Havana Hopewell

The Hopewell culture began to be recognized in the Ohio and Illinois River Valley about 300 B.C. The culture is referred to more as a system of interaction among a variety of societies than as a single society or people. These societies had many shared features and as such are referred to as Hopewell Culture. Within this broad definition there exist in the archaeological record certain subcultures identified by their particular physical cultural remains. Pottery or ceramic traditions are a useful means of defining such subculural complexes. In the central Illinois River Valley one particular complex has been called the Havana Hopewell culture. The Early Hopewell tradition in Illinois has been defined as beginning with the Havana series. Although other ceramic traditions exist along side Havana at given sites, their respective percentages vary through time indicating cultural change.

Havana ware is generally quite thick and coarse at its earliest expression and becomes thinner as time progresses. Havana culture can be extended to accommodate other associated artifacts such as lithic industries like Dickson broad-blade knives (from the Dickson group near Havana Illinois.) Bone tools are also associated as are trade goods used throughout the interaction sphere like platform pipes and copper earspools and other ornaments made from mica and shell. Havana Hopewell assemblages have been found at dozens of sites in Illinois, northwest Indiana, southwest Michigan, southern Wisconsin and Minnesota and northeast Iowa. Havana ware begins to die out and is replaced by other traditions by the beginning of the Late Hopewell tradition. Havana appears first in the core area of the Hopewell interaction sphere and moves to the northernmost periphery last. Its' decline follows a similar pattern and changes through time are generally last expressed in the northern terminus of the Hopewell sphere.

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References:

Gibbon Guy E. and Christy A.H. Caine "The Middle To Late Woodland Transition In Eastern Minnesota." Mid-Continental Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 5, No.1. Kent State University Press. 1980

Koeller, David W. "The Hopewell Culture" North America Chronology. 9/23/96. access on 10/7/99. <http://campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChron/NorthAmerica/Hopewell.html>

Morse, Dan F. The Steuben Village and Mounds a Multicomponent Late Hopewell Site in Illinois. Ann Arbor: Museum of Anthroplogy, University of Michigan, 1963 reprinted 1970