Copper Production in the Northern Lake Superior Basin

Anthropology Club Lunchtime Lecture Series guest speaker is Ryan Peterson, a Graduate Student at Indiana University Bloomington working on his Ph.D. in Anthropology.

North America’s Native Copper Industry is one of the oldest metalworking traditions in the world, with metal use in this region dating to over 9,500 years ago. This talk will examine the geospatial organization of copper production throughout the Archaic period in the northern Lake Superior Basin. The organization of copper production will be examined through morphological analysis of copper waste materials from copper production sites across this region. This information will then be examined geospatially using the Optimized Hot Spot Analysis tool on ArcGIS to identify where stages of production took place as people and copper moved across the landscape. The structure of this production system will then be interpreted through a relational approach to production that seeks to understand the relationships that form between people, material culture, and the environment through assembling in the production process.  

For questions on the talk or about the Club, please contact Forrest Rommel ([email protected])

 
FREE PIZZA PROVIDED