Adena

Member of a prehistoric American Indian people who lived along the Ohio River Valley, from about 1000 BC to AD 200. One of the Moundbuilder cultures, the Adena are known for their elaborate earth burial mounds that form intricate geometric patterns or pictures of animals when viewed from the air. The Great Serpent Mound in Ohio is believed to be the work of the Adena. Although a hunter-gatherer people, their monuments suggest an organized and complex society. No one knows for certain why the Adena disappeared. They were followed by the Hopewell, another moundbuilding culture.

The Adena also built thatched huts with walls of straw and mud, and may have grown pumpkins and sunflowers. Their mounds were cone-shaped and some were extensive, with many loops, twists, and turns; the Great Serpent Mound, for example, is so-named because it resembles a long, uncoiling snake. The mounds were built to bury deceased leaders and other important people. Stone pipes, bone masks, jewellery, and other ceremonial objects were buried with them as tribute. The burial mounds were layered, increasing in height when another person was buried on the top. Some of the mounds reached a height of 21 m/70 ft. The mounds also served as bases for temples, and some may have had other religious functions.