans costumed as bird-persons in flight. Burial 11 had a copper headdress composed of a curved headplate, an attachment on each side shaped like bird wings and spread like a soaring bird’s wings, a wooden part shaped like the breast of a bird, and small geometric pieces of mica of uncertain significance. The effigy flying bird headdress included fabric to which were sewn bird feathers and the head of a small raptor (possibly hawk; Shetrone 1926:68–72, 177, figure 106; 1930:115, figure 61). The copper bird effigy was attached to a wooden support that elevated it about a foot above the head of its wearer. Shetrone’s (1923:Saturday, September 1) field notes document the following: “The remarkable feature of this skeleton was the presence, above the head, of a very intricate head-dress. A standard of wood, only evidenced by the decayed dust, had extended from the back of the head to a height of about one foot. On top of this was a remarkable copper object, resembling a butterfly, or suggesting an aeroplane, consisting of a rectangular plain copper piece of about 10 inches in length and 3 1-2 in width; extending to each side from this were oval pointed wings, of about the same dimensions as the body. The wings and body had been supported, and held in position the ones with the other, by having portions of them bent around the wooden support, which was somewhat cross-like in form. Associated with the copper head-dress were large fine pearl beads, bear claws, small designs cut from mica, the remains of leather, some woven fabric, of the flat broad weave resembling cane chair bottoming. The head dress seemed to have been supplemented with a saucer-shaped wooden piece, corresponding to the fuller part of what would be the breast of the bird” (Italics added).
Burial 35 in Mound 25 had at its head a copper cutout of a composite being with a human face, the body and wings of a bird extended as in flight, and a long prehensile tail (Shetrone 1926:89–90, 214, figure 150). The published figure (Shetrone 1926:214, figure 150) has the composite being’s pieces assembled wrong compared to the field photograph of the burial and headdress in situ (Ohio Historical Society Print 851, P396/3/1/E3); the body and wings in the published figure are in mirror reflection to their placement in the field photograph. The reconstruction shown in Carr (2008a:194, figure 4.9I), following A. Trevelyan (personal communication 1998), is also incorrect relative to the field photograph.
The identification of the two individuals as classic shamans is based on the references to their transformation into animals (birds) and their flight. However, neither interment included any other shamanic paraphernalia of the more than three dozen Ohio Hopewell classes of artifacts probably used by shamanic or shaman-like practitioners (Carr and Case 2005b:206–207, table 5.4) and buried with such practitioners.
An unnumbered inhumation under Mound 7 (Shetrone 1926:38) was accompanied by a copper headplate in the shape of a feather (Shetrone 1926:176, figure 104; see also Carr and Case 2005a:24, figure 1.3A), perhaps depicting the flight of the soul from the head of that societal leader.
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23.
In unpublished notes made soon after 1900 by William Jones on the Ojibwa of Bois Fort, Minnesota, he states, “[A] person has as many as four souls. Often he may know as much as a year in advance that he is going to die. I that case he lets go of one of his souls. It goes about in the form of some animal or bird. A person may see this animal or bird one moment, and the next it is gone.” Further, “The dewlap of a moose or caribou is the seat of that animal’s soul…. It is claimed that the soul is like the form of a small, swift hawk…. When a man lets one of his own four souls out, it takes the form of some animal or bird which roams about giving him knowledge of things” (Landes 1968:190–191 note).
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24.
“Angus Pontiac related such an experience to me. Confined to his hospital bed following a gall bladder operation, Pontiac developed a fever. He had a vision in which the room filled with smoke. Standing in the smoke were two figures: ‘Two old-timers well dressed in leather jackets, jet black hair well combed. They looked at me real stern …’ At this point Pontiac glanced out the window and saw that it was storming. The lightning flashed, the thunder rolled, and he heard his name called three times. This was the voice of the grandfathers, the same pawaganak who manifested themselves in human form before his hospital bed. Pontiac said that, following his recovery, he told an older person about the dream/vision. This man told him that if he had heard his name called once more, a fourth time, he would have died and been taken up by the Thunderbirds” (Smith 1995:90).
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25.
Wababanal is not the Passamaquoddy afterlife, but the Milky Way was known to be the path to the afterlife by many northern Woodland tribes close to the Passamaquoddy.
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26.
