New archaeometallurgical perspectives on the Old Copper industry of North America

Abstract

Abstract Thousands of copper artifacts have been found in the Great Lakes region, most of which are attributed to the Old Copper industry, a Late Archaic Indian manifestation characterized by dominantly utilitarian artifacts with distinctive typologies. This industry had a geographic center in Wisconsin, with secondary centers in Michigan, Minnesota, and Ontario. Native copper used by the Old Copper Indians was obtained from the Lake Superior region by mining surface deposits, such as those on Isle Royale in Lake Superior and on the Keweenaw Peninsula in Upper Michigan, and by collecting nuggets, cobbles, and larger pieces from glacial-till deposits. Mining, in the sense of the Old Copper Indians, consisted of digging open pits beside a ledge of copperbearing rock and pounding with stone mauls to loosen the rock from the copper. Some charcoal deposits are evidence that the rock was possibly also fractured by heating and dousing with water. Copper axes, chisels, and wedges for working the copper into portable pieces have been found, and the bulk of the metal most likely was transported to workshops and villages for fabrication, use, and trade. Comprehensive accounts of the role of copper in the prehistory of the Lake Superior region are given in Griffin (1961). Artifacts fabricated from Lake Superior region copper occur as surface finds, in caches, and in burials, commonly associated with a chipped-stone complex. Dispersal of the artifacts was widespread in eastern North America and emanated from the Great Lakes area along shores and major waterways (see Fogel, 1963).

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