Indigenous Copper use in North America: 10,000 to 500 years ago (Old Copper Culture and Beyond)

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Sediment-Hosted Copper: “high-grade”

Porphyry Deposits Copper:  “low-to-moderate grade”

AI Overview: Sediment-hosted copper deposits are significant, stratified, and often high-grade sources of copper.

AI Overview: Porphyry copper deposits are large-tonnage, low-to-moderate grade ore bodies.

Midcontinent Rift-filled with “Pure Copper”

“The copper that was mined in the Keweenaw formed during 1.1 billion years. In the present day, these massive flood basalts are only exposed in the Lake Superior region. Throughout the rest of the country, they are buried in thousands of feet of sediments, but we can still detect them. The Midcontinent Rift ran from at least Kansas, up into Lake Superior, and then down into Lower Michigan. Though rift related rocks are only exposed in the Lake Superior region.” ref

“Lake Superior, which is contained within the rift valley. The lake’s north shore in Ontario and Minnesota defines the northern arc of the rift. From the lake, the rift’s eastern arm trends south to central lower Michigan, and possibly into Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. The western arm runs from Lake Superior southwest through portions of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska to northeastern Kansas, and possibly into Oklahoma.” ref

AI Overview: The Lake Superior region, particularly Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula and Isle Royale, holds one of the world’s largest deposits of native (nearly 99% pure) copper. Indigenous cultures began mining this resource at least 6,500 BCE, creating extensive trade networks.

AI Overview: Indigenous copper use in North America began around 9,500–10,000 years ago, primarily in the Upper Great Lakes region, marking one of the world’s oldest metallurgical traditions. Archaic-period peoples cold-hammered, heated, and annealed native copper—99% pure—into tools, weapons, and ornaments. While initially utilitarian, usage shifted toward prestige items by 1000 BCE. 

Key Aspects of Indigenous Copper Usage (10,000–500 Years Ago):

• Origins and Location: Centered in the Lake Superior Basin (Isle Royale, Keweenaw Peninsula), where glacial activity exposed rich deposits, the Old Copper Complex (OCC) used raw, native copper.
• Techniques: Without smelting, they used cold-hammering and annealing (heating and cooling) to prevent brittleness, creating tools, knives, and fishhooks.
• Evolution of Usage:
• 9500–5000 BP (Archaic): Intensive production of utilitarian items like spearpoints, awls, axes, and harpoons.
• 3000 BP onwards (Woodland): A shift occurred where copper was increasingly used for symbolic, decorative, and trade items (e.g., Hopewell earspools, bracelets).
• Trading and Distribution: Copper from the Great Lakes was widely traded, reaching as far as the Ohio Valley and across North America.
• Environmental Evidence: Sediment studies show peak mining activities occurred between 9,500–8,000 and 7,000–5,000 years ago, leaving traces of lead pollution.
• Decline in Large-Scale Use: Large-scale extraction faded around 5000 years ago, potentially due to climate shifts, but copper working for specialized items continued until European contact. 

Key Periods of Copper Use

• Old Copper Complex (~9,500 to 3,000 years ago): These Archaic-period hunter-gatherers exploited the world’s largest deposits of 99% pure “native copper” found on the Keweenaw Peninsula and Isle Royale. They manufactured durable tools such as spearpoints, knives, fishhooks, and axes.
• Woodland Period (~3,000 to 1,000 years ago): Copper use shifted significantly from everyday tools to ceremonial objects and status symbols, such as beads, bracelets, and earspools. This reflected the rise of more complex social hierarchies and religious practices.
• Mississippian Period (~1,000 to 500 years ago): Elaborate copper plates and ornaments became central to the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. Mined Great Lakes copper was traded through vast networks reaching as far as Florida, Oklahoma, and the Gulf Coast.

Technological Innovations

• Cold-Hammering & Annealing: Unlike Old World cultures that smelted ore, Indigenous Americans worked with raw nuggets. They used stone hammers to shape the metal and a process called annealing (repeated heating and cooling) to prevent the copper from becoming too brittle to work.
• Industrial Mining: Archaeological evidence at Isle Royale reveals over 1,000 ancient pits, some reaching depths of 20 feet. Miners used fire-setting (heating bedrock with fire and then dousing it with water) to shatter rock and release the copper veins.

Trade and Significance

Copper was a “Metal of Power,” valued for its brilliant color and durability. It was traded for exotic materials like marine shells from the Gulf and mica from the Appalachians.

Good Videos as Resources on this Subject

Old Copper Culture: North America’s Forgotten Metal Workers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpmMY_Rcbd8

The Old Copper Culture – America’s 10,000-Year-Old Mystery:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0E0ueRnBLw

Why Did These Ancient People Abandon Copper?:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf7cKSFCeag

Ancient Copper Mining at Lake Superior, Geoscience, & the Book “Great Water” with Dr. David Pompeani:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxEU6VllH-g

Forgotten Native American Metalworkers: The Old Copper Culture Revealed with Dylan Violette:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW8G9fjGTy0

This blog post is a joint effort between Damien Marie AtHope and Dylan Violette

Where “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette contributes will be noted.

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Multiple Migrations into the Americas from North Asia, bringing different DNA, Languages, Cultural thinking, and Religious Ideas

Lithic stage

“This stage was conceived as embracing two major categories of the stone technology: (1) unspecialized and the largely unformulated core and flake industries, with percussion the dominant and perhaps only technique employed, and (2) industries exhibiting more advanced “blade” techniques of stoneworking, with specialized fluted or unfluted lanceolate points the most characteristic artifact types. Throughout South America, there are stone tool traditions of the lithic stage, such as the “fluted fishtail”, that reflect localized adaptations to the diverse habitats of the continent.” ref

“The indications and timing of the end of the Lithic stage vary between regions. The use of textiles, fired pottery, and start of the gradual replacement of hunter gatherer lifestyles with agriculture and domesticated animals would all be factors. End dates vary, but are around 5000 to 3000 BCE in many areas. The Archaic stage is the most widely used term for the succeeding stage, but in the periodization of pre-Columbian Peru, the Cotton Pre-Ceramic may be used. As in the Norte Chico civilization, cultivated cotton seems to have been very important in economic and power relations, from around 3200 BCE.” ref

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Great Lakes region: 14,000 to 4,000 years ago

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I made these separate maps into a collage grouping. These were posted by Larry Furo from Old Copper Complex and Ancient Waterways America Facebook page.

Pre-Columbian history

“Paleo-Indian cultures were the earliest in North America, with a presence in the Great Plains and Great Lakes areas from about 12,000 BCE to around 8,000 BCE. Prior to European settlement, Iroquoian people lived around Lakes Erie and Ontario, Algonquian peoples around most of the rest, and a variety of other indigenous nation-peoples including the Menominee, Ojibwe, Illinois, Potawatomi, Huron, Shawnee, Erie, Miami, Meskwaki and Ho-Chunk (Winnebago). With the first permanent European settlements in the early seventeenth century, all these nation-peoples developed an extensive fur trade with French, Dutch, and English merchants in the St. Lawrence, Hudson and Mohawk Valleys, and Hudson’s Bay, respectively.” ref

AI Overview: The Paleoindian period, marking the first recognized human habitation of the Americas, generally spans from approximately 14,000–13,000 to 8,000–6,000 BCE. This era followed the end of the last Ice Age, featuring nomadic, small-group hunter-gatherers known for specialized stone tools, such as Clovis and Folsom points, used for hunting megafauna.

Key Paleoindian Timeline Components

• Pre-Paleoindian/Pre-Clovis (Before 13,000 BCE): Emerging evidence suggests human presence prior to the widespread Clovis culture, with sites like Cactus Hill dating to nearly 17,000 BCE in Virginia. (as well as the 24,000 years old Bluefish Caves, site in Yukon, Canada or the 30,000-year-old Chiquihuite Cave site, in Zacatecas State, North-Central Mexico *debated if truly stones are artifacts or geofacts and No evidence of human DNA or hearths have been unearthed*) ref, ref
• Early Paleoindian (Clovis Era 11,500–8,900 BCE): Characterized by long, fluted stone points used to hunt mammoths and mastodons.
• Late Paleoindian (Post-Clovis 8,900–6,000 BCE): Following the extinction of megafauna, cultures like Folsom and Plano focused on bison hunting and foraging, with tools becoming more diverse.

Paleo-Indians

“Paleo-Indians (also spelled Paleoindians) were the first peoples who entered and subsequently inhabited the Americas towards the end of the Late Pleistocene period. The word comes from the prefix paleo-, taken from the Ancient Greek adjective: παλαιός, romanized: palaiós, lit. ’old; ancient’, and “Indian”, which has been historically used to refer to Indigenous peoples of the Americas. The term Paleo-Indian applies specifically to the lithic period in the Western Hemisphere and is distinct from the term Paleolithic.” ref

“Traditional theories suggest that big-animal hunters crossed the Bering Strait from North Asia into the Americas over a land bridge (Beringia). This bridge existed from 45,000 to 12,000 BCE (around 47,000–14,000 years ago). Small isolated groups of hunter-gatherers migrated alongside herds of large herbivores far into Alaska. From c. 16,500 – c. 13,500 BCE (around 18,500 – c. 15,500 years ago), ice-free corridors developed along the Pacific coast and valleys of North America. This allowed land animals, followed by humans, to migrate south into the interior of the continent. The people went on foot or used boats along the coastline. The dates and routes of the peopling of the Americas remain subjects of ongoing debate. There were likely three waves of ancient settlers from the Bering Sea to the American continent.” ref

“Stone tools, particularly projectile points and scrapers, are the primary evidence of the earliest human activity in the Americas. Archeologists and anthropologists use surviving crafted lithic flaked tools to classify cultural periods. Scientific evidence links Indigenous Americans to eastern Siberian populations by the distribution of blood types, and genetic composition as indicated by molecular data, such as DNA. There is evidence for at least two separate migrations.” ref

“Paleoindians lived alongside and hunted many now extinct megafauna (large animals), with most large animals across the Americas becoming extinct towards the end of the Paleoindian period as part of the Late Pleistocene megafauna extinctions. The potential role of human hunting in the extinctions has been the subject of much controversy. From 8000 to 7000 BCE (around 10,000–9,000 years ago) the climate stabilized, leading to a rise in population and lithic technology advances, resulting in a more sedentary lifestyle during the following Archaic Period.” ref

“Researchers continue to study and discuss the specifics of Paleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including the dates and routes traveled. The traditional theory holds that these early migrants moved into Beringia between eastern Siberia and present-day Alaska 17,000 years ago, at a time when the Quaternary glaciation significantly lowered sea levels. These people are believed to have followed herds of now-extinct pleistocene megafauna along ice-free corridors that stretched between the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets. An alternative proposed scenario involves migration, either on foot or using boats, down the Pacific coast to South America. Evidence of the latter would have been submerged by a sea-level rise of more than a hundred meters following the end of the Last Glacial Period.” ref

“The time range of the peopling of the Americas remains a source of substantial debate. Conventional estimates have it that humans reached North America at some point between 15,000 and 20,000 years ago. However, some groups of humans may have reached South America as early as 25,000 years ago. One of the few areas of agreement is the origin from Siberia, with widespread habitation of the Americas during the end of the Last Glacial Period, and more specifically after the end of the Last Glacial Maximum around 16,000 to 13,000 years before present.” ref

AI Overview: Paleo-Indian red ocher (hematite) was a crucial, iron-rich mineral used ~13,000 years ago for pigments, rituals, and, as in the Powars II site in Wyoming, as a, highly sought-after, traded material. It served as red paint for bodies, tools, and art, while also functioning as an adhesive in, hide tanning, and a, probable, preservative.

Key Aspects of Paleo-Indian Red Ocher:

• Powars II Quarry (Wyoming): Identified as the oldest known red ocher mine in the Americas (approx. 12,840 years old), providing evidence of extensive, long-term, Paleo-Indian mining.
• Usage: Used in, Paleo-Indian sites, for, burials, caching, and as a, pigment, often, associated with, rituals, and, artistic, expression.
• Significance: Red ocher is, thought, to represent, life, blood, and, death, making, it, significant in, funerary, and, other, symbolic contexts.
• Trade and Transport: Evidence, from, the, La Prele Mammoth site, indicates, that, Paleo-Indians transported, ochre, over, long, distances, (100 km+), suggesting its, high, value, as, a, part of, the, Clovis, toolkit.

AI Overview: The Anzick site in Park County, Montana, is the oldest known Clovis burial in North America, dating to approximately 12,600–12,800 years ago, where a young child’s remains were covered in red ochre and buried with over 100 stone and bone tools. The site is the only known Clovis burial and is directly linked to modern Native American, Central, and South American populations.  

Anzick-1 Y-DNA haplogroup Q-L54*(xM3) and mt-DNA haplogroup D4h3a

“Anzick-1 was sequenced, and researchers determined that his Y-chromosome haplogroup is Q-L54*(xM3), one of the major founding lineages of the Americas. The mitochondrial DNA of Anzick-1 and determined that the infant represents an ancient migration to North America from Siberia. They found that Anzick-1’s mtDNA belongs to the haplogroup D4h3a, a “founder” haplogroup that might represent people taking an early coastal migration route into the Americas. The D haplogroup is also found in modern Native American populations, which provides a link between Anzick-1 and modern Native Americans.” ref

“Although it is rare in most of today’s Native Americans in the US and Canada, D4h3a genes are more common in native people of South America. This suggests a greater genetic complexity among Native Americans than previously thought, including an early divergence in the genetic lineage some 13,000 years ago. One theory suggested that after crossing into North America from Siberia, a group of the first Americans, with the lineage D4h3a, moved south along the Pacific coast and finally, through thousands of years, into Central and South America. Another line may have moved inland, east of the Rocky Mountains, ultimately populating most of what is now the United States and Canada.” ref

“Anzick-1 was a young (1–2 years old) Paleoindian child whose remains were found in south central Montana, United States. He has been dated to 12,990–12,840 years Before Present. The child was found with more than 115 tools made of stone and antlers and dusted with red ochre, suggesting a deliberate burial. Anzick-1 is the only human whose remains are associated with the Clovis culture, and is the first ancient Native American genome to be fully sequenced. Anzick-1’s genome was compared to over 50 Native American genomes for comparison, and researchers found that it was significantly more similar to these than to any modern Eurasian population.” ref

“Anzick-1’s genome was closer to 44 Native American populations from Central and South America than to 7 Native American populations from North America; samples from North America were limited as tribes in the United States have been reluctant to participate. Analyses also revealed that the individual was closely related to Native Americans in Central and South America, instead of being closely related to the people of the Canadian Arctic, as had previously been thought likely. (The people of the Arctic are distinct from Native Americans to the south, including in lower North America and Central and South America.) The infant was also related to persons from Siberia and Central Asia, believed to be the ancestral population of indigenous peoples in the Americas. This finding supports the theory that the peopling of the Americas occurred from Asia across the Bering Strait.” ref

“The Beringia Hypothesis is the mainstream model for the peopling of the Americas, which posits a migration of early Amerindians from Siberia across a land bridge that spanned the Bering Strait. This hypothesis is supported by genetic and archaeological evidence that places the migration no earlier than 32,000 years ago. Ancient Native Americans could have entered the New World across the Beringian land bridge, and passing south from Alaska through an ice-free corridor in Canada. Another concept is that they used boats to sail along the coast of Siberia, the Beringia land bridge, and the Pacific coast of North America. Archeological evidence at the former area of the land bridge or a coastal path has been lost because of the rise in sea levels. The Anzick-1 paleogenetic analysis lends support to the Beringia Hypothesis theory, showing that humans had arrived in Montana by nearly 13,000 years ago.” ref

“Paleogenomic analysis of the remains revealed Siberian ancestry and a closer genetic relationship to modern Amerindians of Central and South America than to those of Northern America. The Anzick-1 remains were found buried among numerous tools: 100 stone tools and 15 remnants of tools made of antler. The site contained hundreds of stone projectile points, bifaces and flake tools. All of the artifacts were covered in red ocher. The stone points were identified as those of the Clovis culture because of their distinct shape and size.” ref

“Radiocarbon dating of the artefacts and the remains of Anzick-1 indicate an age of around 12,990–12,840 years Before Present for the burial. Skull fragments of a second individual (Anzick-2), a child of around 6-8 years of age, were also found at the site 6 metres (20 ft) east of Anzick-1, which lack ocher staining. The two individuals were originally thought to be contemporaneous, but later carbon dating revealed that the skull fragments of Anzick-2 date to around 9,530 to 9,600 years ago, several thousand years younger than Anzick-1, and thus was unrelated to the Anzick-1 and the Clovis artefacts.” ref

“The tools found at the site appear to exhibit use-wear, and therefore were not manufactured specifically for the burial. The antler artifacts were in the form of rods at least some of which appeared to have been beveled. Similar rods have been found at other Clovis culture and Paleoindian sites. The function of these rods is unknown, but may have served as foreshafts to which stone points were hafted. Genetic analysis of the antler rods found with Anzick-1 indicates that the antlers used to create the artifacts were those of elk, representing some of the oldest records of elk in North America south of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. The antlers were radiocarbon dated to between 56 and 483 years before Anzick-1’s death and as such, it is questionable if artifacts found at the site such as the Clovis points were actually produced by Anzick-1’s community.” ref

Glacial Kame culture 8000 to 1000 BCE

Old Copper Complex 7500 to 1000 BCE

Red Paint People /Maritime Archaic 7000 to 3500 BCE

Shell Mound Archaic 5000 to 3000 BCE

Red Ocher people 1000 to 400 BCE

All used or had copper…

“You’re right about the copper use, but want to correct some of these dates. Old Copper and the Red Ochre People dates are correct (there’s room for error), but the other two are off. The “Red Paint People” are the Maritime Archaic. Dating for them is roughly 7000 B.C.E. to 1200 B.C.E., with Maine and coastal New England’s variant lasting from roughly 4000/3000 B.C.E. to 1800/1200 B.C.E. Some new sites were recently discovered in New Brunswick, so they maybe lasted till 1200 B.C.E. Other groups, such as Groswater and Beothuks, used red ochre, but their toolkits are different, and they didn’t hunt swordfish (a major diagnostic for the Maritime Archaic). With Glacial Kame, they come between 4000-3000 B.C.E., lasting till about 500/400 B.C.E. Many of their sites have no dating. They share many features with the Shell Mound Archaic, which lasted from roughly 8000/6000 B.C.E. to 1500/1000 B.C.E.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

Art/Map by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

“Regions with vertical lines are general shell mound areas, similar to the red regions in your shell mound map. In the second map, the bright yellow zones are Shell Mound Archaic territories. The darker/lighter yellow around this is influenced territory (based on scattered artifacts in trade routes). Red ochre seems to cluster in shell regions.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

Did you know that many of Florida’s shell mounds looked like many earth mounds or similar to platform pyramids?

Some people call some of the mounds in North America “Pyramids,” and some Archaeologists or some others don’t like this.

“The Egyptian word for their pyramids related to mounds.”

My thinking is that Shell mounds, Dolmens, Kurgans, Ziggurats, Pyramids, and Earth mounds are loosely related. like Mound of Creation beliefs/Earth Diver myths/World Turtle/World Egg/Emergence myths/World Mountain-World Tree-Axis Mundi beliefs.

AI Overview: The ancient Egyptian word for a pyramid is mr (or mer), which is phonetically linked to the concept of a rising mound or structure, often written with a symbol representing a pointed shape. This term is deeply connected to the benben, the primordial mound that emerged from the waters of creation.

Benben (Mound of Creation): The benben was the original, sacred mound of earth that rose from the chaos (Nun) in Egyptian creation myths. The capstone of a pyramid, often called the benbenet, represented this first land.

Mr (Pyramid): The term mr refers to the structure itself, often associated with the concept of a monument rising to a point.

Symbolic Connection: The pyramid shape physically mimics the benben mound, acting as a site of resurrection and transformation.

While the earlier, flatter tomb structures were called mastabas (Arabic for “bench”), the true pyramids were known as mr, embodying the symbolic “swelling forth” of the primeval mound. And even mastabas had small mound inside them representing the Mound of creation.

Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom mastabas (ca. 2920–2770 BCE) were designed to incorporate a hidden, small mound, which served as a magical symbol representing the primeval mound of creation (the Benben), guaranteeing the resurrection of the deceased.

Symbolism of the Mound: According to Egyptian mythology, the creator god emerged from the waters of chaos upon a small hill. The mastaba served as a symbolic, “eternal home” that connected the deceased directly to this origin point.

Structure: While the exterior was a flat-topped, bench-shaped mud-brick building, inside, a small, often stepped, mound was built over the burial shaft, or a natural mound of rubble/sand was left, representing this sacred mound.

Evolution to Pyramids: Some early mastabas, such as Mastaba S3038 of King Anedjib at Saqqara, featured a unique stepped platform or mound, which researchers believe was the direct precursor to the Step Pyramid. The Step Pyramid of Djoser is essentially several smaller mastabas stacked to emphasize this mound, eventually evolving into the pointed pyramid. Actually, the word “pyramid” is derived from the Ancient Greek.

“Yes, I’ve noticed the similarity, but haven’t researched later mounds and earthworks; been focused on the Archaic. I’ve seen your videos on dolmens and North American shell mounds. In your research, do you think North America’s Mound building culture could have spread North from the Gulf? Aside from the one stone cairn associated with the early Maritime Archaic (and scattered later ones), the best evidence for deliberate earthen and shell mound construction (including basin piles and geometric designs) begins around the Gulf Coast and spreads North. Between 4500-1000 B.C.E., shell mounds and earthen mounds seem to spread along the river before reaching Ohio, then we get the Adena mounds and later Hopewell mounds.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

My response: Kind of, most of the ideas relate to sharing ideas, but with similar related thinking most of the time. To me, shell mounds as a conceded mythology are first as mounds, and to me, as a related thing, are seen from the Pacific Northwest 10,000-8,000 years ago to Brazil at 8,000 years ago. I think early California, at 13,000 years ago, was just getting food and was less likely to be related.

“Yeah, there could (and likely are) different shell mound types, some more religious than others. You’re right that shell mounds are ancient and can be found along coastlines. I’m thinking about shell mounds and earth mounds in relation to shells and red ochre burials. The “shell and earthen mounds spread from the Gulf” is based on C-14 dates. The oldest (so far known) cluster is around the Gulf, and the dates get younger the further north they go. Kenneth Sassaman’s written about this (those Columbia Plateau migrations eastward). Appreciate your thoughts on this.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

Mythology of Four Squared: Pyramid/Mound-“Square” Mountain at the Center of the World and Square Earth

I think Mounds start in Shell mounds.

My thinking is that Shell mounds, Dolmens, Kurgans, Ziggurats, Pyramids, and Earth mounds are loosely related. like Mound of Creation beliefs/Earth Diver myths/World Turtle/World Egg/Emergence myths/World Mountain-World Tree-Axis Mundi beliefs.

Here are my Good videos and related blog posts as Resources on this Subject

1. Prehistoric Siberia: Shamanism, Myths, Lake Baikal, Altai Mountains, DNA, Migrations, and Language (VIDEO)

• Lake Baikal and Myths of Creation: Primordial waters, Supernatural Creatures of water, and the Mounds of creatiom “blog post”

2. My thoughts on Mound origins, in Shell Mounds, relating to the Altai Mountains and Lake Baikal areas (VIDEO)

• My thoughts on Mound origins, in seeming Shell Mounds, and likely religious beliefs in Primordial Waters, Earth Diver Myths, and Mound of Creation, centering on Siberia: Golden Mountains of Altai and Lake Baikal areas “blog post”
• Shell Mounds, Dolmens, Kurgans, Earth Mounds, Ziggurats, Mastabas, Pyramids: their origins, evolutions, and migrations “blog post”
• Prehistoric Pacific Northwest: Shell Mounds, Culture, Religion, Migrations, Languages, Clans, Power/Elites, Inequality, and Slavery “blog post”
• Indigenous Pre-Columbian Brazilian Shell Mounds and Amazonian Earthworks, Q-DNA migrations and the Spread of Culture and Religious thinking “blog post”
• Shell Mounds, Earth Mounds, Raised Platforms, and Pyramids: which I think are somewhat related in mythology thinking and culture beliefs “blog post”
• Investigating and Visiting Several Prehistoric Indian Mounds in Florida; Culture, Religion, and Power “blog post”

3. My thoughts on Dolmen origins, migrations, and the links to “Y-DNA R (R1a, R1b, and R2a)” migrations (VIDEO)

• My thoughts on Dolmen origins and migrations, as well as Snail Shell Middens or Snail Burials/Turtle Shell Burials, and links from “Y-DNA R (R1a, R1b, and R2a)” migrations “blog post”
• Kurgans 7,000/6,000 years ago/Dolmens 7,000/6,000 years ago: funeral, ritual, and other? “blog post”
• 4,000-year-Old Dolmens in Israel: A Connected Dolmen Religious Phenomenon? “blog post”

4. My thoughts on Kurgan origins, migrations, and the links to Y-DNA “R” and mt-DNA “R” migrations (VIDEO)

• Ritual Mound Migrations: Kurgans, Dolmens, and later Pyramids likely all trace back to Siberia, helping show how Yeniseian languages, may have influenced Proto-Indo-European languages “blog post”
• Sacred Mounds, Mountains, Kurgans, and Pyramids may hold deep Mythology connections? “blog post”
• My “Steppe-Anatolian-Kurgan hypothesis” 9,000/8,000-7,000 years ago “blog post”
• Japanese Kofun “ancient grave” Megalithic Mound Tombs or Tumuli (mounds of earth/stones over graves) like Barrows, and Burial mounds/Kurgans “blog post”

5. My thoughts on the American Mound Builders’ Origin and their Connections to Mounds the World over (VIDEO)

• My thoughts on the Origin of the Mound Builders of the Americas: mainly C-Y-DNA in the Mounds of North America and mainly Q-Y-DNA in the Mounds of South America, and their seeming connections to mounds all over the world “blog post”
• Dené–Yeniseian language, Old Copper Complex, and Pre-Columbian Mound Builders? “blog post”
• Indigenous Religion and Monuments of the Land: Ancient Earthworks/Rockworks; Rings and Mounds in Canada “blog post”
• Choctaw tribe’s Creation mythology and their Mound of Creation, Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, Muskogean languages, and the Eagle dance “blog post”

6. My thoughts on Ziggurats/Pyramids Origin/Evolution and World Mountain/Axis Mundi/Mound of Creation (VIDEO)

• My thoughts on the Origin and Evolution of Ziggurats and Pyramids, Mountain/Hill/Axis Mundi Mythology and the Mound of Creation “blog post”
• Sumerians and Ancient Egyptians: mountains, mounds, and temples: Ziggurats or Pyramids, with related Deities, as well as Mythology “blog post”
• Seeming Evolution of the Mountain/Mound of Creation in Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt “blog post”
• Jebel Barkal in Sudan/Kush ancient Nubia, the Mound of Creation, and the Ancient Egyptian race controversy “blog post”

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Archaic Shell Mounds in the American Southeast

“Abstract: Freshwater and estuarine shellfish began to be exploited in the southeastern United States between 9,000 and 7,000 years ago. Shortly thereafter, shell mounds appeared in the mid-South Shell Mound Archaic, along the St. Johns River in peninsular Florida, and, somewhat later, in the Stallings Island area along the middle Savannah River. On the lower Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, shell rings arose. Until recently, all these mounds were considered middens—the accumulations of the remains of simple meals of mobile peoples who visited the same areas for hundreds or thousands of years. More recent scholarship indicates that these mounds were deliberate constructions—some of the first sculpted landscapes created by Archaic peoples to memorialize the past, celebrate the present, and provide for the future. In this chapter, recent research on shell sites in these four areas is discussed. The emphasis is on changing perspectives about the peoples who built them.” ref

“Although the term is sometimes more broadly applied, the “Shell Mound Archaic” (SMA) is used here to refer to a set of distinctive sites present only along the Ohio River and its tributaries in portions of northern Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and West Virginia. At least 60 shell sites are named, and many more exist but have not been described. Recent dates from western Kentucky suggest initial sites were occupied as early as 8,900 years ago. At this time, a new population entered the region (one of two ancestral populations of the Native Americans of the eastern United States). These people may have come from the Columbia Plateau, bringing a tradition of shellfishing with them. Site use intensified through time; most SMA sites were occupied in the Middle and into the Late Archaic. Most were abandoned by the end of the Late Archaic period, ca. 3,500 years ago. However, a few Tennessee River SMA sites were used into the Woodland period.” ref

“Apparently, shellfish can exist in rapidly rising seas because oysters were exploited almost 9,000 years ago along the Texas Gulf Coast (and 13,000 years ago in California). The mussel (Unionoida) shell mounds of the mid-South began to accrue by at least 8,900 years ago, and, by 7,300 years ago, Native Americans along the St. Johns River in Florida began to exploit gastropods (mystery snail, Viviparus georgianus, and apple snail, Pomacea paludosa). The earliest shell rings, created predominantly of oyster (Crassostrea virginica), appeared along barrier islands and the adjacent mainland of the lower Atlantic and Gulf Coasts by 5,200 years ago. However, because the earliest rings are inundated, it would not be surprising to find earlier rings offshore.” ref

“Shellfish also appear to have been associated with burial in the Southeast. Burial in shell middens is common in Archaic and early Woodland cultures. In general, this has been regarded by researchers as a practical solution to the problem of disposal of the dead. More recently, the association of burials and shell has been viewed as a referent to Native American core beliefs in “rebirth and rejuvenation.” Claassen has presented the most extended argument for this viewpoint. Using ethnographic and archaeological examples from throughout the New World, she argued that the shell mounds of the Ohio Valley were, in fact, burial mounds.” ref

“According to Sassaman, “the very first use of shell in the middle Savannah was for mortuary purposes.” Indeed, Sassaman suggested that Claassen’s hypotheses for the mortuary uses of shell in the Ohio Valley “may very well explain the origins of freshwater shellfishing in the middle Savannah, and perhaps the St. Johns basin too.” Against this backdrop, it is curious that formal burials are not present in shell rings, although scattered human bone is found. Still, this is consistent with observation that, except for the Stallings Island site (about which more later) shell-bearing sites founded relatively late in the Archaic on south-flowing rivers either lack burials or have very few. Although burials are not found in shell rings, Sanger agreed that shell carried a heavy symbolic load in those structures as well. As will be seen, this viewpoint is not without critics.” ref

“In all four of the aforementioned areas, some researchers now argue that shell mounds and rings were not simply deposits of domestic garbage but locations of population aggregation, interaction, ceremony, and feasting. In concert with the increasing acceptance of the presence of Middle and Late Archaic earthen mounds in Louisiana and Florida, more researchers suspect social and ceremonial functions for large, mounded, Archaic shell-bearing sites in the mid-South, lower Atlantic and eastern Gulf Coasts, and the St. Johns River. While details vary from region to region (and researcher to researcher), and dramatic differences exist in the types of materials deposited and depositional processes that created these structures, many agree that these sites are the first cultural landscapes intentionally created for remembrance of the past, celebration of the present, and preparation for the future.” ref

“In this chapter, I briefly describe mounded shell sites in each region and discuss models for their development and use. My own experience with shell-bearing sites is primarily with the shell rings of the lower Atlantic, and, to a lesser extent, the Gulf Coast. This bias is reflected in the amount of space given to rings. I have also given more space to the first area discussed, the Shell Mound Archaic of the Ohio River Valley because the interpretive issues reviewed for that region are similar to those in the other areas. Given space constraints, many important topics are not discussed. However, I hope to demonstrate that, after years of modeling Archaic societies as driven primarily by environmental opportunities or constraints, some very plausible social reconstructions are emerging that give depth and breadth to ancient populations.” ref

The Great Lakes (especially Lake Superior) were the main source of pre-Columbian copper in North America

AI Overview: The Great Lakes region, particularly Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and Isle Royale, was the primary source of native copper for pre-Columbian North America, with usage dating back nearly 9,500 years. Known as the “Old Copper Complex,” Indigenous cultures mined, cold-hammered, and annealed high-purity (up to 99%) copper nuggets and veins to create tools, weapons, and ornaments without smelting. 

