Video argues >99.7% copper artifacts must be native copper

November 02, 2026Artifact

Source: Ancient Copper Culture Special by Institute for Natural Philosophy

Ricardo says sulfidic ores top out near 99.1% copper, most Bronze Age smelted copper ran 98.2–98.3%, and carbonate ores near 99.6%. He argues that anything above 99.7% must be native copper. The artifact is a 99.7% “oxhide ingot”—the animal-skin-shaped form—not an “oxide ingot.” Published research puts typical oxhide ingots at 99.9% pure copper, so the 99.7% smelting ceiling is not established. Ricardo also says Europe turned to recycling after ~1200 BC. 🧪

Key facts

In the video, Ricardo says sulfidic ores cannot yield more than 99.1% copper, most Bronze Age smelted copper was about 98.2–98.3%, and carbonate ores top out near 99.6%, with an extreme near 99.7%.
Ricardo argues that copper above 99.7% must be native metal; this is his interpretation, not an established archaeological conclusion.
The artifact discussed is a Late Bronze Age “oxhide ingot”—the standard term for the animal-skin-shaped form—not an “oxide ingot.” The video gives its purity as about 99.7%, and the panel says the furnaces used pottery cones to channel wind.
Published research describes typical oxhide ingots as 99.9% pure copper and documents examples in the 16th and 15th centuries BC, weighing against Ricardo’s proposed 99.7% ceiling.
Ricardo says Europe turned to recycling after about 1200 BC, after which artifacts became smaller, rougher and more impure.

Sources

The Bronze Age Ingot Which Sold for $208,250 - Ancient Cyprusancientcyprus.com

A Late Bronze Age Cypriot copper ingot, shaped in the distinctive 'oxhide' form, fetched a stunning $208,250 USD at a Classical Numismatic Group ...

Distribution map of the oxhide ingots dated to the 16th and...researchgate.net

... Oxhide copper ingots found in Late Minoan IB ('LM IB') contexts on Crete represent some of the earliest attestations of the ingot form (Lo Schiavo et al ...

Oxhide ingots, copper production, and the mediterranean ...oaktrust.library.tamu.edu

In this thesis, I examine the evolution of the copper trade in the eastern and central Mediterranean, particularly during the Late Bronze Age, ...

Representations of oxhide ingots in Scandinavian rock artcambridge.org

by J Ling · 2015 · Cited by 53 — Typical oxhide ingots are flat oblong ingots of 99.9 per cent pure copper, between 40 and 100mm thick, with lengths varying from 300 to 600mm ...

Copper Oxhide Ingot Databasecore.tdar.org

This database is the product of my research to create a catalogue of all published copper oxhide ingot remains from the Late Bronze Age.

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