Old Copper Culture -

A UNIQUE VARIETY OF “OLD COPPER” SPEAR POINT

E. J. Neiburger, Curator Emeritus
Lake County Museum, Waukegan, Illinois

Abstract

A unique form of “Old Copper” culture spear point has been identified. The “step” socketed spears are rare and identified by a significant right angle step at the junction of the spear and the tang. These artifacts show a quantum advance in metallurgical technology used by ancient North Americans.

THE OLD COPPER CULTURES

One of the rarest examples of Native American artifacts is the ones made out of copper. In the northern Midwest (Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Ontario, Canada, etc.) vast deposits of native copper, 99.9% pure, were left by retreating glaciers. Native Americans mined and collected this soft metal as early as 5000 BC. Those native groups, through time, who used this metal are lumped together as the Old Copper Culture and industry. (ref. 1,2)

Figure 1. Portion of the Hamilton “Old Copper” collection at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, showing numerous spear points.

“Drawing of Old Copper Culture copper point types, including conical, socketed, and rat-tail forms.”

Figure 2. Illustration of typical point styles of manufacture used by Native Americans.

Illustration of Old Copper Culture spear point manufacturing showing copper hammering, blade shaping, notching, annealing, and socket formation for hafting onto a wooden shaft.

Figure 3. Illustration showing the simple method of copper spear manufacture: pounding, shaping and folding.

The natives used the copper to fabricate tools and weapons (ref. 2). Though dwarfed numerically by the millions of stone artifacts made and used by prehistoric Americans, tens of thousands of copper artifacts have been found. One of the most useful products of this Old Copper industry was spear points.

The weight and impact generated by tossing a large stone spear generally cracked or shattered a stone point after one or two throws aimed at a hard object. Throwing a stone-tipped spear was destructive, thus very inefficient. The use of metal helped solve the breakage problem and was one of the primary uses for native copper. Native copper was used in the manufacture of strong, heavy, copper spear points. Thousands have been found.

There were many designs in spear point manufacture (Figure 2). These included: pencil-shaped spikes, flat leaf-shaped blades (notched or not), rat-tail blades (a leaf-shaped blade with a long, round rat-tail shaped tang), cones (like a pointed ice cream cone) and socketed spear heads (a flat blade with some type of hollow socket in the tang which received the wooden shaft). The blades differed in size, shape, weight and cross-sectional dimensions (flat, triangular, etc.).

The focus of this paper is on one particular form of socketed spear point: The Step-Socketed Point, a form of spear point (Figures 3–6).

The typical manufacturing technique for making a simple socketed spear point involves the hammering of a copper nugget, annealing (a heating technique to soften the metal and avoid cracking), and continued pounding until a flat, leaf-shaped blade is formed. Triangular notches are cut out of the opposing edges of the blade, and the sides are folded over to form a socket (tang) which surrounds approximately three-quarters of the wooden shaft. The tang connects the blade to the shaft. The blade was then ground and sharpened (Figure 3).

Most socketed spear points had their tangs on the same plane as the blade. This form, as described above, was easy to manufacture and resisted gross bending upon impact. Still there…

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Twelve Copper Artifacts Recently Dated Through the C-14 Method(Radio Carbon-14 Dating) from Northern Wisconsin

by Bill Reardon, Eagle River, Wisconsin

Volume 70, Number 4, October 2023 Central States Archaeological Journal

Native copper knife and projectile points dated 3840 BP, 1812 BP, and 900 BP from northern Wisconsin, illustrating later Old Copper Culture artifacts with curved blades, hammered copper surfaces, and oxidized patina.

Figure 1.

The Carbon 14 dating process was developed in 1946 by physicist Willard Libby. It can be used to date organic materials such as wood, bone, and fiber that can be fairly recent and also up to 50,000 years old. Copper is a metal and not organic. Indigenous peoples in this part of North America found that native copper could be used to make items like tools, projectile points, knives, ornaments, and various other items. The vast majority of native copper came from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and from Isle Royale in Lake Superior. It was either mined or found in scattered deposits from glacial deposition.

Three Old Copper Culture native copper projectile points from northern Wisconsin dated 8145 BP, 7795 BP, and 7759 BP, displaying long hammered blades with oxidized green patina and split hafting bases for shaft attachment.