Saponi believe that bad persons take a rugged and even path to the left to one afterlife, while the good take a path to the right to another afterlife.“At the end of the path [on the left] sits a dreadful old Woman on a monstrous Toad-Stool, whose head is cover’d with Rattle-Snakes instead of Tresses, with glaring white Eyes, that strike a Terror unspeakable into all that behold her. This Hag pronounces Sentence of Woe upon all the miserable Wretches that hold up their hands at her Tribunal. After this, they are delivered over to huge Turkey-Buzzards, like harpys [sic], that fly away with them to the Place above mentioned [a dark and barren, tortuous, purgatory-like place]. Here after they have been tormented a certain Number of years, according to their Degree of Guilt, they are again driven back into this World, to try if they will mend their Manners, and merit a place the next time in the Regions of Bliss” (Swanton 1946:751, case Cas067; see also Swanton 1946:774).
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27.
Regarding the Wind or Four Winds facilitating the travel of the deceased to a land of the dead, the Stoney told that “the Indian paradise is supposed to be in that quarter [south], and the soul is thus given to the South Wind to be carried off to that point” (Denig 1930:573, case Cas122). For the Pawnee, the wind of the spirits is named Hu-tu-ri'-kot-tsa-ru (hu-tu, a part of hu-tu-ru, “wind”; ri-kot-tsa-ru, “a shadowy image of a person, a ghost”). “This wind takes the spirits of the dead from the north, from some star in the north to which the dead immediately pass from the earth, and blows or drives the ghosts along the way, to the star at the southern end of the path” (Fletcher 1903:13, case Cas008). The Milky Way is called ru-ha-ru'-tu-ru-hut (ru-ha, “bright, light”; ru, first syllable of ru-hut, “a long stretch”; tu-ru, a part of hu-tu-ru, “wind ”; hut, the last syllable of ru-hut, “a long stretch,” as across the heavens). “The Milky Way is the path taken by the spirits as they pass along, driven by the wind which starts at the north, to the star in the south, at the end of the way” (ibid.). The Lakota held that “[t]he Spirit Way (Milky Way) moves around the sky so that bad spirits cannot find it. The wind shows good spirits how to find the Spirit Way at the edge of the world” (Miller 1997:236, case Cas068). “An Omaha Indian declared that a dead person goes to the four winds. And the Osage are of the opinion that a dead man is taken to the realm of the dead by the four winds. At death, declares the medicine-man of the Oglala, the life-soul ‘is like smoke and it goes upward until it arrives at the stars’” (Walker 1917:156, case Cas052). The Pawnee told a long Orpheus myth in which wind guides and encourages a living person southward to a Land of the Dead. However, the living person walks there (Dorsey 1906:411–413, case Fein015).
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28.
Burial 41B under Mound 25 in the Hopewell earthwork was accompanied by 3 bone awls previously interpreted as possibly indicating the shamanic roles of body processing and psychopomp (Carr and Case 2005b:217, table 5.5, artifact/role set 8), but evidence for this interpretation of the function of awls is only moderate. Bone awls were repeatedly used as pins at the four corners of Hopewell-style tombs in Illinois and Ohio to hold down a fabric cover over the corpse (Brown 1979:217; Hall 1979:260; references therein), but could also have been used in weaving cloth or basketry.
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29.
The five individuals who were interred with copper breastplates are: Burials 41A, 43A, and 43B under Mound 25 in the Hopewell earthwork, Burial 6 under Mound 26 in the Hopewell earthwork, and Skeleton R under Porter Mound 15 in the Old Town (Frankfort) earthwork.
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30.
Ohio Hopewell copper breastplates were frequently patinated with images of birds or human bird impersonators, occasionally in flight (Carr 2000; Carr et al. 2000). These images could indicate trancing and soul flight by some means such as gazing or smoking, followed by recording of the visions had. However, this idea remains undemonstrated.
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31.
The five individuals who were buried with bear power parts are: Burials 41A, 41B, and 42 under Mound 25 in the Hopewell earthwork, Burial 6 under Mound 26 in the Hopewell earthwork, and Skeleton R under Porter Mound 15 in the Old Town (Frankfort) earthwork.
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32.
Soul characteristics specific or largely specific to historic Northeastern Woodland Indian tribes: Resides in the head (5 NE tribes; NE only). Exits from the head (2 NE tribes; NE only) Only one soul per individual departs at death (8 NE tribes; NE, SE, Plains). Departs not long after death (8 NE tribes; NE, SE, Plains). Mobile (1 NE tribe, NE only). Has the form of a human body in death (5 NE tribes, NE only). Resembles the deceased after death (4 NE tribes, NE only). Material in constitution after death (3 NE tribes, NE only). Visible after death (4 NE tribes, NE, P). Has weight after death (1 NE tribe, NE only). Data from Chapter 17: Tables 17.7, 17.9, 17.11, 17.13, 17.15, and 17.19.
