Did you know that thousands of years before the Bronze Age, Indigenous peoples around the Great Lakes were already working copper into weapons, tools, and ornaments? In this episode, I sit down with my friend @NORTH02 dive into one of North America’s most fascinating and overlooked prehistoric traditions: the Old Copper Culture. This video follows his recent documentary that just dropped yesterday, which I'll link here: • I Found Metal Artifacts In America Older T...
We talk about:
-What the Old Copper Culture actually was and how it was discovered
-How ancient communities hammered native copper into axes, swords, fishhooks, and atlatl points without smelting
-Why the copper deposits in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ontario are unique in the world
-Comparisons to European and Near Eastern copper and bronze traditions
-Archaeological mysteries: why mining stopped, why copper became more symbolic, and how it ties into social change
-Fishing gear, bannerstones, and even possible “copper swords” from thousands of years before Europeans ever forged one
-Connections to Clovis, Agate Basin, and broader questions about the origins of metallurgy
-North also talks about his documentary on the Old Copper Culture, the role of experimental archaeology in recreating ancient copper tools, and why these finds should completely change how we think about “Stone Age” North America.
Referenced in this episode:
-Great Water by David Pompeani – a detailed look at the archaeology and geology of the Old Copper Culture.
Timecodes
0:00 Intro
0:16 Welcome & introduction
0:35 What is the Old Copper Culture?
3:17 What is copper, and why is it important?
4:21 History of copper smelting
7:00 Copper swords & complex tools
7:52 Bannerstones, spear throwers, and atlatls
9:05 Multi-purpose tools & experimental archaeology
10:32 North02’s documentary focus
12:24 Experimental archaeology
15:00 Ötzi’s copper axe & Old World comparisons
16:15 The “Chalcolithic” (Copper–Stone Age overlap)
17:51 Why bronze replaced copper
18:58 Metallurgy in South & Mesoamerica
25:59 Isle Royale: massive prehistoric copper mining
28:43 Clovis and Agate Basin?
31:45 Why copper use appears after the Ice Age
32:52 Malachite pigments & the roots of smelting
35:21 Why did copper use decline?
36:13 Copper as status symbols & jewelry
37:32 Fishing with copper tools
39:55 Exploring copper areas with an Archaeologist
43:05 Why metal doesn’t always mean “progress”
44:13 Debunking pseudo-archaeology myths
45:36 Copper-tipped atlatls in the Great Lakes
46:40 Favorite hominin fossil casts (Dmanisi, etc.)
47:19 Future documentary & short film projects
48:01 Recommended reading: Great Water by David Pompeani
48:29 Closing thoughts & outro
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