Episode 135 - That Good Old Copper Complex

We’ve been remiss in discussing the Chalcolithic (Copper Age) anywhere in the world, so we’re fixing that by spotlighting one particular technology in what is today the US states of Michigan and Wisconsin, and some of the world’s earliest coppersmiths. Plus, a very salty discussion of the pseudoscience and *bad* historical takes behind some alternative theories for the Old Copper Complex's creators.

• Old Copper Culture (Milwaukee Public Museum)

• Ancient Native Americans were among the world’s first coppersmiths (Science)

• On the Timing of the Old Copper Complex in North America: A Comparison of Radiocarbon Dates From Different Archaeological Contexts (Radiocarbon)

• Miners Left a Pollution Trail in the Great Lakes 6000 Years Ago (Eos)

• Copper mining on Isle Royale 6500– 5400 years ago identified using sediment geochemistry from McCargoe Cove, Lake Superior (The Holocene, via ResearchGate)

• Mining on Minong: Copper Mining on Isle Royale (Michigan History)

• Understanding the copper heart of volcanoes: Scientists find link between volcanism and the formation of copper ore (Science Daily)

• How Cold Working Strengthens Metal (ThoughtCo)

• The exceptional abandonment of metal tools by North American hunter-gatherers, 3000 B.P. (Scientific Reports)

• An Exercise in Poo-Tility: Scientist Tries to Make a Knife Out of Poop (Mental Floss)

• Review: How Not to (Re)Write World History: Gavin Menzies and the Chinese Discovery of America (Journal of World History)

• Bronze Age Part II: The Case of the Missing Copper (Chapelboro.com)

• MacIntosh Stone - Nahma, Michigan (Michigan Back Roads - Oddities)

• Reviewing Gavin Menzies' "Atlantis" (Pt. 4) (Jason Colavito)

• The State of Our Knowledge About Ancient Copper Mining in Michigan (The Michigan Archaeologist)

Image: MICHELLE BEBBER/KENT STATE UNIVERSITY EXPERIMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY LAB