Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks

Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks is a World Heritage Site in the United States preserving eight monumental earthworks constructed by the Hopewell Culture. The sites consist of large geometric shapes covering several acres in area. Constructed between approximately 0 and 400 AD, the earthworks lie along tributaries of the Ohio River in the present-day state of Ohio. They depict the richness and depth of pre-Columbian culture, science, astronomy, and sacred monumental architecture. Many sites were plowed and reduced in size during almost 200 years of agricultural use.

In 2008, the Department of the Interior submitted Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks as one of 14 sites on its tentative list from which the United States makes nominations for the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. UNESCO inscribed the earthworks as the United States' 25th and newest World Heritage Site on September 19, 2023. The complexes are owned and managed by the National Park Service and Ohio History Connection.

Background
The Ohio Hopewell was an expression of the Hopewell culture that was dominant in southern Ohio. This region contains the largest concentration of Hopewell sites and was a center of the Hopewell interaction sphere which encompassed much of current North America, from the Rocky Mountains to Florida. Although the precise relation to other Hopewell sites is unclear, exotic goods from across North America such as obsidian from Wyoming, shells from the Gulf of Mexico, and copper from Michigan's upper peninsula have been found in huge quantities at these sites. These goods were fashioned into elaborate artifacts like carved sheets of mica and stone animal effigy pipes.

The exact function or specific construction timelines for the mounds remain unclear due to centuries of neglect and destruction, lack of written or oral information and the unique nature of the sites. Various factors indicate that population sizes both at specific sites and in the general area were relatively low. There is no evidence of intensive agriculture or large settled societies. As a result, it is believed that the mounds were constructed by hunter-gatherers as ceremonial and burial sites, in contrast with centralized mound-building societies like those at Cahokia centuries later.

Sites
The monument consists of eight Hopewell sites throughout southern Ohio.