Many travelers and history buffs are aware that the British Museum in London is, controversially, the repository for the ancient Parthenon Marbles, also known as the Elgin Marbles, removed from the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, and brought to England in the early 19th century.
But the museum also holds many other historic items from around the world, including some of the most important archeological artifacts from Ohio.
In a glass display case in the British Museum’s Room 26, visitors will find more than two dozen exquisitely fashioned pipes, as well as bowls and other objects recovered from mounds built by the prehistoric Hopewell people of the Scioto Valley.
The display, though small, is the most comprehensive in the world, and is only a small fraction of the Ohio Hopewell items the museum owns.
The pipes, carved some 2,000 years ago from various types of soft stone, known collectively as “pipestone,” were used to smoke tobacco, perhaps during ritual ceremonial observations.
Though some of the pipes are simple bowls, many are exquisitely detailed effigies of birds, frogs, beavers, turtles and other creatures from the Scioto Valley. They demonstrate a level of artistry that offers an intriguing glimpse into the culture of a people we still know relatively little about.
Most of the stone is also native to the area around modern-day Chillicothe, although a few pipes were carved from rock from as far away as Minnesota, indicating a surprising level of travel and trade at the time.
How the items made their way from the vicinity of Chillicothe to England is a fascinating tale in itself.
Although the prehistoric mounds of Ohio were objects of curiosity and speculation since the time of the earliest European trappers and traders in the area, the first real attempt at a scientific exploration of the earthworks was conducted from 1845 to 1847 by Ephraim Squire and Edwin Davis, who surveyed and excavated many of the earthworks in the vicinity of Chillicothe.
Their findings were detailed in the very first volume of the “Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge,” published in 1847 by a brand new scientific organization called the Smithsonian Institution.
Of course, Squire and Davis had gathered quite a significant collection of about 1,300 artifacts from the mounds and in those days, well, finders keepers.
Davis later decided to sell the artifacts, hoping to place them with the Smithsonian which, unfortunately, didn’t have the funds. And so, the Ohio Hopewell collection was purchased by the owner of a private museum in England for $10,000 and sent across the sea.
In 1931, the collection was purchased by the British Museum, which has been its home ever since.
Of course, travelers who are interested enough to stop by the British Museum to view the Hopewell collection (and a whole, whole lot of other great stuff) may also want to see some of the prehistory of England, itself. There’s no better place for that than out on the Salisbury Plain, the home of Stonehenge, as well as a large number of Bronze Age burial mounds that almost perfectly resemble the many prehistoric mounds found in Ohio.
And even though the Hopewell collection is in England, the original Hopewell mound sites are much, much closer to home.
The Hopewell Culture National Historical Park in Chillicothe is, like Stonehenge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of just 25 in the United States. The park includes the Mound City group of earthworks and several other earthworks in the Chillicothe area.
The Mound City site also offers a small visitors center and museum that tells the story — at least as much of it as we know — of the Hopewell people and their culture. The park is a can’t-miss destination for history buffs and for anyone intrigued by Ohio’s enigmatic prehistoric peoples. Just don’t expect to see a lot of original artifacts.
For more information about the British Museum’s Hopewell collection, including an interactive online walk through the museum’s Room 26, visit britishmuseum.org.
Steve Stephens is a freelance travel writer and photographer. Email him at sjstephensjr@gmail.com.