Zoned pottery vessel

From North America
Middle Woodland period, Ohio Hopewell culture, around 200 BC - AD 100

The Adena complex, in the middle and upper Ohio valley, is the most significant evidence of an Early Woodlands society in the last millennium BC. The economy was based on hunting and fishing, and from 100 BC apparently also on the growing of squash, pumpkin, sunflowers, goosefoot and marsh elder. Burial mounds were constructed in several stages, with log-lined pits containing burials with fine grave goods, including smoking pipes. Mounds were constructed within large earthworks that were probably built for ceremonial and economic purposes, rather than as defensive strongpoints.

One or two double pots of this type have been recovered from mound sites. They are decorated with figures which represent aquatic and/or raptorial birds, suggesting the ancient Woodlands dichotomy between creatures of the upper and lower worlds.

J.C.H. King, First peoples, first contacts: (London, The British Museum Press, 1999)