Native Copper Innovation in the North

Summary

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 pXRF, government archaeological site databases, and grey literature. This project also has a community component, collaborating with the Native Alaskan and First Nations communities. Although the results of Pb isotope analysis of geological samples of copper from the Arctic and Subarctic are not encouraging, the large set of pXRF data suggests that this technique can be used to distinguish native copper from alloys such as brass and leaded materials and also relatively pure smelted copper. Additionally, this paper provides a brief overview of our results to date including a comparison of the use of copper by Hunter-Gatherers exhibiting differences in social complexityas well as thoughts on why and how copper innovation occurred in all three regions.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Developing Approaches in the Study of Prehistoric Copper in North American Archaeology

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14891