Metallurgy in pre-Columbian America is the extraction, purification and alloying of metals and metal crafting by

Indigenous peoples of the Americas The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the A ...

prior to European contact in the late 15th century. Indigenous Americans have been using native metals from ancient times, with recent finds of gold artifacts in the Andean region dated to 2155–1936 , and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

n copper finds dated to approximately 5000 . The metal would have been found in nature without need for

smelting Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including silver, iron, copper, and other base metals. Smelting uses heat and a c ...

, and shaped into the desired form using hot and cold hammering without chemical alteration or

alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductili ...

ing. To date "no one has found evidence that points to the use of melting, smelting and casting in prehistoric eastern North America." In

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...

the case is quite different: Indigenous South Americans had full

metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...

with smelting and various metals being purposely alloyed. Metallurgy in Mesoamerica and Western Mexico may have developed following contact with South America through Ecuadorian marine traders. Dinero azada de Mexico (siglos XIV-XV)

South America

South American metal working seems to have developed in the Andean region of modern

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

, and

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

with gold and

native copper Native copper is an uncombined form of copper that occurs as a natural mineral. Copper is one of the few metallic elements to occur in native form, although it most commonly occurs in oxidized states and mixed with other elements. Native coppe ...

being hammered and shaped into intricate objects, particularly

ornaments An ornament is something used for decoration. Ornament may also refer to: Decoration * Ornament (art), any purely decorative element in architecture and the decorative arts *Biological ornament, a characteristic of animals that appear to serve o ...

. : — issue's articles are on ancient metalwork in the same era & region Recent finds date the earliest gold work to 2155–1936 . and the earliest copper work to 1432–1132 . Ice core studies in Bolivia however suggest copper smelting may have begun as early as 2000 . By 1410–1090 gilding was practiced in coastal Peru. Further evidence for this type of metal work comes from the sites at Waywaka (near Andahuaylas in southern Peru), Chavín and

Kotosh Kotosh is an archaeological site near the town of Huánuco, Peru, consisting of a series of buildings comprising six periods of continuous occupation. Stratigraphy Three cultural phases which preceded the Chavin culture were identified at Kotos ...

, and it seems to have been spread throughout Andean societies by the

Early horizon This is a chart of cultural periods of Peru and the Andean Region developed by John Rowe and Edward Lanning and used by some archaeologists studying the area. An alternative dating system was developed by Luis Lumbreras and provides different dat ...

(1000–200 ). Unlike other metallurgy traditions where metals gained importance through practical use in weaponry and everyday utensils, metals in South America (and later Central America) were mainly valued as adornments and status objects. Though also functional objects were produced, even in the metallurgically advanced Andean cultures of the

Inca The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, ( Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts", "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The adm ...

era stone tools were never completely replaced by bronze items in everyday life. During the Early horizon, advances in metal working produced spectacular and characteristic Andean gold objects made by the joining of smaller metal sheets, and also gold-silver alloy appeared. Two traditions seem to have developed alongside each other – one in northern Peru and Ecuador, and another in the

Altiplano The Altiplano (Spanish for "high plain"), Collao (Quechua and Aymara: Qullaw, meaning "place of the Qulla") or Andean Plateau, in west-central South America, is the most extensive high plateau on Earth outside Tibet. The plateau is located at ...

region of southern Peru, Bolivia and Chile. There is evidence for

copper sulphide Copper sulfides describe a family of chemical compounds and minerals with the formula CuxSy. Both minerals and synthetic materials comprise these compounds. Some copper sulfides are economically important ores. Prominent copper sulfide minerals ...

