Ohio’s Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks are enormous earthen enclosures, many in precise geometric shapes, that were built 2,000 years ago by Native Americans known today as the Hopewell. Their creators designed the earthworks as places of ceremony, connecting them to the cosmos by aligning them with carefully observed movements of the moon and sun, including those of an 18.6-year lunar cycle. Dr. Brad Lepper (Ohio History Connection) and Chief Glenna Wallace (Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma) will discuss the history, function, astonishing complexity, and contemporary Indigenous views of the earthworks on the occasion of their recent designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site—the first in Ohio and 25th in the United States. Wallace and Lepper both participated in preparing the UNESCO nomination, the result of a multi-year effort by a broad group of partners.
THIS PROGRAM IS MADE POSSIBLE IN PART BY OHIO HUMANITIES, A STATE AFFILIATE OF THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES