Developing Approaches in the Study of Prehistoric Copper in North American Archaeology
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)
From studies at the turn of the Twentieth Century using assay techniques demonstrating that copper was of New World origins rather than Old, to typological studies and metallurgical studies in the mid to late Twentieth Century, to the sophisticated elemental analyses of the early Twenty-first, analysis of prehistoric copper materials has been an active area of research throughout the development of American Archaeology. Unlike the rich theoretical and methodological approaches used in other material analyses involving lithics and ceramics, copper analysis trends toward the idiosyncratic, the under problematized, and the under theorized. Yet research involving prehistoric copper has recently experienced a notable growth, and from this growth there have emerged new approaches, questions, and social issues that may be addressed using copper. Among these remain the traditional provenance studies, but research has expanded or is expanding into social processes, dynamic interactions between communities, studies of ritual economies, issues of copper technological organization and production, and others. This session highlights this growing body of research and methodologies and begins to explore the range of methods, problems, and theory that may support the future development of copper studies in North American archaeology.
Other Keywords
Copper •
Metallurgy •
Hopewell •
Mining •
Methodology •
Social Change •
Native Copper •
Methods •
Sourcing •
Oneota
Geographic Keywords
North America (Continent) •
United States of America (Country) •
USA (Country) •
Ohio (State / Territory) •
Missouri (State / Territory) •
Kentucky (State / Territory) •
Illinois (State / Territory) •
Wisconsin (State / Territory) •
Indiana (State / Territory) •
Michigan (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-12 of 12)
- Documents (12)
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Biographies of Northwest Coast Copper: A material investigation (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This paper explores indigenous use of copper metal on the Northwest Coast of North America, and the impact of colonial contact on established cultural practices. Prior to contact (late 17th to early 19th century), native copper was collected, traded, and manipulated by indigenous communities that considered the material animate and powerful. Following the introduction of foreign trade materials, copper continued to be used to create culturally significant artifacts, however, strict frameworks of...
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Collecting Copper and Systematic Archaeological Analysis (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
The Old Copper Complex is represented by tens of thousands of copper artifacts recovered from locations widely scattered across the landscapes of the Western Great Lakes. Many of these artifacts continue to be collected and curated by avocational archaeology enthusiasts with characteristically poor contextual information. Traditional scholarly study of this complex has been restricted to the consideration of copper as a symbolically potent object and the construction of artifact typologies. ...
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Cultivating Methods for New Conclusions: An Analysis of Oneota Copper Artifacts of the Lake Koshkonong Region in Southeastern Wisconsin (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Despite almost two centuries of North American prehistoric copper research, intensive archaeological investigations focusing specifically on Oneota copper are less abundant. Building upon previous studies, this project documented and analyzed over 500 Oneota copper artifacts in an effort to assess the production, utilization, and ideological and social significance of this copper materials. The artifacts of this study were recovered from four Oneota sites adjacent to Lake Koshkonong in Jefferson...
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Current Approaches to the Study of Late Prehistoric North American Copper Materials: Contributions from the Hoxie Farm Site, Cook County, Illinois (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
In North America, contemporary archaeometallurgical approaches to the interpretation of native and copper-base metals go far beyond simply recording the artifacts to probing longstanding and emerging questions related to the multiple and complex role(s) metal working and metals play in the social lives of ancient peoples. Research on the appropriate application of scientific or laboratory-based methodologies whose results augment descriptions and provide robustness to inferences is developing...
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Direct Comparison of LA-ICP-MS and Handheld XRF Elemental Analysis of Copper Artifacts: A Methodological Case Study in the Exploration of Hopewell Valuables Exchange Systems (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
We evaluate the sensitivity of handheld X-ray Fluorescence (pXRF) analysis in reliable identification of geological sources of copper artifacts with varying levels of corrosion. As part of a larger project, we analyzed 52 copper artifacts and dozens of copper samples from known geological sources with Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) (Hill et al. 2016), and analysis of the same source samples with pXRF. In both of these previous analyses, we have achieved...
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Elemental Analysis of Late Archaic Copper from the McQueen Shell Ring, St. Catherines Island, Georgia (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Excavations conducted at the McQueen Shell Ring site on St Catherines Island off the coast of Georgia recovered several fragments of a copper artifact. These fragments represent an artifact made from a thin sheet of copper, and were recovered from a Late Archaic feature with calibrated radiocarbon dates placing its use between 2300 and 1800 BC. Seven of these fragments were analyzed at the Elemental Analysis Facility of the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History to determine elemental...
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External Standards for the LA-ICP-MS analysis of North American copper artifacts: looking at different approaches (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Ideally, data produced by different laboratories performing the same type of analysis should be comparable. Comparability is important for exchanging data and the building of large databases in particular areas of research. Recently, the sourcing of North American copper using laser ablation – inductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) has developed significantly, prompting questions about the compatibility of the different published data sets. Several parameters affect the...
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Getting to the Source: Copper Characterization, Prehistory, and the question of Interpretation (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
One cannot truly "source" the raw material of an artifact back to its geologic origin. One can chemically characterize an artifact's raw materia,l to a degree, to make an interpretation as to its likeliest point of origin. As we are dealing with a completely heterogeneous material - copper - archaeologists can only best guess the likely geologic source for the cultural artifacts they are testing. The chemical differentiation of distinct geologic deposits of native copper has been well...
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Metal Sensing and Indigenous Copper from Isle Royale National Park and Gila National Forest (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Though much professional work utilizing metal sensing comes from within the historic period and battlefield archaeology, the application of metal sensing techniques to precontact sites has much to offer contemporary studies of copper use in the U.S., particularly inter- and intra-site geospatial analyses of indigenous copper exploitation. Ongoing research in two U.S. regions is illustrative of the contributions metal sensing technology is making to studies of copper and copper technology. Recent...
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Native Copper Innovation in the North (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Native copper occurs in the Northwest Coast, western Subarctic, and Central Canadian Arctic and Subarctic. In all three regions there is archaeological evidence for its use by Hunter-Gatherers before the Contact Period. Since 2011, our project has been studying the innovation of native copper metallurgy in these three regions within a Behavioral Archaeology framework using data collected from: experimental archaeology, oral history, lead isotope analysis, research on museum collections using...
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Shifting the Interpretation of Ohio Hopewell Copper Use (2017)
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The dramatic uses of copper by Ohio Hopewell social networks have been studied for over one hundred years and have resulted in a diversity of archaeological perspectives. Our recent physiochemical study of particular Hopewell artifact classes is the most extensive to date and has resulted in source identifications that require that extant models be revised in light of our findings. Particular attention will be given to the implications that: 1) a diversity of Lake Superior outcrops were...
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Towards a Deep History of Southern Appalachian Copper Mining: New Agendas and Approaches (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Copper was an important raw material throughout the prehistory of the Eastern Woodlands of North America. The role of southern Appalachian copper in social, economic, political, and ideological systems across the Eastern Woodlands has received little attention from anthropological archaeologists, particularly compared with copper from more famous procurement zones in the Great Lakes region. In this paper, we present the first steps of a new collaborative research project designed to understand...