From Hard Rock to Heavy Metal

Metal Tool Production and Use by Indigenous Hunter-Gatherers of North America

Michelle Rae Bebber, Christopher B. Wolff

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN:
  9781836950448
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781836950462
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

The discovery and development of metals as tool media is a topic of global interest. This phenomenon is generally associated with sedentary, agricultural societies; however, in North America metal use by hunter-gatherer populations began as early as 9,000 years ago and continued into modern times. The regional and cultural diversity of research in this volume contributes to how we conceptualize hunter-gatherer innovation, technological proficiency, and complex decision-making in the past. Readers are challenged to reconsider long-held assumptions about how, when, and under what conditions metal became a part of humanity's story.

Table of contents

• From Hard Rock to Heavy Metal
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 — Hunter-Gatherer Native Copper Innovation in Northwestern North America
• Chapter 2 — Comparing the Scales of Metal Use Between the Inuit and Dorset (Tuniit) in the Eastern North American Arctic
• Chapter 3 — Hammer-ons in Heavy Metal
• Chapter 4 — Red Metal, Domestic Gods
• Chapter 5 — Copper Use in the Lower Southeast North America Before Agriculture
• Chapter 6 — Miskwabik’s Journey Beyond Minong
• Chapter 7 — A Morphometric Comparison of Copper Stem Points and Chert Osceola Points
• Chapter 8 — Re-evaluating Middle Holocene Copper Use, Gender Roles, and Social Organization
• Chapter 9 — Copper- versus Stone-Tipped Dart Relative Functional Efficiency
• Chapter 10 — The British Metal Invasion
• Chapter 11 — Experimental Archaeology on the Introduction of European Raw Materials in Indigenous Technology
• An Outro: Conclusions on the Indigenous Use of Metal in North America
• Index