Adena Culture

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The Adena culture was a Pre-Columbian Native American culture that existed from c. 1000 BCE to 100 BCE, in a time known as the early Woodland Period. The Adena culture probably refers to a number of related Native American societies sharing a burial complex and ceremonial system.

The Adena culture

The Adena were one of the earliest of the Mound Builder cultures that flourished in eastern North America before the time of European contact. The Adena lived in a variety of locations, including: Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, and parts of Pennsylvania and New York. The Adena culture eventually underwent cultural change, with the new cultural traditions being called the Hopewell culture. The Adena culture is sometimes viewed as part of the roots of the Mississippian culture mound-building peoples.

Although the Adena culture did not last, a number of their earthen monuments survived. These mounds generally ranged in size from 20 to 300 feet in diameter, and served as burial grounds. The mounds were built using hundreds of thousands of basketfuls of specially selected and graded earth, requiring members of the community to spare much time from hunting, gathering, and other everyday pursuits. The Adena often built mounds over the remains of their chiefs, shamans, priests, and other honored dead.

Mounds

Adena culture's most lasting artifacts were substantial earthworks, a number of which still survive and can be studied by archaeologists.

According to archaeological investigations, Adena mounds were usually built as part of burial ritual, in which the earth of the mound was piled immediately atop a burned mortuary building. These mortuary buildings were intended to keep and maintain the dead until their final burial was performed. Before the construction of the mounds, some utilitarian and grave goods would be placed on the floor of the structure, which was burned with the goods and honored dead within. The mound would be built on top of that, and often a new mortuary structure would be placed atop the new mound. After a series of repetitions, mound/mortuary/mound/mortuary, a quite prominent earthwork would remain. In the later Adena period, circular ridges of unknown function were sometimes constructed around the burial mounds.

The Grave Creek Mound, at 62 feet high and 240 feet in diameter, is the largest conical type burial mound in the United States. It is located in Moundsville, West Virginia. In 1838, much of the archaeological evidence in this mound was destroyed when several non-archaeologists tunneled into the mound.
The Criel Mound, a 35-foot high and 175-foot diameter conical mound, is the second largest of its type in West Virginia. It is located in South Charleston, West Virginia. The Adena Pipe, pictured above, was recovered here. P. W. Norris of the Smithsonian Institution oversaw the excavation. His team discovered numerous skeletons along with weapons and jewelry.
Several mounds attributed to the Adena culture can be found between Charleston and Institute in West Virginia.

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