what was significabce if cpoer to native induabs
Images of Hopewell copper ornaments. Image: Wikimedia Eatables
Past Eric Freedman
The allure of copper. The power of copper.
People in the prehistoric Hopewell culture of southern Ohio managed to go copper from distant points –the Keweenaw Peninsula and Isle Royale and Ontario'due south Michipicoten Island in Lake Superior– as much as 750 miles away.
And as far dorsum as two,000 years ago.
What made copper and then treasured that information technology motivated gargantuan efforts to obtain and employ it for such items as tools, headpieces, beads and breastplates?
"That has an chemical element of spirituality and questing, going on an odyssey, a quest of some sort. Bringing it back was a tangible personal power," says archaeologist Mark Seeman, a retired professor at Kent State University and the lead writer of a new written report with colleagues from Ball Land University of Hopewell utilise of copper.
"Office of the lure of copper was that it was seen every bit a powerful substance and associated with a number of powerful figures in the Hopewell world," especially the mythological underwater panther, Seeman said. "He was the protector of copper. To secure copper on Isle Royale, say, you had to placate this spirit, He was giving this to you as a gift, so you have to thankful."
The Hopewell culture, a Native American civilisation – flourished in the region from nearly 1 Advertising to about 400 Advert. Many of its artifacts have been retrieved from mounds in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana, as well as from sites in the Appalachians and the Southeast.
The study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports said, "Copper was the virtually of import metal used by Hopewell societies in the Scioto Valley of southern Ohio."
"Hopewell people had an intimate relationship with copper and with a symbolism derived in role from the properties of this metallic. It shone similar the dominicus, only only if properly cared for," according to the written report. "It was artistic in the sense that it could be made into awls, flakers and chisels to brand other skillful, artful things. It was hefty. And information technology was exotic – information technology came from the outside."
In Hopewell times, Seeman said, "we meet a big bump in the utilise of copper and in the crafting of artistic expressions" such as breastplates. He contrasted that with earlier Native American societies that put copper to primarily utilitarian purposes.
Part of the allure was the metal's physical characteristics.
For example, raw copper is malleable, meaning it can be hammered and molded into useful and decorative items, the study said. Information technology's too heavy and durable – 16 times heavier than pine and iii times heavier than granite, the study said. I celt – an ax-like, wedge-shaped tool – institute in an Ohio mound weighed 38 pounds, while archaeologists retrieved celts weighting more than than five pounds from Illinois mounds.
Another part of its allure was spiritual.
That's reflected in the "careful attention (paid) to the blueprint, crafting and decoration of made objects (that) establishes a bail of common responsibility and reciprocity between people and their material culture spirit-partners," study co-author Kevin Nolan said. "Particularly in this instance, what nosotros're looking at and thinking about is not but exploitation-of-resources kinds of things and getting fancy jewelry to wear."
"There are aspects of the environment – the surroundings is not a passive recipient of human action but shapers of man action – how that factors into decisions people make," said Nolan, the director of the Applied Anthropology Laboratories at Ball State.
Copper was exotic to the Hopewell peoples, the study said, and had a "high replacement cost" based on the distance traveled to obtain it. "Copper-every bit-exotica is linked to travel time, the weight of tradition and the specialized cognition needed to obtain and work it."
The Lake Superior region was the source of about of the copper for items institute in Hopewell mounds, especially the largest pieces, the report said, so it probably required "directed quests" to discover it.
Nolan said Native Americans had used Lake Superior copper for at least 4,000 years especially in Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula.
The exact travel routes used during Hopewell times are unknown. Some of the copper may have come up from "down-the-line" exchanges and trading, while other copper came from direct travel between the Lake Superior region and southern Ohio.
Seeman said, "People were going w not but for copper only for a diverseness of other materials likewise." The Lake Superior region was a destination, but so were even more afar points" all the mode to Yellowstone.
According to the National Park Service, "For about 1,000 years, Indians mined copper on Isle Royale, the Keweenaw Peninsula, and other areas around Lake Superior." The Minong Mine Historic District on Isle Royale contains the remains of prehistoric mining activeness, as well as testify of the 19th century copper mining boom there.
Yet not all the copper worked past Hopewell peoples came from the Lake Superior surface area, the report said. Some was so-chosen "float copper" plant in glacial deposits in southern Michigan, eastern Wisconsin and northwestern Illinois, as well as in the southern Appalachians.
Source: https://greatlakesecho.org/2019/05/03/copper-culture-shapes-ancient-history/
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