Key details regarding pre-Columbian Great Lakes copper:

• Significance: The region boasts some of the world’s largest deposits of pure native copper, which were used to create items such as spearpoints, knives, fishhooks, and jewelry.
• Techniques: Archaic-period Native Americans did not smelt the metal, but used stone tools and fire to shape copper through cold-working and annealing.
• Trade: While centered in the western Great Lakes (Wisconsin and Michigan), this copper was distributed through vast trade networks across North America.
• Evidence: Thousands of artifacts and, in some cases, early mine pits up to 20 feet deep have been discovered, representing one of the oldest, if not the oldest, metalworking traditions in the world. 

AI Overview: Archaic Period (c. 8000–1000 BCE) feasting in North America was a socio-religious, communal activity focused on seasonal abundance, such as massive shellfish harvesting, nut processing, and hunting deer or bear using atlatls. These gatherings likely occurred at base camps, involving large-scale cooking in pits, using boiling stones, and serving food in stone or early clay vessels. 

Key Aspects of Archaic Feasting:

• Seasonal Focus: Feasts were tied to resource availability, including fall nut harvests (hickory, walnut) and, in coastal or riverine areas, massive shellfish consumption.
• Ritualistic Nature: Large shell mounds and middens are interpreted as evidence of repeated, sacred, or ceremonial gatherings rather than just daily refuse.
• Social & Economic Impact: These events fostered trade and social bonding, with evidence of increased population density and the development of more complex, sedentary, or semi-sedentary lifestyles.
• Technology: Cooking techniques included roasting and boiling using heated stones (boiling stones) to process food in pits or containers.
• Regional Differences: While Eastern Archaic groups heavily utilized riverine resources, others in the West relied more on gathering and hunting with atlatls. 

Food Sources:

• Meat: White-tailed deer, bear, rabbit, elk, and turkey.
• Gathered: Nuts (hickory, acorns), fruits, berries, and seeds.
• Aquatic: Shellfish, fish. 

Archaic period (North America)

“In the classification of the archaeological cultures of North America, the Archaic period in North America, taken to last from around 8000 to 1000 BCE in the sequence of North American pre-Columbian cultural stages, is a period defined by the archaic stage of cultural development. The Archaic stage is characterized by subsistence economies supported through the exploitation of nuts, seeds, and shellfish. As its ending is defined by the adoption of sedentary farming, this date can vary significantly across the Americas. The term “Archaic Period” is also as a timespan label elsewhere in the Americas, with different timespans than the North American Archaic.” ref

“Secure dating of multiple Middle Archaic sites in northern Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida has challenged traditional models of development. In these areas, hunter-gatherer societies in the Lower Mississippi Valley organized to build monumental earthwork mound complexes as early as 3500 BCE (confirmed at Watson Brake), with building continuing over a period of 500 years. Early mound sites such as Frenchman’s Bend and Hedgepeth were of this time period; all were constructed by localized societies. Watson Brake is now considered to be the oldest mound complex in the Americas. It precedes that built at Poverty Point by nearly 2,000 years (both are in northern Louisiana). More than 100 sites have been identified as associated with the regional Poverty Point culture of the Late Archaic period, and it was part of a regional trading network across the Southeast.” ref

“Across the Southeastern Woodlands, starting around 4000 BCE, people exploited wetland resources, creating large shell middens. Middens developed where the people lived along rivers, but there is limited evidence of Archaic peoples along the coastlines prior to 3000 BCE. Archaic sites on the coast may have been inundated by rising sea levels (one site in 15 to 20 feet of water off St. Lucie County, Florida, has been dated to 2800 BCE).” ref

Starting around 3000 BCE, evidence of large-scale exploitation of oysters appears. During the period 3000 to 1000 BCE, shell rings, large shell middens that more or less surround open centers, were developed along the coast. These shell rings are numerous in South Carolina and Georgia but are also found scattered around the Florida Peninsula and along the Gulf of Mexico coast as far west as the Pearl River. In some places, such as Horr’s Island in Southwest Florida, resources were rich enough to support sizable mound-building communities year-round. Four shell or sand mounds on Horr’s Island have been dated to between 2,900 and 2,300 BCE.” ref

• 8000 BCE: The last glacial period ends, causing sea levels to rise and flood the Beringia land bridge, closing the primary migration route from Siberia.
• 8000 BCE: Sufficient rain falls on the American Southwest to support many large mammal species – mammoth, mastodon, and a bison species – that soon go extinct.
• 8000 BCE: Hunters in the American Southwest use the atlatl.
• 7500 BCE: Early basketry.
• 7560–7370 BCE: Kennewick Man dies along the shore of the Columbia River in Washington State, leaving one of the most complete early Native American skeletons.
• 7000 BCE: Northeastern peoples depend increasingly on deer, nuts, and wild grains as the climate warms.
• 6000 BCE: Nomadic hunting bands roam Subarctic Alaska following herds of caribou and other game animals.
• 5700 BCE: Cataclysmic eruption of Mount Mazama in modern-day Oregon.
• 5000 BCE: Early cultivation of food crops began in Mesoamerica.
• 5000 BCE: Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest from Alaska to California develop a fishing economy, with salmon as a staple.
• 5000 BCE: The Old Copper culture of the Great Lakes area hammers the metal into various tools and ornaments, such as knives, axes, awls, bracelets, rings, and pendants.
• 4500 BCE: Emergence of the Shield Archaic tradition, Canadian Shield boreal forest and tundra regions from Ontario to the Northwest Territories. 
• Native Americans in the northern Great Lakes produce copper tools, ornaments, and utensils traded throughout the Great Plains and Ohio Valley.
• Shell ornaments and copper items at Indian Knoll in Kentucky evidence an extensive trade system over several millennia.
• 4000 BCE: Inhabitants of Mesoamerica cultivate maize (corn) while Peruvian natives cultivate beans and squash.
• 4000–1000 BCE: Old Copper complex emerges in the Great Lakes region.
• 3500 BCE: The largest, oldest drive site at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, Alberta, Canada.
• 3500–3000 BCE: Construction of extensive mound complex built at Watson Brake in the floodplain of the Ouachita River near Monroe in northern Louisiana.
• Shell ornaments and copper items at Indian Knoll, Kentucky evidence an extensive trade system over several millennia.
• 2000–1000 BCE: Poverty Point culture in northeastern Louisiana features stonework, flintknapping, earthenware, and effigy, conical, and platform mounds, as well as planned settlements on concentric earthen ridges.” ref

Glacial Kame culture 8000 to 1000 BCE

“The Glacial Kame culture was a culture of Archaic people in North America that occupied southern Ontario, Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana from around 8000 to 1000 BCE. The name of this culture derives from its members’ practice of burying their dead atop glacier-deposited gravel hills. Among the most common types of artifacts found at Glacial Kame sites are shells of marine animals and goods manufactured from a copper ore, known as float copper. The type site for Glacial Kame is the Ridgeway Site near the village of Ridgeway in Hardin County, Ohio. The site was rediscovered in 1856 by workers building a railroad line nearby, who mined the kame for ballast; the supervisor’s detailed report of the excavation has survived to the present-day and is a premier resource for the culture.” ref

“Archaeologists specializing in Ohio became familiar with Glacial Kame sooner than with the state’s other cultures, Glacial Kame sites were the only widely known ones other than some later sites on the Lake Erie shoreline and a few large Hopewellian geometric earthworks in the southern part of the state. Other regional cultures include the Maple Creek Culture of southwestern Ohio, Red Ocher Culture and Old Copper Culture of Wisconsin.” ref

“For a time, it was thought that the Glacial Kame culture did not produce ceramics, but this understanding was disproven by the discovery of basic pottery at the Zimmerman site near Roundhead, Ohio. Excavation of Glacial Kame sites frequently yields few projectile points. Some of the most important sites have yielded no projectile points at all — and their few points that have been found are of diverse styles. For this reason, it appears that different groups of Glacial Kame peoples independently developed different methods of manufacturing their projectile points. This diversity appears even in the culture’s heartland in Champaign, Hardin, and Logan counties in western Ohio; one large Logan County site yielded just three points, each of which was significantly different from the other two.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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The Mystery Of The Lost Red Paint People (VIDEO)

Secrets Of The Lost Red Paint People (VIDEO)

“The Red Paint People are a Pre-Columbian culture indigenous to the New England and Atlantic Canada regions of North America. They were named after their burials, which used large quantities of ochre, normally red, to cover both the bodies of the dead and grave goods. They flourished between 5,000-3,000 years ago. Alternatively, they can be called by the period in which they lived, either the “Maritime Archaic” (emphasizing a coastal and seafaring culture) or “Late Archaic” (emphasizing time and leaving open the possibility of living inland seasonally), although these terms often cover the longer period from 9,000 years ago to 1000 CE. Multiple hypotheses exist as to which if any later peoples might be their descendants and there is little archaeological evidence to support any hypothesis. The Red Paint People lived, fished, and hunted along the coasts and rivers. Some coastal sites show evidence of year-round occupation, discrediting an older theory that these people were seasonal nomads, living the summers on the coast and the winters inland. Their diet included sea and migratory fish, shellfish, meat, berries, acorns, nuts, and roots. The Red Paint People had stone and bone tools, as well as boats capable of catching swordfish. No pottery or metal tools have been found in sites associated with this culture. Their trading range is known to have extended from Labrador to the New York side of Lake Champlain.” ref

The Swordfish Hunters: The History and Ecology of an Ancient American Sea People (VIDEO)

7,714-year-old grave of a young boy from the Red-Paint (red ochre) Maritime Archaic Culture and the L’Anse Amour Site in Labrador Canada is oldest known burial mound in North America. The body was wrapped in a shroud of bark or hide and placed face down in the grave with his head facing to the west. At that point, a large mound of rocks was erected over his burial place. The burnt patches on either side of the body under the mound is charcoal from fires that would have been set north and south of the body in a sacred ritual. The Red Paint People are a Pre-Columbian culture indigenous to the New England and Atlantic Canada regions of North America in which they mainly flourished between 5,000-3,000 years ago. On the west side, it looks like a mound of rocks but from the East Side, there is a small dolmen-like chamber opening. A dolmen is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, with a large flat stone laid on upright ones and the oldest known are found in Western Europe, dating from around 7,000 years ago. ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Earth diver mythology or something similar??? Could be. In a way, snails are a kind of mound shape, thus similar to turtle shells, both may represent a mound of creation in the earth-diver myth. In Peru, there were snail shells, and snail shells are also used in the earth diver.

My thoughts on Dolmen origins and migrations, as well as Snail Shell Middens or Snail Burials/Turtle Shell Burials, and links from “Y-DNA R (R1a, R1b, and R2a)” migrations, maybe R2a leading to Proto-Indo-European, transferring it to R1b, taking it to the steppe 7,500 years ago.

Religion is a cultural product and moved in cultural migrations. So, it has been part of the human experience, similar to languages, from before we left Africa, spreading humanity across the world.

Pre-Columbian Red-Paint (red ochre) Maritime Archaic Culture 8,000-3,000 years ago

Red Paint People/ Maritime Archaic 7000 BCE to 1000 CE, flourished between 3000 BCE and 1000 BCE

AI Overview: The “Red Paint People” (Maritime Archaic tradition, ~6000 to 2000 BCE) were prehistoric Native Americans in New England/Canada known for burying dead in red ochre, often with elaborate grave goods. While famed for polished slate, they included copper, marine shell, and exotic materials, indicating extensive trade and social complexity. Copper artifacts, likely obtained through trade with Great Lakes regions, were among status items placed with the deceased. 

Key Aspects of Red Paint People and Copper

• Definition: The “Red Paint People” are not a distinct race but rather early Maritime Archaic groups (6000 to 2000 BCE) recognized by intense use of red ochre (iron oxide) in burial sites.
• Copper Artifacts: Copper objects found in their graves indicate connections to broader, long-distance trade networks, potentially extending towards the Great Lakes, where copper was heavily utilized.
• Burial Goods: Beside copper, grave items included large, specialized stone tools (spear points, ceremonial blades) and marine shell beads, suggesting a society with, or moving toward, social stratification.
• Culture & Lifestyle: They were advanced maritime hunters who fished for swordfish and used dugout canoes.
• Relationship to Others: While separate in geography from the “Old Copper Culture” of the Great Lakes/Midwest, the Red Paint People operated within a similar Archaic-period, regional interaction sphere. 

The Old Copper Culture Distinction
It is important to distinguish the Maritime Red Paint People from the Old Copper Complex/Culture (~4000 to 1000 BCE) centered in the Great Lakes region (Wisconsin, Michigan, etc.). The Old Copper culture was defined by extensive cold-hammering of native copper into tools and weapons. The Red Paint People likely acquired some of their metallic, exotic, and copper items through the widespread exchange networks that operated across North America during the Archaic period. 

Red Paint People

“The Red Paint People are a Pre-Columbian culture indigenous to the New England and Atlantic Canada regions of North America, probably a subset of the Maritime Archaic cultural complex. They were named after their burials, which used large quantities of ochre, normally red, to cover both the bodies of the dead and grave goods. Sometimes they are known as the Moorehead Phase of the Laurentian Tradition or the Moorehead burial tradition after Warren K. Moorehead who brought them widely to the attention of scientists. They flourished between 3000 BCE and 1000 BCE. Alternatively, they can be called by the period in which they lived, either the “Maritime Archaic” (emphasizing a coastal and seafaring culture) or “Late Archaic” (emphasizing time and leaving open the possibility of living inland seasonally), although these terms often cover the longer period from 7000 BCE to 1000 CE. Multiple hypotheses exist as to which if any later peoples might be their descendants and there is little archaeological evidence to support any hypothesis.” ref

“Their burial culture was more elaborate than any subsequent culture in the area. In the southern portion of their range, they were succeeded by the Susquehana culture which used pottery, and no evidence of their stoneworking techniques is found in that culture. The Red Paint People lived, fished, and hunted along the coasts and rivers. Some coastal sites show evidence of year-round occupation, discrediting an older theory that these people were seasonal nomads, living the summers on the coast and the winters inland. Their diet included sea and migratory fish, shellfish, meat, berries, acorns, nuts, and roots. The Red Paint People had stone and bone tools, as well as boats capable of catching swordfish. No pottery or metal tools have been found in sites associated with this culture. Their trading range is known to have extended from Labrador to the New York side of Lake Champlain.” ref

“The Maritime Archaic is a North American cultural complex of the Late Archaic along the coast of Newfoundland, the Canadian Maritimes and northern New England. The Maritime Archaic began in approximately 7000 BCE and lasted until approximately 3500 BCE, corresponding with the arrival of the Paleo-Eskimo groups who may have outcompeted the Maritime Archaic for resources. The culture consisted of sea-mammal hunters in the subarctic who used wooden boats. Maritime Archaic sites have been found as far south as Maine and as far north as Labrador. Their settlements included longhouses, and boat-topped temporary or seasonal houses. They engaged in long-distance trade, as shown by white Ramah chert from northern Labrador being found as far south as Maine.” ref

“The Maritime Archaic is one cultural complex among several of the Archaic stage for North American peoples. It had been long postulated that the most likely direct descendants of the Maritime Archaic culture were the Beothuk of Newfoundland. The latter, through susceptibility to Eurasian diseases, conflict with neighboring native groups, and malnourishment after European persecution pushed them inland and away from the fish and marine mammals that had been a staple of their diet, succumbed to erosion of their population base, which was small to begin with, and disappeared in the 19th century as a distinct tribe.” ref

“Archaeogenetic research in 2017 established, however, that the Maritime Archaic people had nothing genetically in common with the Inuit, nor with the Beothuk, who later inhabited the same area after the climatic conditions changed. A study published in Current Biology compared the mitochondrial DNA of 74 individuals, 19 Beothuk, 53 Maritime Archaic, and two Paleo-Eskimo, and found that these populations were not at all related.” ref

“Another significant Maritime Archaic find are the “Red Ochre Culture” burials throughout the Northeast United States (their attribution to MA is not generally accepted). They may represent the last phases of the Maritime Archaic, as they contain significant finds of white chert artifacts common to other Maritime Archaic sites, but may also represent a distinct people. This issue is currently debated among scholars.” ref

“If the hypothesis of the Red Ochre as the last state of the Maritime Archaic period is accepted, then the latter is best known from a mortuary site in Newfoundland at Port au Choix. This site revealed over 100 graves embellished with red ochre. The graves contained many elaborate artifacts, including barbed bone points; daggers of ivory, antler, or bone; toggling harpoons; shell-beaded clothing; and a burial suit made from more than 200 skins of the now-extinct great auk. These finds indicated a stratified society with trade and some level of social complexity.” ref

“James Tuck, an archaeologist who worked in the Canadian Maritimes, excavated the Port au Choix site and developed a ‘burial richness’ scale. He interpreted the burials with the most items, including exotics, as very experienced hunters/shamans. Seeing how the Maritime Archaic is partially related to the OCC, I’m using his scale for those copper people.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

AI Overview: ThePort au Choix National Historic Site, Newfoundland, reveals a rich Maritime Archaic burial site (approx. 4,400–1,300 BCE) featuring artifacts such as specialized tools and ornaments. While the site is famously associated with Maritime Archaic and Paleo-Eskimo cultures, it is part of a broader, well-documented trade network where Native Americans used copper, particularly from the Lake Superior region. Copper, often mined by beating raw copper out of bedrock with, was distributed over vast distances, including to the East Coast, connecting the Great Lakes with other regions. The Port au Choix site is known for its incredible preservation of tools, including harpoons, fishing gear, and decorative items, providing evidence of early trade and sophisticated, specialized technology. 

AI Overview: Maritime Archaic copper was primarily sourced from native copper deposits in the Lake Superior region (Keweenaw Peninsula, Isle Royale) and traded eastward, with additional, lesser-known sources in Seal Lake, Labrador and the Nova Scotia-New England area. Dating from around 6,000 to 3,000 years ago, this copper was hammered, annealed, and fashioned into tools, weapons, and ornaments. The vast majority of copper used by Archaic cultures originated in the Upper Great Lakes (Michigan/Ontario), where native copper was found in veins and as “float” copper in gravel beds. While the source was largely western, Maritime Archaic groups in the East used extensive exchange networks to acquire these materials, with items reaching as far as Louisiana. Early, tools like axes, gouges, and knives were common, but over time, usage shifted more toward jewelry and symbolic, status-related items. The Maritime Archaic people (approx. 7000–3200 years ago) are distinct from the specific “Old Copper Complex” of the Great Lakes, though they participated in the wider trade of this material. 

“Maritime Archaic artifacts made of copper collected in Newfoundland and Labrador came primarily from four areas: the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan; Coppermine River in the North West Territories; small occurrences from the eastern North Atlantic seaboard (Nova Scotia-New England); and Seal Lake, Central Labrador.” ref

“The island of Newfoundland has an abundance of resources for hunter-gatherer peoples. For thousands of years, it was occupied by a variety of native people. Maritime Archaic Indians were the first people to occupy the island of Newfoundland. A Maritime Archaic Indian cemetery dates as far back as 4400 years ago. 56 graves found were determined to be between 4400 and 3300 years old. No structural remains were found near the burial sites, leading archaeologists to assume the natives buried their dead far from their settlements. In fact, there are no Maritime Archaic Indian dwelling sites yet discovered on Newfoundland. Due to post-glacial sea level rise, there are potentially many Maritime Archaic Indian dwelling sites submerged in the ocean. Sea level has risen approximately thirteen feet in the last 4400 years since the Port au Choix burial site was first used.” ref

“In contrast, there have been many discoveries of Dorset Paleo-Eskimo dwellings on Newfoundland, which have been radiocarbon dated to between 1990 and 1180 years ago. After the Maritime Archaic Indians left the region, the Paleo-Eskimos began to expand their settlements further south into Newfoundland. The Dorset Paleo-Eskimo people relied heavily on maritime resources, especially seals, for subsistence. The Dorset people occupied Port au Choix for approximately seven hundred years, constructing many dwellings. At the site of Phillip’s Garden, one of the richest archaeological sites on Port au Choix, there are 50 documented structural remains. It is thought these were wooden, peaked-roofed structures with hides over the top. Today, these ruins are characterized by depressions in the ground as well as architectural elements of low walls, a central cooking area, and a platform to the rear of the house.” ref

Shell mound archaic culture eastern great lakes and copper

AI Overview: The Shell Mound Archaic (approx. 5000–3000 BCE) represents a cultural tradition in the American Southeast, particularly along the Tennessee/Ohio Rivers and the Atlantic/Gulf coasts, defined by massive, intentional, multi-generational accumulation of shellfish remains. These sites, which evolved from refuse heaps to intentional monuments, functioned as base camps, ceremonial centers, and specialized burial grounds for these semi-permanent hunter-gatherer societies. Primarily found in the Tennessee River Valley (freshwater mussels) and coastal areas from Florida to the Carolinas (marine oysters/snails). These mounds, sometimes shaped into rings, were created over centuries of sustained feasting and habitation.

Shell mound Archaic cultures in Eastern North America often buried domesticated dogs in, on, or near the mounds, sometimes accompanied by ritualistic use of red ochre. This practice reflects a complex, symbolic, and, in some cases, affectionate relationship between hunter-gatherers and their dogs, where the animals were treated with similar care to human kin in burial. In the Archaic sites along the Green River in Kentucky, archaeologists found at least 182 dog burials. Dogs were often found in intentional, flexed, or “sleeping” positions, indicating careful burial rather than simple disposal. Some dog burials included grave goods, such as stone tools or, in rare cases, items associated with human burials. Many of these burials are associated with Shellmound Archaic sites, which are large, built-up mounds of shells, soil, and debris resulting from long-term, repeated, and intense habitation. 

While the “Red Ocher Culture” is distinct, the broader Shell Mound Archaic (3500–1000 BCE) involved the accumulation of freshwater shells for refuse and burial in the Tennessee and Green River valleys. Both represent specialized, sedentary, or semi-sedentary Archaic groups in the Midwest and South, the shell mound archaic culture used red ochre for burials.

AI Overview: Shell mounds, or shell middens, in the Great Lakes region are archaeological sites composed of discarded freshwater mussel shells, animal bones, and pottery, indicating long-term, pre-Columbian human habitation and seasonal, subsistence. These deposits, often found along rivers and lakeshores, represent centuries of food waste and, in some cases, intentional mound construction. 

• Regional Context: While massive, iconic shell rings and mounds are more common along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts (such as the Sewee Shell Mound in South Carolina and various Florida sites), smaller freshwater middens are present in the interior, including around the Great Lakes and in the Tennessee/Ohio River valleys.
• Composition: These sites are primarily refuse piles of freshwater mollusks collected from nearby, and. Other artifacts typically found include pottery, stone tools, and fish or bird bones.
• Function: Archaeologists view them as evidence of, and, sustainable, subsistence strategies, with some, sites evolving from, refuse, piles into, intentional, monuments over generations.

Shield Archaic

“The Shield Archaic was a distinct regional tradition which existed during the climatic optimum, starting around 6,500 years ago. During this warm period, forests advanced northward and temperatures were warmer than they were in the late 20th century. It is associated with the northern frontier and transition area between boreal forest and tundra in what is now northern Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, near Lake Athabasca. However, the Late Shield Archaic phase (3,500–4,450 years ago) has sites as far as Manitoba, and archaeologists have investigated suspected Shield Archaic sites as far away as Killarney Provincial Park near Georgian Bay in Ontario.” ref

“The prominent Canadian archaeologist J. V. Wright argued in 1976 that the Shield Archaic had emerged from the Northern Plano tradition, but this was questioned by Bryan C. Gordon in a 1996 publication. Shield Archaic tools differed in design between “forest” and “tundra” sites. Pushplanes have been found, which would have been used for planing wood, bone, or antler. Shield Archaic people hunted caribou, with a focus on water crossings as hunting places.” ref

AI Overview: Old Copper Culture: While not explicitly documented as a “feasting” culture, their reliance on communal, seasonal hunting and gathering—coupled with the high social value placed on copper for burials and, potentially, ritual, suggests that gatherings likely involved sharing resources. Archaic peoples, including those in the Old Copper complex, relied on a wide variety of resources, including large mammals (bison, elk, moose, deer), smaller game, water birds, and fish. They developed advanced tools, including fishhooks, harpoons, and awls for processing hides, indicating a sophisticated, settled, or semi-sedentary subsistence.

Large-scale fishing (fish surplus): harvesting from large fish runs at certain times of the year can lead to surplus, and surplus can lead to elites or social stratification: proto-big man/big woman or big men/big women important people, either tied to totemistic clan/family or religious, like shamans. Could copper be traded for food, leading to elites or social stratification as well? One reason I think this could be so is the early and continued long-distance trade with “mainly” only Lake Superior. Indigenous North American cultures, most notably the Old Copper Complex and other Archaic period cultures, but also the Mound Builders: the Adina, the Hopewell, and the Mississippian, engaged in extensive long-distance trade of Lake Superior copper.

AI Overview: A fish weir (or fish trap) is a, often V-shaped, barrier constructed from natural materials like sticks, rocks, or woven fibers designed to catch fish in rivers or tidal areas. Evidence for prehistoric and historic fish weir traps in the Great Lakes region includes submerged, V-shaped, or linear rock alignments and wooden stake remnants found in rivers, streams, and lake margins. These, often thousands of years old, used to catch fish during spawning seasons. Radiocarbon dating of these wooden structures has, in some cases, shown them to be thousands of years old. The discovery of stone projectile points and pottery near these structures supports their identification as indigenous fishing sites. 

Fish nets in the Great Lakes region. The use of fish nets in the Great Lakes region includes thousands of prehistoric, notched stone net sinkers found at Archaic period sites at various locations in the Upper/Lower Great Lakes. Submerged Fish net Sites: Archaeological evidence of human activity, including potential fishing structures, has been discovered on a submerged ridge in Lake Huron that was dry land 7,500–10,000 years ago. Numerous notched, stone netsinkers dating back to the Archaic period indicate ancient net fishing, with notable discoveries at the Lamoka Lake site (over 8,000), Rocky Ridge, Knechtel I, Donaldson, Inverhuron-Lucas, and Blue Water Bridge South sites.

Evidence for large-scale, systematic fishing with hooks by Indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region is found through archaeological discoveries of thousands of copper tools, specialized bone gear, and extensive, long-term, seasonal settlements that relied on intense, multi-method fishing for subsistence and trade. Archaeological findings indicate the “Old Copper Culture” in the Great Lakes region was utilizing specialized fishing gear as far back as 6,000 years ago, including thousands of discovered copper hooks. Excavations have revealed both native copper hooks and bone, ivory, or flint hooks. These include both single-piece hooks and composite hooks (bone/wood), as well as gorges (double-pointed spikes that catch in a fish’s throat).

• Seasonal Fishing Villages: Indigenous communities, including the Ojibwe, Ottawa, Menominee, and Potawatomi, gathered in large groups (up to 200 people) to establish seasonal fishing villages, such as around Beaver Island, to harvest whitefish, trout, and sturgeon.
• Ice Fishing Knowledge: Indigenous techniques included sophisticated ice fishing, where they used wooden lures and hooks to catch species like whitefish, which spawn from September to February.
• Combined Methods: While nets (made of nettle and basswood) were used for mass harvesting, line and hook fishing was a core technique used year-round, including trolling.

“This is great. I’ve been looking for someone to chat about all this research, but most archaeologists focus on specific regions or cultures (mostly). You’ve researched all over, so this really works for me.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

My response: I appreciate having you to chat with as well.

“This site: “Old Copper Complex (oldcoppercomplex.com)”  was created by some of the Old Copper Complex’s avocational researchers, mainly Dave Johnson. It has dozens of copper artifact collection images that are free to use for research, like your blog. Lots of images to give your readers a better sense of how many items these ancient folks really made.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

My response: I am going to add more on how egalitarian cultures can still have elites or ranked special people as leaders. I think the Old Copper culture was not just a standard hunter-gatherer culture (commonly characterized by equally shared resources, high mobility, and minimal, if any, social hierarchy), but was at least, at some point, transformed into a complex hunter-gatherer culture.