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33.
The flat-rendered human head that is depicted in the Newark figurine of a bear shaman emerges from the abdomen of the shaman. The abdomen, or specific organs within it (e.g., stomach, intestines, liver), like the head, is one of several locations of a soul and/or of soul departure from a body that was recognized by historic Woodland Indians and across cultures globally (e.g., Cozzo 2007:33–34; Hultkrantz 1953:88).
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34.
A second, smaller mica cutout “headless” human effigy, which differs from the one described in the text in lacking lower legs, is illustrated along with the latter by Shetrone (1926:209, figure 146) with the caption that the two mica effigies both came from Burial 34. However, no mention of the second effigy is made in the burial’s description in the published site report (Shetrone 1926:87–89) or the field notes for the burial (Shetrone 1924:18, Wednesday, August 27, 1924). It is not visible in the field photograph of Burial 34. The original typed accession records of the Ohio Historical Society, Columbus, for Burial 34 (accession no. 283/242) initially did not list the second effigy, but its inventory with the burial was inserted in writing some time later.
The occurrence of a second, smaller mica human effigy would not negate the interpretation that the larger effigy represented one of the souls of the deceased leaving the head of the individual in Burial 34. Historic Woodland and Plains Indians’ ontologies, and the ontologies of historic North American Indians generally, posited that a person had two souls (e.g., Hultkrantz 1953:73–92, 115–126). At death, one soul went onto a land of the dead and the other typically stayed with the body in the vicinity of the grave or the community. The Iroquois took a person to have two souls, which went to different places at death, only one soul following the Milky Way (Mann 2003:182–184; see also Howard 1981:166 vs. 167).
An interesting detail of Burial 34 is that it was an elderly male (45–55 years old [Case and Carr 2008: appendix 6.1]), whereas the mica cutout human effigy interpreted here as the emerging soul of the man might be identified as female, as Shetrone (1926:89) did, apparently based on its wide hips. The complementary sex of the individual and his soul may speak to Scioto Hopewell notions of gender that have cross-cultural analogues (Chapter 16: The Fixed Dividual; Montague 1983; Mosko 1983; Strathern 1978; 1988). On the other hand, the identification of the mica effigy as female may be wrong. The apparently wide hips may instead be part of the way the outwardly rotated legs of the effigy were represented.
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35.
The effigy’s extended wings that express flight follow the stylistic convention of two copper cutout effigy raptors with extended wings placed in Burial 9, Mound 7, in the Mound City earthwork (Mills 1922:491, 532–533, figures 60, 61) and one in the Copper Deposit, Mound 25, in the Hopewell earthwork (Moorehead 1922:127–128, plate 69-3). These contrast with another copper cutout effigy raptor depicted in upright posture, placed in Burial 12, Mound 7, in the Mound City earthwork (Mills 1922:495). See Note 22 for details about the correct reconstruction of the effigy.
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36.
The prehensile tail of the creature most likely represents that of an opossum—the only animal with a prehensile tail in the Eastern Woodlands. As a nocturnal animal, it would be a natural animal associate of shamans, who tend to do their work at night (Harner 1990:22).
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37.
No other Scioto Hopewell bird-person of the nine in this study (Table 10.1, top block) was accompanied by a cone or hemisphere. None of the nine was interred with marbles, copper balls, or quartz or colored pebbles that might have been used as gaming pieces.
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38.
The same theme of the Milky Way path of souls may be rendered in the layout of two other individuals elsewhere in Mound 25 (Burials 6 and 24), who each had an arc of numerous pearls over the head (Burial 6: Shetrone 1926:64, unpublished OHS Print 874, P396/3/1/E3/15, unpublished OHS Print 889, P396/3/1/E3/15; Burial 24: Shetrone 1926:82, unpublished OHS Print 845, P396/3/2/4).
An additional dimension of meaning of the arc of cremated bones may have been expressed by its having been composed of the remains of an adult and a child. Several historic Woodland Indian narratives by the Huron, Iroquois, and Fox mention how the souls of children are not strong or sensible enough to meet the challenges of the journey to the land of the dead and might perish (Joffe 1940:274, case Fein007; Thwaites 1896–1901:10(2):142, case Fein025; see also Fenton 1941:133, case Fein122; Smith 1995:58) but could make it to the afterlife with the help of an accompanying adult (Kohl 1860:219; Smith 1995:58, case Cas039), the rites of the Ojibwa Ghost Society (Hoffman 1896, case Cas010), or the culture hero, Nanibush (Jenness 1935:110, case Fein014).
