Kansas City Hopewell culture map HRoe 2010

The Kansas City Hopewell were the farthest west regional variation of the Hopewell tradition of the Middle

Woodland period In the classification of :category:Archaeological cultures of North America, archaeological cultures of North America, the Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures spanned a period from roughly 1000 BC to European contact i ...

(100 BCE – 700 CE). Sites were located in

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

and

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

around the mouth of the

Kansas River The Kansas River, also known as the Kaw, is a meandering river in northeastern Kansas in the United States. It is potentially the southwestern most part of the Missouri River drainage, which is sometimes in turn the northwesternmost portion of ...

where it enters the

Missouri River The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...

. There are 30 recorded Kansas City Hopewell sites. The sites are made up of distinctive pottery styles and impressive burial mounds containing stone vault tombs. It is however uncertain whether this culture developed locally when people adopted Hopewell traits, or if westward migrating Hopewell people brought it all with them.

Hopewell Interaction Sphere

The Hopewell Exchange system began in the

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

and

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

river valleys about 300 BCE. The culture is referred to more as a system of interaction among a variety of societies than as a single society or culture. Hopewell trading networks were quite extensive, as has been found by the evidence of goods such as

obsidian Obsidian ( ) is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Produced from felsic lava, obsidian is rich in the lighter element ...

from the

Yellowstone Yellowstone National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, with small portions extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U ...

area,

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

from

Lake Superior Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. Lake Michigan–Huron has a larger combined surface area than Superior, but is normally considered tw ...

, and shells from the

Gulf Coast The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South or the South Coast, is the coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The coastal states that have a shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico are Tex ...

in locations distant from their origins.

Kansas City Hopewell

The Kansas City Hopewell period is divided by

archaeologists Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

into three phases based on radiocarbon dates and changes in

projectile A projectile is an object that is propelled by the application of an external force and then moves freely under the influence of gravity and air resistance. Although any objects in motion through space are projectiles, they are commonly found ...

point styles and

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...

decoration.
The Kansas City Hopewell peoples grew a variety of domesticated plants, including squash and marsh elder. The majority of their diet seems to have come from wild resources such as seeds, nuts, deer, raccoon, and turkey. Their exploitation of the resources of the oak-hickory forest allowed them to establish permanent villages. The Renner Village Archeological Site in Riverside, Missouri is one of several sites near the junction of Line Creek and the

. The site contains Hopewell and Middle Mississippian remains. The Trowbridge site near Kansas City is close to the western limit of the Hopewell. "Hopewell"-style pottery and stone tools, typical of the Illinois and Ohio river valleys, are abundant at the Trowbridge site, and decorated Hopewell style pottery rarely appears further west. The

Cloverdale archaeological site The Cloverdale archaeological site ( 23BN2) is an archaeological site located near present-day St. Joseph, Missouri. It is situated at the mouth of a small valley that opens into the Missouri River. Excavations have shown that the site was fir ...

is situated at the mouth of a small valley that opens into the

Valley, near St.Joseph, Missouri. It is a multi-component site with Kansas City Hopewell (ca. 100 to 500 CE) and Steed Kisker (ca. 1200 CE) occupation. After 500 CE until about 1000 CE, the ( Late Woodland period), the Kansas City Hopewell culture changed and evolved into different cultures. The people of this period started to live in small hamlets with two to three families and began to rely on more on agriculture. These groups are the Central Plains Village culture known as the

Steed-Kisker The Steed-Kisker culture is a cultural phase (name that archaeologists give to a group of culturally similar peoples) of the larger Central Plains Village tradition of the Plains Village period. This term applies to the precontact Indigenous people ...

Phase.

References

External links

{{Pre-Columbian North America Archaeological cultures in the United States Woodland period

Hopewell Interaction Sphere

Kansas City Hopewell

See also

References

External links