Archaeologists find copper workshop of ancient American culture Yahoo! News
And the Southeast United States , including triangular, 8-inch long-earrings embossed at the ends with a human face, headdress ornaments depicting stylized birds, even diminutive but carefully crafted copper ovals that may have been applied to a ritualistic leather belt or cape. When they are unearthed, these antiquities are covered with a green or gray patina.
Only now, however, have archaeologists uncovered what they believe is the only known copper workshop from the Mississippian-era — a culture that peaked about 1250 A.D. throughout the middle and southern portions of what is now the United States .
The workshop was discovered in Mound 34 in Illinois's , have for eight years led an investigation into finding the workshop and then carefully excavating the often minute particles and bits of copper that were left behind.
Brown said that the copper workshop was purely for manufacturing religious ornaments worn by those who participated in significant ceremonies that probably occurred atop the 80 mounds that make up the site.
"They are all depictions of other worldly beings," he said of the symbols and figures found in copper as well as on pieces of pottery and decorated shells at the site.