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39.
Historic Woodland Indian tribes that knew this world to be an island in the primeval waters include: the Chippewa (Barnouw 1977:68; see also Reagan 1922:335–336), Ojibwa (Smith 1995:47), Lenape (Mann 2003:206), Huron (Trigger 1969:92), Seneca (Parker 1923:59–73), Shawnee (Trowbridge 1939:60–61), Creek (Chaudhuri and Chaudhuri 2001:15–17; Eakins 1851:69; Swanton 1928b:477, 480), and Cherokee (Erdoes and Ortiz 1984:105–106; Mooney 1900:239; Swanton 1946:767).
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40.
Earth-diver myths from specific historic Woodland and Plains Indian tribes and their bibliographic sources, beyond the summary distribution map provided by Rooth (1957), include: the Montagnais, Cree, Blackfoot, Ojibwa, Menomini, Sauk, Potawatomi (Barnouw 1977:70–71), Chippewa (Barnouw 1977:68), Ottawa (Barnouw 1977:70–71; Blackbird 1887:77 cited in Hall 1997:175), Fox (Barnouw 1977:70–71; Owen 1904:37–38), Huron (Tooker 1964:145; Trigger 1969:92), Seneca (Parker 1923:59–73), Onondaga (Hewitt 1903:180–182; 1928:479–487), Mohawk (Hewitt 1903:285–289), Iroquois generally (Erdoes and Ortiz 1984:75; Hewitt 1903:181–182), Shawnee (Trowbridge 1939:60), Creek, Chitimacha, and Yuchi (Urban and Jackson 2004:708–709, table 1), Cherokee (Erdoes and Ortiz 1984:105–106; Mooney 1900:239; Swanton 1946:767; Urban and Jackson 2004:708–709, table 1), Arikara (Dorsey 1904:11), Crow (Erdoes and Ortiz 1984:88–89), Cheyenne (Grinnell 1972:2:337–338), and Arapaho (Dorsey 1903:198).
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Woodland tribes who knew the earth island to be a turtle or supported on the back of a turtle within the primeval sea include the Huron (Trigger 1969:92), Seneca (Hewitt 1903:225–226; Parker 1923:59–73), Onondaga (Hewitt 1903:180–182; 1928:479–487), Mohawk (Hewitt 1903:285–289), Iroquois generally (Erdoes and Ortiz 1984:75), Lenape (Mann 2003:206–207), and Creek (Chaudhuri and Chaudhuri 2001:15–17, 44, see also 3).
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Another reference to a raptor met on the journey to an afterlife and the equipping of the deceased with a weapon for protection was told by the historic Fox of Iowa, but it is less directly analogous to Burial 47A–47B. The Fox related that the journey to the afterlife involved the deceased having to “cross a narrow bridge over a swift stream…. [O]nly those who had been good were able to cross in safety. The evil-doers fell off the bridge and went to the domain of the evil brother [Machi Manitou, Evil Spirit]. Children did not have enough sense to get across properly, so Machi Manitou would deprive them of their brains, in order that when they grew up they would not know enough to leave him. His [good] brother [Gitche Manitou, Great Spirit], to circumvent this, would send an eagle to peck a hole in the head of every child as soon as it appeared in the other world, deprive the child of his brain and hide it. When the child was of suitable age, his brains would be restored to him and he could then escape and rejoin his family and friends” (Joffe 1940:273–274, case Fein007). The eagle in this narrative was documented by Joffe (1940:274 note 14) to have been replaced over time with “an old woman who cracked the skulls of ghosts and dug out a fingerful of brains from each.” Significantly, “dying persons requested that a weapon be buried with them” to protect them from the old woman (ibid.). Whether a weapon was also placed in the grave earlier in time when the eagle was a character in the death journey narrative, recalling the spear point and mica effigy raptor claws buried with Burial 47A, is not known.
