Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orange color. Copper is used as a conductor of heat and electricity, as a building material, and as a constituent of various metal alloys, such as sterling silver used in jewelry, cupronickel used to make marine hardware and coins, and constantan used in strain gauges and thermocouples for temperature measurement.Copper is one of the few native metals, meaning metals that occur naturally in a directly usable, unalloyed metallic form. This led to very early human use in several regions, from c. 8000 BC. Thousands of years later, it was the first metal to be smelted from sulfide ores, c. 5000 BC; the first metal to be cast into a shape in a mold, c. 4000 BC; and the first metal to be purposely alloyed with another metal, tin, to create bronze, c. 3500 BC.
Commonly encountered compounds are copper(II) salts, which often impart blue or green colors to such minerals as azurite, malachite, and turquoise, and have been used widely and historically as pigments.
The Copper Age: When Metallurgy Came to Rule the World ancient-origins.net
The so-called Chalcolithic — or the Copper Age — is one of the great eras of cultural development, fitting into the main framework of man's crucial steps towards civilization. This period introduced copper into the metalworking industry, ushering the world into a wholly new phase, and paving the way towards the use of bronze. As such, it is a crucial period in the timeline of the history of mankind as the use of copper opened up new options and changed the course for the future....The Copper Age did not begin at the same time all around the world. In many places this was an isolated process, appearing at roughly the same time in various corners of the globe. Nevertheless, a certain timeframe can be agreed upon, in that the Copper Age lasted from roughly mid-5th millennium BC, all the way to the late 4th, early 3rd millennium BC. At that time, people discovered that by adding tin to copper, a stronger and more durable metal could be created; Bronze. From that point on, the Bronze Age begins.
Ancient Copper Mines of the Old World Ricardo Calvário (pdf) (73 pages of details!)
History of Copper: From Early Discovery to Modern Industry china-casting.com
...The history of copper is inseparable from the history of human civilization itself. From its early discovery and simple tooling to large-scale mining, alloy development, and industrial applications, copper has continuously driven technological progress and economic growth. In this article, I present a clear, structured, and authoritative overview of how copper evolved across different eras—linking ancient innovation with modern industry.
Copper in Antiquity worldhistory.org
...When metalworkers realised it could be smelted using charcoal furnaces, the exploitation of copper-rich ores became more widespread from the 2nd millennium BCE. Such ores were present in significant quantities at sites across the ancient Mediterranean: Cyprus (whose very name may derive from the metal), Attica, the Cyclades (especially Kythnos), and the Levant, in particular. The legendary copper mines of King Solomon helped build the fortunes of Israel, even if they may well have belonged to the Edomites. Other, less important copper deposits, were exploited in England, Wales, France, Italy (especially Elba, Sardinia, and parts of Etruria), Spain, and Mauritania....On the other side of the world, Mesoamerican cultures (c. 650-1200 CE) were provided with plentiful amounts of copper from open-pit mines in western Guerrero and Oaxaca on the west coast of Mexico and Veracruz on the east coast. Japan was a rich source of the metal and, from around 1000 CE, exported significant quantities to neighbouring China who, converting it into coinage, sent tons back again so the Japanese could use it as their own currency. Similarly, Korea was rich in copper, and the Goryeo kingdom, in particular, exported it to China, although they minted their own copper coins.
...The earliest known smelting site is in Serbia and dates to c. 5000 BCE. Early furnaces could only create a copper-rich slag which had to be further treated in a clay crucible, but with the development of charcoal-burning furnaces and the use of bellows, 1200 degrees Celsius could be reached, and a much more refined product thus became achievable. Copper melts at 1084 degrees Celsius, and so it could be reduced to a molten state of pure copper where it collected at the base of the furnace. Ingots were made by pouring the metal into stone or clay moulds.
