By Matthew Cumberledge
Flint Ridge, Ohio produces some of the most recognizable and beautiful flint in the country. Known for its creamy white color with bands of red, green, blue and yellow, it was a favorite source material for stone tools used by the Native Americans throughout the region.
In archaeological sites in Greene County, we often find many examples of this specific sort of stone, sometimes in raw form, and other times worked into fine tools and projectile points.
It may seem unusual to us in a modern age of fast and easy transportation to think that hundreds and thousands of years ago, people that lived here were obtaining raw materials from a location that is now a drive of several hours on a modern interstate highway system. But they did, although it may not have been as difficult for them as we think.
Around two thousand years ago, the development of the Hopewell, a Native American cultural group, began. We know nothing of the Hopewell, other than the few artifacts they left behind at sites scattered throughout the Ohio River valley. One thing we do know for certain is that the Hopewell people were responsible for what is known to scientists, archaeologists and historians as the “Hopewell Interaction Sphere.”
The Hopewell Interaction Sphere was a system of exchanging material goods and ideas, all over the United States area, from the East Coast to the Rocky Mountains. The Hopewell Interaction Sphere was the very first trade network known in this hemisphere.
The Indigenous peoples that lived here in Greene were a large part of that network, and even after the Hopewell People disappeared from the archaeological record, the Native Americans of this area continued in this interaction sphere of ideas and material goods.
Small blades and arrowheads are very commonly found here that were created from Ohio Flint Ridge flint. Other materials from the region include a type of flint that is commonly found in Coshocton, Ohio.
Here we are featuring a large chunk of raw Flint Ridge chert that was probably intended to be broken down into smaller pieces and used to create the tools by which the Native Americans survived.
Perhaps you have been walking along a creek or plowed field and stumbled across an arrowhead that is made of very colorful material. You very well may be holding in your hands one of the very first items to ever have been traded by human hands in the western hemisphere!
The Greene County Historical Society will reopen for visitors and general admissions on April 27, 2020. Please keep an eye on our Facebook page to stay up to date on our projects over the winter!