A Skidi Pawnee account of a raptor encountered on the journey to an afterlife does not have additional elements that are recalled by features of Burial 47A–47B and, thus, is a less pertinent ethnohistorical analogue. The account tells that “[a]fter death … [t]he souls of chiefs and priests travel the road of flowers until they come to the guardian spirit who influenced them upon earth. On this road they also encounter a golden eagle seated upon a mound, its eyes giving off sparks of fire. By some this eagle is thought to be Tirawa. The eagle directs the soul along the proper road, and as it approaches the spirit-village that is its destination, if it is time for it to enter, it is not stopped. If its possessor did not lead a good life, however, it may be directed back to earth and given another chance” (Dorsey and Murie 1940:101–102, case Cas005). The account relates that individuals of different social categories (e.g., brave warriors, cowardly warriors, those who die of disease, others) follow different routes to different afterlives.
The practice of burying a male deceased with a weapon in order that he might protect himself on the path to the land of the dead, analogous to the Alabama and Seminole traditions, was also followed by the historic Winnebago. The deceased was given a war club and instructed to strike behind him any obstacle met on the path and to go on without looking back (Radin 1970:95, 98, 106, see also 99, 101, 106). No challenging bird is mentioned, only “bad animals” and “bad spirits (ibid., 106). More generally, the practice of equipping the deceased with items and supplies he or she will need on the journey to an afterlife by placing those things in the grave is widespread across the globe (Carr 1995).
The Saponi tell of big turkey buzzards that carry bad deceased persons from a path’s end to an afterlife where they are tormented and then reincarnated (Swanton 1946:751, case Cas 067; see Note 26, above; see also Swanton 1946:774). However, the narrative does not involve the deceased having a weapon that would recall the one held by Burial 47A.
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Not all historic Plains Indian narratives about Long-Arm and related plots are relevant to interpreting Burials 47A and 47B. In an Arikara case, the hand of Long-Arm is cut off not during an Above world adventure, but in this world, when Long-Arm reaches his arm down from the Above world to try to capture the hero (Parks 1991:474–484). In a related Crow narrative, the adversary, Red Woman, loses her hand while she is on earth, trying to evade the hero. She reaches an arm into the sky to escape there and the hero thwarts her getaway by cutting off her hand (McCleary 1997:49–62). In two Crow versions, the hero kills Long-Arm directly rather than cuts off his hand (Lowie 1918:57–69, 74–85).
All the Long-Arm narratives cited in this chapter involve the Hero Twins (e.g., Lodge Boy, Spring Boy), the capture or attempted capture of one Twin by Long-Arm, and that Twin’s rescue by his brother. The two individuals in Burial 47A–47B may have been attributed the identities of the Hero Twins by Scioto Hopewell people in a ceremonial drama they staged. Individual 47A with the chalcedony knife would be rescuing individual 47B, who is closest to the grip of the mica effigy hand that could be seen as Long-Arm’s (Figure 10.3D). This interpretation, however, does not allow for the marine conch shell and mica effigy raptor claws placed in the burial; nor does it take into consideration the context of the burial surrounded by others in the charnel house that do not seem to include referents to the Long-Arm narratives. It is always possible that in the Scioto area during the Middle Woodland period, elements of the Long-Arm and Hero Twins narratives were an episode within a journey to an afterlife narrative. However, if this was the case, any remnant of that connection was lost by the historic period in the Woodlands and Plains.
A historic Arapaho narrative closely resembling the Hero Twins and Long-Arm myths is the Little Star hero myth (Dorsey 1903:212–228). Little Star has a parent from the Above world, earthly adventures among those had by the Hero Twins, and uses a long knife during one adventure when he kills many snakes. The Arapaho identify a group of stars as the hand and lance of Little Star. Although the star hand and lance could have analogues in the mica effigy hand and chalcedony knife in Burial 47A–47B, the Little Star myth does not account for the marine shell conch and mica effigy raptor claws in the burial or the nature of surrounding burials, nor the two individuals rather than one interred in the burial. Also, Burial 47A–47B does not have a referent to snakes, which is central to the plot of the Little Star myth.
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An Omaha narrative recounts how a group of warriors must cross a chasm at the end of the earth in order to reach the home of the Thunderers. The rising and falling sky-wall periodically rises above the chasm and then descends into it, like a vertically opening and closing door. One of the warriors who does not correctly time his passage across the chasm gets carried down into the chasm by the sky-wall. On the return trip, while crossing the chasm, the leader extends one arm into it and retrieves the dead warrior, and then resuscitates him (Dorsey 1893). The chasm is an analogue to the river in the Chippewa narrative.