...Copper was made even more useful by mixing it with other materials to make an alloy of superior strength and so better able to resist corrosion. Bronze was thus made by joining copper with arsenic, antimony, or tin while brass, an easier material to cast, consisted of copper and zinc. Adding lead to copper also made a better casting material. The Romans similarly used copper to produce more useful alloys. Copper and bronze were in many instances eventually replaced by iron which was more readily available and filled the gap left by shortages of tin. The Mesoamericans were equally adept at producing alloys, notably copper-silver, copper-gold, copper-arsenic, and copper-tin. Further south, in ancient Colombia, the alloy of gold and copper, known as tumbaga, was especially popular with metalsmiths.
History of Copper Copper Development Association Africa
...Copper smelting was independently invented in different places. It was probably discovered in China before 2800 BC, in Central America around 600 AD, and in West Africa about the 9th or 10th century AD.[61] Investment casting was invented in 4500-4000 BC in Southeast Asia[57] and carbon dating has established mining at Alderley Edge in Cheshire, UK, at 2280 to 1890 BC.[62] Ötzi the Iceman, a male dated from 3300-3200 BC, was found with an axe with a copper head 99.7% pure; high levels of arsenic in his hair suggest an involvement in copper smelting.[63] Experience with copper has assisted the development of other metals; in particular, copper smelting led to the discovery of iron smelting.[63] Production in the Old Copper Complex in Michigan and Wisconsin is dated between 6000 and 3000 BC.[64][65] Natural bronze, a type of copper made from ores rich in silicon, arsenic, and (rarely) tin, came into general use in the Balkans around 5500 BC.[66]...The Great Copper Mountain was a mine in Falun, Sweden, that operated from the 10th century to 1992. It satisfied two thirds of Europe's copper consumption in the 17th century and helped fund many of Sweden's wars during that time.[75] It was referred to as the nation's treasury; Sweden had a copper backed currency.[76]
The Trade of Copper: A Key Element in Ancient Civilizations ancientcivs.blog
The trade of copper has played a pivotal role in the development of ancient civilizations, serving as both a medium of exchange and a catalyst for technological advancement. Its significance in commerce can be traced back thousands of years, impacting societies across various regions....the Mediterranean region, including Cyprus and the Aegean islands, became prominent centers for copper extraction and distribution, significantly influencing the trade dynamics of ancient societies.
...in South Asia, the Indus Valley Civilization thrived on copper production and trading with regions like Mesopotamia. Their advanced metallurgy and urban centers showcased the significance of copper, enhancing its role in cross-cultural connections throughout ancient history.
...Egyptian civilization thrived due to the strategic trade of copper, which influenced economic stability and cultural development.
...The trade of copper significantly influenced the economic structures of ancient societies. This metal's demand spurred the establishment of extensive trade networks, connecting regions rich in copper resources to those requiring it for tools, weapons, and ornaments. The strategic importance of copper affected societal organization and wealth distribution.
Pre-Columbian Native American Copper Mining and Trade nativehistory.info
...Copper, a highly prized metal, wasn't evenly distributed across the Pre-Columbian landscape. Significant deposits existed in specific regions, notably the Great Lakes region, the Southwest, and the Andes. This uneven distribution directly influenced the development of extensive trade networks....The transportation of this metal was not a simple task. It required organization, planning, and considerable manpower. Trade routes were carefully selected to optimize efficiency and minimize risk.
The distribution networks were intricate and often reflected the political and social structures of the time. Certain groups controlled key trade routes, wielding significant economic and political power.
Copper Transatlantic Trade: Untested not Disproven
...Ricardo Calvário's 2025 paper, "Ancient Copper Mines of the Old World," compiles extensive data from 40 prehistoric sites scattered throughout Europe, the Near East, and parts of Africa. These mines functioned between approximately 5500 BC and 1000 BC....the volume of surviving copper and bronze artifacts from the same era far exceeds what these mines could have supplied. This discrepancy opens the door to alternative explanations. Calvário proposes that high-purity native copper from North America's Great Lakes region arrived in the Old World through prehistoric transatlantic trade routes.
