hoes; unusually large caches of chipped blanks and occasional repoussé copper plates.
While the true center of the area lies, as just defined, the northern and southern extensions present some individualities. As noted at the outset, along the Ohio River centering in Ohio, is a rich mound area, which has, perhaps, more earthworks to the square mile than any other part of the world. However, this prominence may be due to excessive zeal in exploration rather than actual superiority. Students of the subject usually recognize two varieties of mound culture here: that known as Hopewell, culminating in the Scioto Valley; and that known as Fort Ancient, centering in the Miami drainage. The latter seems to reach southward into Kentucky,[1] and is, on the whole, more extended and less specialized than that of the Hopewell type. Further, the distinctive traits of Hopewell culture are more like those at the center of the area in Tennessee than are those of Fort Ancient.
Some observers propose a third culture for Ohio, embracing certain curious burials in gravel banks, seemingly independent of mound structures. This type of interment extends westward into Indiana. However, no definite estimate of these observations can be made until closer studies of the area as a whole are available.[2]
As remarked above, the southern portion of the area seems truly marginal to this and the South Atlantic area.
5. The Great Lake Area. This is also a mound area and for that reason may be but a part of the preceding; yet, the well-developed copper industry south of Lake Superior and the specialized type of effigy mound in the same region is generally considered as sufficient warrant for the designation of a separate archæological area. Small mounds[3] occur in most parts and there is no reason for believing them historically independent of the whole mound trait extending from the Gulf Coast northward, but the aboriginal copper workings previously referred to give this outlying culture area a unique position. The most distinctive forms of copper objects found here are the socketed ax, or spud, which may be interpreted as a hafting adaptation to metal. Some of the copper arrow
