The Hopewell earthworks
An exchange network spanning half of North America
From about 100 BC to AD 500 communities in the Ohio and Illinois valleys built huge geometric earthworks, circles, squares and octagons, some apparently aligned to moonrises. Their mounds hold obsidian from the Rocky Mountains, copper from the Great Lakes, shells from the Gulf of Mexico and mica from the Appalachians. Hopewell was not a state but a shared tradition of ritual and exchange.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 1st century BC
Alive at the time
- Julius Caesar (aged 0)
- Emperor Wu of Han (aged 56)
- Sima Qian (aged 45)
- Cicero (aged 6)
- Pompey the Great (aged 6)
- Spartacus (aged 3)
- Mithridates VI Eupator (aged 35)