Native copper sources of artifact copper in pre-Columbian North America

Abstract

Abstract Archaeological and anthropological interest in the sources of North American artifact copper center on trade relations and network systems. If exchange networks are to be accurately modeled, positive identification of source areas is vital. We know that North American copper technology began in preceramic times. Quimby (1960) considers the center of its development as the Upper Great Lakes Region. Utilitarian copper artifacts in the archaeologic record appear initially about 5,500 yr BP. Halsey (1983) describes the distribution of these "Old Copper Culture" artifacts. This culture flourished in eastern Wisconsin and the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan, but artifacts attributable to it are found as far away as the Dakotas and Quebec. Interestingly, few are found in Illinois, Indiana, or Ohio. The Archaeometry Laboratory at the University of Minnesota has been involved in the location and trace-element "fingerprinting" of North American native copper deposits for nearly two decades (Rapp and others, 1980, 1984). This chapter summarizes significant geologic occurrences and possible sources of prehistoric native copper north of the Rio Grande River. Our voluminous trace-element data are being published elsewhere. The earliest accounts of Europeans who came into contact with the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North America noted that the indigenous peoples used copper, primarily for decorative purposes (Vastokas, 1970). In the early to middle seventeenth century, explorers became interested in tracing the source of the copper. Griffin (1961a) and Vastokas (1970) describe the early historical accounts of tracing copper to the Lake Superior district.

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