Americas Old Copper Culture's Trade Network Across the Atlantic ancienthistoryx.com
...From the copper-rich veins of the Keweenaw Peninsula to the tantalizing possibility of transatlantic connections with the ancient Greeks and Minoans, as hinted by the Greek philosopher Plato and later referenced by the historian Plutarch, this article delves deep into the heart of a lost world. It challenges conventional understanding of early human ingenuity, weaving together archaeological evidence, theoretical frameworks, and speculative links to reshape our view of prehistoric America.
A Metal of Power and Prestige: The Ancient Copper Industry of North America ancient-origins.net
...For some time it was believed that the people who exploited the massive copper supplies from the North American Great Lakes region were members of a single cultural entity, once referred to as the Old Copper Culture. A far more interesting picture has emerged in recent decades, as archaeologists have gradually realized that Great Lakes copper was at the center of an industry for thousands of years, utilized by many different cultures. Furthermore, various dating techniques are constantly pushing the fabrication of advanced copper tools further back into America's ancient past....Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) allows for the dating of copper artifacts by showing the age of textiles or wooden fragments adhering to (and partially preserved by) the artifacts. This method has recently dated two copper conical points from Vilas County, Wisconsin to 5740 +/- 40 BC and 5355 +/- 60 BC. Copper points featuring toothed or notched bases for hafting attachments have been found in Wisconsin and elsewhere, usually termed "saw tooth" or "serrate tang" points, and can be seen in photographs from numerous collections. Recently, one such point featuring four teeth on one side and three on the other was found at the Sandy Lake Dam site in Aitkin County, Minnesota, with eight other copper tools and 24 pieces of scrap metal. Bone was used to date the contexts of this find to between 5,000 and 4,000 BC.
...Throughout most of the Old World, the rise of copper metallurgy almost universally occurs in the same pattern, with ancient groups beginning to work the metal in order to fabricate ornaments. This is true for finds from the eighth to seventh millennium BC, including a copper pendant from Shanidar cave in Iraq, copper beads from Cayonu Tepsi in Turkey, a rolled copper bead from Ali Kosh in Iran, and artifacts from Tell Halula in Syria. In Asia, the earliest metal artifacts are pins, bracelets, beads, pendants, and mirrors, dating to 5,000-4,000 BC. In Britain, the earliest metal objects were ornamental beads, as are the first copper objects from France, where they are found in collective burials dating to 3500-3000 BC in the Paris basin and Vignely. Heavy copper beads are known from Southern France and the west bank of the Rhone, and the earliest metal objects from the Languedoc consist of copper and lead beads of the third millennium BC Fontbouisse culture.
Copper: An Ancient Metal Dartmouth Toxic Metals
...The first several thousand years of copper production contributed little to global or even local pollution. Copper is not very toxic in comparison to other metals and early humans used too little of it to begin concentrating it in soil, air, or water to the extent that it would affect human health or ecosystems....Native copper was likely used first, as it did not require any process to purify it. It could have been hammered into shapes although it would have been very brittle. Annealing was the first step toward true metallurgy, when people discovered that copper became more flexible and easy to work with when it was heated before hammering. Next, casting of molten copper into molds was developed. At some point humans discovered copper ore and — possibly by accident — that the ore could be heated to very high temperatures in a low-oxygen environment to melt out the pure copper, a process known as smelting. This lent more flexibility to copper crafting
...Beginning in the late 1600s, copper smelting became a major industry in Great Britain. Copper ore from Cornwall and other areas and coal deposits throughout the country fueled the smelting of copper. An abundance of coal in Swansea, Wales made this coastal town a prime location for Britain's copper smelting activities beginning in early 1700s. The copper industry drove the economy of this town. Wealthy English people often owned smelters, while local Welsh people worked as laborers in the industry. Just as in ancient Rome, copper smelting had its price. The town and once lush countryside surrounding Swansea was stripped of vegetation by noxious copper smoke that billowed from the smelter stacks and settled on the surrounding town and fields. Topsoil on denuded hillsides succumbed to erosion. Livestock developed strange new ailments like swollen joints and rotten teeth. Farmers blamed the smoke. The smoke also reportedly caused shortness of breath, decreased appetite, and other complaints in humans.
