An $8,000 grant from the Wisconsin Historic Preservation Review Board and the Wisconsin State Historical Society has been awarded to Bill Gartner, instructor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

"Copper artifacts abound throughout Central and Northern Wisconsin," said Gartner. "Wisconsin just happens to have one of the older metallurgical traditions in the world and to date, there has been little effort to research or catalogue these cultural treasures in the region about Stevens Point."

According to Gartner, looters recently vandalized several Old Copper Complex sites in Wisconsin and elsewhere in the Upper Midwest, prompting action by the US Department of the Interior and the Wisconsin State Historical Society to fund research on native metallurgy.

Gartner and his students will document Old Copper Complex sites and artifacts within Central Wisconsin. Native peoples on the north shore of Lake Superior began manufacturing copper artifacts nearly 7,000 years ago, according to Gartner. Native peoples manufactured copper artifacts by hammering and shaping heated copper, and then plunging the artifact in cold water to relieve the accumulated stress within the metal. "One of the more exciting aspects of Old Copper Complex research", says Gartner, "is that several amateur archaeologists have found possible evidence for specialized copper workshops in Central and Northern Wisconsin."

Copper tools, weapons, as well as occasional items of personal adornment are found throughout Wisconsin, and suggest regular trade and social interaction between native groups here between 6,000 and 3,500 years ago. A copper "headdress" and an "ascot" made of copper beads suggest that some native peoples had a higher status than others.

Amherst Junction native Ray Reser, a junior majoring in geography and archaeology, will take part in this research. The grant allows Gartner to pay Reser for his assistance as they seek to survey these sites beginning this spring. "We have been extremely fortunate to work with several avocational or amateur archaeologists who know a great deal about Old Copper Complex sites in the area. If anyone has information on the location of Old Copper sites, please call (715) 346-4888 or (715) 677-4710 to talk with Ray.

Gartner joined the UWSP faculty in September. He received his bachelor�s degree in anthropology from Beloit College. He completed his graduate studies in geography, with a minor in anthropology, at UW-Madison.

Gartner recently defended his dissertation on native agricultural fields in Wisconsin and Eastern North America. "Native peoples here in Wisconsin were not only skilled artisans with one of the most enduring metallurgical traditions in the world," says Gartner, "but also expert agriculturalists who practiced sophisticated raised field agriculture after 1000 AD. But, that is another story. "

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