in the Altiplano region around the Early horizon. Evidence for this comes from copper slag recovered at several sites, with the ore itself possibly coming from the south Chilean-Bolivian border. Near Puma Punku, Bolivia, and at three additional sites in Peru and Bolivia, ''portable'' smelting kilns were used to cast I-shaped "cramps" (fasteners) in place, to join large stone blocks during construction. Their chemical analysis shows :: The estimated date of these pours lies between 800–500 . Evidence for fully developed smelting, however, only appears with the Moche culture (northern coast, 200 – 600 ). The ores were extracted from shallow deposits in the Andean foothills. They were probably smelted nearby, as pictorially depicted on the metal artifacts themselves and on ceramic vessels. Smelting was done in adobe brick furnaces with at least three blow pipes to provide the air flow needed to reach the high temperatures. The resulting ingots would then have been moved to coastal centers for shaping in specialised workshops. Two workshops found and studied near the administrative sections of their towns, again showing the prestige of metal. Analysis of a Moche statue composed of numerous thin metal layers revealed complex plating and gilding involving a combination of immersion in acidic solutions and the application of extreme heat. The objects themselves were still mainly adornments, now often being attached to beads. In fact, in the Lambayeque and Chimu cultures (750–1400 ), a wide range of functional metal items were produced such as bowls, plates, drinking vessels, boxes, plates, models, scales and especially beakers (acquillas), but mostly for ceremonial or elite use. Some functional objects were fashioned, but they were elaborately decorated and often found in high-status burials, seemingly still used more for symbolic than for practical purposes. The appearance of gold or silver seems to have been important, with a high number of gilded or silvered objects as well as the appearance of Tumbaga, a alloy of copper and gold, and sometimes also silver. Arsenic

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids suc ...

was also smelted from sulphidic ores, a practice either independently developed or learned from the southern tradition. The earliest known powder metallurgy, and earliest working of platinum in the world, was apparently developed by the cultures of Esmeraldas (NW Ecuador) before the Spanish conquest Beginning with the La Tolita culture (600 – 200 ), Ecuadorian cultures mastered the soldering of platinum grains through alloying with copper, gold and silver, producing platinum-surfaced rings, handles, ornaments and utensils. This technology was eventually noticed and adopted by the Spanish . Coastal communities of

Atacama Desert The Atacama Desert ( es, Desierto de Atacama) is a desert plateau in South America covering a 1,600 km (990 mi) strip of land on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes Mountains. The Atacama Desert is the driest nonpolar desert in th ...

, as exemplified by those near

Tocopilla Tocopilla is a city and commune in the Antofagasta Region, in the north of Chile. It is the capital of the province that bears the same name. Every year Tocopilla celebrates its anniversary on 29 September with a big show the day before, which ...

, produced their own metal objects for practical use in the 900–1400 period. Muisca raft - detail - Museo del Oro, Bogotá

Metallurgy gradually spread north into Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica, reaching Guatemala and Belize by 800 . By , ' depletion gilding' was developed by the Nahuange culture of Colombia to produce ornamental variations such as 'rose gold'. Muisca goldworking, from modern

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the ...

, made a wide variety of small ornamental and religious objects from about 600 onwards. The gold

Muisca raft The Muisca raft (''Balsa Muisca'' in Spanish), sometimes referred to as the Golden Raft of El Dorado, is a pre-Columbian votive piece created by the Muisca, an indigenous people of Colombia in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. The pi ...

is probably the best-known single object. This is in the

Gold Museum, Bogotá The Museum of Gold ( es, El Museo del Oro) is a museum located in Bogotá, Colombia. It is one of the most visited touristic highlights in the country. The museum receives around 500,000 tourists per year.Central Bank of Colombia displaying gold from the

Muisca The Muisca (also called Chibcha) are an indigenous people and culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia, that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish conquest. The people spoke Muysccubun, a language of the Chibchan langu ...

and other pre-Columbian cultures in the country.

Inca Empire

Only with the

s did metals really come into practical use. At Macchu Picchu and other sites, metal was used for bolas, plum bobs, chisels, gravers, pry bars, tweezers, needles, plates, fish hooks, spatulas, ladles, knives (tumi), bells, breast plates, lime spoons, mace heads, ear spools, bowls, cloak pins (tupus), axes and foot plow adzes. Nonetheless, they remained materials through which to display wealth and status. The characteristic importance placed on colour, which had led to some of the earlier developments, was still present (sun / moon association with gold / silver). Metals other than gold also had an intrinsic value, with axe pieces being of particular note in this regard. With the spread of metal tools by the Incas, it is thought possible that a more Old World use of metals would have become more common. In any case, as Bruhns notes, "Bronze can be seen as an expensive substitute for the equally efficient stone". However, sediment research in Bolivia has revealed that metals such as silver were smelted on a very large scale – thousands of tons – from late Tiwanaku to Inca times (1000–1530 ), which suggests that the paucity of metal (particularly precious metal) at Inca sites is more likely due to Spanish acquisition and export than to limited pre-colonial use. It has been claimed that the Inca Empire expanded into Diaguita lands in north-central Chile because of its mineral wealth, but this view is rejected by some scholars. Further, an additional possibility is that the Incas invaded the relatively well-populated Eastern Diaguita valleys (present-day Argentina) to obtain labor to send to Chilean mining districts. The Incas influenced