AI Overview: Complex hunter-gatherers, or “affluent foragers,” are specialized, often sedentary, societies that challenge traditional views by displaying high population densities, significant economic specialization, and social inequality without practicing agriculture. Emerging in resource-rich environments (e.g., Pacific Northwest Coast), they feature large, permanent settlements, food storage,, and social hierarchies.

My response: I feel the Old Copper Culture (approx. 4000–1000 BCE), especially in Wisconsin, can be generally characterized or interpreted as having a semi-sedentary or, at a minimum, a seasonally settled lifestyle. While they were part of the broader Archaic hunter-gatherer tradition, their reliance on rich natural resources in specific regions enabled them to establish more permanent or frequently revisited occupations compared to purely nomadic groups.

“We are in agreement, then, about them likely being complex hunter-gatherers at some point. I have several CHG articles saved, and I can send them to you. A lot of similarities with CHGs focusing on aquatic resources, and the OCC is one of those. Lots of harpoons and fishhooks. The mining industry on Isle Royale between 4500-3400 B.C.E.; the copper toolkit, tools for making tools; tight Artifact clusters around marshes, river mouths, and coasts (lakes or the Great Lakes); their multi-generational cemeteries; and the continent-wide trade network in place at the time (roughly between 4500-1000 B.C.E.), all suggest to me that they were complex by at least 4500-4000 B.C.E.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

“Other literature focusing on the Maritime Archaic (papers by Bruce Bourque and others) frames them as comparable in many ways to the Pacific Northwest. What’s neat about that is the OCC is a great fit (because of above listed traits). Besides semi-sedentism, I’ve been thinking they had some amount of year-round sedentism at especially rich rivers, marshes, or trade corridors. Year-round sedentism is expected for Maine’s Maritime Archaic (toolkit complexity, cemetery size and site clustering), and the OCC shares several traits with them. Maritime Archaic began building pit-houses, then long-houses, which have been found along Labrador’s southern coast.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

“You may have seen this presentation by Bruce Bourque: (The Swordfish Hunters, Part 1 of 4: with Bruce Bourque). It gets into some Maritime Archaic details. What’s interesting to me is that Bruce doesn’t think everyone in their society was buried in their cemeteries; he doesn’t think the available data supports that, especially since we know the northeast is prone to shoreline erosion and the Maritime Archaics loved their shorelines. That leaves us with an interesting question, not only for them, but for the OCC: If only selected people are getting buried, who are they? And what’s happening to those who aren’t getting buried in the cemeteries?”  – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

ref

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My response: The Old Copper Culture PRICE SITE 111 BURIAL GROUND site to me is seemingly an example of Egalitarian hunter-gatherer burial, demonstrating that early, non-hierarchical societies still engaged in complex communal funerary practices.

“Lots of bundle burials with this one. Price III’s in southwestern Wisconsin, and the Osceola site is nearby. Both locations have lots of bundle burials.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

Here’s an article about the OCC Littlefork site, a burial with bone harpoons in Northern Minnesota:

digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1388&context=jmas

Info Acquired by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

Info Acquired by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

Info Acquired by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

“Anculosa (Leptoxis) shell beads are mainly being harvested by the Shell Mound Archaic at this time (Mid-Late Archaic); the species is mostly found in that area.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

“The Reigh site stands out for me. It dates to roughly 3200-1500 B.C.E., and shows several burial styles and different item distributions. Some are buried with lithic points, others with copper spearheads. At least one had a large beaded copper necklace that draped over their chest. Another person was buried with a copper “feather” headdress. Some of their burials show hematite chunks (a source for red ochre), while others show polished red ochre chunks or powdered red ochre. Reigh shows more burial variability than the other OCC cemeteries. Besides these, scattered individual burials are known. There was a likely one along the Keweenaw Peninsula’s Portage Canal. It was found during a construction project. The individual uncovered a 23″, 3-1/2 pounds, beveled spearhead with a fluted socket and two rectangular rivet holes. Other individual burials are scattered across Minnesota.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

“By the way, I’m not against egalitarianism. There’s plenty of evidence for that across North America, especially during the Archaic. What I’m proposing is that since many archaeologists originally interpreted Late Archaic remains as Early Woodland, especially the OCC, I’m thinking maybe they actually were more like Early Woodland cultures than we’ve thought (jewelry, some status/important figures, prestige-based goods, and other traits like that). It’d be something like trans-egalitarianism, or like you’ve said, emerging big men/big women or something like that.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

ref

“Nearly all the burials occurred in pits, and both burial pits and cremation pits were found.” ref

My response: I find it interesting that there is one burial off by itself, not part of the group. If I am reading it right, there are like 9 bundle burials, like the one by itself. 2 are in bubble burials, and there are 2 multiple burials with other kinds of burials added with them. 6 flexed burials and 4 extended burials. One is extended, but the knees are bent, and one extended burial is headless. This is all quite odd and seems not to be equal at all, but quite varied. Also, addressing the body that seems to be missing a head at the Oconto Cemetery Site. I assume it is not a war trophy or act of violence, as there is no evidence in this culture at this time of such things that I can find. Nor would I assume it could be an act of revenge or an act of defilement of the body, as it is respectfully buried with everyone else. Thus, my thought is that some kind of skull cult or ancestor worship, which may be what this relates to. Maybe this is a sacred religious figure or a clan leader/big person of some kind; it’s not unthinkable to me as an answer to the missing head.

“Yeah, I think that could be the case. I think there’s at least one person with an embedded lithic point in southern Wisconsin, but it comes after Oconto.”–CopperViolette @CopperViolette

“The Osceola Site is located along the Mississippi River shoreline about two miles south of the town of Potosi in Grant County, Wisconsin. The total estimated number of burials at the Osceola site was 500. These burials invariably consisted of both single and multiple bundle-reburials, with no specific orientation. Furthermore, partial cremation of human remains was noted also. Due to the varying state of preservation and vertical depth, it was concluded that the site was in use for a long but undetermined period of time. The material culture from the site generally did not occur in the burials, yet it was found within the same occupation horizon. These included a variety of utilitarian and ornamental copper artifacts, finely crafted chert side-notched projectile points, chert drills, and flat smoothing stones.” ref

“Therefore, based on the lack of chronometric dates and the absence of any pottery in association with the copper artifacts, the conclusion was that the Osceola Site was occupied sometime during the pre-pottery phase of the Early Woodland Period. This relative date was derived from the poor preservation of skeletal material found at the site, in addition to the heavy patina and corrosion found on the copper artifacts, compared with better-preserved copper implements from the later Mississippian Period. The Oconto Site in eastern Wisconsin, which was dated as early as 4000 BCE, was thus an Old Copper site.” ref

“The Oconto Site Old Copper Culture cemetery held a variety of burial types. The majority of these interments were bundle and flexed burials within pits, some with more than one individual per grave. The Oconto site yielded a total of 26 copper artifacts, which included: seven awls, four crescents, three clasps, one socketed-tang point, one fishtail point, one ovoid point, one fishhook, one bracelet, one spiral coiled tubing, one rivet, one spatula, and four small unidentifiable fragments. There was a variety of non-copper artifacts also recovered from the site, such as side-notched chert projectile points, shell beads, and a unique one whistle associated with a juvenile burial.” ref 

“Of the twenty-one burial pits, one contained nothing, eleven contained a single individual, seven contained two individuals, one contained three, and one contained five. A variety of burial  positions were sometimes found to occur in a single pit. In Feature 7, for example,  there were three bundle burials, one partially flexed, and one extended. In the two instances in which the secondary burials occurred in the same pit as with primary ones, the secondary burials were above the primaries. Apparently, the individuals who died in the winter were kept until the spring thaw made digging possible. Then the recently dead were interred in the flesh, and the bones of those left over from the winter were thrown on top as secondary burials. In eight of the pits, one or more artifacts were found, but there was no consistent or significant position of artifacts in relation to the skeleton.” ref

“The bone whistle, however, lay at the back of the head of the child. Thirteen of the pits were  orientated with the longitudinal axis running in a roughly north-south direction, but there seems to be no significance to it, as some had an east-west orientation and others fell somewhere in between. Furthermore, there seemed to be no pattern as to how the individuals were faced. A total of seven cremation pits. Besides the cemetery, there was little in the way of evidence of occupation. Copper implements, particularly awls, occurred sporadically in the upper levels of  the sand layer and bore no apparent relationship to the burials. Four chipped-stone points were found apart from an association with burials. It is probably that they represent lost or discarded items. Numerous post molds were found and mapped, but no discernable pattern was apparent. A considerable number were of consistent size, usually 8 feet in diameter, and in some cases, three or four would line up with fairly consistent spacing and direction, then abruptly end. Fragments of charcoal were found in two of the molds. The end product was a map showing such disorderly scattering that no resemblance of a wall or house could be ascertained.” ref

AI Overview: Based on limited data from Old Copper Culture (approx. 4000–1000 BCE) burials in the Great Lakes region, skeletal analysis suggests males often had high diversity in grave goods, reflecting integrated community roles. While specialized copper tools existed, evidence suggests both genders may have participated in subsistence, though potentially in different ways. 

• Male Burial Patterns: Individuals identified as male often show the greatest diversity in grave associations, suggesting they were well-integrated and respected members of their communities.
• Role Variability: Contrary to strict, traditional hunter-gatherer models, some research indicates that women in the broader, earlier period participated in specialized activities, such as hunting, though likely targeting smaller game near camps.
• Burial Goods: While Copper Culture is famous for tools like spear points and knives, specific, gender-exclusive grave goods are not universally defined in the literature, often showing a mix of tools, items, or raw materials for both males and females.
• Social Structure: The presence of copper items with both genders hints at a society that, while complex, may not have had rigid, gender-exclusive, hierarchical status distinctions in death, with individuals often buried with items related to their daily life or social standing. 

• The Old Copper Culture (Late Archaic, 3000–1200 BCE): Located around Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, this group is an “archaeological enigma” that produced utilitarian and ceremonial items from native copper. While not strictly hierarchical, the specialized knowledge required to create and trade these items suggests some level of status differentiation (incipient elites) within an otherwise egalitarian, nomadic-to-sedentary, hunting-and-gathering society.
• Middle Woodland (Hopewell Interaction Sphere): In the Great Lakes, this era saw the rise of mound-building, specialized craft production, and long-distance trade, indicating that certain individuals or groups (“shamans” or “big men”) held higher status due to their control over resources and ritual knowledge.
• The “Reverse Dominance” Model: Anthropological studies, such as those by Christopher Boehm, suggest that in these societies, while individuals with high prestige (elites) existed, they were strictly controlled by the community through shunning, ridicule, or, in extreme cases, banishment, ensuring that elite status remained temporary or symbolic rather than coercive.
• Underwater Archaeology Evidence: Underwater sites in Lake Huron (Alpena-Amberley Ridge) have revealed caribou hunting structures from around 9,000 years ago. These suggest a “delayed return” economy where hunting-gathering required community cooperation, yet the coordination of such large-scale, complex infrastructure often hints at the emergence of leadership. 

• The !Kung (Kalahari Desert): While strongly egalitarian, they recognized individuals with higher status based on skills, such as skilled hunters, healers, or those with extensive knowledge.
• The Penan and Pirahã: Often cited as examples of immediate-return, non-hierarchical groups that nonetheless recognize personal influence.
• Mbendjele BaYaka (Congo Basin): Utilize specific roles like shamans or magicians, yet maintain overall egalitarian social relations.
• Australian Aboriginal Societies: While heavily egalitarian, some groups exhibited “gerontocracy” (rule by older men), where older men could monopolize marriage, creating a form of status inequality based on age.
• Pacific Northwest Coast Indigenous Peoples: Considered “complex hunter-gatherers,” they were not fully egalitarian, with institutionalized inequality, social ranking, and, in some cases, slavery, despite relying on hunting and gathering. 

• Reverse Dominance: The band acts together to control individuals who become too domineering through ridicule, shunning, or, in extreme cases, banishment.
• Prestige vs. Power: Leadership was based on voluntary following rather than institutionalized authority. An “elite” member might be respected for their skill, but had no right to order others.
• Demand Sharing: A cultural norm of forcing individuals with more resources (such as food from a successful hunt) to share, preventing the accumulation of wealth. 

“These overviews are correct that there’s limited evidence for conflict in the OCC, at least in its early days (unless they disposed of the bodies in ways that we can’t find). Violence picks up after 4500 B.C.E., with the decapitated individual from the Oconto Cemetery possibly being violence-related. If we look south and east, we find more potential indicators for violence. There’s at least one decapitated woman from the Finger Lakes region, associated with Laurentian and Lamoka Lakes people. In the south, the Shell Mound Archaic’s many cemeteries show many embedded lithic points, decapitations, scalping, fractures (on the skull and lower skeleton), missing hands and feet, and infants buried in odd positions, such as roasting pits. Cherly Classen’s proposed that these were all, or mostly, ritual sacrifices. However, I don’t think inter-group violence and local rituals are mutually exclusive. You can have both in one society that’s interacting and trading with its neighbors, especially if they have some different values.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

“In your papers, you note an uptick in violence for Archaic California. Beyond Oconto, OCC cemeteries grow in size, complexity, and different item distributions. The Osceola Cemetery in southwest Wisconsin, for example, had an estimated 500 burials, with most (documented, at least) in bundle burials. At the Reigh Cemetery, just south of Lake Winnebago in central Wisconsin, has at least several dozen burials (the site was disturbed and outlying burials were partially looted by surface collectors), with many having little-to-no grave goods. Similar to Oconto, the Reigh site shows differences in red ochre distribution, shell usage, and body positions.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

CopperViolette – Some Thoughts from My OCC Notes

“Here’s a general overview of my thoughts: When Don Spohn, the Great Lakes Copper Research Group (possibly), and Ryan Peterson compare the Old Copper Culture/OCC to other global cultures, they rely on Israel’s Ghassulian culture and the Bronze Age, although a more accurate comparison would be the Balkans, Old Europe, and the interaction between EEFs and Mesolithic communities. There are more similarities between Old Europe, its Mesolithic cultures, and the Archaic Midwest and Eastern Woodlands (emphasis on green stones/copper and green tuff, curved-back gouges, shells, red ochre burials in the ground or in shell middens, ground stone and slate technology, mining pits, reliance on fishing and coastal navigation, etc.; see comparison list) than there are between it and Neolithic-Chalcolithic Israel.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

“Ryan Peterson compares OCC mining activities with Ojibwe oral traditions about the significance and sacredness of copper, Isle Royale, and the Great Lakes. The Ojibwe weren’t in this region during the OCC’s peak; Ojibwe have a migration story where they came from the east, with an estimated date between ca. 1500 B.C.E. – 1000 C.E. (debated timing). While useful for perspective (similar to Seth Grooms’s method for decoding Poverty Point’s purpose), they weren’t the original miners, coming possibly from Quebec or the Labrador region, and bringing different world views to the northern Great Lakes. If the Ojibwe came late, as most scholars and tribes think, then they’d share features with incoming Arctic cultures that originate in Siberian cultures participating in bronze and iron trade networks, widespread traveling, etc. Also, they’d share features with tribes living along the Gulf of Mexico (more interaction across the Americas between 500-1492 C.E.) and Central America (travel from Florida into the Carribean and into the Yucatan, and vice-versa, and travel from Louisiana along the coast into Mexico; Central American influence in the Southwest and Eastern Woodlands between 100 B.C.E. and 1300/1492 C.E.). There’s too much change between 4000-3000 B.C.E. and the Ojibwe’s arrival into the northern Great Lakes for me to fully rely on Ryan’s interpretation when we have more accurate and even identical comparisons looking at the world of ca. 6000-3000 B.C.E., with modern archaeology and international research shedding light on their religions (especially with Eurasia, with less restrictions on in-depth research; no NAGPRA).” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

“The OCC, the SMA, the LFT, and the Pacific Northwest cultures (later) originate from the same traditions (with some regional variation) as the EEFs and Mesolithic cultures of Eurasia (ancient Siberian and Steppe shamanism, red ochre usage and burials, an emphasis on shells and coastal travel). If the Eurasian evidence is anything to go on, especially with the Baltic region and EEF-Mesolithic fusion cultures of France and the Balkans (Mid-Late Archaic cultures practiced some agriculture, but not intensive; mostly small plants and gourds) a possibly more accurate OCC/Archaic Midwest religion relates to a balance of opposites, seeing life as interconnected, believing the world is filled with spirits and that there’s an afterlife. The religion was expressed through community gatherings, song (flutes, drums, singing, dancing, etc.), shamanism (possibly using vision quests, psychedelics, fire dancing/chanting, repretitive actions, or anything to produce a waking dream state to see “spirits” that reflect thoughts, feelings, and the environment; set and setting), feasting, and pilgrimages. The emphasis on water and burials placed in locations meant to stir awe (sweeping coastal locations, mountain and hill tops, at river junctions with good views of deltas, the coast, prominant hills, etc.) may relate to a “flow” and “awe” some people describe when having waking dreams, trips (i.e., mescaline, and psilocybin, amanita, ayahuasca, trances, and experiencing “everything flowing like water”), or near-death experiences. It’s a religion that relies more on natural plants, including tobacco (eventually), than the EEF’s “alcohol-based” religion (Tas Tepeler beer tubs within and surrounding T-Pillar sites); having residue analysis of Poverty Point and SMA pottery could help confirm this.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

“The religion likely has built-in hierarchies. In Siberia, totem poles were being carved by at least 10,000 B.C.E. before spreading into Anatolia (Tas Tepeler stone totem poles) and the Pacific Northwest, where the tradition still exists, along with other Siberian traits; periodic or consistent migrations between Siberia, North America, and vice-versa, as shown with DNA – need more data. With Shaman-Totemic religions, spirits and people are placed in hierarchies (Creator/Creators, Its helpers, and lesser spirits, such as those governing trees, grass, rivers, etc.; shamans, grandparents, parents, children; experts and novices; pets and wild animals). People can move up or down hierarchies depending on knowledge and actions, such as successful, bountiful hunts or crimes/taboos, including theft, being too wasteful, or being disrespectful to hunted animals.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

ref, ref, ref, ref

With some of my art.

“Old Copper Culture points, dating to 9,500 to 3,000 years ago, and Agate Basin stone points, dating to 10,500 to 9,500 years ago, may be related. Sediment data: Old Copper Culture emerged 9,500 years ago, peaking 7,000 to 5,000 years ago.” ref, ref, ref, ref

Art/Map by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

ref

“The potential relation between Agate Basin and Scottsbluff lanceolate lithic points and early Old Copper Complex copper lanceolate points is fascinating to me, and relates to a theory I’ve developed about the origin of socketed technology. Whether or not the copper lanceolate points are ancient is still debated by professionals and avocationals, too, because that shape is simple to make.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

“Several years ago, an artifact show had an apparent fluted copper Clovis point. This item is shown on Don Spohn’s copper artifacts timeline diagram, on the far left. The item disappeared after the event was done, and attempts to locate the collector have failed. We don’t know if it’s authentic, but float copper (copper picked up by glaciers and dropped away from its source veins) was abundant in Wisconsin, southern Michigan, and parts of the upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. They had access to it, and if they used it, it would explain why they started mining once they firmly settled (adapted and have lived for several decades to centuries) around Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

“To me, it seems like the copper Agate Basin points are early Old Copper Technology, eventually giving way to simple conical points, then conical points with flattened tips, and then the well-made I-A Triangulates of the Middle Archaic; the earliest confirmed date (with multiple samples) for an I-A is from the Isle Allumette site along the Ottawa River.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

ref

The Role of Functional Efficiency in the Decline of North America’s Copper Culture (8000–3000 BP): an Experimental, Ecological, and Evolutionary Approach

ref

“The broad distribution of the Old Copper Complex is invariably the result of trade throughout the Great Lakes region. For instance, it has been noted there is a close burial pattern and material culture resemblance between the Oconto cemetery in Oconto county Wisconsin and the Brewerton and Frontenac burials of New York State (Brown 1904:325). This pattern likely indicates some form of cultural interaction and knowledge sharing over a very large geographic area. Indeed, similar artifact types have been found in Manitoba and Ontario (Steinbring 1966).” ref

ref

“Within Wisconsin there is a clear indication of where the major concentrations of Old Copper finds are located. The distribution map of copper material housed at the Milwaukee Public Museum shows the highest density of artifacts coming from the east-central portion of the state, specifically near Lake Winnebago. The museum also houses a very large concentration of copper artifacts totaling nearly 400 pieces from Hancock, on the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan. There are many prehistoric copper mines located in this area, which supplied a large portion of the Great Lakes with this important resource.” ref

ref

“Map showing the major copper-bearing zones of the Lake Superior Copper District and the approximate areal extent of the Old Copper Complex (after Gibbon 1998) must have been ‘tremendous, far exceeding any other source’. This dramatic and unequivocal evidence for extensive prehistoric copper exploitation became the basis for the development of a resource procurement model centering on the Lake Superior deposits as the single source for copper artifacts recovered in the ‘northern’ copper region (see Levine 1996, 1999, 2007). The idea was given voice as early as 1855 (Wilson 1855, 204—cited in Levine 1999, 183). Despite some well-reasoned objections and solid geological evidence to the contrary, by the first decades of the twentieth century, it had become ‘fact’ (Levine 2007). For interpreters of prehistoric economic and techno- logical life, the implications of accepting this view were profound. If, as most researchers believed with apparent certitude, all the native copper used to make all of the copper.” ref

Refining the chronology of North America’s copper using traditions: A macroscalar approach via Bayesian modeling

“Abstract: North America’s ancient copper use, predicted to originate as early as 9000 cal BP, represents the earliest use of native copper for utilitarian tool production in the world. Although recent work has focused on establishing the first use of copper in the western Great Lakes region, little attention has been paid to determining the age ranges of subsequent copper using groups or to the identification of broader trends in copper use during the Archaic Period (10,000–3000 RCYBP). Here we address this issue by applying Bayesian modeling to a comprehensive suite of 76 radiocarbon dates directly associated with copper use. Our results identified two distinct peaks in copper usage, ca. 5500 cal BP and ca. 3300 cal BP. Age ranges for the three Archaic Period traditions and practices associated with copper use of the western Great Lakes are revised using modern calibration curves. Bayesian revisions of age ranges from sites where copper tools and/or production debris have been found provide insight into the historical relationships between, and cultural interactions among, these early copper using groups. This study provides an updated, refined chronology based on the most recent calibration curve (IntCal20) for the varied cultural contexts of copper use across the western Great Lakes.” ref

Art/Map by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

Art/Map by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

Art/Map by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

Here are several quotes from “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette from his Old Copper Culture/OCC file:

“Metal detectors have been around for a long time but only became widespread at the end of WW2 when soldiers returning home picked up surplus metal detectors that had been used around the world for detecting mines, unexploded ordinance, and other wartime purposes. These detectors were large and heavy machines with comparatively little ability by today’s standards. In the 1950s and 1960s a number of technological advances made lighter, and more sensitive metal detectors possible and as such, became a popular hobby. Sometime around the same time Steinbring worked on and submitted his thesis paper (1975) some of the first individuals in the western Great Lakes region were realizing the treasure trove of copper artifacts beneath their feet.”

“When large, well-made copper implements kept turning up in Midwestern fields and gardens in the early 20th century, some claimed they were proof that Bronze Age Europeans founded the great mound-building civilizations of the Americas, bringing Old World metallurgical skills with them. “Who else could have created such sophisticated metal tools?” the thinking went. Taking a closer look, however, researchers discovered that copper was mined in the Great Lakes region and crafted into tools by Indigenous groups, perhaps the mound-building Adena or Hopewell cultures of the Ohio River Basin. So, until the development of radiocarbon dating in the early 1950s, the Old Copper Complex (OCC)—also called Old Copper Culture—was thought to have occurred between around 1,000 B.C. and A.D. 500. Now studies show this engimatic complex existed by at least 6,000 B.C., if not earlier, making it one of the oldest metallurgical traditions in the world.”

“Because Great Lakes copper is typically more than 95% pure, ancient groups were often able to simply pick up a nugget, break off any surrounding matrix material, and begin hammering it into the desired shape. Research has shown that Archaic period groups in the Great Lakes region used a variety of production methods to create copper implements such as hot and cold hammering and annealing. Tool types include arrowheads, spearpoints, needles, chisels, awls, axes, a wide variety of knives, fishing tools, and other implements. Some tools had tangs attached to a shaft or sockets to fit over a shaft and most show heavy use. Many copper artifacts show extreme uniformity and quality, indicating a high degree of technological specialization. Despite the thousands of copper artifacts held in museum and likely more in private collections, few Archaic Great Lakes habitation sites exist and even fewer have been systematically excavated, with most data coming from a handful of professionally excavated cemeteries—namely the Reigh, Osceola, and Oconto sites in Wisconsin, and the Riverside site in Michigan.”

“[A] technological attribute links the spud with the IA. This consists of a “step” noted by Wittry to abut the shaft (or handle in the case of the spud). This reinforcement is seen as an advance over the earlier forms of the IA. It is extremely interesting to see this feature on the spud which also exhibits a pointed base. Such a pointed base is a persisting hallmark of the IA’s. An interpretation of the presence of it on a woodworking tool could be that the mobile Plano hunters had settled down somewhat and were commencing to exploit the forests as a more basic economic pursuit. They were still hunters, of course, but they were now making a mature adjustment to the eastern woodlands, probably to include the production of dugout watercraft for exploitation of the pervasive pattern of waterways in the mid-continent.”

“The largest petroglyph site in the North American continental interior is located in Southwestern Minnesota. This is known as the Jeffers Site and contains some 2,000 separately incised and pecked glyphs or symbols on a flat rock formation in the open prairies. Among the many clusters of glyphs are several which depict projectile points with long spindly tangs, forms not possible (or practical) in stone, but well suited to copper. These are associated in units of glyphs with figures of the atl atl — or throwing stick, standard equipment of the Archaic Tradition to which Old Copper belongs, and to which these glyph units are also assigned (Roefer et al., 1973). Crescents appear on this site as well. There is reason to believe that the Jeffers Site may in some way relate to another major petroglyph site near Peterborough, Ontario. This Peterborough Petroglyph Site, while much smaller, shares forms with Jeffers, and exhibits a set of shapes which may represent other variations of other copper projectile point types, including one which is probably socketed. In addition, there are a number of crescent shapes which have been deemed (in most cases correctly) boats by Drs. Joan and Romas Vastokas, the principle investigators (1973). It is quite conceivable that the simpler versions of these boats, especially a set of 4, each with two-man forms, with their crescent, produce an exact representation of one formal old copper crescent sub-type (IIID).” (Pg. 164)

Keatanang, Lake Superior Ojibwa, Sacred Copper, ca. 1830

“The lump of copper in the forest is a great treasure for me. It was so for my father and grandfather. It is our hope and our protection.”

Paul Schanen, Patina: Native American Copper Artifacts of the Western Great Lakes Region, 2022

“There is a persistent myth that copper was at least sometimes smelted in the prehistoric Great Lakes region. There is no evidence of this however, period. It’s not for lack of trying, many have looked into the subject at length (Martin, pg 136) and all have come to the same conclusion, it just didn’t happen. The bubbles sometimes seen on copper artifacts have been reproduced with cold hammering techniques many times over including by the author. Likewise, there’s no great cover up regarding the removal of copper from the great Lakes by Europeans or Asian peoples. If there has been there would have been some shred of evidence now but none have ever been discovered. People like to also point to astronomical numbers in terms of pounds of copper removed from the ancient mines but in the end they are nothing but a guess. I must also add though that a lot of copper was removed from the ancient mines by nearly anybody’s estimation, but the idea that some of it is somehow “missing” just isn’t accurate. When a person goes and views the private collections of Mr. Johnson, Mr. Miller, Mr. Bussey, the Milwaukee Public Museum, the Logan Museum of Anthropology, the Chicago Field Museum, the Hamilton Collection in Madison, plus hundreds of smaller collections both public and private and realize that only a small fraction of all the copper tools ever produced have been found, then the massive amount of copper pulled from the mines makes perfect sense… none of it is missing. Lastly, though there’s no evidence of smelting in this area, it did happen in South America. The Miche Culture of Peru in particular took metal working to a level never dreamed of in the Midwest, the Moche made numerous alloys, mastered smelting, and mass produced many items. (Muro 1998)”

“I think stone artifacts might be able to give us a unique insight into the prehistoric use of copper. When we examine the typical farm field collection of stone points picked up anywhere in the country we quickly see that the overwhelming majority of what is found is either artifacts that broke during use and were discarded, or were used and resharpened so much that they eventually wore down to an all but useless nub in its final stage. People find more purposely discarded pieces that had become too small to work with than they do artifacts which were lost and represent an early stage artifact. This is important to think about. If the majority of stone artifacts that are found are pieces that were broken or discarded and only a very small percentage represent pieces that were lost before this final stage what can make of the copper we find? Steinbring (1975 pg 35) briefly eludes to copper’s unique ability to be resharpened or reworked almost indefinitely into new tools. The majority of the copper we find is not final stage broken and discarded material, but more often than not something that appears to have been lost during its life cycle, not at the end. If we assume that the percentage of copper artifacts that were lost prior to being “used up” mirrors its stone counterparts (remember with stone that what we find early or mid-life versus final stage represents only a very small percentage of the overall artifact population, perhaps one or two percent?) then we must ask ourselves where all the broken and used up copper has gone that should compose the majority of what we find. But copper is different of course, copper has unique properties which allow it to be recycled and re-used an almost infinite number of times and ways. There’s absolutely no doubt that copper was reworked when it broke or wore down. Examples are scattered throughout the pages that follow, broken crescents turned into stick knives, spuds turned into celt forms, etc. When copper broke or approached final stage the ancient smith needed only throw it back into the fire to give the piece a second life as a new tool. A well worn knife could be turned into a large awl, a well worn awl into a hook or a bead. The possibilities are endless. Perhaps recycling into other usable, albeit slightly smaller, tools is why we find such large numbers of awls? Perhaps it is why we find so few late stage copper artifacts in general? Perhaps these typically early and mid life copper pieces we find only represent, like their stone counterparts, one or two percentage of what was originally made?! This would also go a long ways in determining where some people’s tons of “lost copper” went!”