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We explored the possibility that the mica effigy hand in Burial 47A–47B might have been identified by Scioto Hopewell peoples as the “Hand constellation”—the lower half of Orion that in some historic Plains Indians narratives is the hand of Long-Arm or Red Woman that has been cut off and placed in the sky (Beckwith 1930:30–42; Lowie 1918:85–94; McCleary 1997:49–62; Parks 1991:137–147). We also examined an interpretation constructed by Lankford (2004; 2007a; 2007b) that, in historic native thought across the Woodlands and Plains, the Hand constellation is a portal through which the deceased passes to access the Milky Way path to the afterlife from the earth. The deceased is inferred by Lankford to travel west on the earth-disk, then to leap from the earth over the ocean waters at the edge of the earth through the hand portal in a brief moment as it sets in the west, before it sinks below the waters, and then to proceed on the Milky Way to a land of the dead (Lankford 2007a:177; 2007b:213). Neither of these two interpretations, when applied to Burial 47A–47B, accords with astronomical, archaeological, and ethnohistorical facts. First, Burial 47A–47B with the mica effigy hand is located east of Burial 43, the representation of the Milky Way, earth-island, and ocean waters at its edge. The Hand constellation/Orion, in contrast, is positioned to the west of the Milky Way in the sky. This is true for all observation places and times in the Woodlands and Plains. Second, the mica effigy hand is not slanted correctly for it to represent the Hand constellation as it sets in the west—the orientation of the heads of individuals 47A and 47B and their inferred direction of travel. When setting, the Hand constellation is positioned with its fingers down and slanted to the left at approximately a 45o angle to the western horizon as one observes the horizon. This is true for all observation places and times in the Woodlands and Plains. In contrast, the mica effigy hand is slanted with fingers down approximately 50o to the right. This is roughly the position of the Hand constellation as it rises in the east: fingers down and slanted to the right at approximately a 45o angle to the eastern horizon as one observes the horizon. However, the passage of the deceased through the Hand constellation in the east, as might be inferred by this right slant of the mica effigy hand when it is interpreted as the Hand constellation, contradicts two other archaeological situations. First is the orientation of Burials 47A and 47B, with their heads to the west and the expressed direction of travel of the souls of these individuals to the west. Second is the location of Burial 43—the representation of the Milky Way—to the west of Burials 47A and 47B, again expressing a westward direction of travel of the souls of individuals 47A and 47B. In short, trying to identify the mica effigy hand as the Hand constellation is not successful because it leads to contradictions between astronomical and archaeological layouts and among archaeological layouts. Finally, a reason for not identifying the mica effigy hand as specifically a portal to the Milky Way path to an afterlife is that no historic Woodland or Plains Native American narratives identify the Hand constellation/Orion as a portal, as a portal to specifically the Milky Way, or as a feature in the journey to an afterlife (Chapters 6, 7).
Another possible linkage to a historic narrative that we explored but that did not bear out is the identification of the mica effigy hand and mica effigy raptor claws with a gambler and his eagle animal helper. The hand in decorative designs of the historic Ojibwa of Northern Minnesota was sometimes identified as that of the gambler, having been placed on drums used in gambling games (Coleman 1947:12–13; see also Lankford 2007a:201; 2007b:238). No further information is given on this association for the Ojibwa. However, in a historic Crow narrative, a gambler who has lost everything and goes looking for power is helped by a white-headed eagle who resides in a tree—a referent to an upper world. The eagle dives into a stream and retrieves a stone, which he gives to the gambler to use as a hoop in gambling. The gambler then wins back everything he lost and, with a tomahawk, is able to kill enemies sent against him by his gambling opponent’s father (Lowie 1918:200–202). These ideas, applied to Burial 47A–47B, would explain the mica hand, the mica effigy raptor claws, the long knife (analogue to the tomahawk), and perhaps the conch as a reference to water. However, the Ojibwa hand design and several Crow motifs concern one hero rather than two, unlike the double burial, and the conch in the burial is more strongly interpreted as the ocean waters at the edge of the earth, by way of Burial 43A–43B, than stream water. In a Miami journey narrative, the deceased on the road to an afterlife must bypass and not be distracted by opportunities to gamble (Kinietz 1938:52–54), affording a connection between the journey and gambling. However, the episode does not involve raptors or the deceased defending himself with a weapon.
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The mica cutout pointed ovals have the same shape as eyes drawn on some Ohio Hopewell artworks; for example, the eyes of the being carved on human parietal from the Turner earthwork, Mound 3, Central Altar (Willoughby and Hooton 1922:43–47, 57–58, figure 24).]
