The Hopewell Culture was a centre for cultural excellence for Native Americans in the northeast and Midwest of USA, across the period ranging from 200 BCE to 500 CE. At its peak it extended its influence as far as south-eastern USA and the south-eastern parts of Canada.
     The greatest amount of culture activity and exchanges, as you would expect, appears to be along the region's waterways and rivers and a great deal of local material was moved and exchanged in this way. One of the main artefact production centres which benefited from this exchange was in Ohio, where a large number of flint tools were manufactured and distributed right across the Cultures zone of influence, largely based on the high quality quarries located at Flint Ridge in Licking County, Ohio.
     Two notable local archaeologists, Marvin Kay and Robert Mainfort Jr, have been investigating and analysing the flint production. They identified the fact that these flint tools, known as bladelets, symbolised the Hopewell Culture more than any other aspect or artefact. So much so that when the Hopewell Culture eventually disappeared, of which there is much speculation over the cause, then so did the flint production.

Edited from The Columbus Dispatch (7 December 2014)