Accidental find of Old Copper Culture Manufacturing Tools?

[MarkO]

Context - I came across these rocks this past summer during a small landscape project in my area. It is on top of the Interlobate Moraine (Kettle Moraine) in SE Wisconsin. Many of the finest copper culture artifacts in the Smithsonian collected by Frederick Perkins last century are from in this immediate area.

This was just an odd rock in the way of a landscape job when I came across it. The knob identified in my pictures below was just a few inches higher than what I wanted for a step. It is not at all unsual to have to dig/move rocks out the way in this area for any kind of outdoor project. The Moraine is basically a big gravel and rock pile left behind as two glacial lobes met and pushed rocks up into ridge extending a few hundred miles in length.

As the glaciers moved south they scoured the massive copper deposits in the upper penisula of Michigan and moved nuggets of coppers along the glaciers edge as they advanced. Two "independent" glacier lobes met up and left their deposits in this "Kettle Moraine". I didn't have any agenda after coming across these rocks, I just wanted to find out what they might be so read many books and papers over the last six months and have concluded these may well be related to the Old Copper Culture which has historically been thought to have "epicentered" in SE Wisconsin.

I know copper is being found in many locations now. I also know the archeo/anthro community is inherently scientific and skeptical - so am I.
Any and all comments are appreciated related to these rocks and copper culture. I have other important projects to move on to but can't get these rocks out of my head!

The anvil rock weighs 153lbs - it is heavy/dense even for a rock of it's size. I move a lot of rocks - they are not all equal. I can't imagine it being easily grooved, it isn't a "soft" rock. Notice the green patina in the grooves when I first pulled this out - it was fully buried. I haven't tested them in any way yet but will probably have that done when I figure out how to go about it.

The hammer rock weighs 14lbs. I've studied and read all about nutting stones. This was found on a hardwood ridge with oaks and hickory trees still in area. But I just can't imagine the innefficiency of using a 14lb hammer to crack a 1/2 ounce hickory nut. Hammer rock also seems to have greenish patina in it - I suppose this to be copper. Could be totally wrong of course, I know that.

The location overlooks an "ice age" river system that ultimately feeds into the Rock River and then the Mississippi. It is a location that would have seen use through the ages.

I included one picture of a WI copper nugget I picked up from a rock lady because it was neat. I wanted to test how soft the copper was today so took it out to garage and banged on it. It only took a few minutes to flatten using a hammer and vise anvil. Valentines is coming up, maybe I can make something of it by then!

If you want to see how these rocks interact with each other I have some small vid clips I took last summer and posted them on youtube. You'll have to search insanehairlessmonkey with no spaces and you'll find them. There are six videos. Sorry, I don't know how to directly link to them.

I appreciate any comments and or insight. I'd like to more or less put this subject to rest and get back to building my time machine - that is how I feed myself. Seriously....

It's a market related thing, not time travel - you can't do that.

Thanks in advance, hope some of you enjoy, contemplate, and comment

Mark

[Otepgod]

interesting