Fire Fighter 43
12-08-2012, 11:59 AM
When I found the tang Spear point last month I thought that it would be a while before I found anything like it again. On Friday I found not one but two Old Copper Culture artifacts. They were in the general area of my last find but hundreds of yards from it. The first was 7 inches deep reading 12-44 on the CTX. It is a knife blade and it is about 5 inches in length. The second is another point but smaller than the last one I found it is 3 inches long. I also came across an area on the top of a hill that produced 5 pieces of float copper (native). I have found about a dozen pieces of float copper but never this many in one small area. They were all 5-7 inches deep and came in between 12-33 and 12-40 on the CTX.
Below is some information on the knife and float copper.
Native or Float Copper
FLOAT COPPER
This type of copper has been found in scattered pockets as far south as southern Illinois, as the result of advancing glaciers during the Pleistocene. As these glaciers scoured the landscape of the Keweenaw Peninsula, they picked up exposed copper nodules that range from a few inches to several feet in length. These nodules were eventually deposited in the glacial outwash hundreds of miles from their original source. It was undoubtedly from these pieces of metal that much of the artifacts from the Old Copper Complex were manufactured. Here are examples of float copper found in Wisconsin, as well as some examples of nodules hammered into modified pre-forms. Great Lakes native copper is typically more than 95% pure.
KNIVES:
Knives come in a variety of shapes and sizes. There are about 100 knives in the MPM collection, and they range from 4 to 32 centimeters in length. They would have been hafted onto a handle and used for cutting meat or plant material. As these tools became dull, it is likely they were resharpened and used in food processing.
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll27/firegolf43/7b7f346d7f789dfa23bb8e10d753055e.jpghttp://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll27/firegolf43/609a78afe1d7738c39769a333c4d720a.jpghttp://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll27/firegolf43/fd4eae87ce7916a509f706f2a6d630d3.jpg
Below is some information on the knife and float copper.
Native or Float Copper
FLOAT COPPER
This type of copper has been found in scattered pockets as far south as southern Illinois, as the result of advancing glaciers during the Pleistocene. As these glaciers scoured the landscape of the Keweenaw Peninsula, they picked up exposed copper nodules that range from a few inches to several feet in length. These nodules were eventually deposited in the glacial outwash hundreds of miles from their original source. It was undoubtedly from these pieces of metal that much of the artifacts from the Old Copper Complex were manufactured. Here are examples of float copper found in Wisconsin, as well as some examples of nodules hammered into modified pre-forms. Great Lakes native copper is typically more than 95% pure.
KNIVES:
Knives come in a variety of shapes and sizes. There are about 100 knives in the MPM collection, and they range from 4 to 32 centimeters in length. They would have been hafted onto a handle and used for cutting meat or plant material. As these tools became dull, it is likely they were resharpened and used in food processing.
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll27/firegolf43/7b7f346d7f789dfa23bb8e10d753055e.jpghttp://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll27/firegolf43/609a78afe1d7738c39769a333c4d720a.jpghttp://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll27/firegolf43/fd4eae87ce7916a509f706f2a6d630d3.jpg