Elpidia Giovanna Frengi, A Study of the Manufacture of Copper Spearheads in the Old Copper Complex, The Minnesota Archaeologist, Vol. 68, 2009

“Copper artifacts have been collected in the Upper Great Lakes region since the nineteenth century (Wittry 1957:204). However, almost every recovered artifact was obtained as random surface finds in the more populated areas, in plowed fields, or in gravel quarries. Because the vast majority of copper artifacts have been found in those areas that were developed in the last century, the distribution of finds should be regarded as biased. The eastern portion of the region where copper artifacts are most commonly found were developed earlier than the northern and western locations, with the greatest concentrations of finds having been found near the shores of Lake Michigan in Washington and Manitowoc counties of Wisconsin, and along the Wolf and Fox Rivers of Wisconsin (Wittry 1957:209; Mason 1981:188).” (Pg. 122)

“The particular shape of Wittry IA spear points as well as other socketed tools such as spuds could have been produced by a process called “swedging,” where a preformed piece of copper is hammered into the negative space in a mold of wood or stone. How claimed to have found a piece of a limestone mold that could have been used for this purpose (Martin 1999:130). In his dissertation, Steinbring proposed that swedging was the most likely means by which Wittry IA spear points could have been manufactured. While no one had duplicated the technique, he suggested that a microscope analysis of the upper surface might reveal embedded traces of limestone from the original mold (Steinbring 1975:90). He paid particular attention to the manufacture of the socket, noting that “continuous hammering would… lead to a rounded cross section” rather than the typical sockets with flanged evenly formed at 90° or 60° angles (Steinbring 1975:90).” (Pgs. 124-125)

“Spear points and other copper artifacts of the Old Copper Complex were manufactured without smelting or casting the metal, which would have necessitated hammering the artifact into its finished shape from nuggets of native copper. The first question was how one would hammer a raised lateral rib to create a triangular cross section, as well as hammering the socket with a long straight edge. The easiest means of achieving this would be swedging after annealing the copper. Not only would the spearhead be quickly manufactured by this process, but it would also provide some uniformity that would be more difficult to achieve through hammering by hand. Hury noted that socketed points tended to have similar designs (Jury 1965:237). A larger collection was briefly examined at the Minnesota Historical Society and it was noted that of the socketed spearheads, the general description of the artifact (smooth dorsal surfaces and folded ventral surface with sharply angled socket flanges) was consistent throughout the collection. In a report published in The Wisconsin Archaeologist, a spud found at the Osceola site was “slipped onto [an antler haft from the Reigh site] and a neater, snugger fit could hardly be imagined” (Ritzenthaler et al. 1957:280). If artifacts from one site to another could be that uniform, it could indicate that there was a technology that employed molds for manufacture.” (Pg. 127)

Lewis R. Binford, Archaeology as Anthropology, American Antiquity, Vol. 28, No. 2, 10/1962

“I suggest that the Old Copper copper tools had their primary functional context as symbols of achieved status in cultural systems with an egalitarian system of status grading. The settlement patterns and general level of cultural development suggested by the archaeological remains is commensurate with a band level of socio-cultural integration (Martin, Quimby, and Collier 1947: 299), that level within which egalitarian systems of status grading are dominant (Fried 1960). The technomic form, apparent lack of technomic efficiency, relative scarcity, and frequent occurrence in burials of copper artifacts all suggest that their primary function was as socio-technic items…”

“I propose that the initial appearance of formally “utilitarian” copper tools in the Great Lakes region is explicable in terms of a major population expansion in the region following the Nipissing stage of the ancestral Great Lakes. The increase in population density was the result of increases in gross productivity following an explorative shift to aquatic resources during the Nipissing stage. The increased populations are generally demonstrable in terms of the increased number of archaeological sites ascribable to the post-Nipissing period. The shift to aquatic resources is demonstrable in the initial appearance of quantities of fish remains in the sites of this period and in the sites of election for occupation, adjacent to prominent loci of availability for exploiting aquatic resources. It is proposed that with the increasing population density, the selective pressures fostering the symbolic communication of status, as opposed to the dependence on personal recognition as the bases for differential role behavior, were sufficient to result in the initial appearance of a new class of socio-technic items, formally technomic status symbols.”

Susan Martin, Wonderful Power: The Story of Ancient Copper Working in the Lake Superior Basin, 1999

“Fogel’s analyses, Popham and Emerson’s distribution study, and analyses of the Morrison’s Island-6 and related sites suggested that the people of the vast region of the Upper Great Lakes and their neighbors shared a patterned set of behaviors and beliefs, which was evidenced in their cemeteries, featuring the occasional inclusion of special exotic artifacts acquired from one another through trade. This long-lived belief structure and its manifestations in burials varied through time and across region, but indicated a coherence that must have come from constant interactions among communities in different environments and with different local commodities to offer one another.

Additional research on the archaeology of ritual and trade expanded the knowledge of the longevity of ancient communication networks and the interconnectedness of prehistoric communities across eastern North America (Baugh and Ericson 1994; Bourque 1981, 1994; Donaldson and Wortner 1995; Heckenberger, Peterson, and Basa, 1990; Heckenberger et al., 1990; Smith 1996; Varney and Pfeiffer 1995; Wright 1994). Copper’s role in ritual uses and trading relationships was of great inteest because of its durability and widespread distribution.” (Pgs. 188-189)

“Perishable trade commodities are routinely underrepresented in archaeological deposits, because their degradation removes them from the record. However, such things no doubt circulated within the trade networks of prehistoric North America (Baugh and Ericson 1994; Brose 1994; Smith 1996; Trigger 1987; G.A. Wright 1967; J.V. Wright 1995). Lacking archaeological data, written records help to infer what of organics origin was of interest in the trade. In the Upper Great Lakes, the written accounts of seventeenth-century French observers provided a partial restorative to otherwise conjectural information about native trade in perishables. An accounting from one area, that of northern Lake Huron, suggested the following perishable trade goods handled during the seventeenth century by the Odawa or Manitoulin Island: reed mats, fish, berries, meat, furs, and antler. In addition they acted as middlemen handlers or importers of nets, hemp, oils, tobacco, maize, wampu, marine shell, and medicine (Smith 1996). Ethnic groups to the west, such as the Menominee and Winnebago, handled bison skins (273), while the southern Huron were the primary source of maize, black squirrel, and racoon skins (Trigger 1987:62-63). Trigger, Wright (1994), and Smith (1996) described in some detail the various trading arrangements that occupied seventeenth-century native people in the Upper Great Lakes. Together their accounts suggested that the trade links of native people at the time of the earliest written accounts extended across the eastern half of the continent.” (Pgs. 195-196)

“The primary archaeological evidence for trade in perishables prior to the seventeenth century in the Upper Great Lakes consisted of marine shell excavated from burial contexts. At the Riverside site, Hruska identified shell beads as “salt-water shell” but did not provide a species identification for them. Recent reanalysis confirmed that they were marine in origin (Thomas C. pleger, personal communication, 1997). A range of species of Atlantic coast shells was also found in the burial suites at the Oconto and Reigh sites in Wisconsin. The evidence for the importance of the shell trade was stronger in the central Midwest, where it was associated with copper in burial settings (Goad 1979; Winters 1968). Winters noticed that over time there were long-wave fluctuations in the activity level of the shell trade in the central Midwest. The prolific acquisition of copper was clearly part of trade cycles there, where marine shell and copper were tightly associated. “Marine shell and copper were being distributed over vast distances within eastern North America by the third millennium B.C.” (Winters 1968:219). Studies of the archaeological distribution of marine shell may be critical to understanding how prehistoric trade networks operated, particularly among the large communities of the American southeast during the late years of prehistory (Goodman 1984). The northern data for the shell trade are sparse. The acidic soils of the north ruled out the physical preservation of shells unless they were associated with very favorable microconditions such as the chemistry of copper oxidation (Janaway 1985).” (Pg. 196)

Earl Johnson, The Old Copper Culture, Central States Archaeological Journal, Vol. 41, No. 3, July, 1994

“The Old Copper Culture is probably one of the least known Indian cultures. These prehistoric people lived in the Upper Great Lakes area about three to seven thousand years ago. They may have been the world’s first metal workers, yet very little has been written about them. They mined the rich native copper deposits in the Lake Superior region of Michigan and used the metal to make a variety of tools and weapons. I felt that it was unfortunate that historians had given the Old Copper Culture Indians such little recognition, so for the past ten years I have tried to promote an awareness of these unique people.

Only a relatively few amateur archaeologists have made a serious effort to find Old Copper Indian artifacts. Perhaps this is because, unlike lithic artifacts, copper is seldom found in plowed fields. After several thousand years in a heavily forested environment, the copper artifacts are buried too deep for a plow to reach.”

“[Dave Bierbrauer and I] discovered that the erosion of the shores of lakes and rivers often brought copper artifacts within the limited reach of our detectors. As water levels rose and fell, the roots of trees were undermined by the waves and eventually the trees toppled and any deeply buried artifacts that were entangled in the roots were washed out into the water. By wading the shores we have been successful in finding several very productive Old Copper Culture sites. Most of the copper artifacts are found in the water, and some are found on the exposed beaches when water levels are low. We have worked these sites repeatedly over the years and still continue to find artifacts. Accurate records are kept of the sites, and the precise location where each artifact is found is recorded.” (Pg. 119)

Austin A. Buhta et al., Minnesota’s Archaic Tradition: An Archaeological and Paleoenvironmental Overview and Assessment, Archaeological Contract Series 292, 12/2017

“Evidence for dwellings at Archaic sites in the Great Lakes area is generally either absent altogether or ephemeral, manifesting in the form of isolated or limited numbers of post mold features. Rockshelters were clearly utilized in areas where they are present, such as at the Durst and Raddatz sites, but open-air camp structures are more difficult to detect. Purtill (2015) notes the identification of a variety of different structure forms at Lake Archaic sites in Ohio, including circular, oval, rectangular, and C-shaped patterns. However, evidence is even more elusive for earlier-period Archaic sites. In the littoral zones near the Great Lakes, part of the problem is that from about 11,000-6000 BP, lake levels were much lower than they presently are, meaning that any sites from this period would be inundated (Lovis 2009:742). Hearth feature form and function appears diverse throughout the Archaic, even within the same site. Identified features range from shallow, unlined oval basins and stains to deep basins (e.g., Pleger and Stoltman 2009:702).” (Pg. 63)

“The Old Copper complex, or industry, is a technological manifestation centered on the Great Lakes area and strongly affiliated with Middle and Late Archaic groups living there (Pleger and Stoltman 2009:707-709). The complex derives from evidence that prehistoric inhabitants utilized native copper deposits in the manufacture of tools. The majority of Old Copper diagnostic artifacts are utilitarian in nature and include such forms as spear points, hooks, harpoons, gorges, axes, adzes, celts, spuds, ulus, chisels, gouges, wedges, knives, awls, punches, and drills. Far less common are items used for personal adornment, such as rings, bracelets, clasps, and pendants (Pleger and Stoltman 2009:708). Though most diagnostic Old Copper tools have been located in the Wisconsin vicinity, specimens have been identified as far west as the eastern Dakotas, Manitoba, and Alberta (Gibbon 1998:45), and as far east as Maryland (Curry 2002) and New Jersey (Veit et al. 2004). Old Copper sites have been dated to a timeframe of approximately 5920-2950 C14 yr BP (Pleger and Stoltman 2009:707-709).

In contrast to Old Copper site assemblages, copper artifacts from later time periods tend to be more decorative in nature and less utilitarian. Of course, there is some degree of overlap both ways, and one of the problems faced by researchers is that the majority of identified copper artifacts are surface finds with uncertain provenience; hence, assigning specimens to an absolute timeframe is often not feasible. This, coupled with the virtual absence of Old Copper-associated habitation sites, has resulted in a very limited understanding of the lifeways of groups utilizing this technology.” (Pg. 63)

Jack Steinbring & Ron Sanders, Comments on Some Archaic Copper Artifacts from Waupaca County, Wisconsin Archaeologist, Vol. 77, 1996

“Drift copper was abundantly available for the growth of this new technology in very early times. However, the full potential of it was probably not recognized for several centuries. Lanceolates of several “types,” and even Scottsbluff forms, were being made long before these styles were abandoned in favor of sockets and long tangs – neither possible in stone. The time of the introduction of sockets is not known, but there is some reason to think that it took place while the rigid sense of stylistic precision which characterized Plano lithic types had not yet faded away. The IA’s, while totally different in every way from the prevailing lanceolate, are themselves compulsively stereotypical. If you have seen one, you have definitely seen them all.”

“IA’s spread north and west across the prairie and grassland, and are comparatively rare in the northern woodland and Precambrian Shield. … Major environmental factors may be at work in the origins and spread of these significantly different hafting procedures. The square socket of the IA’s would be best suited to hard woods, and consequently the oak savannah spread of late Plano times. The emergence and rapid spread of mixed pine-aspen forest into the north, and especially along the northern rivers, would allow the use of soft woods in the employment of the insertion haft. Perhaps this northern spread (with some very early dates) started while form was still vital, and the idea of the insertion haft technology had only lately been invented. Sockets too spread north, but in the form of IB’s with rounded sockets, and, from the data available, in relatively later times.”

“Tests on IA’s have shown that annealing had taken place, the alternate heating, beating, and cooling which compacts and hardens the copper. Investigators have reported that only the blade of the IA is treated this way, while on IB’s and other forms, the whole specimen is annealed (Steinbring 1975: 89-91; see Steinbring 1980:189 for another type of example). Why would this be the case? One answer may be that the IA’s were annealed with the shaft in place! Aspen and pine would be far less likely to survive such a procedure than would oaks, tending to support the idea that IA’s spread with the oak savannah, still consistent with Plano times. And, it should be mentioned, that several of the classic Plano lanceolates in copper occur in this very same pattern of distribution from Minnesota, through Manitoba to Saskatchewan (Steinbring 1966: 567).”

Don Spohn, Prehistoric Copper Artifacts Journal, Vol. 4, No. 2, 12/2008

“First, it is our observation that the Socketed Triangulate is; a well designed tool of war and implement of the hunt. Ancient man probably found it efficient and functional. Indications of its functionality are (1) its proliferation in Wisconsin and nearby areas, (2) its popularity over time, (3) the sophistication of its design (4 outer sides and 3 inner sides on its socket, for example) and (4) the skill, energy and time required for its production in comparison to simpler copper projectile points.

Still, as efficient and utilitarian as the Socketed Triangulate may have served its owners, the unnecessary intricateness of its form, the planners’ obsession with triangles, and the craftsman’s fixation on the triangular thickness of the blade base, all suggest more than utility. Future students of copper, especially those with advanced statistical skills, may find the whole point type is designed around that single triangle, roughly 3/16 of an inch high with a 3/4 to1 inch base. This little triangle appears to be the seat, the heart, or perhaps the womb in which all other Socketed Triangulates traits were built upon or conceived in.” (Pg. 24)

Dylan Violette (CopperViolette), I-A Triangulate Notes

Widespread similarities across the Great Lakes region and beyond suggest standardized manufacturing and well-formed trade and communication networks by at least the Middle Archaic, if not earlier. The tool’s standardized 16-triangular form, polishing, and sturdiness suggest that copper working was done for more than simply utilitarian tools. The time spent finding copper, mining it, refining it into ingots, trading it, and then manufacturing an I-A suggests that copper working and tool manufacture were like an art form. These people valued clean lines, balanced proportions, and geometry; their culture was mathematically and mechanically inclined.

Tools are typically made to make jobs easier, not harder. If they were strictly utilitarian, then the crude conical points would’ve been enough. If the studies on copper tool effectiveness, Larry Furo’s anecdotes on efficiency, and Old Eastern European (Southeast Europe’s Copper Age as a cultural comparison) copper metallurgy are anything to go on, then these tools are also associated with status. A freshly made copper I-A, with its shiny surface and red hue, would be eye-catching to those who use stone, bone, and wooden tools.

When combining these traits together (alongside other copper tool forms), it suggests a level of social complexity beyond simple wandering bands of hunter-gatherers. Complex hunter-gatherers are a much better fit.

There was a trade corridor up and down the Mississippi from at least 10,000 B.C.E.; marine shell passed through the Shell Mound Archaic into Old Copper Complex and Oxbow Complex territory. I-A’s are apparently based on a triangle, suggesting some common measurement unit. Interestingly, Watson Brake (Middle Archaic) and Poverty Point’s (Late Archaic) geometry incorporates triangles.

Kenneth Sassaman, The Eastern Archaic, Historicized, 2010

“The Archaic is the longest period of eastern North American history, but it is served by the fewest number of practicioners and it gets the fewest number of pages in syntheses of the region. If the human presence in eastern North America is at least 13,500 calendar years long, then at roughly 8,300 calendar years, the Archaic period comprises about 63% of the pre-Columbian past. Still, authors of syntheses published since 1980 devote no more than 30 percent of their pages to the period (Bense 1994; Dent 1995; Mason 1981; Milanich 1994; Morse and Morse 1983; Muller 1986; O’Brien and Wood 1998; Snow 1980; Walthall 1980), and they average a lowly 16 percent. Contrast this with the attention to human experience after the Archaic period. Although it comprises only 21.3 percent of the total past, the last three millennia account for 73.4 percent of the pages of regional syntheses” (Pgs. 5-6)

“The nine regional- or state-level syntheses in this sample were issues over a two-decade period, from 1980 to 1999. Excluding pages devoted to the Euro-American past, the length of these syntheses varies from 272 to 418 pages, with an average of 322.9 ± 52.1 pages. Pages given to the Archaic period range from a low 27 (9.9 percent) to a high of 102 (29.7 percent), with an average of 52.5 ± 16.7 pages. In short, the period that comprises 63.4 percent of the human past in eastern North America gets only 16.0 percent of the total words written in major syntheses.” (Pgs. 27-28)

Nathanael Fosaaen, The First Society: An Introduction to Hunter-Gatherers, 10/07/2021

“[H]unter-gatherers have a lot of very odd and old-fashioned ideas attached to them, both in kind of the general public imagination and also still in the minds of a lot of archaeologists, and a lot of these kind of weird ideas that I’m going to explain are really just the baggage that we inherited from earlier generations of archaeologists.

Now, first off, hunter-gatherer is a term that we use to describe cultures that don’t base their economies on agriculture or animal husbandry. There might be some gardening here and there, but that’s supplemental. It’s not the basis of their entire economy.”

“Early on in archaeology, say, like, the 19th and early 20th centuries, hunter-gatherers were thought of in very negative terms. The term hunter-gatherer wasn’t really the norm at the time yet. Archaeologists and anthropologists usually just called them savages, and this obviously played right into the egos of the mostly European archaeologists who came from very agrarian and urbanized groups of nations that were in the habit of running into hunter-gatherer groups around the world and taking over their land and taking their stuff. There was a lot of talk about, you know, civilizing the savages, can we civilize the savages, should we, or civilizing the barbarians if those people had happened to develop agriculture but didn’t have all the other social norms and things that the anthropologists thought made them as, you know, “civilized people superior,” and the whole thing was very tied up in the idea that people are somehow supposed to be sedentary agriculturalists and anything else is kind of a degenerate or regressive or backward way of being, you know, a person or a society or culture, and frankly the entire discipline was just a mess.”

James Tuck, The Ancient People of Port au Choix: The Excavation of an Archaic Indian Cemetery in Newfoundland, 1976

“[T]he assemblage of woodworking tools speaks for a major industry in wood- and bark-working as was the case among later people of the northeast who followed a more or less traditional way of life. Axes, adzes, bark peelers, and probably knives and awls as well were doubtless employed in the manufacture of bark cooking and storage vessels of various sizes and for various purposes, perhaps canoes, and at least occasionally slabs of bark were probably employed as coverings for dwellings. The Micmac used whale and porpoise ribs for bark peelers and the large paddle-like artifact described above, as well as the bell-shaped implement from Locus I could have served the same purpose. Part of this operation would also involve girdling the tree for which axes and adzes were doubtless used. Finally, some of the heavy bone awls (described previously under skin working implements) were probably used to perforate the cut and folded sheets of bark which were then sewn, probably with spruce root as among, for instance, the Northern Ojibwa (Skinner, 1912:127), and the Beothuks.

The working of wood was certainly a well-developed art and the number of end products was probably extremely high. Houses, storage sheds, drying racks, and other log and pole structures were doubtless built of trees felled with the same stone axes described above. Trees probably were also cut for the manufacture of dugout canoes, and large and small cooking vessels of wood. Champlain witnessed the construction of such a boat in what is now Massachusetts which he described thus:

After cutting down, at a cost of much labor and time, the largest and tallest tree they can find, by means of stone hatchets (for they have no others except some few which they received from the savages on the coasts of La Cadie, who obtained them in exchange for furs), they remove the bark, and round off the tree except on one side, where they apply fire gradually along its entire length; and sometimes they put red-hot pebble stones on top. When the fire is too fierce, they extinguish it with a little water, not entirely, but so that the edge of the boat may not be burnt. It being hollowed out as much as they wish, they scrape it all over with stones, which they use instead of knives. These stones resemble our musket flints (Grant, 1967:66).

In place of the “musket flint” scrapers, I suspect that the gouges from Port au Choix would have served equally as well. Probably, bone gouges were used by Micmac in the mid-Seventeenth century to manufacture a large cooking trough which they did in the following manner:

For making them, they employed stone axes, and set into the end of a forked stick (where they were) well tied. With these axes they cut a little into the top of the wood at the length they wished the kettle. This done they placed fire on top and made the tree burn. When it burnt about four inches in depth they removed the fire, and then with stones and huge points bones, as large as the thumb, they hollowed it out as best they could, removing all the burnt part. Then they replaced the fire, and when it was again burnt they removed it all from the interior and commenced again to seperate the burnt part, continuing this their kettle was big enough for their fancy, and that was oftener too big than too little (Denys, 1908:401-402).

Other wooden artifacts can only be guessed at, but the Mistassini still manufacture toboggans (for which out splitting and planing adzes would have served), snowshoes, ladles, spoons, cups, tool handles, numerous traps, hide stretchers, and other objects (cf. Rogers, 1967); with the addition of spear and lance shafts and other items which have been replaced by European technology, their number must have been considerable.” (Pgs. 48-50)

Heather Pringle, Buried in Beads 4,000 Years Ago, This Chiefly Family Lives Again, National Geographic, June 30, 2017

“At a remote site overlooking the Salish Sea in British Columbia, archaeologists made the discovery of a lifetime in 2010. While digging an ancient shell midden, researchers from the University of Toronto and the local shíshálh Nation were astonished to find the grave of an ancient chief laid to rest nearly 3,700 years ago in a ceremonial bead garment weighing more than 70 pounds. Nearby lay several members of his wealthy family.

“These are some of the most elaborate burials in North America before European contact,” noted Terence Clark, an archaeologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon who directed the project.”

“The grave sites first came to light after shíshálh researchers noticed shells and artifacts eroding from a bank in their lands northwest of Vancouver. A subsequent visit revealed several stone beads, so they asked archaeologists to investigate. In a saucer-shaped grave flecked with red ochre, the archaeologists discovered skeletal remains of a man about 50 years old, who lay curled on his side and facing an ocean inlet. Parallel rows of nearly 350,000 small stone beads—a quantity sufficient to fill a bathtub today—completely covered his body.

Producing so many beads by hand would have taken a vast amount of time, says Clark. Made from small pieces of shale or mudstone, each bead had to be ground into a disc roughly half the size of an aspirin, then drilled with a hole. When archaeologist Brian Thom of the University of Victoria tried to replicate this process several years ago with pieces of slate and traditional stone tools, it took him 13 minutes on average to make just one stone bead. An experienced bead-maker could have sped things up considerably, doubling the rate of production, suggests Clark. But even in that best-case scenario, more than 35,000 hours would have been needed to make the chief’s ceremonial bead garment.

In a cashless society, where hours of labor equate to value, the beads represent “a fantastic concentration of wealth,” says Alan McMillan, an archaeologist at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby who was not part of the team.

“[Another] grave belonged to an infant whose skeleton bore extensive traces of red ochre, a pigment frequently used in Northwest Coast rituals today.

Just how this ancient chiefly family managed to accumulate such wealth 3,700 years ago remains an open question. Societies living along the shores of the Salish Sea at that time made their living by fishing, hunting deer and other game, and foraging or cultivating carbohydrate-rich root plants such as wapato. They had yet to acquire slaves or live in the big, multi-family longhouses characteristic of the historic period—conditions that could have led to the accumulation of wealth.

Clark thinks this chiefly family possessed knowledge of great value to others, who bestowed gifts on this lineage during feasts. “This family is so wealthy because they have special ritual knowledge or spiritual knowledge,” Clark says.”

Archaic Societies, The End of the Archaic?, 2008

“Poverty Point and its elaborate trade and mound building ceased at about 3100–3000 cal B.P. (Kidder 2006; Saunders and Allen 2003). At roughly the same time, people living on the south Atlantic coast stopped constructing shell rings, and a gap between ca. 3000 and 2500 cal B.P. appears in the archaeological record of many parts of the Midcontinent. A generally unasked but clearly significant question is, what became of the Archaic? The shift from Late Archaic to Early Woodland is one of the most prominent culture-historical transformations recorded in eastern North America (Anderson 2001; Sassaman and Anderson 2004:111–113). The Late Archaic–Early Woodland transition in much of eastern North America is indicated by a sudden disruption in regional, local, and site occupations and notable transformations in settlement, economy, and society. In contrast to the Late Archaic, Early Woodland societies are considered less complex looking and are characterized by apparently lower population densities, more restricted ranges of settlements and settlement types, less long-distance trade, and decreased architectural, burial, and artifact diversity (Bense 1994; Emerson and Fortier 1986; Emerson and McElrath 2001; Farnsworth and Asch 1986; Farnsworth and Emerson 1986; Fiedel 2001; Neuman 1984; O’Brien and Wood 1998).

For many archaeologists, the transition was not a discrete event or events but simply a gradual locally and regionally in situ process of evolutionary change (Garland 1986; Lewis 1986; Tiffany 1986). In this model, Early Woodland populations practiced Late Archaic lifeways with the addition of some key traits, most notably, ceramic vessels (Farnsworth and Emerson 1986; Griffin 1986). Others argue the Late Archaic to Early Woodland transition was accomplished by the physical or biological replacement of earlier Late Archaic populations by immigrants into the region who brought with them emerging ceramic technology and, perhaps, associated subsistence knowledge (Emerson and McElrath 2001). This model explicitly challenges the prevailing notion of cultural continuity and argues that punctuated equilibrium rather than gradualism better describes the process of social change in this part of North America (Emerson and McElrath 2001; Fortier 2001).

Gibson (1974, 1996b, 1999, 2000) argues that Poverty Point was so large, had such complex architecture, economy, and social institutions, and was so regionally interconnected through trade and exchange that an exceptional form of social and political organization was required to develop, organize, and maintain it. The historical inability of Poverty Point leadership to sustain this complexity led to the rapid demise of the site and the transformation of the associated culture into the local Early Woodland Tchula culture. A final model proposed by Fiedel (2001) argues that, for northeastern North America, climate change may have been a causal factor in the shift from Late Archaic to Early Woodland. He argues that the shift from Late Archaic to Early Woodland and the subsequent decline in human populations correlate well with evidence for climate change resulting in a period of cooler temperatures and increased precipitation.

The climate-change model receives support from multiple sources. Examination of an increasingly large body of high-resolution climate data suggests that an episode (or multiple brief episodes) of global climate change involving significant changes in temperature and precipitation occurred during the period ca. 3150–2600 cal B.P. (Baier et al. 2004; Berglund 2003; Bond et al. 1997; Bradley et al. 2003; Calvo et al. 2002; Huntley et al. 2002; Kaplan et al. 2002; Lücke et al. 2003; Marshall et al. 2001; Schulz and Paul 2002; Wefer et al. 2002). The effects of altered climate systems are apparent in data from throughout the northern hemisphere and are also visible in some records from the southern hemisphere (Binford et al. 1997; Moseley 1999; Sandweiss et al. 1999; Van Buren 2001). Evidence for climate change at this time in North America has been found in New Mexico, California, the Midwest, the Great Lakes, the Southeast, the Northeast, and the Mississippi Valley (Armour et al. 2002; Baker et al. 2002; Booth and Jackson 2003; Booth et al. 2002; Kaplan et al. 2002; Kidder 2006; Little 2003; Polyak and Asmerom 2001; Willemse and Törnqvist 1999).

A disjunction or hiatus in archaeologically visible occupations in the alluvial portions of the Mississippi River basin dates to ca. 3150–2600 cal B.P. This dramatic decline in sites (and populations?) correlates with global climate data showing significantly cooler and wetter climates during this same interval. The paleoclimatic evidence indicates that the North American Midcontinent was affected by storm and flood events of increased frequency and amplitude. All, or at least most, of the Mississippi River basin was evidently affected, and parts of the basin experienced floods of historically unprecedented size and duration.” (Pg. 681)

RED OCHRE COMMENTARY

Dylan Violette (CopperViolette), Red Ochre Notes

Red ochre is associated with:

• East
• Sun
• Renewal/Afterlife
• Blood
• Death
• Preventing decomposition smells
• Antiseptic/Medicinal
• Protection
• Mother Goddess
• Shells
• Water

Red ochre burials are associated with shell mounds, sandy knolls, gravel bars, rivers, lakes, marshes, and oceans (locations overlooking watery bodies). Fishing equipment or a culture relying on fishing is typically associated with these burials. Fish weirs and clam gardens often occur within these cultures or in neighboring cultures.