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It is possible that the two apparent feline-shaped boulder mosaics in the dark capping strata of Mound 25 were constructed by Scioto Hopewell peoples as a part of a three-dimensional stage that literally manifested and made present the cosmos as the setting of the ritual drama performed in Charnel House C. The two felines need not have been thought by Hopewell peoples to have directly confronted and challenged or helped souls of the deceased on their journey to an afterlife and to have been characters portrayed in the ritual drama in Charnel House C.
The cosmogram rather than confrontation interpretation of the function of the two feline-shaped mosaics is better supported in four ways. First, we found no evidence in the burials within Charnel House C that an episode involving felines was a part of the plot of the drama there. Second, the two mosaics were not placed on the main lobe of Mound 25, directly above Charnel House C so as to directly pertain to the events of the ritual drama there. Rather, they were built on the east lobe of Mound 25, which was added to the main mound lobe after it had been built and after the ritual drama in Charnel House C and other charnel buildings had been performed. The mosaics and lobe may have served to complete the cosmic stage (cosmogram) that was the milieu of the ritual drama in Charnel House C. Third, the two feline-shaped mosaics most probably faced east, whereas the directions of travel of souls of the deceased in the night sky in the reconstructed plot of the ritual drama in Charnel House C are west and southwest. Finally, I am unaware of any historic Woodland or Plains Indian death journey narratives that tell of souls of the deceased encountering underwater-underground panthers (Chapter 8: Felines, Table 8.2).
For another example of a cosmogram that was built by Scioto Hopewell peoples as a stage of a ritual, see Chapter 13: The Ritual Drama in the West Charnel Room under the Pricer Mound, Seip Earthwork.
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In the Seminole telling of the journey to an afterlife, however, the west-bound leg of the journey was taken over the Milky Way, which was accessed in the east. The land of the dead was said to be in the west. In the reconstruction of the journey conceived of by the Scioto Hopewell, the westerly directed portion of the journey was made instead in this world, with the Milky Way accessed in the west, and it then was traveled south, possibly to a land of the dead located there.
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It is possible that directions of travel encompassed by the death journey, as expressed in the orientation of the burials involved in the ritual drama in Charnel House C, included all four cardinal directions—north, east, west, and south. These directions, together with the circular counterclockwise movement of ritual participants around the charnel house, may have expressed the whole of the cosmos, as did many Hopewell geometric artworks composed of a circle and four directional markers (e.g., Carr 2008c:56, figure 2.9). However, within the charnel house, only north, east, and west directions of the journey, and its shift to the south–southwest rather than fully south, are documented by the burials’ orientation. Whether any burials were oriented to fully south is unknown, because the western and southwestern part of Charnel House C, where a south-facing burial would be expected to occur from the overall layout of burials, was poorly excavated (Case and Carr 2008:appendix 7.2, excavation maps of H. C. Shetrone, W. K. Moorehead, N. Greber).
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Scioto Hopewell burial populations pertinent to this study are: Hopewell earthwork, Mound 25 charnel houses in the North Fork of Paint Creek (98 individuals); Liberty earthwork, Edwin Harness mound charnel house in the main Scioto valley (176 individuals); and Seip earthwork, Pricer mound charnel house (110 individuals). All three charnel facilities have three rooms or structures (Carr, Goldstein, and Weets 2005:484).
Only one estimate has been made of the size of the living community that would have fed a Scioto Hopewell cemetery, producing its burial population. This is Konigsberg’s (1985) analysis of the Pricer mound burial population within the Seip earthworks. It estimates a minimum size for the Seip community: 133 individuals. Konigsberg assumed that all the persons buried in the Seip-Pricer charnel house, in all three of its rooms, were members of the Seip community, alone. More recent sociological analyses infer that the charnel house was used by members of three separate local communities, one room for each community (Carr 2005a), which would at first glance imply a smaller number of persons—approximately one-third the number—for the Seip community. However, because each of the three local communities seems to have apportioned its dead fairly equitably among one another’s cemeteries, and the Seip community apparently placed its dead in one room in the Pricer mound charnel house, one room in the Edwin Harness mound charnel house in a different local community and valley, and one room in the Hopewell Mound 25 charnel house in a yet different local community and valley, the living population of the Seip community can still be estimated roughly from all the burials in the Seip-Pricer charnel house—individuals from the Seip community and the two others.
