Old Copper Culture

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee ^ | 2006 | Kevin M. Cullen

[SunkenCiv]

Introduction

The Old Copper Complex, also known as the Old Copper Culture, refers to the items made by early inhabitants of the Great Lakes region during a period that spans several thousand years and covers several thousand square miles. The most conclusive evidence suggests that native copper was utilized to produce a wide variety of tools beginning in the Middle Archaic period circa 4,000 BC. The vast majority of this evidence comes from dense concentrations of Old Copper finds in eastern Wisconsin. These copper tools cover a broad range of artifact types: axes, adzes, various forms of projectile points, knives, perforators, fishhooks, and harpoons. By about 1,500 BC, artifact forms began to shift from utilitarian objects to personal ornaments, which may reflect an increase in social stratification toward the Late Archaic and Early Woodland period (Pleger 2000). While copper continued to be used in North America up until European contact, it was only used in small amounts, primarily for symbolic ornaments...

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TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: copper; copperculture; godsgravesglyphs; oldcopperculture

[SunkenCiv]

• Native Americans Conducted Large-Scale Copper Mining 6,000 Years Ago [02/21/2023]
• Ancient Native Americans were among the world's first coppersmiths (Wisconsin) [03/21/2021]
• Did Ancient Greeks Sail to Canada? [02/06/2018]
• Newberry Tablet [12/26/2015]
• Michigan Copper in the Mediterranean [08/06/2011]
• Cahokia: Science explains ancient copper artifacts [06/13/2011]
• Vestiges of a Prehispanic Oven to Melt Copper Found in Zacatecas [07/22/2010]
• Sailing Against Conventional Wisdom [06/29/2010]
• Serbian site may have hosted first copper makers: Finds intensify debate over Old World origins... [06/29/2010]

[SunkenCiv]

a bit fringe:

The Old Copper Culture - America’s 10,000-Year-Old Mystery | 51:14

• NORTH 02 | 572K subscribers | 485,801 views | Premiered August 23, 2025

[SunkenCiv]

https://search.brave.com/search?q=the+old+copper+culture+youtube

https://search.brave.com/search?q=the+old+copper+culture&summary=1

[SunkenCiv]

[bleach]

The Copper Clapper Caper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgYbogp1Ha0

[Red Badger]

Did they make copper clappers?..............

[Sawdring]

Michigan float copper:

https://youtube.com/shorts/gKnI2HPPC1o?si=99rx8SlSSHE1aoCw

[BipolarBob]

No, the copper clapper class got clipped

[desertsolitaire]

Related to the topic....
In my state of Michigan, in the 1920s, in Weare township of Oceana County, a farmer was clearing a field for crops to ne grown. When pulling out one tree stump with a team.of horses, skeletons emerhed with skulls, entwined in the roots. The Indian bodies had some flesh and hair remaing on rhe heads due to hammered copper tubes being used as hair decorations. The bacteriocidal nature of the oxidizing copper in the ground helped preserve some tissues.
Uof Michigan explored it and 20 odd bodies were found and numerous artifacts. I’d love to look for more but it is private land and being farmed.

[marktwain]

A friend of mine has one of the most extensive private collections of copper culture artifacts. I have seen them. Guesstimating he has a few hundred.

[marktwain]

None of the artifacts I saw were anywhere near the size of the short sword depicted in the illustration.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

Bookmark

[PIF]

Note, that the copper the Pre-Columbians mined was nearly pure copper ore [ 95-99% ], as opposed to rich veins today which are only 0.53-0.40% copper ore. The estimated volume of ore mined would fill a fright train ore cars stretching 38 miles - all with near pure copper ore [ current estimate is 750,000 tons of Pre-Columbian mined ore ].

[ pure copper ] 750,000 tons ÷ 0.0053 [ modern recovery rate ] ≈ 141,509,434 tons of ore mined or 5.7 years.

Where did all that copper go?

Well [ cough ] coincidentally, the Pre-Columbian Native American copper mining in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan flourished between 4500–3400 BC which corresponds to the Copper Age (Chalcolithic period) in Europe, a transitional era between the Neolithic (New Stone Age) and the Bronze Age. We all believe in coincidences, right?

When AI asked “how much copper was used during the Copper Age 4500–3400 BC” it was stumped.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks all.