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The Role of Tool Function in the Decline of North America's Old Copper Culture (6000-3000 BP): An evolutionary and experimental approach

Bebber, Michelle Rae
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1562332469526957

Abstract Details

2019, PHD, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / School of Biomedical Sciences.
North America's Old Copper Complex (6000-3000 BP) is a unique event in archaeologists' global understanding of prehistoric metallurgic evolution. For millennia, Middle and Late Archaic hunter-gatherers around the North American Upper Great Lakes region regularly made utilitarian implements out of copper, only for these items to decline in prominence and frequency as populations grew and social complexity increased during the Archaic to Woodland Transition. Yet, it may be reasonably asked whether these demographic and social factors are the only, or predominant, factors contributing to this evolutionary pattern. To answer this question, an extensive experimental program was initiated which compared replica copper tools to analogous tools made of stone or bone in order to better understand whether relative functional efficiency also contributed to the decline of utilitarian copper implements. This series of experiments consisted of a controlled ballistics study, a cutting efficiency and durability study, and a punching efficiency study using an Instron Materials Tester. This dissertation presents the results of these experiments, which support the hypothesis that overall tool functional efficiency played an important role in the evolution of the North American copper tool repertoire 3000 B.P.
Metin Eren, PhD (Committee Co-Chair)
Richard Meindl, PhD (Committee Co-Chair)
Mary Ann Raghanti, PhD (Committee Member)
Michael Fisch, PhD (Committee Member)
172 p.
Archaeology; Materials Science
Experimental archaeology, Archaic North America, copper tools, native copper, Old Copper Culture, cultural evolution

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Bebber, M. R. (2019). The Role of Tool Function in the Decline of North America's Old Copper Culture (6000-3000 BP): An evolutionary and experimental approach [Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1562332469526957

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Bebber, Michelle. The Role of Tool Function in the Decline of North America's Old Copper Culture (6000-3000 BP): An evolutionary and experimental approach. 2019. Kent State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1562332469526957.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Bebber, Michelle. "The Role of Tool Function in the Decline of North America's Old Copper Culture (6000-3000 BP): An evolutionary and experimental approach." Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1562332469526957

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1562332469526957
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This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.