Public Events --

Paul Mickey Science Series: Prehistoric Native American Copper Working in the Eastern Woodlands

Paul Mickey Science Series: Prehistoric Native American Copper Working in the Eastern Woodlands

• Location: ISM Research & Collections Center, Springfield
• Date: Wednesday, May 11, 2011, 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

Presented by Dr. Kathleen L. Ehrhardt, Adjunct Research Associate, Illinois State Museum

Despite native peoples of the Eastern Woodlands having used objects made of native copper for about 7,000 years, many of these groups perceived copper as a valued, exotic raw material.  It served practical, but primarily social and symbolic purposes, figuring prominently in long distance trade, mortuary ceremonialism, personal adornment, and as a status marker. By examining the objects, technologies, and uses of copper, this presentation will focus on how it was used by major culture groups of the Western Great Lakes and midcontinent through time including recent evidence for copper working at the Cahokia Mounds site.

Dr. Ehrhardt is author of European Metals in Native Hands: Rethinking Technological Change, 1640-1683. University of Alabama Press (2005).

One of our Paul Mickey Science Series

Discover Illinois' rich prehistoric and historic past by attending an ISM Paul Mickey Science Series Program. A different speaker and topic are featured each month. For more information on upcoming topics and speakers, please contact Nina Walthall at (217) 782-0061 or 217-785-0037.

• Usually held the second Wednesday of Each Month
• 7:00 to 8:30 PM
• Held at the ISM Research & Collections Center, 1011 East Ash Street (enter the building from 10 ½ Street between Ash & Laurel Streets), Springfield, Illinois
  
• Free Admission