Using verbal modifiers that identify the geographic area being discussed is as important for “Hopewell” as for “Adena”. The Ohio Hopewell home land is only a part of the area customarily identified with “Adena” in the Middle Ohio Valley. (e.g. Dragoo 1963: Maps 3, 4; Swartz 1970). In addition, groups of peoples scattered across Eastern North America, who apparently shared some ideas during the Middle Woodland Time period, did not express these ideas in the same way or necessarily in the same solar years, even though they are frequently all given the name “Hopewell” (Greber 2010).
For example, similarities exist between the Illinois Hopewell mound structure noted by Jane Buikstra and Douglas Charles and that seen in the Coon Mound, basic in Emerson Greenman's definition of “Adena” (Buikstra and Charles 1999:Figure 9.6. Reproduced with permission of Wiley-Blackwell; Greenman 1932:Figures 12.1,22. Courtesy of the Ohio Historical Society). Are these accidental, or a reflection of time or style differences between Hopewell in Ohio and Hopewell in Illinois during the six centuries of the Hopewell Era?