Archaic Societies: Hunter-Gatherer Adaptations and Alternative Perspectives on the Michigan Archaic: Research Problems in Context, 2009, Pg. 747

Schematic Representation of Late Archaic Partitioning of Activities and Perceptions of Space (Hypothesized spatial organization of the secular and sacred spaces from Archaic occupational locales in Bay City, Michigan),

SACRED PRECINCT (Burials, Red Ochre Features, Caches)

///Note Overlap///

SECULAR PRECINCT: Residential Space (Hearths, Storage Pits)

—Waterbody Terrace Edge—

///Note Overlap///

SECULAR PRECINCT: Special Activity Space (Smudge Pits, Reduction Areas)

Cheryl Claassen, Appalachian State University, Infanticide and Sacrifices among Archaic Babies of the Central United States, 2013/06; Beliefs and Rituals in Archaic Eastern North America: An Interpretive Guide, 2015

“The use of red ocher is under-studied but appears to have been complex. There are historic records of red ocher being symbolic of the sun and the east, and associated with death and beliefs about renewal (e.g. Pohl 1983, 99). The HoChunk put red paint in the mouth of a deceased person to let Earthmaker know that the person was happy to enter the afterlife (Fox and Salzar 1999, 256), and the Beothunk used it to restore [after]life to the corpse (Tuck 1976, 95). In the region under study cremation and red ocher are mutually exclusive practices with red ocher found in Green and Ohio river shell sites but not in Tennessee River sites in Alabama. With only three exceptions, when ocher powder or nugget was present in a baby’s grave, no other grave goods were present (Table 3). Its infrequent use in burials in this region, its use with lithic caches, and its use with three face-down babies suggest that red ocher was part of a rite which included a baby.” (Pgs. 307-310)

Brian Scott Robinson, Burial Ritual, Groups, and Boundaries on the Gulf of Maine: 8600-3800 B.P.

“Instances of formal cemetery use increase across eastern North America between about 6000-4500 B.P. including the use of bluff top mounds on the Illinois River (Charles and Buikstra 1983; Charles 1995), Southeast shell mound burials interpreted by some as social aggregation sites (Hofman 1986; Russo 1996:286; Claassen 1996:243) and “Old Copper Culture” cemeteries from the Great Lakes region (Ritzenthaler 1946; Ritzenthaler and Wittry 1952). The same period is associated with an increase in trade including caches of oversized bifaces and copper, for example (Jefferies 1996:227, 228; Wright 1994:63). The case has been made that different artifact forms spread between Laurentian and Maritime Archaic groups along the St. Lawrence River at this time (Wright 1994:52).” (Pg. 162)

Vanya Stavreva, Red Ochre – for Special Dead and Dangerous Dead (Use of Red Ochre in the Burial Practices During the Late Eneolithic by Data from the Territory of Bulgaria), 2018

“The possible combination of the symbolic meaning of red ochre and its purely pragmatic use for health and hygiene reasons – as an antiseptic and against the smell of decaying flesh – should be considered as highly likely.” (Pg. 122)

“One of the southern Australian tribe[s], for example, partially dried the bodies of the dead on a slow fire, then skinned them, smeared them with red ochre and placed them on a platform. This is probably related to the antiseptic action of the ochre. According to F. Mey, the mineral was used to eliminate the smell of the decaying body and placing red ochre in the graves did not only perform ritual functions, but also had purely pragmatic and hygienic practices.” (Pg. 121)

There are a number of ethnographic examples of the use of red ochre as a precaution for people who have been in contact with death and the dead and have been involved in their burial. Frazer told about the use of red ochre in maori, where anyone who touched a corpse helped with carrying the body to the grave or touched the bones of a dead man, was put in isolation and was not even allowed to touch food with his hands as they were considered contaminated. In some cases, someone else fed him using a stick, but others were subject to very strict restrictions and were “spattered from head to toe with red ochre.” (Pg. 121)

Kenneth Sassaman, The Eastern Archaic, Historicized, 2015

“Many of the Archaic cultural traditions of the Great Lakes and Northeast regions involved elaborate mortuary treatments, cremations, as well as in-flesh burials, often with accoutrements of finely crafted artifacts. Cremation has deep roots in the region, extending back to at least late Paleoindian times. In-flesh burials occur infrequently until the Late Archaic period, when burial cults of the Old Copper complex incorporate diverse elements. Equally elaborate complexes of the North — Moorehead, Susquehanna, Red Ochre, and Glacial Kame—attest to diverse cultural influences and emergent rituals of regional integration.” (Pgs. 78-79)

“At ca. 9500 cal BP, a Moorehead tradition predecessor, Table Land, is represented by the namesake location in Manchester, New Hampshire. An ochre-stained feature at the site contained multiple layers of calcined bone accompanied by ground-stone rods fourteen or thirty-six centimeters in length, some bifaces, and faceted hematite. The subsequent Morrill Point complex (8850-7800 cal BP) introduces ground gouges, adzes, and celts to burial lots, and continues with stone rods but now with perforations at one end. The stone gouges are the first in North America, and in their refined, highly polished, and typically pristine forms, these items were likely made expressly for mortuary purposes.” (Pg. 81)

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology, Lake Forest Tradition, 2008/2009

“Late Archaic Stage woodland‐dwelling hunter‐gatherer cultures living mainly around the northeastern shores of the Great Lakes and the St Lawrence River in North America in the period c.3200 to 1000 bc. Their subsistence economy focused on the exploitation of heavy fish runs and seal colonies, although other animals and plants were used as well. These communities had great seasonal movement, mainly living in small bands moving about within well‐defined territories, but coming together at defined base camps from time to time. There are two well‐defined variants of the Lake Forest Tradition: the Old Copper Culture and the Laurentian.”

Scott Hamilton, Early Holocene Human Burials at Wapekeka (FlJi-1), Northern Ontario, 2004

“Gouges illustrated in the pertinent archaeological literature are carefully smoothed and polished …This near-perfect symmetry indicated quite a sophisticated production technology … While stone gouges have been found in northern Ontario, they are not common and are, in fact, quite rare in northwestern Ontario. One, and perhaps two, gouges are reported in private collections from the Lac Seul region (“Paddy” Reid, personal communication 1991). J.V. Wright (personal communication 1991; 1995:125) notes that while not a common occurrence, gouges are occasionally found throughout northern Quebec (Laliberte 1978) and Ontario (Wright 1972a), southeastern Manitoba (buchner 1982) and Minnesota (Johnson 1969).

Gouges are generally considered to be diagnostic of Laurentian Archaic and Maritime Archaic assemblages (Wright 1972a; Mason 1981; Willey 1962). Wright (1972a:78) maintains that some gouges and other Laurentian Archaic-like materials are occasionally found associated with Shield Archaic assemblages, but they are more commonly found in the Boreal Forest/Great Lakes St. Lawrence Forest interface (in the area surrounding Lake Huron and Georgian Bay). He also comments that the Wapekeka gouge may reflect exchange relationships between early Shield Archaic populations and contemporaneous Maritime and Laurentian Archaic populations far to the east (1995:125). This suggests significant extra-regional connections between early and middle Holocene human populations. Wright (1995:125) also comments that the early appearance of “full-grooved” gouges in Maritime and Great Lakes-St. Lawrence cultures makes it at least possible that the Wapekeka specimen might have been associated wth the dated burials. Given the rather limited extent of archaeological investigation in northern Ontario, particularly in the far north, the relative absence of ground stone technology may well be more apparent than real.”

Brian Scott Robinson, Burial Ritual, Groups, and Boundaries of the Gulf of Maine: 8600-3800 B.P., 2001

“[W]oodworking tools in the form of gouges … are among the most common associated artifacts with Archaic period burials in the Northeast. In a sample of 1861 artifacts tallied by Banjamin Smith (1948:26), 384 are gouges (21% of all artifacts) … The gouge, as a stone tool class, may be more common in northeastern North America and the Gulf of Maine region than anywhere else in the world.

The progression of gouge styles in the Gulf of Maine is difficult to explain in functional terms. Many cultures who made dugout canoes of considerable size and elaboration never used the stone gouge, with adzes being more commonly used. Between 8000-6000 B.P., gouges appear to be almost exclusively of the full-channeled variety, with the older specimens more deeply channeled, fully polished and made from dark igneous stones. Neither full channels nor full polish are particularly efficient in functional terms. The persistence of the form for 2000 years, simultaneously with adzes and celts suggest continuity in cultural style. Between approximately 6000-4000 years ago, short-channeled forms are dominant. By the Late Moorehead burial tradition, the number of gouges is low and specimens have very weakly developed channels, often represented only by a shallow depression behind the bit which is otherwise sharpened like an adze. It is difficult to explain this progression in terms of functional development, in that it took 5000 years for a relatively elaborate and labor-intensive tool form to transform into a more basic and more widely used style. The element of cultural style is strongly expressed in form as a whole.

It was previously suggested that the deep full-channeled gouges and delicate flared gouges of 7000-8000 B.P. are relatively accurate copies of long bone gouges and scapula scrapers (Figure 40, Robinson 1996a), both in form and full polish. Long bone gouges are known from later cultures, and a longitudinally cut bone shaft, similar in form to a gouge although small in size, was included in a cremation burial at the Table Land site dated to 8500 B.P. (Figure 35). If this origin of the style is correct, and even if it isn’t, the persistence of the full-channeled form for 2000 years suggests that the style was deeply embedded within the cultural traditions that produced them, including in the mortuary domain. Gouges dominate woodworking tools in most mortuary assemblages between approximately 8000-4000 years ago in the Gulf of Maine region, roughly correlated with their period of existence. They dominate assemblages of the Early Moorehead burial tradition, emphasized symbolically by the fact that most are made from a material thought to be obtained from one quarry area, although the change from long to short channels occurred between about 6000 – 5000 B.P.” (Pgs. 159-160)

Walter Brown Smith, The Lost Red Paint People of Maine, 1930

“Artifacts that may be called tools are more plentiful in cemeteries of the Red Paint People than are weapons. And probably the most numerous of tools are the gouges. Certainly no other class exhibits such a prodigious amount of labor in their making as do some gouges—and they were made to make something else with!

They vary in size from little, narrow individuals, two or three inches long, to those that measure over fifteen. They differ greatly, too, in shape, but in general are symmetrical. The curved cutting end is made with great care and is in some examples hollowed out till the edge forms fully half a circle. The groove, or hollow, extends generally about a third the length of the tool, but in some examples it is carried the entire length and is spout-like. A few are rubbed down till their entire surface is a smooth as a gun barrel.

Many, no doubt, had some kind of handles; others appear complete in themselves, and rather rarely there is one in which both ends are worked to gouge forms.

As makers of gouges, at least, the Red Paint People seem to have been unequalled during the Stone Age. These and other edge tools are of such diversified forms and excellent workmanship that we wonder what was made with them. Gouges and adzes, in particular, suggest hollowed-out objects such as wood troughs, knurl bowls, dugout canoes and totemic poles; but however skilfully used, no shreds of wood or bark, hide or leather, bone or shell have survived to tell the story.”

Bruce Bourque, The Swordfish Hunters, 2012

“Adzes were widespread among Stone Age people living in wooded environments, but gouges are rare, being found only in small numbers across northeastern North America and a few places in northern Europe. In eastern North America, adzes and gouges have a long history, extending back over 7,500 years. They are icons on Archaic cultures throughout the Northeast, but are most abundant by far along the midcoastal region of Maine. Moreover, those found elsewhere tend to be generalized in form, lacking the special features, graceful shapes, and fine finishes that typify most of the roughly four hundred specimens recovered from Red Paint cemeteries. Many are among the world’s most aesthetically appealing prehistoric stone artifacts. The extraordinary abundance of gouges and adzes as well (roughly five hundred) suggest that they were extremely important. The frequent cooccurrence of adzes and gouges suggests that they were used together in wood-shaping tasks, likely including dugout canoe construction—the gouges for hollowing out the inside and the adzes for shaping the outside. Their size ranges suggest different scales of utility. One can imagine the larger ones were used to shape a dugout canoe while the smaller ones were used to carve decorations on it.”

“An interesting feature of gouges and adzes is that, no matter how graceful their overall form, most have battered butt ends. This battering suggests that while they most likely were swung, they were also driven with a mallet.

Gouges, in particular, but adzes as well, are northern tool forms, quite different from the woodworking technology of the Southeast, where the grooved stone ax dominate (figure 21).”

“Most gouges and adzes were formed by pecking, a process whereby a hard hammerstone was repeatedly tapped against the artifact surface so that each blow shatters a small amount of stone, leaving a characteristic pitted surface on both the artifact and the pecking stone. The technique itself was common among Archaic hunter-gatherers of the Northeast, and the hammerstones used to execute it are usually expedient tools of amorphous form, with most wear being evident on the more protruding parts of the surface.” (Pgs. 66-67)

“There is a small subset of adzes and gouges that appear to be imports from the far north. The clearest example is the gouge of a lovely blue-green slate shown in figure 23 from the Emerson cemetery in Orland. I first saw this artifact in 1969, illustrated in an earlly paper by Douglas Byers on northeastern prehistory. Later that year I actually held it at the R.S. Peabody Foundation. To any who appreciate beautifully executed stonework, it was captivating, wonderful to hold, smooth, almost polished, nearly flawless, and, I now realize, probably the best example of its type known to us. Byers called it “the acme of perfection in polished tools.” In those early years, both Byers and I assumed that it was a local product, and I expected to encounter others in the many Red Paint cemetery collections I had yet to research. But I never saw anything like it again in a Maine collection, although I have since identified a few other fine gouges that are likely imports from the far north. Someone else shared my fondness for this object; the person who, in the 1980s, stole it along with several of the R.S. Peabody Foundation’s treasures during a time when its parent institution, Phillips Academy at Andover, had let its guard down. Most of the stolen artifacts eventually were sold at auctions in the Midwest, later recognized as stolen, and returned to the R.S. Peabody. This one never reappeared.

It was more than twenty years later that I finally realized where this wonderful artifact had originated. I was at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec, examining collections that were then coming into the new institution from Atlantic Canada. Excavations along the Newfoundland and Labrador coasts had begun more than a decade earlier, but with a few notable exceptions, reports on these excavations had not been published, and the collections were temporarily housed in places not easily accessible to me. One such collection came from the Curtis site at Twillingate, Notre Dame Bay, Newfoundland, and it was in this collection that I saw several specimens that, had they not been broken and damaged, would have matched the R.S. Peabody specimen in raw material, form, and quality. Similar as the Emerson gouge is to those from Twillingate, the home of this form is more likely to be Labrador, where they are most common. By this time, most of the profession knew that the Maine’s Red Paint cemeteries reflected connections to the far north in some way, but it was exciting to find that such heavy, utilitarian tools had actually been transported nearly eight hundred miles from their source to Maine.” (Pgs. 68-70)

Archeolab Quebec, Gouge

“Gouges are a type of object widely distributed in Quebec and northeastern North America. Despite a large-scale distribution, their numbers are limited and several specimens do not benefit from a well-controlled archaeological context. Given their large size, gouges have often been recovered by chance and are frequently found in amateur collections. The gouges are mainly associated with the Archaic period and in particular with its recent edge (5,500 to 4,200 years before today) without being exclusive.”

Warren L. Wittry, A Preliminary Study of the Old Copper Culture, 1950

“It is interesting to note, in spite of the small series of caches, how they are located in a rather peripheral area being midway between the areas of concentrated finds along the shore of Lake Michigan and the Wolf and Upper Fox Rivers (see Map 63. p. 73). Childe has attributed such concentrations of hoards in Europe to the hasty burial of a merchant’s stock should he have met with danger while traveling between cultural provinces. Whereas there isn’t any evidence that the Old Copper tools were transported by actual “traders,” it is interesting to speculate on the exact importance copper did have for the peoples of the Complex. Perhaps it was the object of raids and warfare between groups and some of the types would make formidable weapons if wielded by a savage impassioned by greed for the golden metal.” (Pg. 33)

“The association of Old Copper types with the Laurentian Culture of New York as noted by McKern, above, included only a limited number of types although several of the other types occur in the state of New York and in the New England states. The excellent plates of Beauchamp’s article on the “Metallic Implements of the New York Indians” allows a rather definite typing of the native copper artifacts from that area. The following types are included: I-A1, I-D, I-E, II-A1, V-A2, VI-A, VI-C, VI-E, IV-A1, VI-H, and VI-J. In addition to some of these types, Willoughby illustrates types I-B1 (?) and I-F in “Antiquities of the New England Indians.” It seems highly probable that the Old Copper types are the result of trade either directly or indirectly with the Old Copper Complex, and the distribution of Old Copper specimens across the Great Lakes area from Wisconsin to New York favors the idea of indirect trade.

In the New England Area the Old Copper specimens are rarely found and “there is no direct evidence of any great age for the Laurentian” in that area. The variant of the Laurentian there is called by various names relating to the practice of using red ochre in the graves: “Red Ochre” and “Red Paint” being the two most common. However, in the graves of the Red Ochre Culture there are found boatstones and birdstones which are not found in the New York Laurentian where bannerstones are reported.

The resemblance of some of the forms of the Old Copper Complex to implements made of slate had been the cause for some conjecturing on the relationships between the form in which the two material have been put to use by the Northeastern aborigines. In the Northeast, where slate occurs in nature abundantly, especially in New England and New York, the Laurentian has made some use of it for the making of projectile points, ceremonials, and semi-lunar knives.” (Pgs. 37-38)

“There is the possibility that in early times they also had contact with the Dorset which could account for the similarity in forms of some slate and copper implements. Slate implements themselves do not occur in the area of the greatest concentration of Old Copper artifacts as delimited by this study. The presence of Eskimo elements, aside from slate, in the Laurentian and the resemblance of the copper and slate forms, plus the actual occurrence of identical copper types in both Old Copper and Laurentian suggests some tie-ups, however vague they may seem with our present knowledge.” (Pg. 38)

John H. Steinbring, Taxonomic and Associational Considerations of Copper Technology During the Archaic Tradition, 03/1975

“The North American copper technology relevant to this investigation begins in preceramic times, with some minor and varying continuity into the ceramic period (McPherron 1967:164). This technology is usually characterized as having a primarily utilitarian expression (Willey 1966:261, Jennings 1968:125). Its center of development is commonly considered to be the Upper Great Lakes Region (Quimby 1960:52) with traces being very widely distributed through both trade and migration (Wormington and Forbis 1965:113, Ritchie 1965:101, Wittry and Ritzenthaler 1956:252). While a clear consensus on the designation “Old Copper” is at least very widely implied in the literature, a refinement of this rather amorphous term still defies achievement. From its initial use by McKern as “Industry” (1942:167), it has become variously referred to as “Complex” (Wittry and Ritzenthaler 1956:244), “Culture” (Griffin 1964:80), “assemblage” (Wormington 1957:150), “tradition” (Vastokas 1970:1), and “manifestation” (Kidd 1952:80). The principal cause for this diversity lies in a relatively sheer division between those who have advocated a cultural interpretation of Old Copper artifacts (Wittry and Ritzenthaler 1956:252), and those who have concluded that these artifacts represent a technology shared by many different cultural groups through time and space (Johnson 1964:20, Griffin 1966:282, Bleed 1969:36). While Binford’s analysis (1962) suffers from a deficiency in available facts (to be demonstrated below) it is the only approach which has essentially escaped the restrictions of the technological-cultural quandary. Griffin (1961:128, 1964:233) has reached conclusions reflecting both a technological and cultural persuasion in his studies of Old Copper. He views copper technology itself as having broad historical implications, starting at about 3,000 B.C. or earlier, and becoming rather tightly expressive of a cultural entity between 2,000 and 1,000 B.C. Following the decline of this cultural dimension, types formed within it are still seen in later archaeological horizons.” (Pgs. 2-3)

Erika L. Cole, The Cory Site (FaNq-75) and the Mummy Cave/Oxbow Transition on the Northern Plains, 2015

“The Gray site (EcNx-1a) (Millar 1978) is a large burial ground near the town of Swift Current, Saskatchewan. The Gray site has some of the oldest known Oxbow dates at 5250 ± 160 rcybp (SFU-160) (Morlan 1993) and some of the burials have been radiocarbon dated to be even older than that, with the oldest being 5720 ± 320 rcybp (SFU-197) (Morlan 1993). It is possible that use of the site started during the Gowlen complex and continued through the Oxbow phase. Ninety-nine burial units were excavated and the remains of 304 individuals were recovered. These burials were a mix of primary and secondary burials, with the primary burials being extended and supine burials and the secondary ones being compact bundle burials (Millar 1981). Grave goods interred with the burials include projectile points, bifaces, other tools, and items of personal adornment. Some of these items must have been obtained through long distance trade. These include shell gorgets made from marine shells and pieces of rolled copper from the Old Copper Culture around Lake Superior (Millar 1978). Additionally some elements were rubbed with red ochre and some of the burials had red ochre sprinkled in the fill (Millar 1981).” (Pgs. 69-70)

Robert Ritzenthaler, The Osceola Site: An “Old Copper” Site Near Potosi, Wisconsin, WA Vol. 38, No. 4, 1957

“As to the wider affiliations of Old Copper it has been suggested by such men as McKern and Linton that there may be a connection with more northerly peoples of the continent or even extending into western Asia. Similar shape types have been found in Ritchie’s Laurentian material in northeastern New York, which at its earliest is a pre-pottery manifestation. Rat-tailed spear points are reported for Athabaskan sites in Alaska. A number of Eskimo implements, while of bone and slate rather than copper, show astonishing similarities in shape. Socketed axes and gouges of metal from western Asia provide a further clue to the possible source of the shapes of Old Copper implements. This theory was proposed more to raise the question than to settle it, and if it provokes investigation it will have served its purpose.” (Pg. 203)

“During my time researching North America’s history (Ice Age – Fur Trade era, mainly; my focus is the Archaic), I’ve noticed several academics are trying to understand these ancient cultures without looking at the full picture. You know, not only looking at the culture itself, but putting yourself in their shoes; focusing on local, regional, cultural, and inter-cultural/continental scales. Trade networks are incredibly important for any complex hunter-gatherer society, and I think if we’re going to push the ball forward in understanding the Old Copper Complex and its regional variants, we need a lot more GIS work, more avocational researchers (so much university-quality material is available online, often for free), and more effort to look beyond local regions to see just how interconnected these cultures truly were. Your research style really helps with this. We can talk about all this and more once we have our video chat. Fortunately, now that I’m used to the podcast format after Dave’s, plus being a lot more familiar with your casual conversation style, this should go well. Folks are getting to know my style and research approach now, so I’ll have a lot more to chat about; I held back a few times during Dave’s episode with my theories.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

My response: I think the oldest Old Copper Cultures likely started with Haplogroups Q Y-DNA (male) and A2, B2, C1, and D mt-DNA (female), with shamanism and the earth diver myth, with no turtle. Then, after 10,000 to 8,500 Haplogroups Q Y-DNA (male) and X mt-DNA (female), with shamanism and earth diver myth with turtle mythology. This is related to evolved ideas from the Middle East and may have had early deities, but not likely the great spirit or sky chef. Mostly equalitarian, but some emerging special person proto big man/big woman-big men/big women like a council of group leadership, possibly related to families/clans. Then, after 8,000 to 6,000 years ago, Haplogroups C Y-DNA (male) likely showed up closer to 6,000 to 7,000 years ago, which is more likely than 8,000 years ago, with an increased chance of emerging special person proto big man/big woman-big men/big women. Then, from around 3,500 years ago or so, Algonquian speakers likely showed up mostly Q Y-DNA (male) from the Pacific Northwest, but possibly some C Y-DNA (male), with special person proto-chieftains, big man/big woman, big men/big women, and with the great spirit or sky chef. (OR SOMTHING LIKE THIS)

“David Pompeani, a geologist at Kansas State University, Manhattan, who studies ancient mining. He extracted sediment cores from lakes adjacent to prehistoric mines on Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula and Isle Royale and measured trace metals in the cores, including lead and titanium, that had been released by processing the ore. The analyses showed copper mining began about 9500 years ago in some areas—and also ended about 5400 years ago and it peaked between 7000 and 5000 years ago. Radiocarbon dates associated with the Old Copper Culture such as from wood or cordage still attached to spearpoints; or 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. Pompeani has identified another potential contributor to Old Copper’s fade about 5000 years ago. Sediment cores, tree ring data, and other evidence suggest a sustained dry period struck the region around that time, he says. That could have fueled social and ecological disruptions that made it hard to devote time and resources to making copper tools. Over time, copper may have become something of a luxury item, used to signal social status. Copper awls, however, bucked this trend: They required relatively little ore to make, Bebber notes, and the people of the Great Lakes continued to use them for thousands of years.” ref

“Well-made copper implements turn(ed) up in Midwest, researchers discovered that copper was mined in the Great Lakes region and crafted into tools by Indigenous groups, there was assumptions of relatedness to the mound-building Adena or Hopewell cultures of the Ohio River Basin. Until the development of radiocarbon dating the Old Copper Complex (OCC)—also called Old Copper Culture—was thought to have occurred between around 1,000 BCE and CE 500. Now studies show this enigmatic complex existed by at least 6,000 BCE, if not earlier, making it one of the oldest metallurgical traditions in the world.” ref

“The OCC is an Archaic period cultural phenomenon centered on the Upper Great Lakes region of North America and characterized by the creation and use of a wide variety of copper tools made by mining the area’s naturally occurring native copper deposits—the largest, purest copper on Earth. Around 10,000 years ago, these seasonally mobile hunting, fishing, and gathering groups made tools of stone, bone, and antler, with some small-scale use of copper. By 6,000 BCE, copper use had developed into a unifying tradition, with Archaic groups mining it to create their utilitarian objects, the only known complex to have developed copper metallurgy prior to becoming a settled, agriculturally based society.” ref

“The world’s largest concentration of native copper is in the western Great Lakes region, particularly Wisconsin and the Keweenaw Peninsula, the northernmost part of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Due to Pleistocene glacial activity, native copper was commonly found as small nuggets known as “float copper” dispersed across a vast region along the southern shores of Lake Superior and extending as far south as southern Illinois. Archaic period folks also mined lode deposits—large masses of copper near the surface—and fissure deposits, or narrow veins of copper that could extend deep underground.” ref

“Because Great Lakes copper is typically more than 95% pure, ancient groups were often able to simply pick up a nugget, break off any surrounding matrix material, and begin hammering it into the desired shape. Research has shown that Archaic period groups in the Great Lakes region used a variety of production methods to create copper implements such as hot and cold hammering and annealing.” ref

“Tool types include arrowheads, spearpoints, needles, chisels, awls, axes, a wide variety of knives, fishing tools, and other implements. Some tools had tangs attached to a shaft or sockets to fit over a shaft and most show heavy use. Many copper artifacts show extreme uniformity and quality, indicating a high degree of technological specialization. Despite the thousands of copper artifacts held in museums and likely more in private collections, few Archaic Great Lakes habitation sites exist and even fewer have been systematically excavated, with most data coming from a handful of professionally excavated cemeteries—namely the Reigh, Osceola, and Oconto sites in Wisconsin, and the Riverside site in Michigan.” ref

“The earliest known metalworking in North America begins when Indigenous Peoples start mining copper on the Keweenaw Peninsula. They dug shallow mines and used heavy stones to break waste rock away from copper masses. The copper was used to fashion bracelets, beads, tools, fishhooks, and other items for trade. Objects made of Keweenaw copper have been found in archeological sites across the continent.” ref

Old Copper complex

“The Old Copper complex or Old Copper culture is an archaeological culture from the Archaic period of North America’s Great Lakes region. Artifacts from some of these sites have been dated from 6500 to 1000 BCE. It is characterized by widespread copper artifacts, including tools and weapons, as well as ornamental objects. The Old Copper complex of the Western Great Lakes is the best known, and can be dated to around 6,500 BCE.” ref

“Great Lakes natives of the Archaic period located 99% pure copper near Lake Superior, in veins touching the surface and in nuggets from gravel beds. Major quarries were located on Isle Royale, the Keweenaw Peninsula, and the Brule River, and copper was deposited elsewhere by glaciation as well. The Copper Culture State Park, in Oconto, northeastern Wisconsin, contains an ancient burial ground used by the Old Copper complex culture between around 4,000 and 2,000 BCE.” ref

“By heating, annealing and hammering, these cultures worked the copper into shape and produced a variety of spearpoints, tools and decorative objects. In addition to their own use, the Copper Complex peoples traded copper goods for other exotic materials. By about 1,000 BCE, copper was increasingly restricted to jewelry and other status-related items, rather than tools. This is thought to represent the development of more complex social hierarchies in the area.” ref

AI Overview: Approximately 6,000 years ago (4000 BCE), the Great Lakes region was inhabited by Archaic period peoples who were developing, for the first time, signs of social differentiation and specialized knowledge, most notably through the “Old Copper Complex”. While traditionally viewed as egalitarian hunter-gatherers, evidence suggests that the mastery of copper and long-distance trade networks created, or was managed by, individuals with higher status.

Elite Status Evidence 6,000 Years Ago

• Old Copper Complex (c. 7000–5000 years ago): Copper mining reached a peak in the Lake Superior region around 6,000 years ago, particularly on Isle Royale and the Keweenaw Peninsula. The ability to locate, mine (sometimes 20 meters deep), and cold-hammer native copper (up to 99% pure) into tools, weapons, and ornaments suggests a specialized, highly skilled group of people.
• Symbolic Value vs. Utilitarian Use: Although much of the copper was used for functional tools (knives, spearpoints), the investment of labor, raw material acquisition, and craftsmanship suggests that certain individuals or families held higher social status, likely managing the production and exchange of these items.
• Long-Distance Trade Networks: Artifacts found from this period indicate that copper was traded across vast distances, with evidence of materials traveling from the Great Lakes to the Midwest and South. This indicates a complex, networked society with specialized traders or leaders.
• Mortuary Evidence: The Copper Culture State Park in Oconto, Wisconsin, contains burials dated between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago, providing evidence of how these populations handled their dead and, by extension, social standing during the Archaic period.
• Cultural Context: The people of this era were transitioning from the nomadic lifestyle of the Paleo-Indian period to more settled, larger communities. The Old Copper culture (c. 6500–1580 BC) is considered one of the earliest examples of such specialized, complex societies in North America.

Submerged Evidence
New research indicates that many of these early Archaic sites were on land that is now submerged beneath Lake Huron. The discovery of hunting structures and specialized, smaller stone tools indicates that these societies were highly adapted and likely had specialized knowledge of the landscape and environment, another marker of potential expertise.