The estimate of the minimum number of persons (n = 77) who gave gifts that were placed in tombs in Charnel House C was calculated according to the methods of Carr, Goldstein, and Weets (2005:503–505). Of the three methods used, the “Best” estimate is given here. It represents the number of items (e.g., breastplates) or units of items (e.g., a pair of earspools) that occurred in a burial, were owned individually, with only one item or one unit of items per individual, and yet occurred redundantly in the burials (e.g., 4 breastplates or 5 pairs of earspools), indicating gifting of the redundant items by other individuals. The counts for each set of redundant items or units are reduced by one, assuming that one item or unit belonged to the deceased. The counts summed for all redundant artifact classes (minus one) placed in a burial, summed over all burials in Charnel House C, give an estimate of the number of gift givers who placed items in the burials there. For artifact and raw material classes where it is unclear how many items an individual would normally own and even whether the amount was standardized across the society (e.g., how many lumps of galena might one person typically own?), a count of only 1, representing the class, was added to the sum. The raw artifact count data used to estimate the number of persons who gave gifts to the deceased placed in Charnel House C is reported by Carr, Goldstein, and Weets (2005:appendix 13).
Bernardini (2004) estimated that approximately 100 persons could have built any of the major earthworks in the Scioto-Paint Creek area in about one year of 40 workdays. Forty days per year is the average time spent by communities in middle-range societies on public works. Also assumed was a five-hour workday and how much earth could be dug up and transported in this time.
Pacheco and Dancey (2006:24–25) found 34 probable household sites within a 20 km radius from the Newark earthwork (1,256 km2 area). Assuming a midpoint of 15 people per household, a 50% rate of identification of all households, and contemporaneity of all households, they make a midpoint estimate of 1,020 people within the area, or about 0.8 persons per km2. The Scioto-Paint Creek area is about 32 x 29 km, or about 928 km2, which would equate to 742 persons, assuming 0.8 persons per km2. The area was home to three local communities in the Scioto, main Paint Creek, and North Fork of Paint Creek valleys at the time of building of the charnel houses under Mound 25 at the Hopewell site (Carr 2005a; 2008d:125–134; Ruby et al. 2005:161–166, 170, table 4.6), yielding an estimate of 247 persons per local community.
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The tripartite earthworks are: Liberty and Works East in the Scioto valley, Seip and Baum in the main Paint Creek valley, and Old Town (Frankfort) in the North Fork of Paint Creek valley. The Hopewell earthwork is not tripartite in form. The tripartite earthworks that each contained one or two burial mounds that covered a three-room charnel house are Liberty and Seip. Within the Old Town Works, the excavated Porter Mound 38 and its two unexcavated conjoining mounds probably covered an analogous three-room charnel house or three charnel buildings (Greber 2003:91; Moorehead 1892:133; Squire and Davis 1848:plate 21.4). Within the Hopewell site, Mound 25 covered three large charnel buildings (C, D, E) and two smaller ones (A2, F). For images of the earthworks and charnel houses, see Carr 2005a:258–263.
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Best estimates of the ages of the 11 individuals are as follows: 1 individual, 50+ years; 6 individuals, 36–49 years; 1 individual, 25–35 years; 2 individuals, adults of unknown age; 1 individual, <12 years (Case and Carr 2008:appendix 6.1B).
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The idea of ceremonies being performed sequentially in Charnel Houses C, D, and E (or vice versa) is suggested by analogy to the historic Ojibwa concept of the sequence of Midē′wiwin rites of increasing “degree”, which is pictured on birchbark scrolls as four midē′wigân lodges arranged in a row, door to door (Dewdney 1975:81–102; Hoffman 1891:plates 3, 4). The four lodges, however, were raised and used sequentially over time rather than at one point in time (Dewdney 1975:92; Hoffman 1891:167–170, 182; 1896:plates 5, 6, 12; Landes 1968:plate 5b). The Menomini built their lodges, at least sometimes, in different places (Hoffman 1896:70).
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Not enough is known about the age-at-death distribution of the inhumations placed in Charnel House C to help assess whether many of them were sacrificed or died of natural or random causes. Of the 35 inhumations (there were also two cremated individuals) in Charnel House C, all were adults. However, osteological age estimates are available for only 8 of the skeletons: one was in the 21–35 year range, six were in the 36–49 year range, and one was 50+ years old. All of these 8 individuals were among the nine inhumations that had known roles in the ritual drama of the death journey in Charnel House C. The ninth inhumation was an adult of undetermined age range.
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Carr, C., Novotny, A.C. (2021). Souls in Flight: Ritual Dramas of Death Journeys through the Above Realm(s) of Scioto Hopewell Societies. In: Being Scioto Hopewell: Ritual Drama and Personhood in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44917-9_10
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