Copper Kettles Research Articles

The Susquehannocks: New Perspectives on Settlement and Cultural Identity

The Susquehannocks: New Perspectives on Settlement and Cultural Identity

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Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens Brown paper packages tied up with strings These are a few of my favorite things This song sticks in my brain whenever I hear it. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II published “My Favorite Things” in 1959, well before the term earworm was coined. Here are some of my favorite things about the American Chemical Society; perhaps some will stick with you, like a catchy tune. ACS Career Consultants. Are you looking for a job or planning to make a career transition? Is it time to refresh your résumé or craft your LinkedIn profile? ACS career consultants provide one-on-one advice both virtually and in person at ACS meetings and career events. In addition, ACS career consultants hold virtual office hours every week for chemists seeking advice and networking in a small-group environment. This benefit is free

Relational Identities and Other-Than-Human Agency in Archaeology

Relational Identities and Other-Than-Human Agency in Archaeology

Tracing the Distribution of Late 16th and Early 17th Century European Copper Artefacts in Southern Québec and Ontario, Canada

To understand the nature of trade/exchange of ‘Basque’ copper kettles and their fragments among Indigenous communities from Québec to Ontario, Canada, we examined 948 copper samples from 75 archaeological sites. We found that 936 samples were sortable into 11 coarse chemical groups: seven biased towards Ontario, three favouring Québec and only one balanced between the two provinces. This pattern may represent kettles and pieces ‘mostly traded’ or ‘mostly kept’ by Indigenous groups within Québec. Chemical group distribution within individual provinces is complex. A tentative chronology of copper chemical groups provides additional insight into the complex trading/exchange patterns among the Indigenous groups of southern Ontario.

17th century Huron village life: insights from the copper-based metals of the Ball site, southern Ontario, Canada

Copper-based metal artifacts from the Ball site, a late 16th – early 17th century Huron (Wendat) village in southern Ontario that doubled in size during its estimated 20-year existence, were analysed by INAA. The goal was to assess the number of kettles that had reached the village, explore the chronology of their arrival and examine patterns in their discard within the site. Our results suggest that about two to three dozen European copper, red brass, and yellow brass kettles may have reached the village during its occupation; that copper kettles may have been traded to the inhabitants of the village before brass kettles; that the new inhabitants may have brought some kettles with them; and that differences in the discarding of copper and brass pieces inside and outside longhouses indicate that yellow brass was possibly of lower value than red copper.

Colonial Encounters, European Kettles, and the Magic of Mimesis in the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Century Indigenous Northeast and Great Lakes

Copper kettles, in high demand among indigenous communities of the Northeast/Great Lakes, became prominent items in the exchange repertoires of early Basque, French and Dutch traders. Kettles’ origin with these “Others” and its connection to a medium (copper) that had held symbolic significance for millennia led them to be used in an indigenous ‘metaphorical’ value regime influencing trade during the late sixteenth/early seventeenth century. An artisan living on the threshold of colonial encounter in Northern Michigan between 1470 and 1660 CE—having seen European goods but not having access to them—harnessed the mimetic faculty to make a small, miniature, ceramic imitation or skeuomorph of a European trade kettle. Rather than the sincerest form of flattery, I suggest this imitation was made to acquire the power of the original to fend off the colonial danger and to connect to this symbolic value regime. I suggest the “magic” of mimesis offered personal and organizational power in the indigenous Northeast/Great Lakes during early contact. This specific case speaks more broadly to how mimesis can provide a robust framework for exploring the material cultures of colonial encounter.

Chemical analysis of copper and brass samples from Christian Island, Georgian Bay, Ontario

One hundred and eighty-seven metal samples, recovered from the fortified mission of Ste. Marie II and nearby villages on Christian Island, include 3 samples of native copper, 22 samples of European copper, 19 samples of brassy copper (≤8% Zn), 141 brass samples and 2 samples of lead. The European copper samples form 5 distinct chemical groups, possibly coming from 5 different copper kettles. The brassy copper samples are more difficult to group. When the brass samples are sorted by Ag and As, they form 2 major groupings: group 1 with high Ag and low As contents; group 2 with similar Ag and As contents through to low Ag and high As contents. Group 1 consisted of 11 chemical sub-groups and 6 outliers, while group 2 contributed 14 sub-groups and 14 outliers. This combines to give a total of 45 potentially unrelated brass chemistries, and leads to the possibility of as few as 20 different brass trading items (mainly kettles) from which the samples were cut. The small sub-sets of samples from the sites away from Ste. Marie II tended to fit within chemical groups found there, suggesting some possible inter-site contemporaneity.

Late sixteenth-century basque banded copper kettles

Copper kettles banded with iron and copper supports originated from Basque ports in southern France between 1580 and 1600. These kettles are substantially different in style of manufacture from the more common folded-over sheet lug kettles recovered from archaeological sites dating to the 17th century. The distribution of these kettles, and distinctive fragments from them, assist in reconstructing late 16th-and early 17th-century exchange networks between the Canadian Maritimes and the lower Great Lakes.

Comparison of Monel and Copper Kettles in Boiling Linseed Oil.

Comparison of Monel and Copper Kettles in Boiling Linseed Oil.