The Adena Culture was a prehistoric North American culture that existed circa 500 BC – 100 AD, primarily in the Ohio River Valley. This group of prehistoric people spread from Indiana through Ohio and into West Virginia, western Pennsylvania, with the easternmost evidence shown in southern New York.
Known primarily as a mound building culture, the Adena People were the first true agriculturalists in this region. They were the first to produce pottery, and though they lived a largely nomadic lifestyle, they did settle seasonally in specific places, especially around their mound centers.
The Adena Culture can be identified not only by their mounds, but also by their tools, stone artifacts, and decorative objects. Specifically, projectile points, as shown in the photo, are typical of the Adena Culture. Most Adena points range in size from small to large (approximately 1.5 inches to 4 inches in length) with a square stem, and occasionally a stem with a rounded bottom. The Adena existed prior to the use of the bow and arrow in this region, thus Adena projectile points were used on spears or with an atlatl dart. An atlatl is a hooked wooden tool used to provide extra leverage when throwing long darts with a flint point at the end.
Greene County, more specifically western Greene County, has an abundance of Adena sites. The Adena point shown in the photo was collected by Andrew Waychoff in western Greene County during the first quarter of the 20th century. It is made of flint ridge chert, a stone quarried in western Ohio that is commonly found throughout Greene County and was likely used as the point of a large spear.
The Adena Culture began a large trade network that would evolve during the Hopewell Time period that immediately followed the Adena Period. The Later Hopewell Interaction Sphere would make contact with points from the Rocky Mountains East, and from the Great Lakes to Florida. Many now believe the Hopewell Culture is the final “expression” of the Adena Culture. Adena artifacts tend to be more simplistic and utilitarian in design. Later Hopewell artifacts, though showing the same artistic style, are often more elaborate and, for the first instance in the region, objects purely for the purpose of decoration can be found in the archaeological record. The Hopewell Culture collapsed around 500 AD for unknown reasons.
Please visit the Greene County Historical Society Museum to see our large display of Native American items that range from Paleoindian Times, approximately 13,000 years ago, through the late Monongahela Culture that disappeared around 1635. Of this collection, many Adena artifacts can be found.
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