METALLURGICAL BEGINNINGS - CASE FOR COPPER IN PREHISTORIC AMERICAN SOUTHWEST

Indications of a pre-Columbian copper industry in the American Southwest are analyzed in terms of Old World findings and possible theories of metallurgical origins. These theories are tested in terms of the prehistoric level of knowledge about the Southwestern environment and the technological means of exploiting it. Knowledge of working of raw copper and copper minerals, utilization of charcoal and coal, the ability to mine, and the existence in the area of cast copper objects all indicate that metallurgy could have been practiced prehistorically in this area. © 1968, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.