In the Arvilla mounds of North
Dakota, archaeologists have discovered some interesting artifacts. They include
a copper ornament, a spear or knife, and a copper awl (see image at the right).
The Arvilla mounds are considered part of a burial mound site, and the presence
of these copper artifacts is not surprising to archaeologists. Why, one may ask
is the presence of copper in burial mounds not surprising to archaeologists?
Most people think of pottery as a burial artifact. Well, the answer lies in
examination of three other burial sites in the Midwest and Eastern United
States.
The first site is the Spiro Mound group in Le Flore county, Oklahoma where a complex of nine burial mounds is located (Hamilton 1). A mound complex is a series of common sites that share a specific type of burial pattern. This is not earth shaking news; there are several mound complexes known to archaeologists. What is so special about the Spiro Mounds is what lies below the surface. The Spiro mounds contain large amounts of copper artifacts, and it is one of the biggest sites of copper artifacts in the Eastern United States (Goodman 52). Among the artifacts are 25 solid copper axes, with parts of their wooden handles left intact, and over 266 copper plates depicting various pictures believed to be human figures (Hamilton 177). These finds are important because this is a very large find, and the copper can be used to tell archeologist about the culture at the Spiro site.
Another site is in Alabama, the Moundville site. Archaeological finds here are also impressive. Nine copper axes and about 142 other copper artifacts such as copper pendants, fishhooks, earspools, and beads lead the top of the list of artifacts (Goodman 29). The final site is the Etowah mounds in Georgia. The most impressive artifacts here include 70 copper hair ornaments, copper axes, and several copper plates (Goodman 36). The thing that is important about these three sites is that all of the copper artifacts were found in burial mounds with the bones of human beings.
Now, if these three sites have a seemingly abundance of copper artifacts, why don't all burial sites contain copper artifacts? For example, do the Arvilla mounds in North Dakota contain lots of copper? To begin with, the Arvilla mounds are actually a part of a larger system of burial mounds called the Arvilla Complex. This complex lies not only in North Dakota but also in Minnesota and South Dakota. There are eight sites in Minnesota that this section will briefly look at. In these eight sites there are about 32 separate burial mounds. Now, one would assume that since these are burial mounds, they would contain copper artifacts. In this case, the assumption is wrong. There is only one site, the Slinger mounds in Northwest Minnesota that contains a single copper artifact (Johnson 40). In fact, there are only a total of six copper artifacts found in the Arvilla Complex with most of the artifacts in North Dakota. Why is this? Well, there are two possible reasons for why so much copper shows up in the East and not the Midwest.
To begin with, there have been several disputes over where the people of the past obtained their copper from. One site that has been identified as a place for copper is called the Old Copper Complex or Great Lakes Copper. The Old Copper Complex is dated at 3000 to 500 B.C.E. (B.C.) in the areas of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ontario (Brose 28). It is in these places that archaeologists have found copper artifacts. Also, archaeologist have discovered evidence that copper was quarried here in the form of pure copper nuggets (Brose 29). It has been assumed that most copper came from this area, but there is another possible source. In the Southeast, copper is also found in the Appalachian Piedmont area, especially in Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia (Goodman 7).