Comet impact may have triggered decline of Ohio's Hopewell people 1,600 years ago

By Doris Elin Urrutia published 2 days ago

The Hopewell are the ancestoThis expansive reach is perhaps the reason why so many modern Native communities across the United States have stories about a comet streaking across the sky — a dramatic event that may have severely disrupted the Hopewell culture a millennium and a half ago. rs of the Haudenosaunee and the Algonquin peoples.


Astronomy and anthropology have blended to help determine what might have triggered the decline of a major North American society 1,600 years ago.

A vibrant culture lived in the Ohio Valley from about 200 BCE to 300 CE. These people were the ancestors of many modern Native American tribes, such as the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and the Algonquin. What they called themselves remains a mystery, and they are now known as the Hopewell culture.

We know of their existence because they left behind incredibly symmetrical mound structures across the Ohio River Valley. Underneath these 1,600- to 2,000-year-old astronomical and ceremonial structures, archeologists have found expertly crafted artifacts made of materials sourced across thousands of miles ranging from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. These objects include musical instruments, animal-shaped pipestones and fossilized megalodon teeth.

This expansive reach is perhaps the reason why so many modern Native communities across the United States have stories about a comet streaking across the sky — a dramatic event that may have severely disrupted the Hopewell culture a millennium and a half ago.

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More:
https://www.space.com/comet-impact-decline-hopewell-people-ohio