Swords of Iron, Steel & Copper in North America
“…they did cast up mighty heaps of earth to get ore of gold, and of silver, and of iron, and of copper.” (Ether 10:23)
If you are looking for the ores mentioned in the Book of Mormon, they do exist, and they have been found in North America. Many iron and copper swords HAVE been discovered. When most scientists or archaeologists find an unexplained item in their research, they very often label it a fake, or too good to be true. Since very few experts are looking in North America for iron and steel, it is ignored when they do find it. We will list many pictures and articles about iron and copper swords found in North America in this article.
Father Edmund Bosley Mormon Pioneer
25 June 1776–15 Dec. 1846. He was a Miller. Born at Northumberland Co., Pennsylvania. Lived at Livonia, Livingston Co., New York, 1792–1834. Stockholder in Kirtland Safety Society. Served as second counselor in Kirtland elders quorum, 1837. Ordained a high priest, 1844, at Nauvoo, Hancock Co., Illinois.
“From the time Father Bosley* located near Avon [Livingston County, NY], he found and plowed up axes and irons, and had sufficient to make his mill irons, and had always abundance of iron on hand without purchasing. In the towns of Bloomfield, Victor, Manchester, and in the regions round about, there were hills upon the tops of which were entrenchments and fortifications, and in them were human bones, axes, tomahawks, points of arrows, beads and pipes, which were frequently found; and it was a common occurrence in the country to plow up axes, which I have done many times myself. “The hill Cumorah [the Jaredite hill Ramah] is a high hill for that country and had the appearance of a fortification or entrenchment around it. In the State of New York, probably there are hundreds of these fortifications which are now visible, and I have seen them in many other parts of the United States. “Readers of the Book of Mormon will remember that in this very region, according to that sacred record, the final battles were fought between the Nephites and Lamanites. At the hill Cumorah, the Nephites made their last stand prior to their utter extermination, A. D., 385.” – Life of Heber C. Kimball, by Orson F. Whitney, Salt Lake City, UT: Stevens & Wallis, Inc. [1888], 25. Quoted in Annotated Book of Mormon page 492 by David Hocking and Rod Meldrum Page 477
“It seems to be a well-established fact that the bodies of nearly all those buried in mounds were partially, if not entirely, consumed by fire, before the mounds were built. This is made to appear by quantities of charcoal being found at the centre and base of the mounds—stones burned and blackened— and marks of fire on the metallic substances buried with them. It is a matter of much regret that on not one of the articles yet found have been discovered any letters, characters, or hieroglyphics, which would point to what nation or age these people belonged. We have been told by an eyewitness that a few years ago, near Blacksburgh, in Virginia, eighty miles from Marietta, there was found about half of a steel bow, which, when entire, would measure five or six feet; the other part was corroded or broken. The father of the man who found it was a blacksmith, and worked up this curious article, we suppose, with as little remorse as he would an old gun-barrel. Mounds are very frequent in that neighborhood, and many curious articles of antiquity have been found there. It is related from good authority that an ornament composed of very pure gold, something similar to those found in Marietta, was discovered a few years since in Ross county, Ohio, near Chillicothe, lying in the palm of a skeleton’s hand, in a small mound. This curiosity, it is stated, is in the museum at Philadelphia.” North America’s Indian Traditions, Archaeology & Book of Mormon II Ohio’s Ancient City edited by Wayne May Reprinted from The Wonders of the World, Boston, Massachusetts: The John Adams Lee Publishing Company, circa 1850.
“Lying immediately over, or on the forehead of the body, were found three large circular bosses, or ornaments for a sword-belt or a buckler; they are composed of copper, overlaid with a thick plate of silver. But the fronts of them are slightly convex, with a depression, like a cup, in the center, and they measure two and a quarter inches across the face of each.
On the reverse side, opposite one is a copper rivet or nail, around which are two separate plates, by which they were fastened to the leather. Two small pieces of the leather were found lying between the plates of one of the bosses; they resemble the skin of an old mummy and seem to have been preserved by the salts of the copper.
The plates of copper are nearly reduced to an oxide, or rust. The silver looks quite black, but is not much corroded, and on rubbing, it becomes quite brilliant. Two of these are yet entire; the third one is so much wasted, that it dropped in pieces on removing it from the earth. Around the rivet of one of them is a small quantity of flax or hemp, in a tolerable state of preservation.
Near the side of the body was found a plate of silver, which appears to have been the upper part of a sword-scabbard. It is six inches in length and two inches in breadth and weighs one ounce; it has no ornaments or figures, but has three longitudinal ridges, which probably correspond with edges or ridges of the sword. It seems to have been fastened to the scabbard by three or four rivets, the holes of which yet remain in the silver.