Diaguita The Diaguita people are a group of South American indigenous people native to the Chilean Norte Chico and the Argentine Northwest. Western or Chilean Diaguitas lived mainly in the Transverse Valleys which incised in a semi-arid environment. E ...

s who adopted Incan metalworking techniques. Farther south in Chile

Mapuche The Mapuche ( (Mapuche & Spanish: )) are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who s ...

tribes within or next to the Incan Empire paid tributes in gold. Incan ''

yanakuna Yanakuna were originally individuals in the Inca Empire who left the ayllu system and worked full-time at a variety of tasks for the Inca, the ''quya'' (Inca queen), or the religious establishment. A few members of this serving class enjoyed high s ...

'' are believed by archaeologists Tom Dillehay and Américo Gordon to have extracted gold south of the Incan frontier in free Mapuche territory. Following this thought, the main motive for Incan expansion into Mapuche territory would have been to access

gold mines Gold mining is the extraction of gold resources by mining. Historically, mining gold from alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. However, with the expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface, ...

. Among the Mapuche people of central and south-central Chile gold had an important cultural significance that predates Inca contact. At the time of the Spanish conquest of Chile Mapuches are reported by various chroniclers to use gold ornaments. According to historian

Osvaldo Silva Osvaldo Silva Galdames (1940–2019) was a Chilean historian active within the field of prehistory. He was a founder of the academic history journals '' Cuadernos de Historia'' and '' Revista de Historia Indígena'', as well being a driving force ...

gold ornaments of the Mapuche of the Concepción area evidence some kind of interaction between the Mapuche and the Inca; it may have been trade, gifts, or spoils of war taken from a defeated Inca army. While Pre-Hispanic Mapuche tools are known to have been relatively simple and made of wood and stone a few them were actually made of copper and

Iron

Iron was never smelted by Native Americans, thus the New World never entered a proper ‘

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...

’ before European discovery, and the term is not used of the Americas. But there was limited use of ‘native’ (unsmelted) iron ore, from magnetite, iron pyrite and ilmenite (iron-titanium), especially in the Andes (Chavin and Moche cultures) and Mesoamerica, after 900 and until . Various forms of iron ore were mined, drilled and highly polished. There is considerable evidence that this technology, its raw materials and end products were widely traded in Mesoamerica throughout the Formative era (2000–200 ). Lumps of iron pyrite, magnetite, and other materials were mostly shaped into mirrors, pendants, medallions, and headdress ornaments for decorative and ceremonial effect. However, concave iron ore mirrors were apparently used for firing and optical purposes by the Olmec (1500–400 ) and Chavin (900–300 ) cultures, and ilmenite ‘beads’ may have served as ‘hammers’ for fine work. The Olmec and Izapa (300 – 100 ) also seem to have used iron magnetism to align and position monuments. They may have developed a zeroth-order compass using a magnetite bar. Some Mesoamerican uses of ‘native’ iron seem to have been military. Steven Jones proposed that the Olmec sewed ilmenite ‘beads’ into protective ‘mail armour’ or helmets. Iron pyrite mosaics and ‘plates’ formed protective tezcacuitlapalli (mirrored back flap shields) and breastplate ornaments in the military attire of the Teotihuacan (100 – 600 ), Toltec (800–1150 ) and Chichen Itza (800–1200 ) cultures.

