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Wonderful Power The Story of Ancient Copper Working in the Lake Superior Basin Susan R. Martin

Long before the arrival of European settlers, Native Americans in the Lake Superior basin mined and worked copper and traded it well beyond the region. They directed white settlers to copper lodes and explained the mineral's significance and "wonderful power." Wonderful Power examines the archaeological record to relate the story of that unique industry. Susan Martin has collected critical but scattered information about the uses of ancient copper to address long-standing puzzles over how long it had been used, where it was mined, and who these ancient coppersmiths were. Wonderful Power is a technically accurate and complete story of copper mining in northern Michigan. Written for readers without a background in archaeology, it both records these fascinating investigations and encourages the preservation of prehistoric evidence.

"Wonderful Power is a clearly written and candid book by Dr. Susan Martin, who has been involved in some of the most important new archaeological discoveries relating to the topic of ancient copper-working in the Americas." —David S. Brose, Schiele Museum of Natural History and Planetarium Susan R. Martin is an assistant professor of archaeology and anthropology at Michigan Technological University. 1999 Award of Merit from the Historical Society of Michigan

Great Lakes Books Series $54.95s cloth / ISBN 0-8143-2806-7 $29.95s paper / ISBN 0-8143-2843-1 272 pages / 6 x 9 40 illustrations 1999 contents > introduction [partial] > extract > index >