1000 year old pristine copper spear point from the Yukon

originally posted by: intrptr
I was wondering about that "copper metallurgy" aspect.

Hare says it's made of a copper nugget and is 99.9 percent pure. It would have been locally found, he said.

Native Copper is a natural find, not refined and smelted from ore.
Hammering it into that shape and sharpening it would require more skill than simply napping stone points, though.

You've obviously never worked either copper or stone tools. I offer "simply napping stone points" as evidence of my opinion. Try knapping stone sometime. Native copper is malleable, easily shaped while stone is...well, very brittle.

Some info on copper artifacts across the Arctic.

In the Arctic, most objects date to the Thule period, although a significant subset are from the Late Dorset period, and some that are likely older still. In the Subarctic, from Alaska across to Hudson’s Bay, copper becomes incorporated into toolkits by 1000 AD. In both of these broad contexts, copper objects appear to function as utilitarian items (knives, awls, spear points, etc), although the line between utilitarian items and prestigious/ritualized items is fuzzy at best. In contrast, however, copper technology from British Columbia falls on the prestige side of the prestigious-utilitarian spectrum. Dating to roughly 2000 BP, Marpole copper objects from British Columbia are associated with elite burial contexts.

digitalarchaeology.msu.edu...

Thanks for the link caver,
Well then its indigenous, and copper use was far more prevalent than I had known.
But the map in the link confirms my suspicion that that the technology radiated inland from the west coast.
The timing of the appearance of copper artifacts around 1000 ce, falls interestingly within the window for copper and bronze objects showing up from mainland asia in the Aluetians.
There is a "legendary" distant land that appears in chinese literature around 800-900 that has been proposed to be alaska.
Bronze buckles found in the Aluetians are of a type in use at ~800 ce in china.

a reply to: punkinworks10

What makes you think it is Chinese?

Article says it was made right there in the Yukon.

I guess you missed my previous post,

Well then its indigenous, and copper use was far more prevalent than I had known.

But I still hold to the opinion that the form of this particular style of point is influenced by contact with mainland asia, as is the boom in metal usage in the yukon
Look at the map on caver's link, the distribution of copper artifacts clusters near the coast and tapers off as you go inland.
The inland distribution follows the major rivers eastward, and there doesnt seem any particular affinity towards the copper bearing areas near the great lakes, as one would expect if the yukon industry was descended from the earlier Old Copper Culture of the Great Lakes.
As I said before, all sorts of copper and bronze objects appear in alaska and the aluetians during this period, from bronze armor and battle axes to copper cups/pots and hardware fittings.

a reply to: punkinworks10

You're more than welcome!


After reading your OP went off on a quick google-fu because I'd not heard of this type of artifact before. As you know I'm deeply interested in all things circumpolar mostly because just so much has been overlooked due to the remoteness and ice. Found an intriguing link that "alludes" to more discoveries that are being withheld?

Will try to dig it back up.

a reply to: diggindirt

To them it was simpler. I can't do it either.

Let alone make a bow, string it, fashion arrows, points or hunt big game with it.

Can you?

a reply to: intrptr
Having spent 26 years as a teacher of future archaeologists, the answer is yes. I can knap an arrow point. I've made my own bow and arrows but I'm better at ceramics. I've worked native copper but in our area copper was mainly utilized in decorative items rather than tools. Stone blades are more durable than copper and easier to sharpen. Stone is also far more abundant than copper in our area.

Hunt big game? No. The largest game in our area is the whitetail deer and if I'm going to hunt deer I'll hunt with a modern weapon because I'm more likely to get a clean kill.

a reply to: intrptr

I like diggin, i can as well. I made my first atl-atl as a child and used it and throwing sticks, ie a non returning bobberang, to hunt rabbits and other small game. I know the basics of what types of local shrubs make the best arrows and how to use heat to straighten them. I know how to make both simple, composite and recurve bows, I was i fact grooming a half dozen rose boughs in my garden for bow staves, but my gardener cut em down a couple a weeks ago , I negelgted to tell him to leave them and they were almost ready.
I have knapped stone points, not good at it but its a matter of practice, and I have actually fashioned a a hand axe, and a simple hafted axe, trailside while on a mtb ride to chop a downed tree off the trail. Stripping sinew to make a bow string is the one thing I have not done, and my teeth thank me.

Now I have also been into metal working nearly all my life and have made a career of it, so I am also familiar with what it takes to produce the point from native copper, it is FAR FAR FAR more difficult.
First you have to find a nugget big enough to make the piece from, in doing so you will pass up thousands of good cobbles from which to make a stone point.
You could make a hundred points from chert or flint in the time it tookto produce that one.

Find of a ifetime for the Yukon. For those who think it's a Arrow or the antler part is the handle.

If you look at the top you can see where the point would slide into the end of a spear pole, it was designed to come apart leaving just the spear head and barbed antler parts embedded deep in whatever they were hunting, My guess would be for Seal. Not something like bear or elk. The spear head and barbed antler part would have been attached to a line cord/rope/sinew.

Native primitive hunters still use this technique to this day.

a reply to: Soloprotocol

Awesome.

a reply to: punkinworks10

I know how to live under bridges, dive in dumpsters, breakdown material for metals recycling and or refurbish equipment and sell it at flea markets. The longest stretch I survived doing this was 7 years straight , including the hardest winter season on record here, El Nino.

Modern primitive, pleased to meet you.

a reply to: intrptr

OK...found proof copper can be fashioned without annealing and has been in the Arctic.

books.google.com...,+yukon?&source=bl&ots=DC-n2peQkC&sig=92Zq2G28ORbZ_x0RAehyovmnqx0 &hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmn-aVleDYAhXC6FMKHePCAr4Q6AEIQDAH#v=onepage&q=copper%20artifacts%2C%20yukon%3F&f=false

it's a link to the Oxford Handbook of of the Prehistoric Arctic. Link should take you to the page, I can't copy and paste it.
Sorry.

originally posted by: Caver78
a reply to: intrptr

OK...found proof copper can be fashioned without annealing and has been in the Arctic.

books.google.com...,+yukon?&source=bl&ots=DC-n2peQkC&sig=92Zq2G28ORbZ_x0RAehyovmnqx0 &hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmn-aVleDYAhXC6FMKHePCAr4Q6AEIQDAH#v=onepage&q=copper%20artifacts%2C%20yukon%3F&f=false

it's a link to the Oxford Handbook of of the Prehistoric Arctic. Link should take you to the page, I can't copy and paste it.
Sorry.

caver thanks again for another killer link

It is quite informative.