This chapter details the proof of these amazing voyages, not least a detailed comparison of ancient mining tools and the copper implements from all around the world. It seems that every item found in the Lake Superior area has its near counterpart in Minoan artefacts of the time. Lake Superior’s ancient miners had the same array of implements, weapons, tools and domestic equipment as the people who lived on Bronze Age Crete, Thera and Mycenae. This could, of course, be simply the phenomenon known as parallel development. Yet how can it be coincidence that the measuring weights used so many thousands of years ago take the form of animals? It is also intriguing that even local Native American myth appears to support the idea that it was outsiders who were mining the area’s islands and peninsulas. This has a bearing on the other potent argument for the involvement of outsiders in Lake Superior’s mining heritage; namely, the industrial scale on which the copper was mined and processed. This area was so rich in minerals that local people didn’t need to mine: they could use the abundant float copper found on the surface. Those who mined the copper were clearly not indigenous Americans.
Further reading:
James B. Griffin (ed.), Lake Superior Copper and the Indians – Miscellaneous Studies of Great Lakes Prehistory, University of Michigan; Ann Arbor, 1961
The Ancient American – Archaeology of the Americas Before Columbus.
Ancient Artefact Preservation Society, notably an article by Emeritus Professor James Scherz titled ‘Ancient Trade Routes in America’s Copper Country’ (Ancient American, Issue 35).
Edward J. Olsen, ‘Copper Artefact Analysis with the X-ray Spectrometer, American Antiquity, Vol. 28, No. 2 (Oct 1962) (JSTOR)
George Rapp et al., ‘Determining Geological Sources of Artefact Copper: Source Characterisation using Trace Element Patterns’, American Antiquity, Vol. 68 No .2 (Apr 2003) JSTOR.
