500,000 tons of Copper Missing! Michigan and Wisconsin

[skip_a_loo]

below is the article
For some 1800 years, beginning abruptly about 3000 BC, some industrious peoples mined ore equivalent to 500,000 tons of copper from Michigan's Isle Royale and Keweenaw Peninsula. Who were these mysterious miners, and what happened to all all that copper? It certainly hasn't been found in the relics of North American Indians. And where was the ore smelted? About all the unidentified miners left behind are some of the crude tools they used to pound out chunks of ore from their pit mines (5000 pit mines on Isle Royale alone). Outside of some cairns and slabrock ruins, there is little to help pin down these miners. Mainstream archeologists attribute all these immense labors to a North American "Copper Culture" -- certainly not to copper-hungry visitors from foreign shores. Admittedly, many copper artifacts have been dug up from North American mounds, but only a tiny fraction of the metal the Michigan mines must have yielded.

Curiously, North American Indian mounds have contained copper sheets made in the shape of an animal hide. Called "reels," their function, if any, is unknown. The reels do, however, resemble oddly shaped copper ingots common in European Bronze Age com merce. Their peculiar shape earned these ingots the name "oxhydes." They have been found in Bronze Age shipwrecks, and are even said to be portrayed in wall paintings in Egyptian tombs. The standardized hide-like shape, with its four convenient handles, was useful in carrying and stacking the heavy ingots. Could the reels from the North American mounds have been copied from the oxhydes? It is tempting to speculate (as we are wont to do) that the Copper Culture miners were actually Europeans, or perhaps Native Americans employed or enslaved by Europeans -- an omen of future, more devastating invasions! (Sodders, Betty; "Who Mined American Copper 5,000 Years Ago?" Ancient American, 1:28, September/October 1993.)
website:
1. Links
2. Missing: 500,000 Tons of Copper

 

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[wwwtimmcp]

it has been rumored that the Spanish had mines all over lake superior, one was an island that disappeared. a very old map showing this island was laughed at until it was discovered that a submerged rock (stannard rock) was withing a few feet of the surface and has a large plateau around it. they said the Indians would paddle all day from Keweenaw peninsula to pick up thumb sized pieces of native silver to make ornaments. years later in the 1970's a guy was looking for a shipwreck and located an underwater forest close by. geologist claim that lake superior has been tilting lower in the southern region and higher in the north.

 

[Bum Luck]

below is the article
For some 1800 years, beginning abruptly about 3000 BC, some industrious peoples mined ore equivalent to 500,000 tons of copper from Michigan's Isle Royale and Keweenaw Peninsula. Who were these mysterious miners, and what happened to all all that copper? It certainly hasn't been found in the relics of North American Indians. And where was the ore smelted? About all the unidentified miners left behind are some of the crude tools they used to pound out chunks of ore from their pit mines (5000 pit mines on Isle Royale alone).

I've heard this for years, and have concluded that the numbers are a wild exaggeration.

The same website (Science Frontiers?) is full of links to the copper collections from the area Indians (Copper Culture).

And where was the ore smelted?

The Indians didn't smelt "ore". The copper was pure, not ore.

About all the unidentified miners left behind are some of the crude tools they used to pound out chunks of ore from their pit mines (5000 pit mines on Isle Royale alone).

The article had a picture of a grooved axe, which was an awful amount of work to make, just to destroy it to hammer on rock. They call it a "grooved maul", which term I've never heard anywhere else.

The same issue carried this article:
[FONT=Arial,helvetica][h=3]Ancient romans in texas?[/h][/FONT]

 

[releventchair]

I enjoy Bettys writings. Superior copper speculation too. Hammers on isle royal not as many grooved as keweenaw. A lot of copper did come out of area, with its ability to be traced back to Mi. Hope more is i.d.ed in future. Depending on recovery site dates and locations its travels should show better.
A relative touring Az. mining was shown copper samples that were from Mi. , the very fine form there not providing big enough samples to make good viewing.
Firing and quenching will fragment some types of rock much easier than other. Have seen an example that was not deliberate. With rule of thumb being cutting tool must be harder than what's being cut, and hammers of harder stone it seems doable. Too these were great veins of copper once exposed hammers primary use should have been in fracturing the copper into manageable pieces. Lots of hammers were hauled out of old pits. Fire fracture process accepted as having been used from earlier evidence of sites. I can accept it anyhow. How much wooden wedges were used to expand fractures hard to tell but why not ?

 

[Coldshuz]

There is/was an interesting show called "Unearthed America". The gent in the show, attempts to explain a lot of Pre Columbus activity in the US. He took on the missing copper in one episode and if I remember correctly, it seemed that Europeans (Can't remember if it was Spanish, Roman or Greek) came here to extract it during their Copper era. The "evidence" he claimed came from there being so much copper in Europe, but not enough supply there to explain it. I think he additionally did spectogragh(?) testing on copper from the Michigan area and also on ancient copper found in Europe. The results showed that they likely came from the same source.

 

[Bum Luck]

I think he additionally did spectogragh(?) testing on copper from the Michigan area and also on ancient copper found in Europe. The results showed that they likely came from the same source.

I am very interested in the Bronze Age in Europe, and would love to see results such as these, but haven't seen any so far.

Could you post them?

 

[CoinandRelicMan]

I don't like "Unearthed America" due to the fact that he is far from being "impartial", just my opinion, won't waste anymore of my time watching it.

Here is what might be a better explanation I think, for the copper use. Hope you find this interesting! Articles

 

[ropesfish]

Here is a link to "Unearthed America".
America Unearthed ? Episodes, Video & Schedule - H2 on History.com

Look for the episode "Great Lakes Copper Heist".

 

[Bum Luck]

Woops! That show is Scott Wolter; not much credibility.

 

[skip_a_loo]

Thanks for all the info