Adena culture Spoons, beads and other implements were made from the marine conch. A few copper axes have been found, but otherwise the metal was hammered into ornamental forms, such as bracelets, rings, beads, and reel-shaped pendants. Adena culture The Adena culture was a Pre-Columbian Native American culture that existed from 1000 to 200 BC, in a time known as the Early Woodland period. The Adena culture refers to what were probably a number of related Native American societies sharing a burial complex and ceremonial system. The Adena lived in an area including parts of present-day Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Kentucky,
Wampum contact, strings of wampum were used for storytelling, ceremonial gifts, and recording important treaties and historical events, such as the Two Row Wampum Treaty or The Hiawatha Belt. The term "wampum" (or "wampumpeag") initially referred only to the white beads which are made of the inner spiral or columella of the Channeled whelk shell "Busycotypus canaliculatus" or "Busycotypus carica". "Sewant" or "suckauhock" beads are the black or purple shell beads made from the quahog or poquahock clamshell "Mercenaria mercenaria". "Sewant" or "Zeewant" was the term used for this currency by the New Netherland colonists. Common terms for the dark and