...Butte, Montana is home of an abandoned copper mine once owned by the now defunct Anaconda Copper Mining Company, established in Butte in 1895. Until the major Butte mine operations closed in the 1980s, the mine produced 20 billion pounds of copper. Until the 1950's, it produced one third of the country's copper and was an important supplier for the nation during the two World Wars. The former mine is now the largest Superfund site in the country. The main open pit has filled with water since the termination of mining activities, forming a 600-acre lake. Copper, lead, cadmium and arsenic contaminate the huge pit, which is recharged with water every day from an aquifer below—making the toxic lake nearly impossible to clean up. Sulfur, a mineral that is commonly a component of copper ore, reacts with air and water, producing sulfuric acid, which fills the pit. Mine runoff and fallout from the smelter once owned by Anaconda cover the landscape. A 1,000-acre tailings pond sits near the main pit.
Timeline of Michigan Copper Mining Prehistory to 1850 Keweenaw National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)
...1837: Michigan becomes the 26th state admitted into the Union. The Upper Peninsula is added to Michigan after the state relinquished its claim to land around Toledo, Ohio. Although Michigan was hesitant to accept the new peninsula, this land ended up being rich in copper and other metals that brought great wealth to the state
A world of copper: globalizing the Industrial Revolution, 1830-70 Journal of Global History
For most of human history the smelting of metallic ores has been performed immediately adjacent to the ore body. In the 1830s the copper industry that was centred on Swansea in the UK departed abruptly from that ancient pattern: Swansea smelters shipped in ores from very distant locations, including sites in Australasia, Latin America, and southern Africa. Swansea became the hub of a globally integrated heavy industry, one that deployed capital on a very large scale, implanted British industrial technologies in some very diverse settings, and mobilized a transnational workforce that included British-born 'labour aristocrats', Chinese indentured servants, and African slaves. This paper explores the World of Copper between its inception c.1830 and its demise in the aftermath of the American Civil War. It asks what the experience of this precociously globalized industry can contribute to some current concerns in global history.
Rewriting History of Pre-Contact North American Copper Trade smu.ca
..."This copper comes from Cape d'Or, located in the Bay of Fundy, a place of extreme significance in terms of the history of Mi'kma'ki," says Lewis. "To get to these outcrops, you can only approach from the water or climb down the cliffs."..."Our data suggests that Cape d'Or and the Bay of Fundy was the main source of copper for the Mi'kmaq people and beyond," says Cottreau-Robins. "All the artifacts we have examined, and initially described as having come from the Lake Superior region, actually originated in the Bay of Fundy. This suggests that much of the copper artifact collection in the northeastern region, believed to have come from the Lake Superior area, may have an Atlantic origin. The implications of this are huge, as it means reshaping our understanding of pre-contact trade across Atlantic Canada, Eastern Canada and the Eastern United States and re-examining the role copper played cultural in the history of Atlantic Canada's Indigenous peoples."
The Legend of Ea-Naṣir: How a Babylonian Businessman Became an Internet Meme and full text Gabriel Moshenska
The "complaint tablet to Ea-Naṣir" was discovered during Leonard Woolley's excavations at Ur in the 1920s, and is currently on display in the British Museum. The tablet, with its cuneiform inscription, dated to ca. 1750 BC, is an excoriating attack on Ea-Naṣir's fraudulent business practices, and has become known as the world's oldest customer complaint. In 2015 the complaint tablet was the subject of popular viral social media posts on Reddit and tumblr, followed by a surge of international news coverage. Since then the complaint tablet has become a popular and unusually-long-lasting internet meme. Ea-Naṣir, his poor-quality copper ingots and other elements from the inscribed narrative have been creatively combined with images and references to popular culture, current affairs and established meme formats. In this paper I explore the emergence, development and endurance of the Ea-Naṣir meme, based on a corpus of images, texts and related commentary collected from digital media. My analysis, grounded in a framework for studying the dynamics of memetic processes, argues that the meme serves primarily as an "in-joke" for online communities, while Ea-Naṣir himself has been transformed into an archetypal "trickster" figure. While focused on a specific case study, the methods and framework offer a starting point for future research on internet memes in digital folklore, reception studies and allied fields.
