Hopewell Culture National Historical Park

At Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, we walked along geometric walls that surround earthen mounds where scientists have uncovered priceless artifacts. We were so lucky to walk this path today with three amazing employees of HOCU. Andrew is part of the Cultural Resources Unit and is an archaeologist/anthropologist/curator/archivist expert. He received his Ph.D in Archaeology and is passionate about learning how others have treated the earth so well so that we all can learn from it. He shared all of his knowledge about the mounds, the engineering behind them, the artifacts, AND took us into the National History Vaults to see where over 50,000+ artifacts were stored. (We felt like we were in a scene from "National Treasure") Anna is their resident biologist who is eager to share the native grasses and plants that are there now and showcase ones that would have been there over 2000 years ago. Rachel is an intern with ACE (American Conservation Experience). ACE is paying her salary but she is working for Andrew. She is finishing her masters at UCF (University of Central Florida) in Archaeology. Her main goal is to create 3D scans of the artifacts into the computer so that others can manipulate and observe the artifacts without touching them. (We also talked about how students could then use other software to print 3D models).

We were impressed with how much time the HOCU staff took with us. They were eager to showcase Hopewell Culture and we were eager to learn. There are 6 HOCU locations to check out when in South Central Ohio. We will post our video here when it is ready. If you are interested in learning more about how the mounds were created and to learn about "Interpretive Mowing", check out  https://www.nps.gov/hocu/index.htm 

​Traveling Along, Dacia & Steve
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