Some different NA arrow points

[half eye]

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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[aero86]

awesome!  wonder how old they are. 

[nugget]

Thanks for the pics. Very cool

[Josh]

Cool pics, thanks Half eye!    -josh

[Postman]

Really interesting! Do you think they were made from chunks of natural copper  by natives or traded from europeans who mined the copper?

[aero86]

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.

[Pat B]

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.

[half eye]

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

[Diligence]

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

[half eye]

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

[aero86]

its awesome they can trace that metal.  and its not useless info!  i just cram stuff like that in my brain all the time!

[Pat B]

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. 

[half eye]

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 come to think of it maybe the vikings just needed to recruit some "shock troops" to deal with them scralings
Half eye

[KenH]

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.

[DanaM]

I don't know about the vikings or Irish but that looks like some Yooper copper from up in the Keewenaw