Mound City National Monument photograph

This photograph of Mound City, a prehistoric earthwork complex near Chillicothe, was taken in the 1960s. The thirteen-acre site contains 23 Hopewell burial mounds. Although destroyed by excavations, the mounds were reconstructed in the 1920s and designated Mound City Group National Monument on March 2, 1923. In 1992 it became part of Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, which also includes four other sites in the region: High Bank Works, Hopeton Earthworks, Hopewell Mound Group, and Seip Earthworks. The photograph measures 2.75" x 2.75" (6.99 x 6.99 cm). From about 200 B.C. to A.D. 500, the Ohio River valley was a focal point of the prehistoric Hopewell culture, a broad network of beliefs and practices among different American Indian groups over a large portion of eastern North America. The culture is characterized by the construction of enclosures made of earthen walls, often built in geometric patterns, and mounds of various shapes. Visible remnants of Hopewell culture are concentrated in the Scioto River valley near present-day Chillicothe, Ohio. The most striking Hopewell sites contain earthworks in the form of squares, circles, and other geometric shapes. Many of these sites were built to a monumental scale, with walls up to 12 feet high outlining geometric figures more than 1000 feet across. Conical and loaf-shaped earthen mounds up to 30 feet high are often found in association with the geometric earthworks