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Were the builders of the famous earthworks and mounds of the Middle Ohio Valley, people we today call Ohio Hopewell, residentially mobile or sedentary populations? What role and meaning did Hopewell earthworks play within these ancient societies? Ultimately, can they teach us anything or help us see things anew? The chapters in this book address important questions, like these and others, by examining the cultural and social nature of the well-known Ohio Hopewell monumental earthworks. Chapters discuss the purpose, meaning, and role of earthworks and other artifacts, theorizing on how they may have reflected political, social, and practical ecological organization. Presented in a unique “dialogical” structure, this series of open conversations and debates about divergent archaeological practices provides a unique opportunity for the contributors to this book to assess directly their colleagues' various approaches to studying these ancient communities.

The study of ancient architecture and the built environment has much to tell us about the social makeup and culture of the designers, builders, and users of these constructions. This volume presents the most current research on domestic, public, and ritual architecture created over four millennia along the Ohio River, its tributaries, and in the lower Great Lakes. Most of these chapters describe new discoveries and previously unpublished data. This compilation begins with the latest information on some of the most ancient (Late Archaic) dwellings in the region which demonstrate that early cultures built sophisticated dwellings and were much more settled than previously thought. Of particular note are the chapters which provide the first published descriptions of newly discovered Hopewell domestic and ritual constructions in the central Ohio River Valley, such as the Moorehead Circle and the Brown’s Bottom domestic hamlet. Rare evidence of post-Hopewell architecture in Ohio is derived from the recent discovery of a complete early Late Woodland domestic structure at the Heckelman site in northern Ohio. The climax of domestic architecture in the region is thoroughly investigated by three analyses of Late Prehistoric period house constructions and public architecture in the central Ohio Valley and central Indiana. The volume concludes with a discussion of how archaeologists working in the region can improve our understanding of prehistoric constructions through the development of a new interpretive framework based on basic architectural principals and nomenclature.