THREE BEST SOURCES

PREHISTORIC AMERICAN INDAIN COPPER

Martin, Suzan R.

1999         Wonderful Power: The Story of Ancient Copper Working in the Lake Superior Basin. First edition. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

This is the first reference all students must own. Wonderful Power is a great anthology of prehistoric American Indian literature, an encyclopedia of knowledge on the subject of ancient American Indian copper. Dr. Martin has summarized the state of our knowledge as of 2000, together with comprehensive references. I recommend choosing references of particular interest for further study.

Drier, Roy Ward & Du Temple

1961         Prehistoric Mining In Copper The Lake Superior Region. Published privately by Drier and Du Temple.

After studying Dr. Martin’s Wonderful Power and following up on references of interest, I recommend reading Prehistoric Mining In The Lake Superior Region. It is an interesting and informative collection of articles, some of which will never be found anyplace else. Most of the authors are not professionals and the whole book should be read critically, but it a must for serious students of prehistoric American Indian copper.

Ritzenthaler, Robert

1957 The Old Copper Cultures Of Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Archaeologist, 38(4)

This series of articles are all on excavated Old Copper culture sites. One can compare artifacts and data. Some of the information is now out of date (some dates), but it remains good basic research. It is a somewhat rare example of all the known up to date knowledge on a subject, all published in a single journal. Recommend following up on more recent modified dates, etc.