Central America and Caribbean

Gold, copper and tumbaga objects started being produced in

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

and

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

between 300–500 . Open-molded casting with oxidation gilding and cast filigrees were in use. By 700–800 , small metal sculptures were common and an extensive range of gold and tumbaga ornaments constituted the usual regalia of persons of high status in Panama and Costa Rica. The earliest specimen of metalwork from the Caribbean is a gold-alloy sheet carbon dated to 70-374 . Most Caribbean metallurgy has been dated to between 1200–1500 and consists of simple, small pieces such as sheets, pendants, beads and bells. These are mostly gold or a gold alloy (with copper or silver) and have been found to be largely cold hammered and sand-polished alluvial nuggets, although a few items seem to have been produced by lost wax casting. It is presumed that at least some of these items were acquired by trade from Colombia

Mesoamerica

Metallurgy only appears in

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. Wit ...

in 800 with the best evidence from West

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

. Much like in South America, fine metals were seen as a material for the elite. Metal's special qualities of colour and resonance seemed to have appealed most and then led to the particular technological developments seen in the region. Exchange of ideas and goods with peoples from the Ecuador and Colombia region (likely via a maritime route) seems to have fueled early interest and development. Similar metal artifact types are found in West Mexico and the two regions: copper rings, needles, and tweezers being fabricated in the same ways as in Ecuador and also found in similar archaeological contexts. A multitude of bells were also found, but in this case they were cast using the same

lost-wax casting Lost-wax casting (also called "investment casting", "precision casting", or ''cire perdue'' which has been adopted into English from the French, ) is the process by which a duplicate metal sculpture (often silver, gold, brass, or bronze) is ...

method as seen in Colombia. During this period, copper was being used almost exclusively. Continual contact kept the flow of ideas from that same region and later, coinciding with the development of Andean long distance maritime trade, influence from further south seems to have reached the region and led to a second period (1200–1300 to the Spanish arrival). By this time,

copper alloys Copper alloys are metal alloys that have copper as their principal component. They have high resistance against corrosion. The best known traditional types are bronze, where tin is a significant addition, and brass, using zinc instead. Both of ...

were being explored by West Mexican metallurgists, partly because the different mechanical properties were needed to fashion specific artifacts, particularly

axe-monies Axe-monies (Spanish: ''Tajaderos'') refer to bronze artifacts found in both western Mesoamerica and the northern Andes. Based on ethnohistorical, archaeological, chemical, and metallurgical analyses, the scholars Hosler, Lechtman and Holm have ...

– further evidence for contact with the Andean region. However, in general the new properties such alloys introduced were developed to meet regional needs, especially wirework bells, which at times had such high tin content in the bronze that it was irrelevant for its mechanical properties but gave the bells a golden colour. The actual artifacts and then techniques were imported from the south, but west Mexican metallurgists worked ores from the abundant local deposits; the metal was not being imported. Even when the technology spread from West into north-eastern, central and southern Mexico, artifacts that can be traced back to West Mexican ores are abundant, if not exclusive. It is not always clear if the metal reached its final destination as an ingot, an ore or a finished artifact. Provenance studies on metal artifacts from southern Mesoamerica cast with the

lost wax technique Lost-wax casting (also called "investment casting", "precision casting", or ''cire perdue'' which has been adopted into English from the French, ) is the process by which a duplicate metal sculpture (often silver, gold, brass, or bronze) ...

and dissimilar to west Mexican artifacts have shown that there might have been a second point of emergence of metallurgy into Mesoamerica there since no known source could be identified. In the Tarascan Empire, copper and bronze was used for chisels, punches, awls, tweezers, needles, axes, discs, and breastplates. The

Aztecs The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl ...

did not initially adopt metal working, even though they had acquired metal objects from other peoples. However, as conquest gained them metal working regions, the technology started to spread. By the time of the Spanish conquest, a bronze-smelting technology seemed to be nascent. When the

Tarascan State Tarascan or Tarasca is an exonym and the popular name for the Purépecha culture. It may refer to: * the Tarascan State, a Mesoamerican empire until the Spanish conquest in the 1500s, located in (present-day) west-central Mexico * the Purépecha ...

came into conflict with the Aztecs during the 15th century, the

had successfully defended the empire via the use of bronze weapons, which the Aztecs had never developed.

Northern America

Spiro Wulfing and Etowah repousse plates HRoe 2012

Archaeological evidence has not revealed metal smelting or alloying of metals by

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...

native peoples north of the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...

; however, they did use

extensively.

Old Copper Culture

As widely accepted as this statement might be it should not be considered synonymous with a lack of metal objects, as it points out native copper was relatively abundant, particularly in the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

region. The latest glacial period had resulted in the scouring of copper bearing rocks. Once the ice retreated, these were readily available for use in a variety of sizes. Copper was shaped via cold hammering into objects from very early dates ( Archaic period in the Great Lakes region: 8000–1000 ). There is also evidence of actual mining of copper veins (

Old Copper Complex The Old Copper complex or Old Copper culture is an archaeological culture from the Archaic period of North America's Great Lakes region. Artifacts from some of these sites have been dated from 7500 to 1000 BCE. It is characterized by widesprea ...

