Fig. 584. (S. 5–6.) Copper axe. Found in a mound on Green Bay Road, one mile north of Milwaukee. Milwaukee Public Museum collection.
Professor G. H. Perkins states that objects of this metal are far more numerous in New England than those of bone or shell. They are found not only on the surface, but in the graves as well. They are similar in form to Wisconsin artifacts, and he believes it probable that all are made of metal obtained from the Lake Superior district. Dr. David Boyle and others have called our attention to the presence of native copper implements in both eastern and western Canada.
There is no longer any doubt that much of this metal was thus distributed, either in the unworked state or as finished artifacts, in the course of the trades or regular exchanges known to have been carried on between the aborigines holding possession of the copper district and those of other regions.
A description of the Wisconsin districts from which the greatest number of such artifacts have been recovered up to the present time may be given as extending from about the middle of Milwaukee County, northward along the west shore of Lake Michigan to Door County, thence westward to the Wisconsin River or slightly beyond, thence southward along this stream to Dane County and eastward to Milwaukee County, the starting-point. Embraced within this territory are the extensive lake shore village-sites, from which thousands of articles have already been recovered, and certain well-known sites in Green Lake and adjoining counties, the Rush Lake, Lake Chetek, and similarly productive regions. The amount of copper implements obtained from the mounds and graves of Wisconsin is very small when compared with the quantity obtained from the village-sites and fields.
Classes and Functions
The native copper artifacts of Wisconsin admit of separation into two principal classes, designated as implements and ornaments. Of these the former class is by far the more numerous. Mr. Henry P. Hamilton estimates that articles of utility constitute fully 95 per cent of the copper artifacts found in Wisconsin.
It is but natural that on account of its proximity to the source of supply we should find in our own state not only a more bountiful supply of implements, but a greater range of classes, types, and varieties as well. The correctness of this conclusion is proven beyond doubt. In the matter of the number and artistic excellence of its copper ornaments and objects of a ceremonial nature, Wisconsin, while possessing some types apparently peculiar to itself, cannot properly be said to lead. The artistically cut or embossed sheet-copper discs, gorgets, and plates, the spool-shaped objects and copper-sheathed stone and wooden ornaments of Ohio, Illinois, and the South, are here conspicuous by their almost total absence.
Fig. 585. (S. 1–1.) Copper spud with incised zigzag decoration. Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Milwaukee Public Museum collection.