Re: 1000-3000 BCE COPPER CELT FOUND IN MICHIGAN
- From: Jack Linthicum <jacklinthicum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2008 12:11:49 -0700 (PDT)
On Apr 9, 2:39 pm, Peter Alaca <p.al...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
michaelrugg...@xxxxxxx wrote: on, 09/04/2008 20:05:
Listeros,
A man in Michigan has found a 3000-5000 year old copper celt from the
time of the Old Copper Complex in Ancient America. It was probably
acquired by way of trade in ancient times. Copper celts were traded
from Mexico to the Rockies to the East Coast in the Old Copper Complex
which is one of the oldest copper industries in the world.
The Traverse City Record-Eagle has the story here;
http://www.record-eagle.com/statenews/local_story_100095019.html
Mike Ruggeri
What is a 'celt'?
--
p.a.
an axe, maybe
Artifact may be ancient ax blade
ESCANABA (AP) -- Ryan Bernard of Escanaba has found a lot of
interesting things with his metal detector: an 1837 Quebec bank token,
an 1861 penny, a 1916 buffalo nickel.
When he found a hunk of metal buried 2 feet beneath his Lakeshore
Drive backyard last summer, he almost threw it in the trash.
Upon further examination, it may be an artifact from a prehistoric
culture.
"I was about to throw it in the garbage, and I held it up and I saw
the honed edge on it," he said.
Ray Reser, director of the Central Wisconsin Archaeology Center at the
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, described the object as a
copper "celt," a type of ax blade with no perforations or grooves. He
said the celt was probably a functioning tool.
The piece probably dates from 3,000 to 5,000 years ago.
"We were just out there looking for weed pennies and what not,"
Bernard said. "To end up digging something like that up is really
shocking."
When his detector went off, he wasn't expecting much.
"A lot of times when you get a signal that good and it's buried that
deep, it's just a big chunk of iron," he said.
He said he dug down, found nothing, got frustrated and recovered the
hole. When his father gave him some ribbing for not finding anything,
he tried again, a little deeper, and there it was.
Similar findings have been made throughout the Upper Midwest, most
notably in Oconto, Wis., where a site unearthed in 1952 now known as
Copper Culture State Park yielded several burial plots and artifacts.
Thomas Pleger, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Baraboo/Sauk
County, wrote his doctoral dissertation on the Old Copper Complex. He
described these prehistoric societies as seasonally-mobile people
whose temporary homes were based on abundance of particular resources.
Hunting, fishing and trade were the basis of their lives.
The Old Copper Complex is one of the oldest metal-working societies in
the world.
Many sites have been found near major waterways. Pleger said though
the shoreline is not likely where it was then, what made land valuable
for settlement then still holds true today.
"Where do you see campgrounds today," he said. "Public campgrounds
tend to be on high, well-drained land in close proximity to water."
The copper likely started out in the Keweenaw Peninsula. Bernard
believes it could have been "float" copper, that is, deposited by
retreating glaciers. Pleger said it was more likely acquired via
trade.
Keweenaw copper from this era is easily identifiable because of its
exceptional 99 percent purity, making it suitable for forming right
out of the ground.
Reser said Keweenaw copper artifacts have been found in Mexico, the
Rockies and the East Coast.
"This stuff was highly coveted. It was intensively traded up and down
the Mississippi River valley," he said.
For the first thousands of years, most copper artifacts from this
culture were used as tools. By 1000 B.C., Pleger said more pristine
items, such as jewelry, can be found.
Bernard wants to find out more about the artifact and the people who
may have left it in what would become his backyard. He said the search
for its origins has been frustrating, especially since he is not an
archaeologist.
"I've learned definitely, first of all, you have to present yourself
professionally, even if you're not a professional, so to speak," he
said.
Still, he has observed consensus on what he's found.
"All of the people that have actually seen it, when they see it, they
recognize what it is," he said.
Pleger said because those people were fairly mobile, and due to the
perishable nature of their materials, archaeologists have yet to
excavate well-preserved habitation sites connected to the Old Copper
Complex, but the nature of their finds does retain some clues.
"One of the other nice things about copper artifacts is that it tends
to preserve organic material that it comes into contact with," he
said. The oxide created in the copper over time retards bacterial
growth.
Most field work on these sites in this region was done in the 1950s
and '60s, but Pleger said scholars are starting to re-examine the
conclusions made then.
Metal detecting technology has resulted in many similar finds, but not
all people have taken as much care with what they found.
"Collectors find these things and will often clean them up, destroying
the evidence we can use to date them," Pleger said.
Pleger said there are many unknown elements of the Old Copper Complex,
but archaeologists, both professional and impromptu, must be smart
with what they find.
"It's important to understand that the archaeological resources of
Michigan, Wisconsin, Canada are non-renewable," he said.
Bernard said he's awestruck to be able to hold something that might
have been from thousands of years ago.
"That's an awesome piece of Escanaba history, I think," he said.
Pictures at cites
http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080407/NEWS01/304070012/1002
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080409/METRO/804090369
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: 1000-3000 BCE COPPER CELT FOUND IN MICHIGAN
- From: Peter Alaca
- Re: 1000-3000 BCE COPPER CELT FOUND IN MICHIGAN
- References:
- 1000-3000 BCE COPPER CELT FOUND IN MICHIGAN
- From: michaelruggeri
- Re: 1000-3000 BCE COPPER CELT FOUND IN MICHIGAN
- From: Peter Alaca
- 1000-3000 BCE COPPER CELT FOUND IN MICHIGAN
- Prev by Date: Re: 1000-3000 BCE COPPER CELT FOUND IN MICHIGAN
- Next by Date: A site dedicated to the archaeology of the Confederate Submarine, the Hunley
- Previous by thread: Re: 1000-3000 BCE COPPER CELT FOUND IN MICHIGAN
- Next by thread: Re: 1000-3000 BCE COPPER CELT FOUND IN MICHIGAN
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