), but disagreement exists as to the dates. Extraction would have been extremely difficult.

Hammerstone In archaeology, a hammerstone is a hard cobble used to strike off lithic flakes from a lump of tool stone during the process of lithic reduction. The hammerstone is a rather universal stone tool which appeared early in most regions of the wor ...

s may have been used to break off pieces small enough to be worked. This labor-intensive process might have been eased by building a fire on top of the deposit, then quickly dousing the hot rock with water, creating small cracks. This process could be repeated to create more small cracks. The copper could then be cold-hammered into shape, which would make it brittle, or hammered and heated in an annealing process to avoid this. The final object would then have to be ground and sharpened using local sandstone. Numerous bars have also been found, possibly indicative of trade for which their shaping into a bar would also serve as proof of quality. Moundville Archaeological Park 56

Great Lake artifacts found in the

Eastern Woodlands The Eastern Woodlands is a cultural area of the indigenous people of North America. The Eastern Woodlands extended roughly from the Atlantic Ocean to the eastern Great Plains, and from the Great Lakes region to the Gulf of Mexico, which is now p ...

of North America seem to indicate there were widespread trading networks by 1000 . Progressively the usage of copper for tools decreases with more jewelry and adornments being found. This is believed to be indicative of social changes to a more hierarchical society. Thousands of copper mining pits have been found along the lake shore of

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

, and on

Isle Royale Isle Royale National Park is an American national park consisting of Isle Royale – known as Minong to the native Ojibwe – along with more than 400 small adjacent islands and the surrounding waters of Lake Superior, in the state of Michigan. ...

. These pits may have been in use as far back as 8,000 ;years ago. This copper was mined and then made into objects such as heavy spear points and tools of all kinds. It was also made into mysterious crescent objects that some archaeologists believe were religious or ceremonial items. The crescents were too fragile for utilitarian use, and many have 28 or 29 notches along the inner edge, the approximate number of days in a

lunar month In lunar calendars, a lunar month is the time between two successive syzygies of the same type: new moons or full moons. The precise definition varies, especially for the beginning of the month. Variations In Shona, Middle Eastern, and Eur ...

. However this Great Lake model as a unique source of copper and of copper technologies remaining somewhat static for over 6,000 years has recently come into some level of criticism, particularly since other deposits seem to have been available to ancient North Americans, even if much smaller. The Old Copper Culture mainly flourished in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

and

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over t ...

. However at least 50 Old Copper items, including spear points and ceremonial crescents have been discovered in

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

. A few more in

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

, and at least one, a crescent, has turned up in

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...

, 2,000 kilometres from its homeland in Ontario. It is most likely that these copper items arrived in the plains as trade goods rather than people of the Old Copper Culture moving into these new places. However from one excavated site in eastern Manitoba we can see that at least some people were moving northwest. At a site near Bissett archaeologists have found copper tools, weapons, and waste material of manufacture, along with a large nugget of raw copper. This site however was dated to around 4,000 years ago, a time of cooler climate when the boreal forest's treeline moved much further south. Though if these migrants moved with their metallurgy up the

Winnipeg River The Winnipeg River is a Canadian river that flows roughly northwest from Lake of the Woods in the province of Ontario to Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba. This river is long from the Norman Dam in Kenora to its mouth at Lake Winnipeg. Its watershed is ...

at this time they may have continued onward, into

Lake Winnipeg Lake Winnipeg (french: Lac Winnipeg, oj, ᐑᓂᐸᑲᒥᐠᓴᑯ˙ᑯᐣ, italics=no, Weenipagamiksaguygun) is a very large, relatively shallow lake in North America, in the province of Manitoba, Canada. Its southern end is about north of ...

, and the

Saskatchewan River The Saskatchewan River (Cree: ''kisiskāciwani-sīpiy'', "swift flowing river") is a major river in Canada. It stretches about from where it is formed by the joining together of the North Saskatchewan and South Saskatchewan Rivers to Lake Winn ...

system. This Old Copper Culture never became particularity advanced, and never discovered the principle of creating

s. This means that many, though they could make metal objects and weapons, continued to use their flint tools, which could maintain a sharper edge for much longer. The unalloyed copper could simply not compete, and in the later days of the Old Copper Culture the metal was almost exclusively used for ceremonial items.

