Ancient Native Americans were among the world’s first coppersmiths

Archetype0ne

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https://www.sciencemag.org/news/202...ericans-were-among-world-s-first-coppersmiths

"Now, a team led by Pompeani presents new evidence for the revised timeline. The researchers used modern methods to reanalyze 53 radiocarbon dates—including eight newly collected dates—associated with the Old Copper Culture. Some came from wood or cordage still attached to spearpoints; others came from charcoal, wood, or bone found at mines and human burials. The oldest reliably dated artifact turned out to be the 8500-year-old projectile point found in Wisconsin.This month in Radiocarbon, the team reports that the most reliable dates, combined with the sediment data, indicate the Old Copper Culture emerged at least 9500 years ago and peaked between 7000 and 5000 years ago. That makes it at least as old, and perhaps older, than copper-working cultures documented in the Middle East, where archaeologists have documented a copper pendant believed to be 8700 years old."
 
they were hammering and annealing copper to get rid of the impurities and to put it in shape
afaik they didn't melt ores
they found pure ('native') copper between lake superior and lake michigan
I guess their mines eventualy became exhausted

some believe the same hammering and annealing of a small amount of native copper was done in the northern Zagros Mts some 10 ka
it took another 2500 years before copper ores were smelted
 
they were hammering and annealing copper to get rid of the impurities and to put it in shape
afaik they didn't melt ores
they found pure ('native') copper between lake superior and lake michigan
I guess their mines eventualy became exhausted

some believe the same hammering and annealing of a small amount of native copper was done in the northern Zagros Mts some 10 ka
it took another 2500 years before copper ores were smelted

Well it is interesting that the article did not mention anything about smithing, so I guess if you are correct that makes the title misleading.

I still find it fascinating nonetheless, since it points out to their ingenuity. And at the end of the day a copperhead is a copperhead. I suspect they did not exhaust the pure copper, rather it was either they lost such technology since writing wasn't there to preserve knowledge from generation to generation, and I assume such technology was a well kept trade secret, or some sort of disaster (famine, disease, draught, war) contributed. Could have been both reasons complementing each other.

PS: Bicicleur long time no see, what happened to your other account?
 
also the Incas had copper and gold
it is not clear to me whether they had only native copper or they were actualy melting ores
they could raise an army of 200.000 men and went to war all the time but they didn't have bronze weapons

my harddisk crashed end october and I lost my password and requesting another password didn't succeed
I kinda resigned, but later I became curious again
 
also the Incas had copper and gold
it is not clear to me whether they had only native copper or they were actualy melting ores
they could raise an army of 200.000 men and went to war all the time but they didn't have bronze weapons

my harddisk crashed end october and I lost my password and requesting another password didn't succeed
I kinda resigned, but later I became curious again

Understandable. Glad to see you still around, your contributions and knowledge on Anthropology/ History are invaluable to the forum. Also your calm demeanor is a big +.
 
Heh, pretty interesting. We think of them as using simple stone and wood tools, but they were capable of a good deal more. It's also interesting how they have applied things like bronze to ceremonial objects (or Aztecs used the wheels in toys) but not to more practical general use. Part of that may have been cultural too, I'm guessing.
 

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