Читать книгу The History of Mining - Michael Coulson - Страница 40

Elsewhere we have talked about the discovery of ancient workings of copper in the Michigan Peninsular of the US and drew attention to the paucity of provenance as to who developed the workings and when. The earlier explorers who arrived in North America came across plenty of evidence of use of stone and metal for weapons and working implements such as axes and knives.

Copper artefacts and even jewellery were also found, suggesting that American Indians were able to work metal but that the raw material was native copper, mainly found lying on surface, suggesting no mining tradition amongst the continent’s indigenous people. Indeed Sebastian Cabot and Giovanni Verazzano came across Indian women wearing copper when they landed in Newfoundland and Nantucket Island respectively around the turn of the 15th century. These sightings of copper continued as explorers continued to probe the east coast of North America over the following centuries.