"Discovering the Lost Landscape of the Hopewell Earthworks," Zube Lecture Presented by Elizabeth Brabec and UMass Amherst Researchers
The spring semester Zube Lecture Series kicks off with a talk by Professor Elizabeth Brabec and her research team on Thursday, February 5th, at 4:00 p.m. in the Design Building Lecture Hall (room 170). Admission is free and open to the public. Snacks and drinks will be provided.
A recording of this lecture will be posted to UMass LARP's YouTube channel following the event.
About the Talk
Hopewell Earthworks represent one of the most distinctive forms of cultural landscapes in North America. From about 100BCE to 500CE, the culture flourished and then very abruptly abandoned the sites. Unlike archaic settlement landscapes, Hopewell earthwork sites show limited evidence of habitation, and instead, archaeological evidence indicates they functioned as symbolic, ceremonial, burial, and sacred spaces. Their extensive geometric landscapes present a methodological challenge for contemporary researchers seeking to understand why these places were created and how their locations were chosen. This presentation discusses the landscapes of the Hopewell civilization, and the application of reverse-engineering to investigate the drivers of site selection, location and distribution. Focusing on the Scioto River watershed in Ohio, the acknowledged center of Hopewell culture, it is the region with some of the most extensive historical documentation of Hopewell sites. The presentation will explore the use of GIS spatial analysis, presenting a new view into Hopewell landscapes.
About the Speaker
Elizabeth Brabec is Professor of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research and professional work focus on culture, land and heritage and the interactions of the three in a sustainable society. Core to her research is the role of heritage during migration, in mitigating the trauma of displacement caused by conflict, climate change and natural disasters. A member of ICOMOS, Brabec is the President of the ISCCL (International Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes). The Scientific Committee develops international policy on cultural landscape issues and contributes guidance on UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscapes.
With a background in both professional practice and academia, Elizabeth Brabec founded and was President of the award-winning land and resource planning firm Land Ethics, Inc., until 2002. As an academic, she served as Department Head at Utah State University's Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, and then at the University of Massachusetts' Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning, after serving as Associate Professor at the University of Michigan, School of Natural Resources and the Environment.
Until 2021, Professor Brabec was the editor of the Taylor & Francis journal, Heritage & Society which publishes research on the role of heritage in contemporary life. Elizabeth holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Maryland, and a Master in Landscape Architecture from the University of Guelph, Canada.