Figure 2.

After fabrication of items from the copper, some sort of attachment was required to facilitate a desired use. The attachment device in most cases was wood or plant fiber. In parts of northern Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, and Ontario, Canada, numerous copper artifacts have been found. Copper was not melted but worked cold or through the annealing process (heating, pounding, cooling, and then repeating the process several times). I have found several artifacts that still had remnants of the attachment device in place.

This was usually a small piece of wood or plant fiber. When copper is in the ground for long periods of time it oxidizes, turning a green color. This oxidation process can act as a preservative and keep the organic material in place. Wood and fiber, being organic, can in turn be dated through the Radio Carbon-14 (C-14) process.

Old Copper Culture copper spear points dated 7417 BP, 4711 BP, and 4429 BP from the upper Wisconsin River region, showing hammered native copper blades with tapered hafting areas and heavy archaeological patination.

Figure 3.

The 12 dated copper artifacts pictured are mostly from Vilas and Oneida Counties of Wisconsin. One artifact (No. 3) is from Florence County, Wisconsin. The dates range from approximately 900 to 8500 calendar years before present (BP). I chose to use dated artifacts mainly from the upper Wisconsin River system. I have had two artifacts dated from Michigan and Minnesota. Eleven of the 12 artifacts were dated by Beta-Analytic of Miami, Florida from 1999 through 2021. Archeologists refer to this group of people using copper as the “Old Copper Culture” or “Copper Complex.”

All the artifacts were found using a metal detector on private land with the owner’s permission. The display of these and other artifacts can be found at the Eagle River Historical Society on US Highway 45 in Eagle River, Wisconsin.

Figure 4.

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A New Old Copper Point

by E.J. Neiburger, Waukegan, Illinois

Volume 69, Number 2, April 2022 Central States Archaeological Journal

Black and white photograph of four Archaic Old Copper Culture projectile points classified as Group I, sub-group B-2 broad open-socketed copper points, showing rounded leaf-shaped blades with wide proportions and socketed stems, as described in “A New Old Copper Point” by E.J. Neiburger.

In the 1950s, Wisconsin archaeologist Warren Wittry created a system. He organized and classified the innumerable different varieties of Old Copper implements. The Old Copper Culture spanned from the Archaic (8,000 YBP) to Historic (500 YBP) times. These products numbered in the hundreds. They were concentrated in the North American Midwest. Wittry’s career ended in a less than admirable way. However, his early work on Old Copper classification still remains a standard.

The original classification (Wisconsin Archaeologist, Volume 32:1) lists Old Copper implements into major GROUPS (I, II, III, etc.) and sub-groups (A, B-1, C, etc.), which are classified by shape. GROUP I contains projectile points; sub-group I-A. These were spear points (e.g., rat tail point) which could have been also used as knives, scrapers or awls.

During my study of the vast collections of Old Copper artifacts at the Milwaukee Public Museum, I made an interesting identification. I discovered a series of oddly shaped projectile points. These points deviate in shape to the same degree of distinction as other separate sub-groups in GROUP I. This subgroup, which I will call B-2, is an open socketed point with a rounded and broad shape. It has a leaf-shaped point similar to the B-1 configuration. The B-1 configuration has a blade length to width (L/W) ratio of 2.5 or more. The four examples of B-2 found in the collection, ranged from 6 cm in length (blade only) to 11 cm. The uniqueness of this group is in its overly broad blade which ranges from 3 cm to 6 cm. The leaf shape blades of sub-group B-2 are distinctly wider than sub-groups B-1. They are also wider than sub-group C with a length to width (L/W) ratio of 1.5 to 2.5.

The blade shape and size of sub-group B-2 is ergonomically too wide for a projectile point. It would not penetrate well. It might be useful as a crude knife but the edges of these specimens were rounded and lacked any sharpness. What they were used for is open to conjecture.

At top: Figure 1. Group of four Old Copper, broad, open-socketed points.

Illustrated chart of Old Copper Culture Group I projectile points showing Wittry classification types A through P, including sub-group B-2 broad open-socketed copper point inserted at top, with line drawings of blade shapes, stems, and socket variations used in Archaic Midwest copper typology.

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