ABSTRACT
The Eastern Woodlands consist of temperate deciduous forests south of the coniferous forests of central and eastern Canada and east of the Great Plains. Dotting the woodlands of eastern North America are earthen mounds constructed by the Adena and Hopewell peoples and their Archaic-period ancestors. Some formations were platform mounds that presaged the flat-topped earthworks of the later Mississippian era. As early as 6000 bce people living in the Eastern Woodlands were foraging with considerable skill and a sophisticated knowledge of the native plant species. Their domestication of wild plants in turn fostered the emergence of larger and more permanent settlements. Burial mound constructions founded on funerary rituals followed. These rituals and mounds were associated with developments in art and technology that incorporated exotic materials such as copper and obsidian, imported from distant sources through vast networks of travel and trade. Adena and Hopewell cultural developments were centered in the modern state of Ohio, where many monumental sites still remain. Hopewell culture outlasted Adena, but the trade network that sustained it declined around 400 ce in the face of widespread social change.
