Crucible-Like Vessels Found at Cahokia
Evidence crucibles used to melt copper for casting into artifacts was found by archaeologist Gregory Perino at the Cahokia Mound Group, as he reported in the Central States Archaeological Journal (V33, No. 1; January 1986). Cahokia, which flourished from 700 to 1400 AD, was an important center of the Mississippian peak Period of the prehistoric North American Indians. This find at Cahokia State Historic Park has remained in relative obscurity since then. News of its existence was furnished to me by Dr. Ellis Neiburger, who recently has contributed much of so much of importance to this website about prehistoric copper working.
Perino, originally from Belleville, Ill. (near Cahokia), was archaeologist in charge of Chahoka excavations for decades. In 1986, when this report was published, he was the director of Gilcrease Institute, Tulsa, OK.
In this paper, Perino said that:
"It should be expected that a site as large as Cahokia should be involved in technological advances in the prehistoric Indian world because of the sheer number of inhabitants and its being a focal point for trade routes from other areas east of the Rockies. Certainly the Caddo on the Arkansas and Red rivers made many trips north to obtain copper in sheet form and in finished products such as the embossed eagle figures found elsewhere."
Sheet copper was also needed, he said, to cover the Caddoan’s large stone ear spools. More copper could be carried on long trips if it had been prepared into sheets than in the nugget form to be worked later.
Trade with Indians of the Tennessee Valley is evident in the greenstone from region found at Cahokia. He also noted that arrow points of the Plaquemine culture of the Gulf Coast area also have been found there. Other evidence points to trade with "Mississippians living along the Ohio River," with the Aztalan site in Wisconsin and with inhabitants of an area of Arkansas northwest of Memphis. Near Cahokia Mound 34, Perino found two copper workshops in the midst of "house patterns:"
"Among the house patterns found was an area of gray soil which proved to be a copper workshop. A copper workshop can easily be missed by a novice," he observed. After "profiling the floor plans of the house patterns" found near the mound’s edge," we came upon a post mold about six inches in diameter." He noted that it had a third circular pattern "several feet wide around it where the soil was gray in color."
Bone scrap was found inside this ring and it was colored "a green familiarly made by copper" as small flecks of copper slowly changed into copper oxide. Wooden anvils or anvil posts were found within the circle of gray, copper dust-laden soil and only minute flakes of copper were found in the gray soil areas. "Also associated with the copper workshop were fragments of two crucible-like vessels heavily burned. They had thick walls and were conical in shape, being not more than six inches tall," Perino said.
No large pieces of scrap copper were found, and this could be an indication that the Cahokia copper craftsmen "had learned to smelt copper scrap." At this point in his paper, Perino took notice of the work of Dr. Neiburger, whom he said "became aware of bubbles he saw in copper axes he examined in a museum." Dr. Nieburger, of course, has recently contributed greatly to this writer's research on highly probable copper melting and casting by prehistoric North American Indians.
As is explained elsewhere in this web site, Neiburger says these bubbles are caused by hot gas in molten metal and as such are solid evidence of copper melting and casting. Adding to such evidence, Perino noted that while it is known that many copper objects were made at Cahokia, "nowhere in the area has anyone found any copper scrap."
"Because of this it seems plausible to believe that the Indians were carefully collecting any copper scrap derived from cutting out eagle effigy figures and ear spool covers and probably were melting them in order to obtain a single large piece of copper they could use to make more sheet copper, or to pour into an open mold made rough in the shape of an axe. "Hammering and annealing the copper produced more sheets or copper tools. The idea the copper could have been melted" at Cahokia "should be persued further," Perino said.
I certainly agree with him! In fact, museum directors should conduct specific gravity screening of their collections of large prehistoric Indian copper artifacts.
The objection that this would expose these artifacts to damage from immersion in water shouldn't been taken seriously. Many of these same artifacts were in wet ground as much as several thousand years yet managed to survive good condition. What can be learned to advance our knowledge of these ancient people by exposing these artifacts to specific gravity tests far outweighs any such trivial objections!
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