Ancient Use of Copper in the Southeast United States

Summary

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 metal in the lives of Archaic peoples in the region. While examples and evidence for copper use are slim, the presence of copper in several key locations suggests that it was a highly prized material that was closely tied to long-distance exchange relations, important cosmological events, sacred landscapes, and emergent conceptions of power and elitism.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• From Hard Rock to Heavy Metal: Metal Tool Production and Use by Indigenous Hunter-Gatherers in North America   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35741.0