From Hard Rock to Heavy Metal: Metal Tool Production and Use by Indigenous Hunter-Gatherers in North America

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "From Hard Rock to Heavy Metal: Metal Tool Production and Use by Indigenous Hunter-Gatherers in North America" at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The study of tool production and use among Indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures in North America has traditionally focused on lithic analyses; however, there is a growing body of recent research and interest in the procurement, production, and use of metal implements by many of those same groups. Where metallurgical traditions have seen substantial research, they have been primarily studied through a culture history lens, with little attention paid to the procurement and manufacturing practices of metal objects or their subsequent use. Moreover, the decision-making involved throughout those processes deserves more systematic research. This session will focus on all aspects of Indigenous hunter-gatherer metal use, from procurement and practice to ideological and functional interpretive frameworks that place the use of a variety of metals into broader regional and interregional contexts. The diversity of research presented will have broader implications for how we conceptualize hunter-gatherer innovation, technological proficiency, and complex decision-making in the past.

Other Keywords
Archaic • Hunter-Gatherers/Foragers • Archaeometry & Materials Analysis: Metallurgical Analysis • Experimental Archaeology • Material Culture and Technology • Trade and exchange • Woodland • Metal • Lithic Analysis • Geoarchaeology

Geographic Keywords
North America (Continent) • United States of America (Country) • Kentucky (State / Territory) • Wisconsin (State / Territory) • Michigan (State / Territory) • Minnesota (State / Territory) • South Dakota (State / Territory) • North Dakota (State / Territory) • USA (Country) • Missouri (State / Territory)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-12 of 12)

  • Documents (12)
Documents
  • Ancient Use of Copper in the Southeast United States (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Matthew Sanger.

    This is an abstract from the "From Hard Rock to Heavy Metal: Metal Tool Production and Use by Indigenous Hunter-Gatherers in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While Indigenous copper use in the Southeast United States is well documented in later Woodland and Mississippian periods, far less is known about earlier metallurgical practices and exchange. This paper documents our current state of knowledge and considers the importance of...

  • The Convergence of Metal Projectile Points: Assessing the Relative Influence of Function in Nonhomologous Technological Traditions (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Christopher Wolff. Michelle Bebber. Metin Eren. Amanda Samuels. Donald Holly.

    This is an abstract from the "From Hard Rock to Heavy Metal: Metal Tool Production and Use by Indigenous Hunter-Gatherers in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recently, more attention has been focused on the assessment of convergence versus divergence of technology in the archaeological record. This ties into long-standing debates concerning our ability to recognize if similar traditions resulted from diffusion or migration, as well as...

  • Exploring Archaic Technological Innovations: Comparative Functional Efficacy of Copper and Stone Projectile Points (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Julie Lierenz.

    This is an abstract from the "From Hard Rock to Heavy Metal: Metal Tool Production and Use by Indigenous Hunter-Gatherers in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Archaic period in North America was a time of technological innovation and experimentation with new tool materials. Conical copper projectile points appeared in North America during this time and recent radiocarbon evidence shows that they were in use by 7,500 years ago....

  • From Stone to Iron: Effects of Colonial Materials on Beothuk Traditional Technology (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Amanda Samuels. Christopher Wolff. Donald Holly. Michelle Bebber. Metin Eren.

    This is an abstract from the "From Hard Rock to Heavy Metal: Metal Tool Production and Use by Indigenous Hunter-Gatherers in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The impacts of colonialism on Indigenous groups’ technological traditions have often been viewed through acculturative lenses that only reach surface deep. While there have been more recent trends criticizing this methodology, acculturative approaches are still prevalent, and...

  • Hopewellian Meteoric Iron Use: An Experimental Approach for Exploring Production and Function (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah LavenderNees. Michelle Bebber.

    This is an abstract from the "From Hard Rock to Heavy Metal: Metal Tool Production and Use by Indigenous Hunter-Gatherers in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Hopewell artisans were innovative and highly skilled craftspeople, demonstrating proficiency with a wide variety of exotic materials, including meteoric iron. Here we explore the material properties of this unique raw material in terms of production and possible function. In this...

  • Introduction to Session: Recent Research and Future Objectives (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Michelle Bebber. Christopher Wolff.

    This is an abstract from the "From Hard Rock to Heavy Metal: Metal Tool Production and Use by Indigenous Hunter-Gatherers in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The discovery and development of metals as tool media is a topic of global interest. Although this phenomenon is generally associated with sedentary, agrarian-based societies, in North America there is regularly documented, albeit not widely known, use of metals by...

  • Metalheads about the Polar Sea: Metal-Use in the Eastern Arctic and Its Significance for Understanding Broader Interaction Dynamics (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Patrick Jolicoeur.

    This is an abstract from the "From Hard Rock to Heavy Metal: Metal Tool Production and Use by Indigenous Hunter-Gatherers in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The earliest metal use in the Eastern North American Arctic comes from the Pre-Dorset period (ca. 5000–2500 cal BP). However, evidence for the material being used regularly and outside its immediate source regions emerges millennia later in the Late Dorset period (ca. 1500–700...

  • Miskwabik’s Journey beyond Minong: Copper Production Systems among Hunger-Gatherers in the Northern Lake Superior Basin 4,000–6,000 Years Ago (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Ryan Peterson.

    This is an abstract from the "From Hard Rock to Heavy Metal: Metal Tool Production and Use by Indigenous Hunter-Gatherers in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the past 10,000 years, hunter-gathers in the Lake Superior Basin have utilized primary and secondary deposits of native (elemental) copper in a production and exchange network that spanned across and beyond the North American Midcontinent. The production system that...

  • A Morphometric Comparison of Copper versus Stone Weapon Tips from the Old Copper Culture (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Metin Eren. Grace Conrad. Stephen Lycett. Michelle Bebber.

    This is an abstract from the "From Hard Rock to Heavy Metal: Metal Tool Production and Use by Indigenous Hunter-Gatherers in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Old Copper Culture in the western North American Great Lakes region is one of the few areas in the world in which people produced both copper and stone weapon tips. However, a robust quantitative comparison of these implements has, to our knowledge, never been conducted....

  • Precontact Native Copper Innovation in the North American Arctic, Subarctic, and Northwest Coast (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only H. Kory Cooper. Matthew Pike. Garett Hunt.

    This is an abstract from the "From Hard Rock to Heavy Metal: Metal Tool Production and Use by Indigenous Hunter-Gatherers in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Precontact Indigenous copper technological practices within the North American Northwest vary along regional, cultural, and temporal axes. After being screened for smelted metals and alloys using pXRF compositional data, we identified multiple significant patterns of...

  • Red Metal, Domestic God: Prehistoric Copper Use in the Middle Atlantic Region (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Gregory Lattanzi.

    This is an abstract from the "From Hard Rock to Heavy Metal: Metal Tool Production and Use by Indigenous Hunter-Gatherers in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Raw metals have been used by prehistoric peoples throughout the world. In the Middle Atlantic region of the United States, the most favored metal was copper. Copper objects of all kinds were seen as holding major religious and ceremonial significance. While there is evidence of...

  • The Use of Iron Meteorites for Hopewell Beads (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Timothy McCoy.

    This is an abstract from the "From Hard Rock to Heavy Metal: Metal Tool Production and Use by Indigenous Hunter-Gatherers in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Iron meteorites are among the most exotic raw materials used for Hopewell ceremonial objects. The sourcing of these meteorites via chemical comparison to known meteorites has implications for acquisition and exchange. Some large meteorites (e.g., Brenham, KS; 4 tons in hundreds...