Copious Copper Supplies Made Cyprus a Trading Center 3,500 Years Ago ancient-origins.net
In the earliest period of international trade in the Mediterranean region, the island of Cyprus was a surprisingly busy trading hub. Its exalted status during the Late Bronze Age (1,500 to 1,150 BC) was made possible by its huge supplies of pure Cyprus copper, which was mined in copious quantities near the ancient Cypriot village of Hala Sultan Tekke....It is now clear that long-distance exchange, based on the large-scale intra-urban production and distribution of copper, involved regional and more distant suppliers of coveted goods, and resulted in the transition of the settlement from a late 17th century B.C. village to a trade hub with a minimum extent of 25 hectares [62 acres]
..."Remains in the city show extensive copper production in the form of smelting furnaces, cast molds and slag," Fischer said. "The ore from which the copper was extracted was brought into the city from mines in the nearby Troodos Mountains. The workshops produced a lot of soot and were placed in the north of the city so that the winds mainly from the south would blow the soot and the stench away from the city."
People may have been unaware of it at the time, but copper smelting of this type produced dangerous quantities of toxins like arsenic, lead and cadmium. The people of Hala Sultan Tekke and the surrounding region may have developed illnesses as a result of their frequent exposure to such substances, but they may not have understood the true cause of these maladies.
But the value of copper and bronze on the international trading market wouldn't have been a secret to anyone. Not only did the island have a lot of copper to mine, but its choice location in the eastern Mediterranean and its calm and well-protected southern harbor made it an easy place for early Mediterranean mariners and traders to find and visit.
... like so many other highly prosperous Bronze Age civilizations in the region, Hala Sultan Tekke experienced a sudden and shocking downturn in its fortunes sometime during the 12th century BC.
Exploring the Trade in Ancient Copper Artifacts Across Civilizations rootsofcivilizations.com (AI production, and it reads like it...)
Ancient Native Americans were among the world's first coppersmiths Science 19iii21
New dates show people worked pure ore nearly 10,000 years ago around the Great Lakes...The dates show that early Native Americans were among the first people in the world to mine metal and fashion it into tools. They also suggest a regional climate shift might help explain why, after thousands of years, the pioneering metallurgists abruptly stopped making most copper tools and largely returned to stone and bone implements.
Earth's largest and purest copper deposits are found around North America's Great Lakes. At some point, Native Americans learned to harvest the ore and heat, hammer, and grind it into tools. They left behind thousands of mines and countless copper artifacts, including lethal projectile points, hefty knives and axes, and petite fish hooks and awls.
...About 10 years ago, Pompeani began doctoral research that cast doubt on the Old Copper timeline. He extracted sediment cores from lakes adjacent to prehistoric mines on Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula and Isle Royale and measured trace metals in the cores, including lead and titanium, that had been released by processing the ore. The analyses showed copper mining began about 9500 years ago in some areas—some 3500 years earlier than once thought. It also ended earlier, about 5400 years ago, Pompeani reported in The Holocene in 2015.
Old Copper Complex in North America EBSCO.com
The Old Copper Complex refers to a significant cultural and technological development among Native American groups in the western Great Lakes region, particularly between 4000 and 1000 b.c.e. During this period, these communities engaged in the mining and working of nearly pure copper, utilizing techniques such as hot- and cold-hammering, grinding, and polishing to create a diverse array of tools and ornaments. Archaeological findings, including thousands of copper artifacts such as spear points, knives, fishhooks, and jewelry, indicate that these cultures were primarily hunter-gatherers who also established extensive trade networks with neighboring regions for materials like marine shells and exotic stone tools.Excavations of Old Copper burial sites reveal insights into their social structure, suggesting a relatively egalitarian society that gradually evolved to display markers of status through the production of jewelry and specialized burial practices by around 1500 to 1000 b.c.e. Despite the decline of copper tool production after this period, the Old Copper Complex remains a crucial highlight of North American prehistory, marking the earliest instances of metalworking and reflecting a rich cultural heritage that contributed to the interconnectedness of various indigenous groups across the continent. The legacy of these early metalworking cultures continues to prompt significant archaeological inquiry and cultural appreciation today.