Metallurgy in pre-Columbian Northern America

“Archaeological evidence has not revealed metal smelting or alloying of metals by pre-Columbian native peoples north of the Rio Grande; however, they did use native copper extensively.” ref

Old Copper Culture

“Pure native copper was abundant in the Great Lakes region, particularly Michigan, but Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Manitoba as well. The last glacial period had left copper bearing rock exposed and scoured bare. Once the ice retreated, loose pieces were readily available in a variety of sizes for use. Copper was cold hammered into objects from very early in the Archaic period (in the region: 8000 to 1000 BCE). There is also evidence the indigenous people of the Old Copper Complex mined copper veins in the rock, but disagreement exists as to when.” ref

“Extraction would have been extremely difficult. Hammerstones may have been used to break off pieces to be worked. This labor-intensive process might have been eased by building a fire on top of the deposit to soften the metal. The copper could then be cold-hammered into shape, which would make it brittle, or hammered and heated in an annealing process to avoid this. The final object would then have to be ground and sharpened using native sandstone. Numerous bars have been found with no identified purpose like trade or barter.” ref

“Great Lake artifacts found in the Eastern Woodlands of North America seem to indicate there were widespread trading networks by 1000 BCE. Progressively the usage of copper for tools decreases with more jewelry and adornments being found. This is believed to be indicative of social changes to a more hierarchical society. Thousands of copper mining pits have been found along the shores of Lake Superior, and Isle Royale. These pits may have been in use as far back as 8,000 years ago. This copper was mined and then made into objects such as heavy spear points and tools of all kinds. It was also made into crescent objects similar to bannerstones that some archaeologists believe were for religious or ceremonial purposes. The crescents were too delicate for utilitarian use.” ref

“Many have 28 or 29 notches along the inner edge, the approximate number of days in a lunar month. The Old Copper Culture flourished mainly in the Lake Superior region. The Milwaukee Public Museum has an extensive display of objects. At least 50 Old Copper items, including spear points and ceremonial crescents have been discovered in Manitoba. A few more in Saskatchewan, and at least one, a crescent, has turned up in Alberta, 2,000 kilometers from its origin in Ontario. It is most likely that these copper items arrived in the plains as trade goods rather than people of the Old Copper Culture moving into these new places.” ref

“However, from one excavated site in eastern Manitoba it can be seen that some people were moving northwest. At a site near Bissett archaeologists have found copper tools, weapons, and waste material of manufacture, along with a large nugget of raw copper. This site however was dated to around 4,000 years ago, a time of cooler climate when the boreal forest’s treeline moved much further south. Though if these migrants moved with their metallurgy up the Winnipeg River at that time they may have continued to Lake Winnipeg, and the Saskatchewan River system.” ref

“The Old Copper Culture did not develop advanced metallurgy like the principle of creating alloys. This means that many, though they could make metal objects and weapons, continued to use their flint, which could maintain a sharper edge for much longer. The unalloyed copper could simply not compete in daily utilization. In the later days of the Culture the metal was almost exclusively used for ceremonial items. However, Lake Superior, as a unique source of copper for over 6,000 years has recently come into some criticism, particularly since other deposits have been found that other archaic cultures mined on a much smaller scale.” ref

Art/Map by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

Art by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

Art/Map by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

Info Acquired by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

Info Arrangement by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

Info Acquired by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

This diagnostic artifact charts is from Don Spohn’s Copper Artifact Journals

Info Acquired by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

This diagnostic artifact charts is from Don Spohn’s Copper Artifact Journals

Info Acquired by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

This diagnostic artifact charts is from Don Spohn’s Copper Artifact Journals

Info Acquired by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

This diagnostic artifact charts is from Don Spohn’s Copper Artifact Journals

Info Acquired by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

This diagnostic artifact charts is from Don Spohn’s Copper Artifact Journals

Info Acquired by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

Info Acquired by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

“Mining pollution from David Pompeani.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

Info Acquired by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

This map is from Ryan Peterson’s 2024 dissertation on Isle Royale’s copper supply chain.

Info Acquired by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

This diagram is from Ontario’s Lakehead University in the Thunder Bay District. Terry Wilson’s shared it on the Old Copper Complex and Ancient Waterways America Facebook group.

Picture Acquired by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

Picture Acquired by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

Picture Acquired by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

Picture Acquired by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

Picture Acquired by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

Picture Acquired and Info Acquired by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

“Bone harpoons from the Laurentian Tradition, a culture within the Old Copper Complex. It’s thought that the OCC used these in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota, but organic preservation there is poor.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

Picture Acquired by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

“OCC’s part of the “Lake Forest” tradition (an older term), stretching from Minnesota to New England. Besides copper, they relied on bone, antler, and (likely) wooden tools, too. Groundstone gouges, semi-lunar slate crescents or ulus, and spear/atlatl points are considered diagnostic artifacts.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

Info Acquired by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

Art/Map Acquired by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

Here’s a link to the site with Don Spohn’s (free) Copper Artifact Journals:

www.coppercountryprehistory.com/copper-journals

ref

“Lake Superior is a lake in central North America. The northernmost, westernmost, and highest of the Great Lakes, Lake Superior straddles the Canada–United States border with the Canadian province of Ontario to the north and east and the U.S. states of Minnesota to the west and Michigan and Wisconsin to the south. It is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area and the third-largest freshwater lake by volume. Lake Superior is fed by more than 200 rivers, including the Nipigon River, the St. Louis River, the Pigeon River, the Pic River, the White River, the Michipicoten River, the Bois Brule River and the Kaministiquia River.” ref

“The largest island in Lake Superior is Isle Royale in Michigan. Isle Royale contains several lakes, some of which also contain islands. The first people came to the Lake Superior region 10,000 years ago after the retreat of the glaciers in the Last Glacial Period. They are known as the Plano, and they used stone-tipped spears to hunt caribou on the northwestern side of Lake Minong. The Shield Archaic peoples arrived around 5000 BCE; evidence of this culture can be found at the eastern and western ends of the Canadian shore. They used bows and arrows, paddled dugout canoes, fished, hunted, mined copper for tools and weapons, and established trading networks.” ref

“They are believed to be the direct ancestors of the Ojibwe and Cree. The people of the Laurel complex (c. 500 BCE to CE 500) developed seine net fishing, evidence being found at rivers around Superior such as the Pic and Michipicoten. The people of the Terminal Woodland period were evident in the area from CE 900 to 1650. They were Algonquian peoples who hunted, fished and gathered berries. They used snowshoes, birch bark canoes and conical or domed lodges. At the mouth of the Michipicoten River, nine layers of encampments have been discovered. Most of the Pukaskwa Pits were likely made during this time.” ref

“The Anishinaabe people (an ethnic grouping including the Ojibwe/Chippewa) have inhabited the Lake Superior region for over five hundred years and were preceded by the Dakota, Meskwaki (Fox), Menominee, Nipigon, Noquet and Gros Ventres. After the arrival of Europeans, the Anishinaabe made themselves middle-men between the French fur traders and other Native peoples. They soon became the dominant Native American nation in the region: they forced out the Sioux and Fox and won a victory against the Iroquois west of Sault Ste. Marie in 1662. By the mid-18th century, the Ojibwe occupied all of Lake Superior’s shores.” ref

ref

AI Overview: Between 13,000 and 1,000 years ago, the Great Lakes evolved from retreating glacial meltwater (Lake Iroquois/Agassiz) into their modern form. Driven by a warming climate, ice lobes retreated, shifting outlets from the Mississippi to the St. Lawrence River and causing fluctuating water levels, which eventually stabilized around 3,000–4,000 years ago. 

Key Historical Stages (13,000 to 1,000 Years Ago)

• 13,000–11,000 Years Ago (Post-Glacial Formation): As the Labradorian ice sheet withdrew, enormous amounts of meltwater created massive proglacial lakes, including Glacial Lake Iroquois (precursor to Lake Ontario) and Lake Duluth. Water drained south through the Mississippi River and Mohawk Valley.
• 11,000–9,000 Years Ago (Drainage Shifts): Catastrophic floods from massive glacial lakes like Lake Agassiz emptied into the ocean, affecting global climate. The retreating ice allowed for new, lower outlets to open to the east.
• 9,000–3,000 Years Ago (Stabilization): Water levels dropped significantly as land rose (isostatic rebound) and new outlets were established. Early, lower versions of the modern lakes appeared, allowing for the habitation of earlier, now-submerged, shorelines by Paleo-Indians.
• 3,000–1,000 Years Ago (Modern Era): The lakes achieved roughly their modern levels, shapes, and drainage patterns, with outflow fully established through the St. Lawrence River. 

Environmental and Human Impact

• Megafauna & Climate: Early in this period, the region supported mastodons and mammoths, which disappeared as the climate warmed.
• Human Activity: Humans inhabited the region, adapting to the changing landscape and utilizing fire, especially during the climatic changes following the last ice age.
• Physical Changes: The retreating glaciers left behind distinct geological features, including moraines and lake benches. 

AI Overview: Indigenous peoples in North America began utilizing native copper as early as 9,500 to 10,000 years ago. This tradition, centered in the Great Lakes region, represents some of the world’s earliest metalworking, achieved entirely without smelting. Indigenous people in North America were among the world’s first coppersmiths, beginning a sophisticated metalworking tradition roughly 9,500 to 10,000 years ago. Centered in the Great Lakes region, particularly Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula and Isle Royale, they exploited the world’s largest deposits of 99% pure “native copper”.

1. The Old Copper Complex (c. 7500 BCE – 1000 BCE) 

The earliest major copper-using tradition emerged among Archaic-period hunter-gatherers in the Upper Great Lakes, specifically around Lake Superior, the Keweenaw Peninsula, and Isle Royale. 

• Material: They used “native copper,” which occurs naturally at 99% purity in glacial deposits and surface veins.
• Techniques: Metals were shaped through cold-hammering and annealing (heating and then cooling the metal to prevent brittleness) rather than melting or smelting.
• Tools: During this era, copper was primarily utilitarian. Artifacts include heavy axes (celt), adzes, spearpoints, knives, fishhooks, and harpoons.
• Mining: Indigenous groups dug pit mines up to 20 feet deep, using fire-setting to crack bedrock and stone hammers to extract nuggets. 

2. The Shift to Symbolic Use (c. 1000 BCE – 1000 CE) 

Around 3,000 years ago, a “technomic devolution” occurred where the production of practical copper tools declined in favor of ornamental and ritual items. 

• Cultures: The Hopewell and Adena cultures in the Ohio River Valley became famous for elaborate copper earspools, breastplates, and stylized animal cutouts.
• Social Status: Copper became a marker of elite status and was frequently included in burial mounds as grave goods. 

3. The Mississippian Period (c. 1050 CE – 1550 CE) 

By the Mississippian era, copper working reached its artistic peak with the creation of repoussé plates (sheets of beaten copper with embossed designs). 

• Artifacts: These included the famous 

Southeastern Ceremonial Complex

 items: avian-themed dancing warriors, hawk cutouts, and copper-covered masks.

• Trade: While most copper still originated from Lake Superior, some was sourced from the Appalachian Mountains.
• Cahokia & Spiro: Major centers like Cahokia (Illinois) and Spiro (Oklahoma) acted as hubs for these high-status copper goods. 

4. Decline and Survival

The collapse of large Mississippian chiefdoms in the 1400s-1500s led to a decline in large-scale copper production. However, copper remained a sacred material for many tribes into the historic period, often kept in medicine bundles. 

Key Eras of Copper Use

• The Old Copper Complex (c. 7500 BCE – 1000 BCE): During the Archaic period, copper was primarily used for utilitarian tools. Ancient miners used stone hammers and fire-setting to extract ore from pits reaching 20 feet deep.
• The Symbolic Shift (c. 1000 BCE – 500 CE): By the Woodland period, copper use shifted from practical tools to ornamental and ceremonial objects like beads, earspools, and breastplates. This reflected growing social hierarchies and specialized status markers.
• Late Pre-Contact (c. 500 CE – 1500 CE): Cultures like the Mississippian continued to use copper for elaborate ritual items, such as embossed plates and gorgets, which were traded across vast networks reaching from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast. 

Technological Innovations

• Cold-Hammering: Since the copper was nearly pure, it could be hammered into shape without smelting (melting the ore).
• Annealing: To prevent the metal from becoming brittle, smiths used heat to soften it before further hammering.
• Tool Variety: They produced diverse artifacts including spearpoints, knives, fishhooks, harpoons, axes, and needles. 

Trade and Scale

Trade routes for Great Lakes copper were extensive, moving artifacts as far as the Rocky Mountains, Quebec, and the Southeast. Some researchers estimate that over 1.5 billion pounds of copper were removed from ancient Great Lakes pits, though only a small fraction remains in the regional archaeological record, leading to ongoing debates about the scale of prehistoric extraction.

Art/Map by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

Art/Map by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

Art/Map by “Dylan Violette” CopperViolette: @CopperViolette

Great Lakes Copper and Shared Mortuary Practices on the Atlantic Coast: Implications for Long-Distance Exchange during the Late Archaic

“Abstract: Analysis of human remains and a copper band found in the center of a Late Archaic (5,000 to 3,000 years ago) shell ring demonstrate an exchange network between the Great Lakes and the coastal southeast United States. Similarities in mortuary practices suggest that the movement of objects between these two regions was more direct and unmediated than archaeologists previously assumed based on down-the-line models of exchange. These findings challenge prevalent notions that view preagricultural Native American communities as relatively isolated from one another and suggest instead that wide social networks spanned much of North America thousands of years before the advent of domestication.” ref

AI Overview: Late Archaic (ca. 4,100–3,980 years ago) archaeological findings on the Atlantic coast, particularly in Georgia, reveal that Great Lakes copper was traded over 1,500 km to the Southeast. A copper band found at the McQueen shell ring on St. Catherines Island was paired with specific, non-local mortuary rituals—cremation and red ocher usage—that were common in the Great Lakes region, indicating not just trade, but the movement of ritual practices. 

Key Findings on Connections and Rituals

• Extensive Trade Networks: Chemical analysis confirms that copper artifacts found in the Southeast originated from the Great Lakes region, suggesting direct or closely linked exchange networks rather than solely “down-the-line” trade.
• Shared Ritual Practices: The discovery of cremated human remains, red ocher, and copper in a single pit on the Atlantic coast matches burial practices typically found in the Great Lakes region.
• Social Complexity: The presence of these items suggests that Late Archaic hunter-gatherers engaged in large-scale, complex, and ceremonial events, challenging the notion of isolated or simple societies during this period.
• Emergent Hierarchy: The exchange of these exotic,, materials, combined with unique burial rites, is considered evidence of growing social stratification and the development of new social identities. 

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref

Big men/big women shamans could have used their mobile sacred structure/teepee tent, which would not show up well for us to assess. We know such structures go back at least 5,000 years.

AI Overview: While there is no direct archaeological evidence of a 5,000-year-old fabric tent structure surviving to this day, archeologists have found 5,000-year-old shamanic sites, 9,000-year-old hunter-gatherer camps, and 12,000-year-old shaman burials that demonstrate ancient spiritual practices. The concepts of “light” and “dark” tents (or “Shaking Tents”) refer to widespread, historic, and modern shamanic rituals of North American First Nations and Siberian traditions rather than a single 5,000-year-old artifact.

Light Tent vs. Dark Tent Shamanism

The “Shaking Tent” or “Dark Tent” ritual is a documented, ancient tradition (often called “Shaking Tent” in North America or “Light Tent” in some Eurasian contexts).

Dark Tent (Shaking Tent): A small, conical/cylindrical tent made of skins. The shaman would enter it to commune with spirits. The tent would shake, and voices of spirits would be heard.

Light Tent (Ceremonial/Visionary): While “dark tent” refers to the ritual of calling spirits (often done at night), modern interpretations or “shaman’s dream” tents often utilize white/light canvas to represent purity, the sky, or the “white light” of spiritual ascension.

Significance: These tents act as conduits between the mundane world and the spirit world.

Ancient Structures Similar to Teepees

Ovoo/Creepy Teepee (Mongolia): Ancient shamanic sites in Mongolia,, often made of wooden poles or rock piles, have been used for thousands of years for rituals.

Shaking Tents (North America): Similar to teepees, these structures (pole frame with skins) were used across Canada by indigenous shamans for healing and divination.

Dark Tent and Light Tent. Two Ways of Travelling in the Invisible

“Humans have a unique ability to coordinate their imaginations and together explore virtual spaces. Shamanic traditions have cultivated this ability and developed powerful techniques to share mental travels. This article discusses two basic types of sha-manic seance spread among indigenous peoples in North Asia and partly in North America and explores the relational and sensory-cognitive contrasts between these ritual techniques. One is carried out in the dark and the audience is more focused on hearing, while in the other the tent is light and watching the shaman’s act is a central part of the participants’ experience. This article describes the geographical distribution of these rituals and analyses the different ways in which they divide cognitive labor.” ref

Shamanic Ritual and Ancient Circumpolar Migrations: The Spread of the Dark Tent Tradition through North Asia and North America

“Abstract: Several recent studies have shed light on the migrations and admixtures that led to the peopling of the Americas. Very little is known, however, about the religious concepts and the ritual life of the Arctic groups that migrated between Asia and America. Shamanic worldviews based on oral transmission are often considered timeless, and their ancient history is supposedly impossible to know. This article provides a comparative study of ritual techniques to identify transcontinental connections between Siberian and North American groups. Through an extensive ethnographic comparison, it shows that indigenous peoples of the North share a ritual tradition, the “dark tent,” across 10,000 km around the pole, from Western Siberia to Labrador and the American plains. Drawing on recent genetic data, it hypothesizes that this ritual technique, grounded in an animistic cosmology, expanded from Western Siberia to the east and was introduced into North America by the Paleo-Eskimo approximately 5,000 years ago.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Medicine men dance around a cooking pot giving thanks to the Great Spirit, 1841.

Corn Dance

“Corn Dance, a North American Indian ceremonial dance expressing supplication or thanksgiving for the maize crop and held at such stages as the planting, ripening, or harvesting of the grain, also called the green corn dance.” ref

“The Green Corn Ceremony (Busk) is an annual ceremony practiced among various Native American peoples associated with the beginning of the yearly corn harvest. Busk is a term given to the ceremony by white traders, the word being a corruption of the Creek word puskita (pusketv) for “a fast.” These ceremonies have been documented ethnographically throughout the North American Eastern Woodlands and Southeastern tribes. Historically, it involved a first fruits rite in which the community would sacrifice the first of the green corn to ensure the rest of the crop would be successful. These Green Corn festivals were practiced widely throughout southern North America by many tribes evidenced in the Mississippian people and throughout the Mississippian Ideological Interaction Sphere. Green Corn festivals are still held today by many different Southeastern Woodland tribes. The Green Corn Ceremony typically occurs in late June or July, determined locally by the developing of the corn crops. The ceremony is marked with dancing, feasting, fasting, and religious observations.” ref

“Puskita, commonly referred to as the “Green Corn Ceremony” or “Busk,” is the central and most festive holiday of the traditional Muscogee people. It represents not only the renewal of the annual cycle, but of the spirit and traditions of the Muscogee. This is representative of the return of summer, the ripening of the new corn, and the common Native American traditions of environmental and agricultural renewal. Historically in the Seminole tribe, 12-year-old boys are declared men at the Green Corn Ceremony, and given new names by the chief as a mark of their maturity. Several tribes still participate in these ceremonies each year, but tribes who have historic tradition within the ceremony include the Yuchi, Iroquois, Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Natchez, Chickasaw, Shawnee, Miccosukee, Alabama, Hitchiti, Coushatta, Taskigi and Seminole tribes. Each of those tribes may have its own variations of celebration, dances, and traditions but performs a new year’s ceremony, involving fasting and several other comparisons each year.” ref

“The Sun Dance is a ceremony practiced by some Native Americans in the United States and Indigenous peoples in Canada, primarily those of the Plains cultures, as well as a new movement within Native American religions, 1890 the Shoshone people in origin.” ref 

AI Overview: The Green Corn Ceremony (or Busk) is a vital late-summer purification and renewal festival of Southeastern Native American tribes (Creek, Seminole, Cherokee) celebrating the corn harvest, featuring fasting, dancing, and forgiving past wrongs. Copper, a sacred metal, was sometimes displayed or used as a sacred object during this ceremony by tribes like the Seminole and Tuckabahchee, symbolizing power and spiritual connection. 

• Significance: The ceremony marks the new year, where old fires are extinguished, and new, pure fires are lit.
• Symbolism: It serves as a time for tribal members to cleanse themselves, settle disputes, and express gratitude to the Creator for the new harvest.
• Copper Use: During the ceremony, some tribes brought out, cleaned, and displayed sacred items, including copper plates or brass objects.

Sky Father/Sky Chief Mythology: Great spirit, Great Mystery, and Great Father

Rethinking Hunter-Gatherer Conceptions of Simplicity and Grasping How Some Were Complex Hunter/Fisher-Gatherers “blog post”

• #1 Rethinking Hunter-Gatherer Ideas of Simplicity and Understanding Complex Hunter/Fisher-Gatherers (VIDEO)
• #2 Rethinking Hunter-Gatherer Ideas of Simplicity and Understanding Complex Hunter/Fisher-Gatherers (VIDEO)
• #3 Rethinking Hunter-Gatherer Ideas of Simplicity and Understanding Complex Hunter/Fisher-Gatherers (VIDEO)
• #4 Rethinking Hunter-Gatherer Ideas of Simplicity and Understanding Complex Hunter/Fisher-Gatherers (VIDEO)

“I’m glad to see you covering the Old Copper Complex. We really need more researchers here.” – Dylan Violette

Totemism, Tribalism, Clan, and Power: (band, tribe, chiefdom, and state) “blog post”

“This is a great diagram. There was a recent study (some years old, but still new for the region) on the Maritime Archaic Port au Choix site. The researcher investigated burial goods, grave placement, and DNA. They think there’s enough evidence from that cemetery to suggest a male-led society that brought women in as marriage partners. Most men stayed in a region, while more women moved around. The wealthiest graves also showed different diets, appearing more well-fed and healthier than others. That could tie-in to the patriarchal element you mentioned. I’ve been wondering how much it applies to the Shell Mound Archaic and the OCC, because all three groups were interacting, trading, and sharing a red ochre burial tradition, which might’ve had “tiers” based on knowledge, experience, or both. Some graves have hematite chunks, others have hematite pebbles. Some graves have red ochre chunks or pebbles, while many have the powdered red ochre. The tier thing is only a hypothesis, though. Haven’t seen much talk about that.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

I mentioned Great Lakes region totemism. Here is some info:

AI Overview: Totemism in the Great Lakes region refers to the social and spiritual system of Anishinaabe (Ojibwe, Odawa, Potawatomi) and other Algonquian-speaking clans, derived from the word doodem (clan). These clans, often represented by animals (wolf, bear, turtle) or natural elements, signify kinship, social structure, and shared identity, rather than being idols of worship. 

Key Aspects of Great Lakes Totemism

• The term “totem” derives from the Anishinaabe word doodem or ototeman, meaning “his brother-sister kin”. It represents a system where clans are linked to spiritual ancestors in the natural world.
• Social Structure: Totems identify a person’s clan, which dictates duties, social structure, and marriage rules (typically exogamous—marrying outside one’s clan).
• Common Totems: Animal spirits are dominant, particularly the wolf, bear, turtle, deer, and crane.
• Relationship to Nature: The totem animal is not worshipped but revered, with a prohibition against harming the animal representation of one’s clan.
• Spirit World (Manidog): The Great Lakes Indian world was, and is, filled with spirits (manidog) inhabiting plants, animals, and elements, requiring constant respect and offerings of tobacco.
• Distinction from West Coast: Unlike the Pacific Northwest, Great Lakes tribes did not traditionally carve “totem poles.” Instead, their symbols were used in clan identification, face painting, and personal belongings. Each clan, such as the Turtle clan (often keepers of wisdom), has specific duties.

• Resilience: Symbols like the Mishipeshu (Great Lynx) represent cultural resilience and are found in ancient rock art.

AI Overview: Totemism in North America, rooted in Indigenous cultures, includes both group (clan) and individual forms that connect people to nature through spiritual, symbolic, and ancestral bonds. Group totemism fosters collective identity and marriage rules, while personal, or individual, totems act as personal guardians or spiritual guides, often acquired through vision quests.

Group Totemism (Clan/Tribe)

Definition & Function: A group (clan, tribe, or family) believes they share a common ancestor or spiritual bond with a specific animal, plant, or natural object. It serves as a social organizer, dictating marriage rules (e.g., prohibition of marrying within the same clan).

Examples: The Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) are divided into doodeman (clans) with animal totems like the crane, bear, or loon.

Northwest Coast: Tribes in this region used totem poles to represent family histories and group ancestry, often carving them from red cedar.

Significance: These totems reinforce social cohesion, kinship, and define a group’s role and identity.

Individual Totemism (Personal)

Definition & Function: A personal, lifelong relationship with a spirit being, acting as a protector, guide, or guardian for a single person.

Acquisition: Often acquired through personal, spiritual experiences, such as a vision quest during puberty.

Function: Unlike the inherited group totem, this personal totem is unique to the individual and influences their life path, health, and hunting/fishing success.

Relation to Nature: These often represent nature spirits, such as those of forests, mountains, or specific animals.

Regional Variations

Northwest Coast: Famous for totem poles (house posts, memorial poles) representing familial lineage.

Northeast/Midwest (e.g., Anishinaabe): Strong focus on clan-based, hereditary totems.

Plains/Other Regions: Often involved personal, individual visions for guardians.

AI Overview: Around 5,000 years ago (c. 3000 BCE), the Americas experienced significant demographic shifts, including the migration of Paleo-Inuit (Paleo-Eskimo) populations from Siberia to Alaska and increased genetic exchange with existing Native Americans. This era marked the late Archaic period, characterized by established, complex, and sometimes coastal-focused cultures. Around 5,000 years ago, new groups of people (Paleo-Inuit or Paleo-Eskimos) crossed the Bering Strait from Siberia into Alaska. Studies suggest that this period (approx. 5,500–4,400 years ago) included increased interaction and admixture between Asian populations and established Native American populations, according to a study published by Cell Press.

“The Altai hunter-gatherers neither fall close to populations with high ANA ancestry on the right nor to populations with high ANE and western Eurasian steppe ancestries on the left. In fact, the earliest record of genetic ancestry related to nomadic pastoralists from the western Eurasian steppe appears in the Altai at ∼5,000 years ago and is associated with the spread of the Afanasievo culture. The paleo-Siberian ancestry was spread over vast areas of Siberia, spanning from the Altai (as shown here in the Neolithic Altai hunter-gatherers) through Yakutia to northeastern Siberia. Previous studies revealed that the northeastern Siberia Kolyma_M individual and the Yakutia_6000BP population share close genetic ties with modern-day Chukotko-Kamchatkan speakers from the Kamchatka peninsula and with Native Americans. Ab estimated the admixture time of the Native American-related ancestry in ancient and present-day groups from northeastern Siberia. This backflow is dated to between 5,500 and 4,400 years ago for the ancient populations, while the estimation is only 1,500 years ago for the present-day Koryak population.” ref

“The Arctic Small Tool tradition of Alaska and the Canadian Arctic may have originated in East Siberia about 5,000 years ago. This is connected with the ancient Paleo-Eskimo peoples of the Arctic. The Arctic Small Tool tradition source may have been the Syalakh-Bel’kachi-Ymyakhtakh culture sequence of East Siberia, dated to 6,500–2,800 years ago.” ref

“More than 5,000 years ago, Paleo-Eskimo and Chukotko-Kamchatkan populations were separated due to the migration of the former across the Bering Strait. About 4800 years ago, i.e. soon after the migration, Paleo-Eskimos mixed with two groups of “First Americans”. One of these admixture events (30–40% of Paleo-Eskimo ancestry) gave rise to the peoples of the Na-Dene language family. Another (about 50% of Paleo-Eskimo admixture) gave rise to the peoples of the Eskimo-Aleut language family. It is noteworthy that Paleo-Eskimo ancestry was found in all branches of the Na-Dene family, and its level is noticeably lower among neighboring peoples of other language families. Although the genetic results do not allow an unambiguous conclusion about the original homeland of the Na-Dene family (in America or Siberia), we can assume that Paleo-Eskimos mixed with an American population that was a common ancestor of all the Na-Dene peoples. Given a relatively close relationship of Paleo-Eskimos with modern Siberian Kets, Vajda’s hypothesis about the relationship of the Yeniseian and Na-Dene language families no longer looks incredible.” ref

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“Ancient burial ground used by the Old Copper Complex Culture of early Native Americans, between around 4,000 and 2,000 BCE. Utilitarian products were much more numerous than ornamental items in the grave goods found, and the ancient artifacts were created from various materials.” ref

• Copper: awls, crescents, clasps; and a spear-point, fishhook, bracelet, spirally-coiled tubing, rivet, and a spatula.
• Chipped stone: scraper, projectile points.
• Bone: awl (fish jawbone), and a “fine specimen of a whistle” (leg bone of a swan).
• Antler: possible flaking tools.
• Shell: pond snail (Campeloma decisum) beads.” ref

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“Locations of raw copper sources, selected archaeological sites, and selected Late Archaic shell rings. (1) Isle Royale; (2) Michipicoten; (3) Keweenaw; (4) Snake River; (5) Trout River; (6) Cap d’Or; (7) Cornwall; (8), Adams County; (9) Ducktown; (10) Fanning County; (11) Oglethorpe County; (12) Indian Knoll; (13) Poverty Point.” ref

Early metal use and crematory practices in the American Southeast

“Chemical sourcing of a Late Archaic (ca. 4,100–3,980 years ago) copper artifact reveals extensive trade networks linking the coastal southeastern United States with the Great Lakes. Found alongside the cremated remains of at least seven individuals and in the direct center of a plaza defined by a circular shell midden, the copper artifact demonstrates the existence of long-distance networks that transmitted both objects and mortuary practices. In contrast with models that assume coastal hunter-gatherer-fishers typically lived in small, simple societies, we propose that trading for and utilizing copper is evidence of emergent hierarchical social organization during the Archaic and the likelihood that power was gained and displayed during large-scale gatherings and ceremonial events.” ref

“Abstract: Long-distance exchange of copper objects during the Archaic Period (ca. 8,000 to 3000 years ago) is a bellwether of emergent social complexity in the Eastern Woodlands. Originating from the Great Lakes, the Canadian Maritimes, and the Appalachian Mountains, Archaic-age copper is found in significant amounts as far south as Tennessee and in isolated pockets at major trade centers in Louisiana but is absent from most of the southeastern United States. Here we report the discovery of a copper band found with the cremated remains of at least seven individuals buried in the direct center of a Late Archaic shell ring located in coastal Georgia. Late Archaic shell rings are massive circular middens thought to be constructed, in part, during large-scale ritual gatherings and feasting events. The exotic copper and cremated remains are unique in coastal South Carolina and Georgia where Archaic-age cremations are conspicuously absent and no other Archaic copper objects have been reported. Elemental data produced through laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry shows the copper originated from the Great Lakes, effectively extending Archaic copper exchange almost 1,000 km beyond its traditional boundaries. Similarities in mortuary practices and the presence of copper originating from the Great Lakes reveal the presence of long-distance exchange relations spanning vast portions of the eastern United States and suggest an unexpected level of societal complexity at shell ring localities. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that elite actors solidified their positions through ritual gatherings and the long-distance exchange of exotic objects during the Archaic.” ref

“The creation of copper objects and the expansion of their exchange have been directly tied to rising sociopolitical complexity during the Late Archaic. As mobility decreased and population levels and densities increased, interactions between Late Archaic groups in the Great Lakes, Ohio Valley, Midwest, and Northeast grew in importance, scale, and permanence. Exchange of objects was an important aspect of intergroup interactions, perhaps as a method of maintaining and reaffirming alliances. Exchange networks likely included both “down-the-line” relations located within the community and networks in which individuals or small groups of entrepreneurs traveled outside their region on trading missions. Copper objects, along with shells, raw lithic materials, and effigy beads were highly valued, and the control over their distribution provided opportunities for emergent elites to gain status, acquire debt, and cement relationships.” ref

“Other social practices (e.g., cremation) also traveled along trade routes. The co-occurrence of copper and crematory practices across the Great Lakes region, northeastern United States, and the Ohio and Tennessee River valleys suggests the presence of trade partnerships and shared mortuary practices across North America. The Late Archaic Period is characterized by a broad, interconnected social landscape, although it is unclear if this constellation of interrelated communities was formed or sustained through elite trade networks, alliances built on marriages, large-scale ritual gatherings, or a mixture of practices.” ref

“While large portions of the eastern United States are tied together through copper exchange and shared mortuary patterns, there is little evidence for linkages with communities living in the American Southeast where Archaic-age copper is virtually absent, apart from Poverty Point, a massive earthen mound complex in Louisiana, and an associated shell ring. The presence of copper at Poverty Point provides further evidence that the site was a major trade center and likely was a stage for large-scale ritual gatherings. Cremations are likewise extremely rare in the Archaic American Southeast, where burials are more often placed within shell middens, in ponds, or as flexed or seated interments in pits. The closest instances of cremation to the Southeast are also the closest instances of Archaic-age copper finds, including a few individuals in the southern Ohio Valley and a small cluster of burials in the Tennessee River Valley.” ref

AI Overview: Wisconsin is renowned for having the highest concentration of effigy mounds in the world, with roughly 4,000 remaining, primarily located in the southern half of the state along major waterways and in regional parks. Key sites include Effigy Mounds National Monument (near Iowa border), Aztalan State Park, and Man Mound Park. Copper items are frequently found in burials, such as the Oconto site in Wisconsin, suggesting they were used as grave goods, potentially symbolizing status or wealth during funeral feasts. Later in the tradition (by 1000 BCE), copper became increasingly used for jewelry and ceremonial objects rather than utilitarian tools, signaling the development of more complex social hierarchies. 

