Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Arrows => Topic started by: half eye on February 10, 2010, 09:01:03 am
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Fellas,
Thought you might like to see some arrow heads and lance points that were dug up in Montana. They are made from Greatlakes Copper....can only assume they were traded. Anyway most of them seem to be "willow leaf shaped....thought ya might like to see something different.
half eye
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awesome! wonder how old they are.
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Thanks for the pics. Very cool
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Cool pics, thanks Half eye! :) -josh
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Really interesting! Do you think they were made from chunks of natural copper by natives or traded from europeans who mined the copper?
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he said it was from great lakes copper. copper gets stronger when you hammer it some. kinda cool to think if it did come from copper here that we almost had our own copper age.
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Cool points, halfeye. Thanks for posting.
I wonder if Billy Berger will have any of these points is one of his upcoming PA articles about the Smithsonian NA archery gear.
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Fellas,
Michigan is one of the few places on Earth where copper occures in it's pure form (in veins). The Native American from round here would find some of those pretty close to lake superior and build a great big wood fire next to the exposed vein....when everything got really hot they'd throw some of that near freezing water on the rock and presto, the rock blows and chunks of copper fall out....
The few heads and points that I actually got to look at WERE hammered out...as far as I know there was no smelting or casting involved!!
About that question about where copper came from....here's a tid-bit of useless info....Great Lakes copper dated to the Viking Age has been found in Turkey and I believe northern Iran as well. There are rock carvings in the U.P. of michigan that look just like Viking long ships...right down to the "crosses" on the sails. SO......either the vikings visited the great lakes or the Native Americans paddled their 20 man canoes clear to the Mediteranian....don't think so.
I'm about certain that these points were hammered out into "products" and traded....FYI most pure metals, including copper, can be traced back to their geographic origin, that's why they know Greatlakes copper is what was found in near east.
half eye
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Very interesting! Maybe it was one of my ancestors that sailed that copper back and forth across the atlantic....lol
I just love this kind of stuff!
j
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Ya, dem darned Vikings was everywhere....pesky rascals!!!!! One more useless tid-bit....the vikings actually had a word for north american Natives....called them "Scralings" and their bows and willingness to fight were mentioned often in the "sagas".
half eye
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its awesome they can trace that metal. and its not useless info! i just cram stuff like that in my brain all the time!
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I heard the Irish traveled with the Vikings to Eastern North America or at least to Iceland and Greenland. Everyone else in Europe hated them so they took up with the Vikings. ;D
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Hey Pat,
We got a whole bunch of Irish in my family....maybe thats why them little green dudes is all the time fight'n ;D come to think of it maybe the vikings just needed to recruit some "shock troops" to deal with them scralings :D
Half eye
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The Irish traveled to NA on their very own! Read The Brendan Voyage by Tim Severin, who re-created the voyage of St. Brendan, known as The Navigator. They sailed north then west in a 30+ ft currach made from bull hides, ash wood, linen etc. Took Severin & crew two years - wintered over, just as St. B. probably did, then continued the next sailing season. Fascinating story.
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I don't know about the vikings or Irish but that looks like some Yooper copper from up in the Keewenaw ;D
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Great info half-eye and all of y'alls - I love this kinda stuff too. It makes me sad when scientists of any stripe refuse to give evidence a fair shake because it may refute their pet theories. I would think a North Atlantic crosssing by many groups would be possible - even earlier, when an ice sheet was present - plenty of polar critters to kill & eat on the way.
Probably safer than the Pennsylvania Turnpike ;D
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Copper artifacts found in burial sites and Mound sites in the South and Gulf Coast states has been traced to the Great Lakes area. A lot of trading supposedly went on during the Hopewell Era.
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I heard the Irish traveled with the Vikings to Eastern North America or at least to Iceland and Greenland. Everyone else in Europe hated them so they took up with the Vikings.
Pat B,
Everyone in Europe hated Everyone else. I doubt if most had come across the Irish, they were not renowned for their travel. Also far from joining with the Vikings they were invaded by the Vikings, Dublin was a Viking city. If any Irish travelled with the Vikings they were more likely to be slaves than free.
KenH,
The Irish travelled to NA on their very own! Read The Brendan Voyage by Tim Severin
The fact that someone travelled in the manner that legend says someone else did does not prove that the original is any more than a legend or wishful thinking. Look at Tor Heyerdahl and the Kon-tiki. He showed it was possible the raft could travel the distance but genetics has shown the theory that Polynesians came from South America to be wrong.
Craig.