An 18th Century Copper Collective and Britains Triangular Trade Anne Elise Crafton nd.edu
...In the eighteenth century, Bristol was "the slave capital" of Britain's triangular trade. The port, which in 1755 had 237 slave traders, sent thousands of ships full of manufactured goods to Africa, which brought enslaved Africans (purchased with said goods) to the Americas and returned to the city with the products of slave labor. Every Bristol industry profited from this trade, but the copper industry especially so. Copper products—many of which were produced by the copper collective and the White Rock Copper Works—were favored in nearly every theater of the global slave trade. Copper rods were used to purchase enslaved Africans in West Africa, copper products were used to refine sugar in West Indies plantations, slave and merchant ships had copper-plated bottoms to withstand tropical waves, and copper luxury goods were sold around the world to fund Britain's colonial control. In other words, it is no coincidence that a copper cooperative in Bristol would see such financial success....nowhere in the White Rock Copper Works Shares is the slave trade explicitly mentioned. The collection is, at first glance, innocuous to the point of boredom. Yet this does not negate the fact that the wealth described in this collection was gained through an industry which itself relied on the trade of enslaved peoples.
Copper and Bronze: The Far-Reaching Consequences of Metallurgy Impact of Materials on Society unizin.org
...metallurgy was more than a technical revolution; its invention in the Bronze Age was primarily a social revolution. This chapter introduces the technological innovations associated with the manipulations of metal by smelting and casting, and the economic and social problems that came with the development of this early metallurgy. At the same time, the chapter highlights the role of trade and its connection to the rise of metallurgical, proto-industrial centers across Europe and the Middle East. The ensuing social and political complexities, disparities, and military conflicts are direct results of that connection and of the competition for resources inherent for metallurgy. Finally, the chapter points to the rise of a class of material specialists in society, forerunners to our contemporary engineers....both in the Far East (northeastern Thailand and China) and in the New World (Mexico and Peru), copper and bronze metallurgy was invented independently, without any contacts with the centers in the Near East and the Mediterranean region.
...metalworking needs to be taught by a specialist to another person. Metallurgy implies not only the existence of specialists, but also a complex process of learning, which sets it apart from other technologies, the spread of which was simply based on diffusion. Put simply, while the products made through metallurgy impacted societies by addressing immediate needs, the process of metallurgy also impacted society by creating a new class of professional specialists in the social order.
...A form of extractive metallurgy, smelting is based on the idea of bringing the ore to a temperature sufficiently high for melting the metal. A reducing agent decomposes the ore, thus separating the other elements as gases or slag and leaving the metal base behind. The reducing agent most commonly used in the past was charcoal, which produced CO upon heating in a reducing environment. The reducing environment consisted of an air-starved furnace, in which the incomplete combustion of carbon created CO, which subsequently took the excess oxygen from the metal ore and left the metal behind. Copper smelting involves high temperatures and a reducing environment, two conditions that characterize pottery kilns. It is therefore possible that the process was discovered during experiments with firing pottery. In other words, while playing with “cooking” copper ore, early potters may have discovered smelting, and in the process became the earliest metallurgists.
