[Theoria]

Fascinating. You have acquired way too much arch/anthro knowledge. Ya make ol' Cliff look like a piker.

[muawiyah]

I've been to the site in Michigan ~ actually one of the sites on/near the michigan/Wisconsin border ~ where copper was first worked!

There were early claims that they smelted copper there, but it's much more likely that given the quality of the native copper they just pounded it with rocks.