Wonderful Power: The Story of Ancient Copper Working in the Lake Superior Basin

Front Cover
Wayne State University Press, 1999 - Business & Economics - 286 pages
Long before the arrival of European settlers, Native Americans in the Lake Superior basin mined and worked copper and traded it well beyond the region. They directed white settlers to copper lodes and explained the mineral's significance and "wonderful power." Wonderful Power examines the archaeological record to relate the story of that unique industry. Susan Martin has collected critical but scattered information about the uses of ancient copper to address long-standing puzzles over how long it had been used, where it was mined, and who these ancient coppersmiths were.
 

Contents

List of Figures
13
2
21
What Has Particularly Recommended Their Labors to Me
45
Of Heaps of Rubble and Earth along the Courses of the Veins
81
Implements Ornaments and Objects of Faith of Great Variety
113
6
123
They Must Have Been Numerous Industrious and Persevering
139
7
146
Wonderful Power
183
8
215
Some Native Copper Artifacts
227
Notes
253
References
261
Index
277
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (1999)

Susan R. Martin is an assistant professor of archaeology and anthropology at Michigan Technological University.