Copper in the Mississippian culture

During the

Mississippian period The Mississippian ( , also known as Lower Carboniferous or Early Carboniferous) is a subperiod in the geologic timescale or a subsystem of the geologic record. It is the earlier of two subperiods of the Carboniferous period lasting from rough ...

(800–1600 , varying locally), elites at major political and religious centers throughout the midwestern and southeastern United States used copper ornamentation as a sign of their status by crafting the sacred material into representations connected with the Chiefly Warrior cult of the

Southeastern Ceremonial Complex The Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (formerly the Southern Cult), aka S.E.C.C., is the name given to the regional stylistic similarity of artifacts, iconography, ceremonies, and mythology of the Mississippian culture. It coincided with their ado ...

(S.E.C.C.). This ornamentation includes

Mississippian copper plates Mississippian copper plates, or plaques, are plain and repousséd plates of beaten copper crafted by peoples of the various regional expressions of the Mississippian culture between 800 and 1600 CE. They have been found as artifacts in archaeo ...

, repousséd plates of beaten copper now found as far afield as Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. Some of the more famous of the plates are of raptorial birds and avian-themed dancing warriors. These plates, such as the Rogan plates from Etowah, the Spiro plates from the Spiro in Oklahoma, and the Wulfing cache from southeast Missouri, were instrumental in the development of the archaeological concept known as the S.E.C.C. The only Mississippian culture site where a copper workshop has been located by archaeologists is

Cahokia The Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site ( 11 MS 2) is the site of a pre-Columbian Native American city (which existed 1050–1350 CE) directly across the Mississippi River from modern St. Louis, Missouri. This historic park lies in south- ...

in western Illinois, where a copper workshop dating to the Moorehead Phase () was identified at Mound 34. Gregory Perino identified the site in 1956 and archaeologists subsequently excavated it. Numerous copper fragments were found at the site; metallographic analysis indicated that Mississippian copper workers worked copper into thin sheet through repeated hammering and annealing, a process that could be successful over open-pit wood fires. After the collapse of the Mississippian way of life in the 1500s with the advent of European colonization, copper still retained a place in Native American religious life as a special material. Copper was traditionally regarded as sacred by many historic period Eastern tribes. Copper nuggets are included in medicine bundles among Great Lakes tribes. Among 19th century Muscogee Creeks, a group of copper plates carried along the

Trail of Tears The Trail of Tears was an ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of approximately 60,000 people of the " Five Civilized Tribes" between 1830 and 1850 by the United States government. As part of the Indian removal, members of the Cherokee, ...

are regarded as some of the tribe's most sacred items.

Iron in the Pacific Northwest

Native ironwork in the Northwest Coast has been found in places like the Ozette Indian Village Archeological Site, where iron chisels and knives were discovered. These artifacts seem to have been crafted around 1613, based on the dendrochronological analysis of associated pieces of wood in the site, and were made out of drift iron from Asian (specifically Japanese) shipwrecks, which were swept by the

Kuroshio Current The , also known as the Black or or the is a north-flowing, warm ocean current on the west side of the North Pacific Ocean basin. It was named for the deep blue appearance of its waters. Similar to the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic, the Ku ...

towards the coast of North America. The tradition of working with Asian drift iron was well-developed in the Northwest before European contact, and was present among several native peoples from the region, including the

Chinookan peoples Chinookan peoples include several groups of Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest in the United States who speak the Chinookan languages. Since at least 4000 BCE Chinookan peoples have resided along the Lower and Middle Columbia River (Wi ...

and the

Tlingit The Tlingit ( or ; also spelled Tlinkit) are indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Their language is the Tlingit language (natively , pronounced ),

, who seem to have had their own specific word for the metallic material, which was transcribed by Frederica De Laguna as ''gayES''. The wrecking of Japanese and Chinese vessels in the North Pacific basin was fairly common, and the iron tools and weaponry they carried provided the necessary materials for the development of the local ironwork traditions among the Northwestern Pacific Coast peoples, although there were also other sources of iron, like that from meteorites, which was occasionally worked using stone anvils.