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Missing: 500,000 tons of copper
William R. Corliss, Science Frontiers, No. 90: Nov-Dec 1993

A grooved maul used by ancient miners of Michigan copper ore. (S. Braker)

A grooved maul used by ancient miners of Michigan copper ore. (S. Braker) For some 1800 years, beginning abruptly about 3000 BC, some industrious peoples mined ore equivalent to 500,000 tons of copper from Michigan's Isle Royale and Keweenaw Peninsula. Who were these mysterious miners, and what happened to all all that copper? It certainly hasn't been found in the relics of North American Indians. And where was the ore smelted? About all the unidentified miners left behind are some of the crude tools they used to pound out chunks of ore from their pit mines (5000 pit mines on Isle Royale alone). Outside of some cairns and slabrock ruins, there is little to help pin down these miners. Mainstream archeologists attribute all these immense labors to a North American "Copper Culture" -- certainly not to copper-hungry visitors from foreign shores. Admittedly, many copper artifacts have been dug up from North American mounds, but only a tiny fraction of the metal the Michigan mines must have yielded.

Curiously, North American Indian mounds have contained copper sheets made in the shape of an animal hide. Called "reels," their function, if any, is unknown. The reels do, however, resemble oddly shaped copper ingots common in European Bronze Age com merce. Their peculiar shape earned these ingots the name "oxhydes." They have been found in Bronze Age shipwrecks, and are even said to be portrayed in wall paintings in Egyptian tombs. The standardized hide-like shape, with its four convenient handles, was useful in carrying and stacking the heavy ingots. Could the reels from the North American mounds have been copied from the oxhydes? It is tempting to speculate (as we are wont to do) that the Copper Culture miners were actually Europeans, or perhaps Native Americans employed or enslaved by Europeans -- an omen of future, more devastating invasions! (Sodders, Betty; "Who Mined American Copper 5,000 Years Ago?" Ancient American, 1:28, September/October 1993.)

I believe I first read about the missing copper in one of Barry Fell's books. If I remember correctly, his theory was that the Phoenicians were involved; but if they were involved in either large-scale trading with the locals, or even mining, wouldn't other artifacts, ruins or evidence of some other kind have turned up? For that amount of copper to disappear the trading or mining would have had to have gone on for hundreds of years, I would think.

L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland was only sporadically occupied by small numbers of Vikings, but we at least have the remains of building foundations and a few other artifacts.

Are you aware of anything in the Great Lakes area that can't be easily explained away by current archaeological theories?

Great info thanks for the history posts.

Each time I come across something like this I always think of Genesis 4:22{Lamech’s other wife, Zillah, gave birth to a son named Tubal-cain. He became an expert in forging tools of bronze and iron. Tubal-cain had a sister named Naamah}

I wonder how much tech there really was pre-flood. It could have been as much as our bronze age or they could have been way ahead of that if you factor in the lost civilization stories such as Atlantis. Plus how much of world was discovered before the flood.

Finds like this makes me want to get all Indiana Jones and become a Archeology Adventurer roaming the world. :)

Note: this topic is from 08/06/2011. Thanks agains Renfield. Update to the GGG ping.

From 2012 originally, at least he's not harping about the ******* Templars. Overall I think I'd have enjoyed "America Unearthed" more if he weren't so dodgy.

In this one, Scott Wolter searches for the Minoans without once mentioning Gavin Menzies even once. Doesn't mention Betty Meggers. As always, Scott's intellectual rigor makes "Curse of Oak Island" look like a real documentary.

A big thank you to whomever uploaded the episode early today, and thanks Google and YouTube for the copyright-ignoring algorithms that pushed it to the top of my vids list.

America Unearthed: BRONZE AGE CONNECTION FOUND (S1, E3) | Full Episode | History