Eric Stevens wrote:

On Mon, 28 Jun 2004 13:07:35 -0400, Gary Coffman
wrote:

snip

Now
of course the Old Worlders had the advantage of ores which
did contain suitable deoxidizers. They weren't actually casting
pure copper. But the Michigan copper was essentially pure
native copper.


But it wasn't the only source of copper.

Eric,

This thread began, and has mostly developed, around that
Michigan (with some from Wisconsin and Minnesota) native copper,
more specifically its use in the upper Great Lakes area.

Yuri has begun a thread about copper casting outside of this
area. Perhaps that would be a better venue for this more
general discussion of ancient copper.

Tom McDonald