ASB 222 FINAL EXPECTED QUESTIONS WITH
VERIFIED ANSWERS (2026)
●● Mounds
Answer: a constructed hill, normally over a burial site
Hopewell: tripartite structure, expressed closure, charnel houses, caches
of ceremonial objects
●● Poverty Point, LA
Answer: Earthwork 2K years prior to Hopewell - type of Adena
●● Adena Mounds
Answer: Adena and Hopewell
500 b.c.-400 a.d. - Ohio River Valleyflat-topped hills formed circles,
squares, or other shapes and were 350 ft across.
Ceremonial enclosures = not defensive works. Surrounded burial
mounds or stood alone
Important tombs log- lined, corpse painted, pipes and tablets engraved
with symbols
Some buried in death huts that were burned down ceremoniously
Most were communal mounds and generations added to it.
Not as complex as Hopewell
,●● Hopewell Subsistence System
Answer: evidenced by little midden deveolopment
Small, Dispersed hamlets
Farming local crops
Wild game: deer
Wild plants: nuts
●● Types and Forms of Hopewell earthworks
Answer: elaborate mounds, causeways, "forts", octagons, circles,
squares, often tripartite
Scale was huge
●● Reasons for building earthworks and mounds
Answer: perhaps signified ancestral passage to underworld
make dispersed community more concrete
some segmentation- perhaps signifying different clan participation
mark ceremonial event
established social and territorial boundaries
●● Cahokia
Answer: Mississippian settlement near present-day East St. Louis, home
to as many as 25,000 Native Americans
,native american sacred traditions have roots here.
Religious leaders and rulers may have inherited power -richly decorated
graves
Collapsed in 1250
Rich artistic tradition, survived in other cultures right up to European
explorers arrived in 1550s in South and Southeast
Weather too harsh to cultivate large civilizations like Maya or Aztec
Long term trend toward greater political elaboration, degree of social
ranking and interdepence
●● Enchanted Objects
Answer: ritual object that had own power to communicate with
supernatural
identified by craftmanship:
Polished shinyness
Form
Color
Ornamentation
made of exotic material obtained by 'power questing"
●● Power questing
Answer: Making journeys to powerful places for personal prestige
Beyond 'known world'
, Pass through territories of different peoples
Physically challenging
Spiritual journey
●● Ritual Objects and their purpose
Answer: -Performance Appropriate ornamentation for ritual garments
that have now decayed
Musical instruments
-Participation attendees may have needed particular item- copper ear
spools
Large caches of stone pipes-
Analogy- the smoking may indicate a ceremonial use. Similar usage of
ceremonial smoking in modern tribes
-Symbols of social or ritual affiliation
-Symbols of authority?
●● Charnel House
Answer: Basins lined in clay used for cremation
●● Ranked society
Answer: Ascribed status
VERIFIED ANSWERS (2026)
●● Mounds
Answer: a constructed hill, normally over a burial site
Hopewell: tripartite structure, expressed closure, charnel houses, caches
of ceremonial objects
●● Poverty Point, LA
Answer: Earthwork 2K years prior to Hopewell - type of Adena
●● Adena Mounds
Answer: Adena and Hopewell
500 b.c.-400 a.d. - Ohio River Valleyflat-topped hills formed circles,
squares, or other shapes and were 350 ft across.
Ceremonial enclosures = not defensive works. Surrounded burial
mounds or stood alone
Important tombs log- lined, corpse painted, pipes and tablets engraved
with symbols
Some buried in death huts that were burned down ceremoniously
Most were communal mounds and generations added to it.
Not as complex as Hopewell
,●● Hopewell Subsistence System
Answer: evidenced by little midden deveolopment
Small, Dispersed hamlets
Farming local crops
Wild game: deer
Wild plants: nuts
●● Types and Forms of Hopewell earthworks
Answer: elaborate mounds, causeways, "forts", octagons, circles,
squares, often tripartite
Scale was huge
●● Reasons for building earthworks and mounds
Answer: perhaps signified ancestral passage to underworld
make dispersed community more concrete
some segmentation- perhaps signifying different clan participation
mark ceremonial event
established social and territorial boundaries
●● Cahokia
Answer: Mississippian settlement near present-day East St. Louis, home
to as many as 25,000 Native Americans
,native american sacred traditions have roots here.
Religious leaders and rulers may have inherited power -richly decorated
graves
Collapsed in 1250
Rich artistic tradition, survived in other cultures right up to European
explorers arrived in 1550s in South and Southeast
Weather too harsh to cultivate large civilizations like Maya or Aztec
Long term trend toward greater political elaboration, degree of social
ranking and interdepence
●● Enchanted Objects
Answer: ritual object that had own power to communicate with
supernatural
identified by craftmanship:
Polished shinyness
Form
Color
Ornamentation
made of exotic material obtained by 'power questing"
●● Power questing
Answer: Making journeys to powerful places for personal prestige
Beyond 'known world'
, Pass through territories of different peoples
Physically challenging
Spiritual journey
●● Ritual Objects and their purpose
Answer: -Performance Appropriate ornamentation for ritual garments
that have now decayed
Musical instruments
-Participation attendees may have needed particular item- copper ear
spools
Large caches of stone pipes-
Analogy- the smoking may indicate a ceremonial use. Similar usage of
ceremonial smoking in modern tribes
-Symbols of social or ritual affiliation
-Symbols of authority?
●● Charnel House
Answer: Basins lined in clay used for cremation
●● Ranked society
Answer: Ascribed status
