Turner Group Earthworks
Turner Earthworks
Middle Woodland Hopewell 100–400 CE·Hopewell tradition (Turner phase)·🇺🇸 Ohio, Hamilton County, United States
About
About Turner Group Earthworks
Dispersed Hopewell center on Little Miami terrace: two enclosures (Turner A 240 m, Turner B 180 m), multiple conical mounds with mica tombs, Mound 4 copper breastplate burial and Gardner parallel walls. Source of greatest Hopewell copper effigies, obsidian bifaces, cut mica, drilled bear canines and pearl beads, indicating interregional exchange network. Mostly plowed; last excavated 1880s by Putnam, now protected parcels.
Why it mattersRichest Hopewell copper/mica assemblage outside Chillicothe; demonstrates Cincinnati basin as secondary Hopewell center.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Why such wealth concentration far from Ross County core
- 02Link to Turner Big House post structure
Theories
- 01Gateway community controlling Ohio River trade
- 02Craft specialization center for copper working
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.100–400 CE
- Period
- Middle Woodland Hopewell 100–400 CE
- Culture
- Hopewell tradition (Turner phase)
- Builders
- Hopewell tradition
- Purpose
- Ceremonial enclosure and elite burial with long-distance exchange
- Abandoned
- c.500 CE
- Rediscovered
- 1848 Squier & Davis; Putnam excavations 1882–1890
- Excavation
- Excavated
1882
F. W. Putnam excavations recover copper breastplates
2020
Geophysics maps plowed enclosure
On the ground
Structures & features
39.1250° N · 84.4444° W · 155 m · 2 mapped features
Turner Enclosure A
enclosure240 m circular enclosure with gap entrance
39.1255° N · 84.4440° WMound 4 Copper burial
moundBark-lined log tomb with copper breastplate and mica
39.1245° N · 84.4450° W
Gallery