Eastern Woodlands culture, term used to refer to Native American societies inhabiting the eastern United States. The earliest Woodland groups were the Adena and Hopewell, who lived in the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys between 800 b.c. and a.d. 800. Both groups are known for their large burial mounds, often provisioned with finely crafted grave items. Like earlier archaic populations (see Americas, antiquity and prehistory of the), the Adena were hunters and gatherers living in seasonal camps. The Hopewell, as with later Woodland cultures, lived in villages and supplemented their hunting and gathering with the cultivation of some domesticated plants.
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