5. The Great Hopewell Road

The current issue of Archaeology magazine (Vol. 48, No. 6, November/December 1995) contains an article by Bradley T. Lepper titled "Tracking Ohio's Great Hopewell Road." The well illustrated feature presents Lepper's hypothesis that the Newark Earthworks and the earthworks in the Chillicothe area were linked by a sacred or ceremonial road. Reference to the hypothesized road first appeared in the writings of Caleb Atwater, who noted a set of parallel earthen walls projecting thirty miles to the southwest from the Newark octagon. Lepper also notes that further evidence for the Great Hopewell Road appears in the writings of Squier and Davis, and a manuscript written by James and Charles Salisbury, and currently housed in the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusettes. Although physical evidence for the Great Hopewell Road has yet to be discovered, Lepper presents aerial photographic evidence to support the hypothesis. Consistent with all features in Archaeology magazine, this story is well illustrated and well written. We recommend it to anyone with an interest in Hopewell archaeology.