March
22
/ 2021
Refinements in radiocarbon dating technology have caused archaeologists, anthropologists, and ancient historians to modify their beliefs about the timeline of copper tools and the metalworking of the Old Copper Culture, which emerged among Native Americans living in the Great Lakes region of North America many thousands of years ago. Past estimates traced the start of the Old Copper Culture to approximately 4,000 BC. Mysteriously, the Old Copper Culture ended around 1,000 BC, when the Great Lakes hunting and gathering populations largely abandoned copper tools and returned to using tools and other implements made from stone and bone. But new findings have expanded this timeline. Re-dating of old discoveries and more refined dating of new ones have pushed the starting date
