Kansas City Hopewell

The Hopewell world is marked by distinctive artifact styles, elaborate earthworks and mounds (often associated with mortuary practices), and particular exotic materials, which reveal a network of sociopolitical, ideological, and economic interactions over a large area of the mid-latitude Eastern United States from ca. 200 B.C. to A.D. 400.  These traits are concentrated in two geographic centers—the Scioto River valley of Ohio (Ohio Hopewell) and the lower Illinois River valley of west-central Illinois (Havana Hopewell)—but occur over a much larger area often labeled as the Hopewell Interaction Sphere.

At the western boundary of the Hopewell expression was the Middle Woodland Kansas City Hopewell (KCH) in the Lower Missouri Valley, located between the eastern edge of the Great Plains and the western edge of the oak-hickory forests.  The establishment of Hopewell sites at this location may have been strategic and deliberate, enabling the KCH to actively participate in the acquisition and transmission of exotic items from western sources.  Habitation sites are distributed along tributaries of the Missouri River in both Missouri and Kansas.  The burial mounds attracted the attention of antiquarians in the late 19th to early 20th centuries but it was not until the 1930s with the work of Waldo Wedel of the Smithsonian Institution that professional investigations of settlements and burial mounds recognized the relationship between the Kansas City materials and those of the Ohio and Illinois Hopewell.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the University of Kansas conducted numerous investigations on sites within the Lower Missouri Valley, adding to the material definition of Kansas City Hopewell.  This work was initiated in 1963 when local collectors (in particular Ron Manion) alerted Robert Squier, Professor in the Department of Anthropology, of archaeological materials from the Trowbridge site in Wyandotte County (14WY1).  In collaboration with Tom Witty of the Kansas State Historical Society and Mett Shippee of Kansas City, Squier directed weekend excavations at this large KCH site.  Alfred Johnson continued the investigations in 1965-1968.  Beginning in 1967 and continuing until 1975, Johnson directed excavations at other KCH sites, including Kelley (14DP11), Desiter (23PL2), Young (23PL4), Iatan (23PL53), and Aker (23PL43) and conducted surveys within the Bruch Creek valley, recording numerous additional KCH sites.  

The collections and associated documentation, maps and photographs, are curated by the Archaeology Division at the University of Kansas.  Below are images of representative artifacts from several of the KCH sites.  Several research projects are underway, which will provide additional information on the chronology, subsistence, and ceramic technology of the KCH.

All links go to Flickr image galleries.

Kelley Site (14DP11)


View Kelley Site (14DP11) Image Album (Flickr)

The Kelley site (14DP11) is a multicomponent site located in Doniphan County, northeastern Kansas, on Squaw Creek that encompasses approximately 5 acres.  Excavations were directed by Dr. Alfred Johnson during 1967 and 1968.  Seventeen features were identified and interpreted as refuse pits, fire pits, and a bone marrow extraction area.  Ceramic artifacts recovered included rim sherds, a miniature vessel, and clay pipes.  Other artifacts included points, drills, scrapers, and groundstone artifacts.  

Young Site (23PL4)

View Young Site (23PL4) Image Album (Flickr)

The Young site (23PL4) is located northwest of Kansas City in Platte County, Missouri, along Brush Creek.  The site extends over an area of about 30 acres.  It is a multi-component site with the Kansas City Hopewell component occupying 5 acres.  The site was excavated in 1971 – 1975 by the Kansas Archaeological Field School with students from both the University of Kansas and Kansas State University.

Trowbridge Site (14WY1)


View Trowbridge Site (14WY1) Image Album (Flickr)

The Trowbridge site (14WY1) located in Wyandotte County, Kansas, is an extensive village site covering approximately 4.9 acres.  In 1971, the site was placed on the National Register.  In the 1960's Ron Manion, an amateur archaeologist, tested the Trowbridge site and recovered a variety of artifacts that are now curated at the KU Museum of Anthropology.  From 1963-1966 the University of Kansas under the direction of Dr Robert Squier and Dr. Alfred Johnson investigated the site.  The site was excavated in three main sections designated as A, B, and C.  A total of 711m2 was excavated representing only a small portion of the entire site.

Aker Site (23PL43)

View Aker Site (23PL43) Image Album (Flickr)

The Aker site (23PL43) is the only recorded Kansas City Hopewell village located on the Missouri River floodplain in Platte County, Missouri.  Avocational archaeologist R. B. Aker collected artifacts from the surface of the site and conducted limited testing.  The material from the Aker collection is curated at KU.  In 1975 students from University of Kansas and Kansas State University under the direction of Dr. Alfred Johnson excavated several features at the site.  It is suggested based on artifact distribution that the site encompasses over 15 acres.

Quarry Creek Site (14LV1082)


View Quarry Creek Site (14LV1082) Image Album (Flickr)

In 1970, Mr. Les Hixon, an amateur archaeologist, discovered the Quarry Creek site (14LV1082) during limited excavation that revealed chipped stone, ceramic sherds, faunal remains, charcoal, and daub.  Tom Witty, an archaeologist from the Kansas State Historical Society, visited the site in 1972 and nominated the site for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.  The site was excavated in 1991 by the Kansas Archaeological Field School under the direction of Dr. Brad Logan.  The site is located on the Fort Leavenworth military reservation in Leavenworth County, Kansas. The site covers an area of approximately 8,400m2 of which 33m2 was excavated.  A variety of features were identified including trash pits, a mass of burned earth, and a concentration of ceramic body sherds.  Over 20,000 chipped stone artifacts were recovered from the site.  Other artifacts recovered included groundstone tools and ecofacts including deer, turkey, canid, turtle, mussel, and fish remains.  Plant remains were represented by nutshell fragments of black walnut, hickory, hazel, and acorn as well as cherry and grape seeds, bulrush, purslane, pigweed and sunflower.