...The addition of other metals is useful, because it reduces the temperature at which copper melts, while at the same time increasing the hardness of the finished metal. Copper melts at 1,085 degrees Celsius, which implies the use of an enclosed furnace and of forced draught or the introduction of overpressure of air. By adding only 10 percent tin to the alloy (bronze), its melting temperature drops to 1,000 degrees Celsius, which still requires a furnace, but not forced draught
...Tin for creating bronze came from tin ore (tinstone or cassiterite), which has an even more uneven distribution on planet Earth. Tin for prehistoric bronzes came from Sardinia, Brittany (France), Cornwall (England), Iran, or Bohemia. There is no tin in the Near East or the Eastern Mediterranean, despite the fact that some of the earliest centers of metallurgy were located there. It's therefore no surprise that by 800 BCE, tin appears in lists of commodities as a precious metal, along with such luxuries as gold, silver, iron, elephant hides, ivory, and purple-dyed cloth.[7] The rarity of tin, as well its importance for some of the hardest and most durable copper-alloys, explains why the development of metallurgy encouraged the development of long-distance exchanges and of trade.
...The excavations carried out in Hacınebi provided evidence for every aspect and each step of the smelting process, including slags, fragments of slag-accreted crucibles, clay molds, and smelting furnaces. Trade contributed to the success of Hacinebi. But also there was a wealth of knowledge there as well. There is even a fragment of tuyere (a tube through which air is blown into a furnace), the shape of which indicates that it was used at the end of a reed blowpipe, and not for actual bellows. In order for a temperature of 2,192 degrees Fahrenheit to be maintained inside a furnace with an internal diameter of 25 centimeters, no fewer than three adults had to blow continuously into pipes such as those that may have been used for the Hacınebi tuyere. In other words, smelting was a labor-intensive operation and clearly required craft specialization.[12]
In fact, the archaeological evidence suggests that smelting was developed far beyond cottage production and involved the existence of specialized workshops. Scanning electron microscopy was used to examine a slag-accreted crucible from Hacınebi and it was discovered that sulfide ores were utilized for smelting. The copper ores in question came from at least 200 km (124 miles) to the northwest from the site. Metallurgy at Hacınebi required organization and planning, special trade deals with the northern neighbors to ensure a constant supply of ore, and special trade deals with various neighbors to the south, who purchased the copper made in Hacinebi.
New Evidence for Hunter-Gatherer Trade in North America Archaeology Magazine
BINGHAMTON, NEW YORK—According to a Science News report, hunter-gatherers living in North America some 4,000 years ago may have had direct trade links spanning 900 miles. A ceremonial copper object has been found surrounded by a ring of seashells at an ancient grave site on St. Catherines Island off the coast of Georgia. Known as the McQueen shell ring, the circle of shells measures nearly 230 feet across. At its center, anthropologist Matthew Sanger of Binghamton University and his colleagues unearthed a pit containing the copper band, bits of stone tools, and tens of thousands of ash-encrusted bone and tooth fragments representing at least seven individuals. Such cremation burials are rare in the Southeast for this period, Sanger said. Chemical analysis of the copper band, which has been radiocarbon dated to between 4,300 and 3,800 years old, indicates it originated in copper mines at Lake Superior, in an area where cremation burials from this period are found more frequently. People living in the Southeast and Great Lakes regions may have gathered together at Georgia's McQueen shell ring, Sanger explained, for seasonal ceremonies, where they feasted on fish, clams, oysters, hickory nuts, and acorns. To read about the possible function of "bannerstones" made by prehistoric Native Americans, go to "Set in Stone
America's Earliest Archers archaeology.org
Old Copper Complex artifacts
The exceptional abandonment of metal tools by North American hunter-gatherers, 3000 B.P. Michelle Bebber et al. Nature (2019) (pdf)
Most prehistoric societies that experimented with copper as a tool raw material eventually abandoned stone as their primary medium for tool making. However, after thousands of years of experimentation with this metal, North American hunter-gatherers abandoned it and returned to the exclusive use of stone. Why? We experimentally confirmed that replica copper tools are inferior to stone ones when each is sourced in the same manner as their archaeological counterparts and subjected to identical tasks. Why, then, did copper consistently lead to more advanced metallurgy in most other areas of the world? We suggest that it was the unusual level of purity in the North American copper sourced by North American groups, and that naturally occurring alloys yielded sufficiently superior tools to encourage entry into the copper-bronze-iron continuum of tool manufacture in other parts of the world.