Key Wisconsin Mound Locations and Map Areas

Effigy Mounds National Monument (Allamakee County/Iowa Border): Located on the Mississippi River, featuring over 200 earthen mounds in bear and bird shapes.

Aztalan State Park (Jefferson County): Known for large, conical, and rectangular mounds, this site represents a Middle Mississippian village.

Man Mound Park (Sauk County): Located near Baraboo, it features one of the few remaining anthropomorphic (human-shaped) mounds.

Other Key Areas: Mounds are concentrated along the Wisconsin River, the Fox River, and in the southern Wisconsin landscape, including areas around Lake Mendota and Lake Wingra in Madison.

Note: While often referred to as “shell mounds” in coastal regions, Wisconsin’s mounds are primarily “effigy” or “burial” mounds constructed from soil, rather than specifically shells.

AI Overview: Minnesota is rich with ancient earthwork mounds built by Indigenous peoples, predominantly located on bluffs and terraces overlooking rivers. While the term “shell mound” often refers to coastal oyster deposits (as in Florida), Minnesota’s mounds are primarily soil-based burial or ceremonial structures. Significant sites include the Eastern Mound Group in St. Paul’s Indian Mounds Regional Park. 

Key Aspects of Minnesota Mounds

• Purpose: These earthworks served as burial grounds, often constructed by various cultures, including the Hopewell and Dakota cultures.
• Location: Often situated on bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River and near other major water bodies.

• Burial Sites: The most significant “mound” site associated with them is the Oconto County cemetery, where excavations revealed burials containing copper items along with stone, bone, and antler tools.

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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“I’ve seen two different theories for Algonquin expansion. The first being that they left the Columbia Plateau and went over the Northern Plains. The second being they left the Plateau, headed down the Missouri River, and started (or influenced) the Shell Mound Archaic. Kenneth Sassaman’s talked about the second theory. Many similarities between the Shell Mound Archaic and the Archaic Columbian Plateau. Do you think their migration could’ve been both, with a Northern and Southern group?” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

Shamanism-related Trickster god/spirit, Raven or Crow

Red Ocher Culture

“A unique culture called the Red Ocher Culture existed in the time between the end of the Archaic and the beginning of Woodland. This culture showed more social complexity than earlier people. The people were involved in long distance trade of exotic materials and practiced elaborate burial practices. A characteristic of this culture was its unique burial practices of using red ocher to decorate or cover the corpses of their dead. Red Ocher is ground up iron ore that is red in color.” ref

“Objects made from exotic materials were placed with the burials to mark the individual’s status. Copper ornaments, marine shell beads and ceremonial blades (knives or points that were thinner and larger than could be practically used) have been found buried with some individuals. The trade networks and use of copper by the Red Ocher people have their beginnings in the trade and copper use of the Old Copper Culture. Red Ocher people used copper more to make ornaments (beads, rings) than tools, like the Old Copper Culture people did. Not all Archaic or Woodland people were involved in the Red Ocher Culture. This is a unique set of lifeways that only some people were involved in.” ref

Red Ocher people 1000 BCE to 400 BCE

“The Red Ocher people were an indigenous people of North America. A series of archaeological sites located in the Upper Great Lakes, the Greater Illinois River Valley, and the Ohio River Valley in the American Midwest have been discovered to be a Red Ocher burial complex, dating from 1000 to 400 BCE, the Terminal Archaic – Early Woodland period. Characterized as shallow burials located in sandy ridges along river valleys, covered in red ochre, they contain diagnostic artifacts that include caches of flint points, turkey-tails, and various forms of worked copper. Turkey-tails are large flint blades of a distinct type. It is believed that Red Ocher people spoke an ancestral form of the Algonquian languages.” ref

“Red ochre has a long history of use in North America; as early as the Folsom tradition during the Paleo-Indian period, certain localities in New Mexico and Wyoming were being mined for the substance. Many important archaeological questions regarding the Red Ocher burial manifestation and cultural phenomenon are still without answers. This culture used powdered red ocher in their burials. There is considerable variation from site to site in the few sites with this artifact. Some additional sites have since been recognized as Red Ocher because of their cultural similarity to these.” ref

“There is not a broad synthesis of the existing information and it is easily confused with the Glacial Kame culture. It is found in Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, and Ohio. The sites are from eastern Iowa to central Ohio and from southern Ohio to the Manitoulin District of Ontario. Most of the sites are in southeastern Wisconsin, northern Illinois, northern Indiana, and the southern half of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. This area of Red Ocher culture is a co-occupant with Glacial Kame. It seems probable that the Old Copper merges into both Red Ocher and Glacial Kame.” ref

Swing of the Mace: the rise of Elite, Forced Authority, and Inequality begin to Emerge 8,500 years ago?

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Copper in the Mississippian culture

“During the Mississippian period (CE 800 to 1600, varying locally), elites at major political and religious centers throughout the midwestern and southeastern United States used copper ornamentation as a sign of their status by crafting the sacred material into representations connected with the Chiefly Warrior cult of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (S.E.C.C.). This ornamentation includes Mississippian copper plates, repousséd plates of beaten copper now found as far afield as Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. Some of the more famous of the plates are of raptorial birds and avian-themed dancing warriors.” ref

“These plates, such as the Rogan plates from Etowah, the Spiro plates from the Spiro in Oklahoma, and the Wulfing cache from southeast Missouri, were instrumental in the development of the archaeological concept known as the S.E.C.C. The only Mississippian culture site where a copper workshop has been located by archaeologists is Cahokia in western Illinois, where a copper workshop dating to the Moorehead Phase (c. 1200 CE) was identified at Mound 34. Gregory Perino identified the site in 1956 and archaeologists subsequently excavated it.” ref

“Numerous copper fragments were found at the site; metallographic analysis indicated that Mississippian copper workers worked copper into thin sheet through repeated hammering and annealing, a process that could be successful over open-pit wood fires. After the collapse of the Mississippian way of life in the 1500s with the advent of European colonization, copper still retained a place in Native American religious life as a special material. Copper was traditionally regarded as sacred by many historic period Eastern tribes. Copper nuggets are included in medicine bundles among Great Lakes tribes. Among 19th century Muscogee Creeks, a group of copper plates carried along the Trail of Tears are regarded as some of the tribe’s most sacred items.” ref

“The Moundville phase, known to the early European explorers as the Province of Pa’sfalaya/Pafalaya, was a major Mississippian polity in the U.S. state of Alabama. Centered in the Black Warrior River valley, the Mico (or “great cacique“) of Moundville held enormous amounts of power over its people. When its much more diminished descendants were encountered by a Spanish expedition, even they (called “lords” by the chroniclers) were able to manage and relocate whole granaries, mobilize forces, organize expedition parties and hire guides to help the Spanish. A large portion of the Moundville phase would split off in 1450 from a variety of reasons. Crop failure, political infighting, end of the Moundville lineage, disagreements on the polity’s future, or even violent civil war all could have contributed to the split in the Moundville phase.” ref

“The two main successors were the Province of Pafalaya (lineage based at the Snow’s Bend Site), who stayed in the Black Warrior River and evidently replaced Moundville as the dominant power in the Moundville phase. The other, more powerful, successor was the Province of Tascalusa, east to the Alabama River, with its capital at Atahachi, known as the “Big Eddy phase.” The beginning of Mississippian influence is considered to have been established c. 1070 under the West Jefferson phase, but the Moundville phase only began around 1120, founded by a group who split away from the Shiloh phase.” ref

“Over the course of a century, the Moundville phase polity would rise to great heights. At least 29 mounds in its capital, and a population in its core province of between 10,000 and 30,000. By 1250, its shadow loomed over neighbors beyond its core province, notably at Chakchiuma (at the Butler mound), Talapatica (possibly located at the Lubbub Creek mound) and the 1GR2 mound chiefdom. Prestige goods from all over the Southeast arrived in the grand plaza of moundville for the elite and the Mico of Moundville, Appalachian copper, Lower Mississippian art, Cahokian stones, pearls and shells from the coast, colorful gemstones, and Datura drugs from New Mexico all coming together to be used in ceremonies and to boost the seeming divinity of Moundville elite.” ref

“Moundville phase continued to prosper somewhat during the early 14th century and prestige goods might’ve even increased in the region, despite mounds on the Moundville site itself being slowly abandoned. After however, it is certain that by 1400 Moundville began to decline in long-distance prestige goods exchange. High status individuals began to be buried away from the mounds, and by the late 15th century most mounds in the valley had stopped being built.” ref

“Vernon James Knight Jr. and Vincas P. Steponaitis have proposed that the Mico of Moundville still held a de jure sovereignty among the inhabitants of the Black Warrior River Valley. Interestingly, the various De Soto chronicles seem to identifiy a de facto political head of the region lay with the “Lord of the Province of Pafalaya,” his principal town at the 15th-16th century Snow’s Bend Site (town of Apafalaya?) in the north of the core Moundville province.” ref

“That first Mico of Moundville split off from Shiloh at the same time as another group split from Shiloh, the Province of Apalachicola, eventually known archaeologically as the Rood phase. Possibly even splitting for the same reason, Moundville likely remained amicable with the Province of Apalachicola throughout the centuries, and during the 16th-17th centuries, one of the two main provinces of Moundville descent, Tascalusa, would reunite with their brethren in Apalachicola and form the Upper and Lower Creek Confederacy.” ref

Pre-Moundville Initial Mississippianization (CE 1070-1120)

“The Mississippian Era was defined by intense maize agriculture (brought by the Corn Mother religious movement), temple mounds, and theocratic–aristocratic “theater states.” Among Muscogee-speakers (whom are one of the descended groups of Moundville and Mississippians), the base government subdivision was the Talwa or Okla, the greater town or chiefdom, ruled by a Mico. The beginnings of Mississippian influence in the Black Warrior River Valley began in the 1070s, when the West Jefferson phase emerged. The West Jefferson phase is viewed as a Woodland group in the process of Mississippianization, transition to a Mississippian culture. It held some Mississippian traits such as shell-working industry, chunkey-stone manufacturing and the presence of foreign Mississippian green-stones. The not yet consolidated, but partially Mississippianized made it a perfect destination for a certain group of Mississippians coming out from the Shiloh phase.” ref

Founding and Initial Consolidation (CE 1120-1200)

“The transition from West Jefferson to the Moundville I phase is dated to around 1120. The establishment of the Moundville phase is thought to be an exodus coming out from the Shiloh site, perhaps leaving due to a Cahokian relationship to Shiloh around this time, the product of which were the first mounds at Shiloh. Another group that left around this time, perhaps even for the same reason as Moundville, was the ancestors of the Rood phase, or the Province of Apalachicola. This ancestral tie between the Apalachicola and Moundville came into use centuries down the line, when the Moundville-descended Alabama River Province, the Moundville-descended Cusseta Province, and Apalachicola Province allied to form the Muscogee Confederacy.” ref

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Regional Dominance and Elaboration of Power (CE 1200-1300)

“Starting from 1200, Moundville grew rapidly. At its peak there were at least 29 earthen pyramids in its capital of Moundville (possibly known as Zabusta), and a population in its core province of between 10,000 and 30,000. This core population was spread out in many small farming settlements, grouped and governed by a dozen or more administrative mound centers home to only some bureaucrats and the Mico (chief or lord)’s immediate family. The nucleated center at it all, Zabusta/Moundville, was only home to around 1,000-1,700 people permanently, but likely held elaborate and large festivities seasonally that included most of the province, much like other Mississippian capitals, such as Ivitachuco in Apalachee which assembled at least 30,000 people at a time for certain, possibly religious, events (in that case Catholic Spaniards) .” ref

“This limitation in a nucleated residential population comes from a mixture of factors, like lack of modes of transportation for firewood and food. By 1250, its sociopolitical influence reached beyond its core province, notably at Chakchiuma (Administratively based at the Butler mound), Talapatica (possibly based at the Lubbub Creek mound) and the 1GR2 mound chiefdom. Considering the relationship of Chakchiuma with the Chickasaw and Alabama Micoships during contact period, and the general distance that other Mississippian polities extended, it’s likely that the Chickasaw and Alabama also had some sort of tributary relationship with Moundville.” ref

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“The Moundville Province became so large that groups began to split from Moundville, like Moundville did from Shiloh. One chiefly lineage is thought to have left to the Bottle Creek Mounds north of Mobile Bay during this period and another to the Cedar Creek Mound site on the Alabama River. The Bottle Creek Mounds was the capital of a kingdom unrivaled across the entire Gulf Coast with subsidiary centers like the Crossroads Mounds site in the vicinity of Lower Halls Landing, Baldwin County, likely ancestral to the Chickasawhays that moved west to join the Choctaw Confederacy after contact.” ref

“This intrusion was the beginning of a Gulf Coast manifestation of the Mississippian culture, known as the Pensacola Culture, composed principally of influences from Moundville and the Lower Mississippi Valley. The Cedar Creek mound site, near Elm Bluff, Alabama, was another intrusion of Moundvillians, this time to the Alabama River. They became a regional center for the local woodland White Oak phase, reflecting a mix of both White Oak and Moundville I designs in their ceramics.” ref

Necropolis & Decentralized Stage (CE 1300-1530)

“Mounds continued to be expanded and raised throughout the late 13th century, but as the Medieval Warm Period came to a close, elaborate ceremonialism involving the entire population of the valley became more difficult to sustain, and the Moundville Province had to look inward to maintain its own population before projecting power outwards, likely leading to the decline in hard power material influences on the former tributaries. To accommodate this development, elites began to repurpose Moundville/Zabusta itself as a necropolis, a ceremonial center for death. Already considered a prestigious place for souls to enter the Milky Way (due to the alignment of its pyramids), Moundville leaned even more into this spiritual and mortuary aspect.” ref

“Academics now believe that Moundville became a place where ritualism was conducted to contact dead souls, possibly with the help of Datura psychoactive substances, linked to a new religious movement based around Datura and a giant Moth deity. The former neighborhoods within Zabusta emptied out into farmsteads, small farming settlements, dispersed throughout the valley that answer to small administrative mound centers that held only the administrators, bureaucrats, the Mico (king or lord) and his immediate family. In the 15th century Moundville’s prestige elite burials shifted to outside the walls of Moundville, signaling another blow to Moundville’s prestige.” ref

“Conflict plagued the early 15th century province, and it came to a boiling point around 1450, when a substantial Moundville phase population left the province to the Alabama River, formerly the outskirts of the Paramountcy. The newly established the Province of Tascalusa, expanded rapidly, courting a Bottle Creek offshoot, the Province of Mabila (known as the Furman phase), partially subjugating the minor chiefdom of Piachi, and partially subjugating the province of Talisi.” ref

“After contact, the democratized Tascalusa would eventually ally with their related Province of Apalachicola to form the powerful Muscogee/Creek Confederacy. It’s been proposed that, although diminished, Moundville still could’ve remained prestigious enough to be the de jure ceremonial capital of the Province of Pafalaya even until the De Soto Period. We may never know for sure, but perhaps the Lord of Pafalaya at the Snow’s Bend Site (town of Apafalaya?) seen by De Soto was an attempt at reestablishing a centralized Moundville chiefdom.” ref

Creation of the Choctaw Confederacy (CE 1530-1690)

“During this period, the Province of Pafalaya moved to the headwaters of the Sucarnoochee River and along the Noxubee River to form the Eastern Division of the Choctaw Confederacy, Okla Tannap or Ahepat. The Choctaw Confederacy was formed from the Mississippian-era alliance between the Okla Tannap and the Natchez-adjacent Pearl River Okla (ancestors of Okla Hannali, or Sixtowns), moving to greener pastures due to a devastating drought from 1569-1587. This doesn’t seem to be a completely unified move however, as certain Mico like Talicpacana and Moculixa seems to have joined the Muscogee Confederacy instead, and in fact were fleeing from the Choctaws. This may imply some sort of “Join us, or die.” policy by the Pafalaya Choctaws.” ref

“In the Province of Pafalya (or Moundville phase) during their peak in the 12th to early 13th centuries, the aristocratic Mississippian government likely functioned with a main council, as was the norm among their descendant Choctaws and Muscogee Confederacies. The executive officer of the government was known as the Mico, who collaborated with other “principal men” in the council, to oversee public works, organize ritual events and conduct foreign policy.” ref

“Clan Priests, especially during the heyday of elaborate ritual during the Mississippian period, also held a substantial amount of power, especially during the Mississippian heyday. The composition of the so-called principal men of the council is not known, but it is generally believed to have been made up of powerful Clan Priests, Hatak-holitopa (Experienced and influential class of people, usually elders. Known variously as “rich men,” “nobleman,” “gentleman”), Heniha (“second men,” bureaucrats, planners, chosen from each clan), and high-ranking individuals of the Taska class (warriors; for the specific roles look below) .” ref

Mico-ship

“The Mico acted as the hereditary main executive officer and representative of the Council, and also contributed with legal knowledge and expertise. Although the Mico likely held substantial secular power throughout most of the Moundville phase, it’s been proposed that it was either mixed with a religious aspect or power was outright replaced by Clan Priests during the Mississippian heyday and the Necropolis era. Though the latter possibility has some support, it’s worth noting that the Mico itself might’ve originated as a Clan Priest title, considering that the Apalachee (who spoke a related Muskogean language) word for “sun” was Nico, similar to the Muscogee Mico.” ref

“Mississippian rulers in general tended titles referencing the Sun, such as the Great Sun among the Natchezan-speakers as a reference to their relation to the Sun deity. Perhaps the Mico of Pafalaya originated as a title for the Clan Priest who claimed a special relation with the Sun. After gaining secular power over the course of the Early and Middle Mississippian period, the Mico began to lose their religious role in the Late Mississippian period (due to the declining prestige goods exchange and environmental disasters), but seemed to still retain secular power.” ref

“At contact, various Mico in the Province of Pafalaya was able to command large evacuations of people and transportations of food stores within days of De Soto’s arrival. Mico among other Mississippians tend to adopt the name of their territory, for example the Mico of Joara in North Carolina was called Joara Mico. There also existed a Fanni Mico, who worked as a secretary of state, managing diplomatic relations with foreign entities.” ref

“Mico not only had secular duties as manager of the public granary, head of the council, and receiver of foreigners and diplomats but also held religious and ritual duties, probably because of their aforementioned relation with the Sun. The Mico presided over Chunkey games, the Green Corn Ceremony, New Fire Ceremony and other ritual events. He was, at least in the contact period, meant to swear his devotion to the Path of Peace, and to never shed human blood.” ref

Mico Apelichika Afullota

“Mico Apelichika Afullota (English: Circuit of a King’s Dominion) was a concept among descendants of the Moundville phase, notably the Choctaw, used to mean the political territory defined by the circuit of the king. This concept aligns well with a theory in Mississippian scholarship, whereby the core dominion of a Mississippian Mico was limited by how far he could walk/administrate, usually in circles wherein the radius is 18km. The primary mound centers in Georgia seemed to mostly follow this rule, where secondary centers were within 18km, and the nearest primary mound center being 33km or more away.” ref

Civil Servants

“The Mico was assisted in carrying out civic actions principally by the Henihas (translated as second men, bureaucrats, planners), Imalas (advisors and assistants), and Micalgi (lawyers, those who understand the details of civic government). Such civic actions could include planning harvests and communal fields, principally the job of Henihas, coming to a consensus (for the entire town) regarding a contentious issue, giving speeches, planned by the Mico and spoken to the public through his speaker, the Yatika, an official well-versed not only in public speaking, but also in the various regional languages.” ref

“Among other Mississippian groups, like the Natchez, respected elders (the Isti Atcagagi of the Muscogee) also could act as judges if need be, and perhaps this was also a feature of the Province of Pafalaya, though this role might’ve been filled by the Micalgi, whose job was to “understood the details of civic government.” The building of new houses for newlyweds, enlargement or building of palisades, preparation of the Black Drink (a caffeinated beverage used in ritual), and public feasts were all also responsibilities of the council, principally carried out by the various Heniha, the Mico, and his Imala.” ref

Administration

“The main capital and ceremonial center of the Moundville phase/Pafalaya Province, at least until the early 1400s, was the Moundville Archaeological Site, possibly known as Zabusta. It’s even been suggested that it remained the de jure ceremonial center until the 1500s. During the De Soto Expedition however, the residence of the Lord of Pafalaya seems to have been at the Snow’s Bend Site (town of Apafalaya?) to the north of Moundville. Perhaps it was an attempt at creating a new center of prestige for the province after a large section of the Province split and left to the Alabama River as the Province of Tascalusa.” ref

“Though it’s also possible that it was merely the new administrative center while the old prestigious Moundville could’ve served as the type of town known variously as Old-Beloved, Ancient, Holy, or White Sanctuary town. Within these White Sanctuaries (also known as the old-beloved, ancient, or holy town) you were forbidden from murder, or even spilling blood. White Sanctuaries (called such because white was considered the color of peace) functioned as safe havens for elopers, adulterers, and people accused of other crimes, as well as locations where enemies could come together and negotiate disputes.” ref

“White Sanctuaries were designated as such because they were “mother” or “grandmother” towns, like Moundville, from which daughter towns, like the Snow’s Bend Site (town of Apafalaya?), split off from. Among Southeasterners, mediation of disputes was secured by going up the descent line. Mothers mediate sibling disputes, grandmothers mediate cousin disputes, etc. This principle was carried out to towns, so Moundville may have served as a location where the various Mico of Pafalaya, Moculixa, and Taliepacana could come together and negotiate disputes in the name of their “grandmother,” much like how an actual grandmother would help negotiate disputes between her descendants.” ref

“The closest affiliated towns subject to Moundville likely paid tribute in the form of corn, while the more distant towns paid tribute in the form of skins, nuts, fruits, and other forest products, as was the norm among other Mississippian provinces. Due to the decline in prestige goods in neighboring, formerly independent, mound sites correlating to Moundville’s rise, prestige goods were also probably funneled away from subject towns to Moundville, reinforcing their role as paramount. Like among the Apalachee, various Mico across the provinces under Moundville’s rule probably came from the same clan or same two clans.” ref

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“Pafalaya warriors were likely organized similarly to their descended Muscogee (of whom the Tascalusa that split from Pafalaya form a part of) and Choctaw (of whom the Pafalaya formed a part of after contact) system. Mississippian armies were incredibly regulated, and with specific rankings. The Apalachee for example, had scalp requirements for each rank. A warrior who had obtained a single scalp was a Tascaia. One who had taken three scalps was a Noroco. The highest title a warrior could attain was Nicoguadca, or “lightning.” Attaining this legendary title required one to have killed ten enemies, and three of these had to be warriors who were higher ranked than Tascaias.” ref 

“Among the contact-period Choctaw (of whom the Pafalaya were a part of), there were at least two military ranks attainable within the War Class (Taska) above the basic designation as Taska. The lieutenants (Taska Minkochi in Choctaw), and the majors, who also acted as masters of ceremony (Tishu Minko in Choctaw). All three ranks received their titles in recognition of their having performed warlike feats, the war chiefs having accomplished the most.” ref

“One of the lieutenants was designated by the Beloved Men as “Great Warrior” (Tastanagi Tako in Muscogee) and had the duty of leading his chiefdom in war, aided by the lieutenants. Great Warriors supposedly held immense amounts of power, but only for matters of war. When war was declared, it was announced by the Great Warrior. He also arranged with the Great Warriors of other chiefdoms to have ball games. These ball games, Toli, known as “the younger brother of war,” were not just games, but had important political functions.” ref

“Along with the ranks of war, there also exists the Hatak Imatali, or “supporting men,” males who’ve not achieved any scalps or who have killed only a woman or a child. They did the more menial tasks in war, like carrying equipment as porters. During the contact period, Hatak Imatali were often elevated through participating in attacks with close relatives, who would award him some share of the scalps to improve his ranking. A raising of rank involved a naming ceremony, wherein the advancing individual is, especially in the higher ranks, awarded a war epithet. For example, Hopaii Hacho, Hopaii meaning the rank he’s obtained (war-prophet) and Hacho being a war-related adjective, meaning “mad.” ref

“It’s also noteworthy that warrior organizations likely existed among the Pafalaya, for example the Unkala, a priestly order who worked as custodians of the “House of Warriors” or Taskatchúka. This temple was allegedly the oldest settlement among the Choctaws, and stood on the banks of the Cushtusia Creek in Neshoba County, Mississippi. The I′ksa A′numpule or “clan-speakers” prepared the bones of great warriors for burial, and the Unkala went at the head of the mourners to that temple, chanting hymns in an unknown tongue. The people that made up the Moundville phase, the Province of Pafalaya, likely spoke a variety of Muskogean languages and dialects.” ref 

“A dialect Choctaw, whose Eastern Division was founded by Pafalaya descendants, was probably one such language, as well as other Muskogean languages like Chickasaw or Alabama, both possible tributaries of Moundville. Another main descendant of Moundville, the Province of Tascalusa, formed part of the Creek/Muscogee Confederacy. Therefore it’s likely Muscogee was another language spoken among Pafalayand, especially considering that the Apalachicola, the main component of the Muscogee, is considered to have been related to Moundville’s first rulers, sharing a common origin in the Shiloh polity on the Tennessee River.” ref 

“It’s worth noting that the Eastern Division Choctaw supposedly had closer linguistic ties to the Alabama rather then Western Division Choctaw, which is where modern Standard Choctaw comes from. Moundville is believed to have been thought of as an important portal to cross on to the Path of Souls (especially during the post-1300 Necropolis Era), and had a special association with the Beneath World. This is reflected in their art with designs featuring the Hand-in-Eye symbol, which represents the Milky Way, the Great Serpents, considered Lords of the Underworld, skulls and bones.” ref

Social Organization

“Like the rest of the Southeast, there were probably exogamous white and red moieties among the Pafalaya, which were further subdivided into clans, named after associated animals, which was further subdivided into lineages. These clans were theoretically universal throughout much of the Eastern Woodlands, for example a member of the Deer Clan from Taliepacana could and would be accommodated by the Deer Clan in Ontario. Clans were responsible if a murder was committed by one of their members, and would have to compensate with material goods or allowing revenge of some sort. There was a vague notion that animals whom the clans were named after shouldn’t be killed or eaten by the clan members, but it was not a serious prohibition.” ref

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Religion: Cosmic Worldview

“The Mississippian cosmos consisted of three worlds: in addition to This World, an Above World existed above the sky vault, an inverted bowl of solid rock which rose and fell each day, at dawn and at dusk, so that the sun and moon could pass beneath it, and a Beneath World existed below the earth and the waters. The world was thought of to be separated in four corners by a cross, and Moundville may have thought of itself as the center of the cross. In the Above World, things existed in an orderly manner, grander and purer form than in this world, while the Below World was conceived of as a realm of disorder and change. This Realm stood somewhere between perfect order and complete chaos.” ref

The Sun

“Key to the Pafalaya worldview was the importance of the Sun, which might’ve been thought of as a deity that watched them with its great fiery eye that kept them safe, and if the eye was diverted, all would go wrong. It’s worth noting that the Pafalaya head of state, the Mico, might’ve had a connection with the Sun deity, considering that the Apalachee (who spoke a related Muskogean language) word for “sun” was Nico, similar to the Muscogee Mico, and that other Mississippians, like the Natchez. This pattern possibly extended beyond Mississippian cultures, such as the Chonnonton leader Tsouharissen’s tentative connection.” ref

“The principal deity associated with the Datura Ritual Complex has been nicknamed “Mothra” by academics, after the namesake Japanese kaiju. Possibly known as “sho̱shi” by the Moundvillians (Choctaw for moth), it’s likely that Mothra was an underworld deity, adopted by the Mississippians to be a reincarnation of the deity Evening Star and a reincarnation of Birdman. Evening Star is associated with the night and the beneath world, making the Mississippian interpretation of Mothra, based around the night time and beneath world Datura drug, as a reincarnation of Evening Star a natural adoption.” ref

“This was not to say Mothra was sidelined in any way, and in fact Mothra was first identified at Moundville itself. Mothra/the Datura Ritual Complex is featured most famously on the Wiloughby Disc at Moundville, likely symbolizing the Datura needed to conduct a ritual to contact the dead. The two skulls in the middle was meant to symbolize a sacred bundle also involved in the ritual, while the Bilobed Arrow and Eye-in-Hand motif on the bottom symbolized the Soul and the Path of Souls respectively.” ref

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The Adena Culture, 500 BCE to 100 CE

“Known for its burial mounds, though also important because of far-reaching trade, items such as copper from the Great Lakes area, Micah from North Carolina, and shells from the Atlantic coast have been found at Adena sites. Centered on the location of the modern state of Ohio, but also extended into contiguous areas of Kentucky, West Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Southern Wisconsin, and parts of extreme western Pennsylvania.” ref, ref

“The Adena culture, named after a site near Chillicothe, Ohio, lived during the Woodland period between 500 B.C. and 200 A.D., roughly 2500-1800 years ago. The Adena are an archaeological culture, meaning that they did not call themselves “Adena” and likely would not have identified themselves as one group. Rather, archaeologists have grouped Adena sites together based on shared traits, such as mortuary practices and what types of tools they used. The Adena are primarily known for their burial mounds, though many of these mounds have now eroded through natural causes as well as continual plowing by farmers. The Adena were mobile hunter-gatherers and moved camp seasonally to take advantage of seasonal plants and hunting. They likely lived in small family groups and interacted with other small groups while moving around the land.” ref

“Important hunting resources included white-tailed deer, black bear, and elk, while items such as fruits and nuts would be gathered. Adena hunters were likely mainly men, who used atlatl’s (aht-laht), a tool used to lengthen spear throws, to help them throw farther and more accurately. Adena women are thought to have been in charge of gardening, growing plants such as sunflower, maygrass, and goosefoot, which would have been an important part of their diet. Known for their far-reaching trade, items such as copper from the Great Lakes area, Micah from North Carolina, and shells from the Atlantic coast have been found at Adena sites. In return, the Adena might have traded items that can only be found locally, such as barite, which was often used as a weight for atlatls.” ref

AI Overview: Adena culture copper artifacts primarily consist of ornamental or ceremonial items such as bracelets, rings, beads, and pendants, which were almost exclusively found in burial mounds. These objects were created using native copper from the Great Lakes region, obtained through extensive trade networks. Copper was a valuable, exotic material to the Adena people, and its use was largely reserved for items associated with status and ritual. The artifacts were typically made by hammering nuggets of native copper into thin sheets and then rolling or shaping them. 

