Michigan's Upper Peninsula contains native copper deposits, and Indigenous peoples mined copper there thousands of years ago. Michigan's prehistory timeline dates the activity to at least 7,000 years ago, while other summaries place mining as early as 3000 B.C. Archaeologists have found copper tools, knives and ornaments associated with the Old Copper Culture, beginning around 4000 B.C. Native copper was worked by hammering, with annealing used later in its production. The video argues that comparatively abundant North American copper offset a shortage in the Old World, but its precise tonnage estimates and claims about the proportion of copper preserved in the archaeological record are not independently established by the cited sources.
Video argues ancient North American copper offset an Old World shortage
United StatesTheory
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Key facts
- Native copper deposits occur in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, including the Keweenaw Peninsula.
- Indigenous peoples mined copper there thousands of years ago; Michigan sources date the activity to at least 7,000 years ago, while other summaries place it as early as 3000 B.C.
- Old Copper Culture evidence includes native-copper tools, knives and ornaments from about 4000 B.C. onward.
- The estimates of 1,000–5,000 tons of North American artifacts, 100,000–500,000 or 680,000 tons of Old World extraction, 99% missing Old World copper and 1.7% surviving North American copper are not established by the cited results.
- The claimed North American surplus and resulting Old World shortage are the video's interpretation rather than an established archaeological conclusion.
Sources
independent.academia.edu
Linked in video description
Copper Iproject.geo.msu.edu
Deposits of native copper occur in the tops of basaltic lava flows and in conglomerates interbedded with the basalts in the Portage Lake Lava series of rocks.
Caledonia Copper Mine: Copper Mining Adventurecaledoniamine.com
The Caledonia Mine is an underground, walk-in, copper mine, nearly a mile and half in length. The mine was opened in 1863, but only commercially operated until ...
Copper Countryen.wikipedia.org
Native Americans mined copper from small pits as early as 3000 B.C. on this peninsula in Lake Superior. copper deposits in 1841.
Michigan approves $50M for Upper Peninsula copper minebridgemi.com
The state of Michigan has agreed to spend $50 million to support a plan for a new copper mine near the shore of Lake Superior — despite ...
Timeline of Michigan Copper Mining Prehistory to 1850nps.gov
Indigenous Peoples start mining copper on the Keweenaw Peninsula. They dug shallow mines and used heavy stones
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