Bear teeth in Kansas show Hopewell influence
The Hopewell Interaction Sphere was a social network that spread across much of eastern North America during the period from about AD 1 to 400. The center of that network was located in the vicinity of Chillicothe.
This Interaction Sphere is defined by the movement of highly-valued raw materials, such as seashells, copper, and mica, from the outskirts of that social network into the Hopewell heartland; and the adoption of various Hopewell cultural symbols, such as copper ear ornaments and drilled bear canine teeth, by the indigenous peoples living throughout that sphere of influence.
A recent report sheds light on just how that interaction might have worked.
In 1974, amateur archaeologists Harold and Margie Reed found a number of black bear teeth with holes drilled in them in a field in eastern Kansas. The teeth are similar to bear teeth found at classic Hopewell sites in Ohio and Illinois. Even given what we know about the extent of the Hopewell Interaction Sphere, it was still a surprise to find them so far to the west.
Recently, Margie Reed donated the teeth to the Kansas Historical Society, making them available for researchers to study. In the summer 2021 issue of the Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, Kansas archaeologist Robert Hoard described the collection and pondered the question of what these distinctive Hopewell artifacts “are doing on the eastern boundary of the Great Plains.” There are at least 14 teeth in the collection and, based on the number of additional tooth fragments, there were likely more. Most of the teeth have two holes drilled into one side of the tooth. Hoard notes that “this type of drilling would allow these teeth to be strung together by feeding a cord into one hole and out the other” leaving “an unblemished surface facing outward.” When the Reeds found the teeth, they “were arranged in a row in a clod of dirt,” suggesting they originally may have been strung on a necklace or belt.
Kansas has another Ohio Hopewell connection. One of those highly-valued raw materials sought by Hopewell artisans was meteoric iron; and one source of that iron was the Brenham meteorite, which landed in Kiowa County, Kansas.
Hoard notes that the Brenham meteorite crater is about 230 miles to the southwest of where the Reeds found the bear teeth, which puts them “just off a direct path” between the crater and Ohio’s Hopewell Mound Group.
Traditionally, archaeologists would have said that direct path was likely a trade route, but no meteoric iron has been found at contemporary sites between Brenham and Chillicothe, which is what you’d expect if it was being traded from village to village.
Future studies of the chemical composition of the bear teeth could reveal whether they are from Ohio bears, in which case they may have been given to a pilgrim from Kansas who had journeyed to one of the great Hopewell earthworks, perhaps bearing offerings of meteoric iron.
Alternatively, if they’re from Kansas bears, some local artisan may have made them in imitation of Hopewell regalia they had seen while on pilgrimage to the Ohio earthworks.
Whatever the case, this remarkable discovery of drilled bear teeth in the eastern Great Plains is another window on the extent and nature of the Hopewell Interaction Sphere.
Brad Lepper is the Senior Archaeologist for the Ohio History Connection’s World Heritage Program
blepper@ohiohistory.org
When the Reeds found the teeth, they “were arranged in a row in a clod of dirt,” suggesting they originally may have been strung on a necklace or belt.