• Bracelets: These were commonly made from a single rod of copper bent into an elliptical or nearly circular form, with the ends often nearly touching.
• Rings: Similar in manufacture to the bracelets, rings were also created from hammered and shaped copper.
• Beads: Copper beads were often cylindrical in shape, made by rolling small pieces of the metal, and were found in large quantities in burials, likely as part of necklaces or other adornments threaded with organic cord.
• Pendants and Gorgets: Various pendants and gorgets (ornaments worn on the chest) have been found, including reel-shaped pendants. Some headdresses also incorporated copper elements.
• Axes and Adzes: A few rare examples of copper axes have been found, but generally, copper was not widely used for utilitarian tools in the same way stone was. 

Function and Significance

The copper artifacts served a significant social and symbolic purpose within Adena society, contrasting with their use of stone for everyday tools. 

• Status Symbols: The presence of copper items in burials, along with other exotic materials like mica and marine shell, indicates that these objects likely served as symbols of wealth or social standing.
• Mortuary Context: These ornamental goods are found almost exclusively in burial mounds, placed in association with the deceased as grave goods. This practice underscores their importance in Adena burial rituals and beliefs.
• Trade Network Evidence: The copper was sourced from the Great Lakes region, hundreds of miles away from the Adena heartland in the Ohio Valley. The existence of these artifacts provides valuable evidence of the extensive trade networks the Adena culture maintained with other distant groups.
• Aesthetic and Ritual Value: The focus on ornamental forms rather than utilitarian tools suggests that the value of copper was largely tied to its appearance, rarity, and perhaps perceived spiritual properties, which some later Native American tribes associated with powerful spirits. 

ref

Geographic distribution of the Adena (500 BCE to CE 100), Hopewell (200 BCE to CE 500), and Fort Ancient (CE 1000–1750) cultures.

“The Adena culture was a pre-Columbian Native American culture that existed from 500 BCE to CE 100, in a time known as the Early Woodland period. The Adena culture refers to what were probably a number of related Native American societies sharing a burial complex and ceremonial system. The Adena culture was centered on the location of the modern state of Ohio, but also extended into contiguous areas of Kentucky, West Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Southern Wisconsin and parts of extreme western Pennsylvania.” ref

“The culture is the most prominently known of a number of similar cultures in eastern North America that began mound building ceremonialism at the end of the Archaic period. The geographic range of the Adena sites is centered on central and southern Ohio, with further sites in contiguous areas of the surrounding states of Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. The importance of the Adena complex comes from its considerable influence on other contemporary cultures and cultures that came after it.” ref

“The Adena culture is seen as the precursor to the traditions of the Hopewell tradition, which are sometimes thought as an elaboration, or zenith, of Adena traditions. The Adena were notable for their agricultural practices, pottery, artistic works, and extensive trading network, which supplied them with a variety of raw materials, ranging from copper from the Great Lakes to shells from the Gulf Coast.” ref

Settlement patterns

“The large and elaborate mound sites served a nearby scattering of people. The population was dispersed in small settlements of one to two structures. A typical house was built in a circle form from 15 to 45 feet in diameter. The walls were made of paired posts tilted outward, that were then joined to other pieces of wood to form a cone shaped roof. The roof was then covered with bark and the walls may have been bark and/or wickerwork.” ref

Food sources

“Their sustenance was acquired through foraging and the cultivation of native plants.

• Hunted deer, elk, black bear, woodchuck, beaver, porcupine, turkey, trumpeter swan, and ruffed grouse.
• Gathered several edible seed, grasses, and nuts.
• Cultivated pumpkin, squash, sunflower, goosefoot, and erect knotweed.” ref

“The Adena ground stone tools and axes. Somewhat rougher slab-like stones with chipped edges were probably used as hoes. Bone and antler were used in small tools, but even more prominently in ornamental objects such as beads, combs, and worked animal-jaw gorgets or paraphernalia. Spoons, beads and other implements were made from the marine conch. A few copper axes have been found, but otherwise the metal was hammered into ornamental forms, such as bracelets, rings, beads, and reel-shaped pendants.” ref

Mounds

“Lasting traces of Adena culture are still seen in the remains of their substantial earthworks. At one point, larger Adena mounds numbered in the hundreds, but only a small number of the remains of the larger Adena earthen monuments still survive today. These mounds generally ranged in size from 20 feet (6.1 m) to 300 feet (91 m) in diameter and served as burial structures, ceremonial sites, historical markers, and possibly gathering places. These earthen monuments were built using hundreds of thousands of baskets full of specially selected and graded earth. According to archaeological investigations, Adena earthworks were often built as part of their burial rituals, in which the earth of the earthwork was piled immediately atop a burned mortuary building.” ref

“These mortuary buildings were intended to keep and maintain the dead until their final burial was performed. Before the construction of the earthworks, some utilitarian and grave goods would be placed on the floor of the structure, which was burned with the goods and honored dead within. The earthwork would then be constructed, and often a new mortuary structure would be placed atop the new earthwork. After a series of repetitions, mortuary/earthwork/mortuary/earthwork, a quite prominent earthwork would remain. In the later Adena period, circular ridges of unknown function were sometimes constructed around the burial earthworks.” ref

Stone tablets

“The Adena also carved small stone tablets, usually 4 or 5 inches by 3 or 4 inches by .5 inches thick. On one or both flat sides were gracefully composed stylized zoomorphs or curvilinear geometric designs in deep relief. Paint has been found on some Adena tablets, leading archaeologists to propose that these stone tablets were probably used to stamp designs on cloth or animal hides, or onto their own bodies. It is possible that they were used to outline designs for tattooing.” ref

Timber circles

“Postholes from a number of timber circles have been found during excavations of Adena culture causewayed ring ditch sites in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky and adjacent regions of Ohio and West Virginia. A notable example was found by archaeologist William S. Webb during the excavations of the Mount Horeb Site 1 in Fayette County, Kentucky in 1939. Webb discovered a circle of “paired-posts” inside of the embankment ring and ditch. The 48.5 feet (14.8 m) circle was made up of sixty two “paired” post sets and eight single posts.” ref

Pottery

“Unlike in other cultures, Adena pottery was not buried with the dead or the remains of the cremated, as were other artifacts. Usually Adena pottery was tempered with grit or crushed limestone and was very thick; its decoration was largely plain, cord-marked or fabric marked, although one type bore a nested-diamond design incised into its surface. The vessel shapes were sub-conoidal or flat-bottomed jars, sometimes with small foot-like supports.” ref

AI Overview: Earliest pottery in the American Midwest appeared around 500–600 BCE (Early Woodland period), characterized by thick-walled, cord-marked, and conically shaped, pointed-bottom vessels. These, often tempered with sand or grit, were primarily used for storage by nomadic or semi-sedentary groups, evolving from simpler, earlier technologies.

• Earliest Traditions: The earliest pottery in the region, often called “cord-marked,” originated in the eastern U.S. and appeared in the upper Midwest around 500 BCE.
• Appearance: These vessels were very large (up to 2 1/2 feet tall), thick-walled, and had conical or pointed bottoms.
• Function: They were likely used for storage rather than cooking, as they were heavy and not easily transported.
• Evolution: By 400 to 200 BCE, pottery became more common, with thinner, harder, sand-tempered, or grit-tempered wares appearing.
• Regional Examples: Pottery found in the Illinois River Valley dates back roughly 2,500 years. Further north, in the Boundary Waters, pottery from the Laurel Cultural Tradition has been dated to roughly 1,600–1,750 years old.
• Manufacturing: Early potters used coiled or slab techniques to build the pots, using paddles wrapped in cord or fabric to shape and decorate the exterior.

These early ceramic vessels marked a transition in food storage, paving the way for the more refined, diverse, and decorated ceramics seen later in the Hopewell (200 BCE – CE 450) and Mississippian periods.

Ceramics of Indigenous peoples of the Americas

“The earliest ceramics known from the Americas have been found in the lower Amazon Basin. Ceramics from the Caverna da Pedra Pintada, near Santarém, Brazil, have been dated to between 7,500 and 5,000 years ago. Ceramics from Taperinha, also near Santarém, have been dated to 8,000 to 7,000 years ago. Some of the sherds at Taperinho were shell-tempered, which allowed the sherds themselves to be radiocarbon dated. These first ceramics-making cultures were fishers and shellfish-gatherers.” ref

“Ceramics appeared next across northern South America and then down the western side of South America and northward through Mesoamerica. Ceramics of the Alaka culture in Guyana have been dated to 6,000 to 4,500 years ago. Ceramics of the San Jacinto culture in Colombia have been dated to about 4530 BCE, and at Puerto Hormiga, also in Colombia, to about 3794 BCE. Ceramics appeared in the Valdivia culture in Ecuador around 3200 BCE, and in the Pandanche culture in Peru around 2460 BCE.” ref

“Ceramics of Indigenous peoples of the Americas is an art form with at least a 7500-year history in the Americas. Pottery is fired ceramics with clay as a component. Ceramics are used for utilitarian cooking vessels, serving and storage vessels, pipes, funerary urns, censers, musical instruments, ceremonial items, masks, toys, sculptures, and a myriad of other art forms.” ref

Eastern Woodlands Ceramics

• “Hopewell pottery is the ceramic tradition of the various local cultures involved in the Hopewell tradition (ca. 200 BCE to CE 400) and are found as artifacts in archeological sites in the American Midwest and Southeast.
• Mississippian culture pottery is the ceramic tradition of the Mississippian culture (CE 800–1600) found as artifacts in archaeological sites in the American Midwest and Southeast.” ref

Southeastern Woodlands Ceramics

“The appearance of ceramics in the Southeastern United States does not fit the above pattern. Ceramics from the middle Savannah River in Georgia and South Carolina (known as Stallings, Stallings Island, or St. Simons) have been dated to about 2,888 BCE, and ceramics of the Orange and Norwood cultures in northern Florida to around 2,460 BCE (all older than any other dated ceramics from north of Colombia). Ceramics appeared later elsewhere in North America. Ceramics reached southern Florida (Mount Elizabeth) by 4000 years ago, Nebo Hill (in Missouri) by 3700 years ago, and Poverty Point (in Louisiana) by 3400 years ago.” ref

“Fiber-tempered ceramics associated with shell middens left by Late Archaic hunter-fisher-gatherers appeared in the Atlantic coastal plain of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina starting in 2,500 BCE. The earliest attested pottery is in the Stallings culture area, around the middle Savannah River. Fiber-tempered pottery of the Orange culture in northeast Florida has been dated to 2000 BCE or a bit earlier. Fiber-tempered pottery of very similar form spread along coasts and river valleys of the Southeastern United States from the Atlantic coast into Alabama, reaching northwestern Florida (Norwood culture) and the Gulf coast by 1300 BCE, the interior Middle South by 1100 BCE, and Poverty Point by 1000 BCE.” ref

“Thoms Creek ceramics closely resembled Stallings ceramics, but used more sand and less fiber as temper than Stalling or Orange ware. Thoms Creek ceramics were largely contemporary with Stalling and Orange ceramics, although no Thoms Creek ceramics have been found that are as early as the earliest Stallings. Thoms Creek ceramics overlapped Stallings ceramics in northern Georgia and southern South Carolina, but were the dominant tradition north of the Santee River into North Carolina.” ref

“Later significant developments in ceramics in the Southeastern Woodlands included Mississippian culture pottery in the Mississippi River valley, and Weedon Island pottery, a style of pottery used primarily in ceremonial contexts and high status burials, produced and traded along the Gulf of Mexico coast from southwestern Florida to the Florida panhandle.” ref

• “Swift Creek and Santa Rosa culture pottery post Deptford, northwest Florida, ceremonial decorative pottery, CE 1000.
• Glade and Belle Glade culture pottery fiber or sand-tempered crude pottery, south Florida to central Florida, 500 BCE until CE 1700, reference four periods I, II, III and IV
• Alachua culture pottery northeast, north central Florida, protohistoric period
• Plaquemine culture pottery, ceramics of the Natchez people, a historic tribe known also to be one of the last of the Plaquemine culture chiefdoms in southwestern Mississippi
• Fort Walton culture pottery distinctively Mississippi culture in Florida panhandle, developed out of the Weedon Island culture CE 1000.” ref

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“I’ve seen Hopewell-like art (balanced geometries) with the Shell Mound Archaic. The OCC didn’t make decorated copper plates, ear spools, or items like that. They had pendants, beads, bracelets, and a copper feather headdress. Their well-made woodworking toolkit suggests routine work that requires durable tools. The variety in size also suggests different tools for different jobs. Those geometric Hopewell ornaments? I think the OCC was making stuff like that. Not the same, but similar. Many of their artifacts already suggest an interest in geometry (etched grids, chevrons, spirals, abstract figures, etc., on stone and some copper items). Speculation based on available evidence.” – CopperViolette @CopperViolette

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AI Overview: Hopewell tradition artisans created elaborate, sacred copper artifacts by cold-hammering, folding, and cutting raw copper, primarily sourced from the Lake Superior region. These ceremonial items—including earspools, breastplates, headdresses, falcon effigies, and celts—symbolized high social status and were frequently buried in mounds. Copper was sourced from the Lake Superior area (nearly 800 miles away) and the Appalachian Mountains. Copper was considered a sacred material, and items often showed no wear, indicating they were created specifically for ritualistic or burial purposes.

Archaeology: Copper was sacred to Hopewell, regardless of its source

“One of its hallmarks was the accumulation of large quantities of iconic works of art fashioned from raw materials at key earthwork centers from the four corners of their world. These rare and spiritually charged materials included large seashells from the Gulf of Mexico, mica from the southern Appalachian Mountains, and obsidian from the Rocky Mountains. By far the most abundant raw material used for Hopewell regalia was copper, long assumed to have been obtained from around Lake Superior. 52 copper artifacts studied from six Ohio Hopewell sites, including the Hopewell Mound Group and Seip Mound, both of which are now part of Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. The artifacts included copper beads, breastplates and earspools.” ref

“Hill and his team compared the chemical signatures of these copper artifacts with the signatures of raw copper specimens collected from sources in the Lake Superior region and the southern Appalachian Mountains. They found that, as expected, the majority of the copper came from Lake Superior. Surprisingly, 21 % came from southern Appalachia. So a significant proportion of the copper found at Ohio’s Hopewell ceremonial centers may have been taken there by the same people who delivered the mica.” ref

Based on the new data, Hill and his co-authors conclude that there was nothing particularly sacred about Lake Superior copper. Instead, “native copper, regardless of source, seems to have been channeled along similar social and symbolic pathways.” This conclusion is consistent with some traditional American Indian beliefs associated with copper. Regardless of where they found it, copper “was always held to be a sacred and powerful mineral.” ref

“17th century Jesuit missionary Claude-Jean Allouez, who observed that native people in the region commonly possessed pieces of copper, which they believed were “presents which the gods dwelling beneath the waters have given them” and which could bring luck in hunting and fishing. These so-called “gods” were the Underwater Panther and the Great Serpent, powerful spirits who ruled the World Below. If the Hopewell culture shared some version of these beliefs, then copper would have been a powerful, sacred material whether it came from Lake Superior or southern Appalachia. And beads and breastplates made from it would therefore have had an enhanced social and symbolic significance.” ref

“For the people of the Hopewell culture in the Scioto River Valley 2,000 years ago, copper was a sacred metal. They used this beautiful metal to create some of the ceremonial objects archeologists found in the earthworks. Like many materials used in Hopewell ceremonial art, it was shiny when polished and able to reflect sunlight or the glow of a fire. The metal can also be shaped by hand. Ancient artists, folded, hammered, drilled, and rolled copper using stone and bone tools. Just like today, the metal was used to create jewelry and decorations. But the decorations created in the Hopewell tradition were part of ceremonial regalia that included: beautiful earspools, headdresses, buttons, tinklers (rattle like ornaments), axes, plates, and many other shapes and patterns including the falcon effigies.” ref

“Collecting copper was no small feat. The people of the Scioto River Valley had to travel over 300 miles by foot and boat to mine copper from either Lake Superior or the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Most of the copper found in the earthworks in the Scioto River Valley came from sources in and around Lake Superior, a nearly 800-mile journey (one way!).  Some came from sources in the Appalachian Mountains, and these ancient Ohioans could have collected quartz crystal, mica, and other exotic materials in these mountains, kind of like how we collect souvenirs from vacations and special events. Some of the copper from Ohio mounds could have been carried here in glacial ice and meltwaters. These ancient travelers likely encountered other groups across the eastern United States, forming close connections and relationships allowing their Hopewellian beliefs and practices to spread.” ref    

“Hopewell copper objects were made particularly for religious ceremonies, likely playing roles in animating myths, and used in song and dance. The material in its final form was viewed as a living thing with a spirit and was given ceremonial burials in the mounds here at Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. Historic and modern American Indian tribes continued to view copper as a sacred metal with spiritual powers. The metal is associated with Mishipeshu, the Great Lynx or Water Panther, the protector of copper. In Ojibwa oral tradition, the Great Lynx is a powerful dragon-like animal with a feline face and paws, its deer-like horns are made of copper and its body is covered with scales and dagger-like spikes running down its back and long copper tail. This being has the power to create storms and drown humans. Mishipeshu must be revered through offerings so that one may pass safely along the waters of Lake Superior and acquire its precious metal, copper.” ref

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Hopewell Tradition copper artifacts from the Northeastern and Midwestern Eastern Woodlands from 100 BCE to CE 500

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Hopewell tradition 100 BCE to CE 500

“The Hopewell tradition, also called the Hopewell culture and Hopewellian exchange, describes a network of precontact Native American cultures that flourished in settlements along rivers in the northeastern and midwestern Eastern Woodlands from 100 BCE to CE 500, in the Middle Woodland period. The Hopewell tradition was not a single culture or society but a widely dispersed set of populations connected by a common network of trade routes.” ref

“At its greatest extent, the Hopewell exchange system ran from the northern shores of Lake Ontario south to the Crystal River Indian Mounds in modern-day Florida. Within this area, societies exchanged goods and ideas, with the highest amount of activity along waterways, which were the main transportation routes. Peoples within the Hopewell exchange system received materials from all over the territory of what now comprises the mainland United States. Most of the items traded were exotic materials; they were delivered to peoples living in the major trading and manufacturing areas. These people converted raw materials into products and exported them through local and regional exchange networks.” ref

“Hopewell communities traded finished goods, such as steatite platform pipes, far and wide; they have been found among grave goods in many burials outside the Midwest. Although the origins of the Hopewell are still under discussion, the Hopewell culture can also be considered a cultural climax. Hopewell populations originated in western New York and moved south into Ohio, where they built upon the local Adena mortuary tradition. Or, Hopewell was said to have originated in western Illinois and spread by diffusion… to southern Ohio. Similarly, the Havana Hopewell tradition was thought to have spread up the Illinois River and into southwestern Michigan, spawning Goodall Hopewell.” ref

“American archaeologist Warren K. Moorehead popularized the term Hopewell after his 1891 and 1892 explorations of the Hopewell Mound Group in Ross County, Ohio. The mound group was named after Mordecai Hopewell, whose family then owned the property where the earthworks are sited. What any of the various peoples now classified as Hopewellian called themselves is unknown; indeed, what language families they spoke is unknown. Archaeologists applied the term “Hopewell” to a broad range of cultures. Many Hopewell communities were temporary settlements of one to three households near rivers. They practiced a mixture of hunting, gathering, and horticulture.” ref

Politics and hierarchy

“The Hopewell inherited from their Adena forebears an incipient social stratification. This increased social stability and reinforced sedentism, specialized use of resources, and probably population growth. Hopewell societies cremated most of their deceased and reserved burial for only the most important people. In some sites, hunters apparently were given a higher status in the community: their graves were more elaborate and contained more status goods. The Hopewell settlements were linked by extensive and complex trading routes; these operated also as communication networks, and were a means to bring people together for important ceremonies.” ref

 “The Hopewellian peoples had leaders, but they did not command the kind of centralized power to order armies of slaves or soldiers. These cultures likely accorded certain families a special place of privilege. Some scholars suggest that these societies were marked by the emergence of “big-men“, leaders whose influence depended on their skill at persuasion in important matters such as trade and religion. They also perhaps augmented their influence by cultivating reciprocal obligations with other important community members. The emergence of “big-men” was a step toward the development of these societies into highly structured and stratified chiefdoms.” ref

“Today, the best-surviving features of the Hopewell tradition era are earthwork mounds. Researchers have speculated about their purposes and debate continues. Great geometric earthworks are some of the most impressive Native American monuments throughout American prehistory, and were built by cultures following the Hopewell. Eastern Woodlands mounds typically have various geometric shapes and rise to impressive heights. Some of the gigantic sculpted earthworks, described as effigy mounds, were constructed in the shape of animals, birds, or writhing serpents.” ref

“Several scientists, including Bradley T. Lepper, hypothesize that the Octagon, in the Newark Earthworks at Newark, Ohio, was a lunar observatory. He believes that it is oriented to the 18.6-year cycle of minimum and maximum lunar risings and settings on the local horizon. The Octagon covers more than 50 acres (20 ha), the size of 100 football pitches. John Eddy completed an unpublished survey in 1978, and proposed a lunar major alignment for the Octagon. Ray Hively and Robert Horn of Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, were the first researchers to analyze numerous lunar sightlines at the Newark Earthworks (1982) and the High Banks Works (1984) in Chillicothe, Ohio.” ref

“Christopher Turner noted that the Fairground Circle in Newark, Ohio aligns to the sunrise on May 4, i.e. that it marks the May cross-quarter sunrise. In 1983, Turner demonstrated that the Hopeton earthworks encode various sunrise and moonrise patterns, including the winter and summer solstices, the equinoxes, the cross-quarter days, the lunar maximum events, and the lunar minimum events, due to their precise straight and parallel lines.” ref

“William F. Romain has written a book on the subject of “astronomers, geometers, and magicians” at the earthworks. Many of the mounds also contain various types of human burials, some containing precious grave goods such as ornaments of copper, mica and obsidian imported from hundreds of miles away. Stone and ceramics were also fashioned into intricate shapes.” ref

Artwork

“The Hopewell created some of the finest craftwork and artwork of the Americas. Most of their works had some religious significance, and their graves were filled with necklaces, ornate carvings made from bone or wood, decorated ceremonial pottery, ear covers, and pendants. Some graves were lined with woven mats, mica (a mineral consisting of thin glassy sheets), or stones. The Hopewell produced artwork in a greater variety and with more exotic materials than their predecessors the Adena. Grizzly bear teeth, fresh water pearls, sea shells, sharks’ teeth, copper, and small quantities of silver were crafted as elegant pieces. The Hopewell artisans were expert carvers of pipestone, and many of the mortuary mounds are full of exquisitely carved statues and pipes.” ref

“Excavation of the Mound of Pipes at Mound City found more than 200 stone smoking pipes; these depicted animals and birds in well-realized three-dimensional form. More than 130 such artifacts were excavated from the Tremper site in Scioto County. Some artwork was made from carved human bones. A rare mask found at Mound City was created using a human skull as a face plate. Hopewell artists created both abstract and realistic portrayals of the human form.” ref

“One tubular pipe is so accurate in form that the model was identified by researchers as an achondroplastic (chondrodystropic) dwarf. Many other figurines are highly detailed in dress, ornamentation, and hairstyles. An example of the abstract human forms is the “Mica Hand” from the Hopewell Site in Ross County, Ohio. Delicately cut from a piece of mica 11 in × 6 in (280 mm × 150 mm), the hand carving was likely worn or carried for public viewing. They also made beaded work.” ref

Local expressions of Hopewellian traditions

“In addition to the noted Ohio Hopewell, a number of other Middle Woodland period cultures are known to have been involved in the Hopewell tradition and participated in the Hopewell exchange network.” ref

Armstrong culture

“The Armstrong culture was a Hopewell group in the Big Sandy River Valley of northeastern Kentucky and western West Virginia from CE 1 to 500. They are thought to have been a regional variant of the Hopewell tradition or a Hopewell-influenced Middle Woodland group who had peacefully mingled with the local Adena peoples. Archaeologist Edward McMichael characterized them as an intrusive Hopewell-like trade culture or a vanguard of Hopewellian tradition that had probably peacefully absorbed the local Adena in the Kanawha River Valley. Their culture and very Late Adena (46PU2) is thought to have slowly evolved into the later Buck Garden people.” ref

Copena culture

“The Copena culture was a Hopewellian culture in northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, as well as in other sections of the surrounding region including Kentucky. Researchers developed the Copena name based on the first three letters of copper and the last three letters of the mineral galena, as copper and galena artifacts have often been found with Copena burials.” ref

Crab Orchard culture

“During the Middle Woodland period, the Crab Orchard culture population increased from a dispersed and sparsely settled Early Woodland pattern to one consisting of small and large base camps. These were concentrated on terrace and floodplain landforms associated with the Ohio River channel in southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and northwestern and western Kentucky. In the far western limits of Crab Orchard culture is the O’byams Fort site. This large earthwork, shaped like a tuning fork, is reminiscent of Ohio Hopewell enclosures. Examples of a type of pottery decoration found at the Mann site are also known from Hopewell sites in Ohio (such as Seip earthworks, Rockhold, Harness, and Turner), as well as from Southeastern sites with Hopewellian assemblages, such as the Miner’s Creek site, Leake Mounds, 9HY98, and Mandeville site in Georgia, and the Yearwood site in southern Tennessee.” ref

Goodall focus

“The Goodall focus culture occupied Michigan and northern Indiana from around 200 BCE to CE 500. The Goodall pattern stretched from the southern tip of Lake Michigan, east across northern Indiana, to the Ohio border, then northward, covering central Michigan, almost reaching to Saginaw Bay on the east and Grand Traverse Bay to the north. The culture is named for the Goodall site in northwest Indiana.” ref

Havana Hopewell culture

“The Havana Hopewell culture was a Hopewellian people in the Illinois and Mississippi river valleys in Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri. They are considered ancestral to the groups who eventually formed the Mississippian culture that built Cahokia (in present-day southwestern Illinois) and influenced the hinterlands of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, including into the Appalachian Mountains.” ref