Two or three broken pieces of a copper tube were also found, filled with iron rust. These pieces, from their appearance, composed the lower end of the scabbard, near the point of the sword. No sign of the sword itself was discovered, except the appearance of rust above mentioned.
Near the feet was found a piece of copper, weighing three ounces. From its shape it appears to have been used as a plumb, or for an ornament as near one of the ends is a circular crease, or groove, for tying a thread; it is round, two and a half inches in length, one inch in diameter at the centre and half an inch at each end. It is composed of small pieces of native copper pounded together, and in the cracks between the pieces are stuck several pieces of silver, one nearly the size of a four-penny piece, or half a dime.
This copper ornament was covered with a coat of green rust and is considerably corroded. A piece of red ochre, or paint, and a piece of iron ore, which has the appearance of having been partially vitrified or melted, were also found. The ore is about the specific gravity of pure iron.” Writings of Caleb Atwater 1833.
“Somewhere in the Mountains of Wyoming, a sheep herder stumbled upon this 24 inch iron sword of unusual workmanship. The sword was sent to the Smithsonian Museum and they put a date upon it between 100 BC and 200 AD, Hopewell timeline. How the test was conducted, we do not know. These photos were supplied by the discoverer and are here for our readers to view.” Ancient America Magazine
Turner Copper Smelting Furnaces Amatuer Archaeologist Dr. Ellis Neiburger:Ancient Copper Smelters Found Near Cincinnati
In my book “Iron Age America” I discuss evidence that large copper artifacts found at some prehistoric archaeological sites in North America were made by hot working in furnaces. Like the iron furnaces mentioned in my book, the copper furnaces were built by carving out bowls and air ducts in mounds, in creek banks and other natural elevations. In the case of mounds, there is reason to speculate that existing elevations were “borrowed” from their original purpose (burials) and used as furnace sites. While Neiberger’s work is discussed in detail in my book, his furnace diagrams were not included. So, these appear here with temperatures reached during his experimental test firings.
http://ironageamerica.blogspot.com/2011/11/turner-type-2-furnace.html
Metal Arrowheads “While spear points and knives made of native copper were made and used by pre-contact American Indian groups in the Great Lakes region during the Late Archaic period, iron and brass first came to the peoples of the Ohio country when Europeans arrived in eastern North America with metal kettles and knives to trade. The American Indians who first acquired this wonderful new material began to trade it among their neighbors. So, the first metal artifacts in Ohio came, not from the Europeans themselves, but from other American Indians. The kettles often were cut up into small pieces of iron and brass that could be made into arrowheads and other tools. Metal arrowheads were much more durable than arrowheads chipped from stone, but chipped stone points were still used by some early American Indians living in the era of contact with European settlers. Arrowheads made from iron, and sometimes brass, are found on post-contact American Indian sites, as well as a few pre-contact sites.” Ohio History Connection
ANTIQUITIES STATE OF NEW YORK. BEING THE RESULTS OF EXTENSIVE ORIGINAL SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS, WITH A SUPPLEMENT ANTIQUITIES OF THE WEST; ILLUSTRATED BY FOURTEEN QUARTO PLATES AND EIGHTY ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD : By E. G. SQUIEB, M. A., Page 286-288
https://archive.org/stream/antiquitiesofsta00squirich/antiquitiesofsta00squirich_djvu.txt
USE OF SILVER BY THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. Granville, as we have seen in the quotation from his voyage on page 177, speaks of finding pieces of silver among the Virginia Indians, ” grossly beaten,” and used for purposes of ornament. Having shown that the copper found among the Indian tribes of the north was probably obtained from the native deposits around Lake Superior, we have little difficulty in accounting for the presence among them of small quantities of silver, derived from the same locality where it also exists in a native form. That the silver in use among the mound-builders was principally if not wholly obtained there, seems incontestable. In no instance does it appear to have been smelted. A variety of silver ornaments were discovered some years ago in one of the mounds at Marietta, Ohio, under very singular circumstances, and in a remarkable connection. The circumstances have been detailed by the accurate pen of Dr. S. P. HILDRETH, in a communication to the President of the American Antiquarian Society, dated ” Marietta, Nov. 3, 1819.”
” In removing the earth composing an ancient mound in the streets of Marietta, on the margin of the plain, near the fortifications, several curious articles were discovered. They appear to have been buried with the body of the person to whose memory the mound was erected.
” Lying immediately over, or on the forehead of the body, were found three large circular bosses, or ornaments for a sword-belt or a buckler: they are composed of copper overlaid with a thick plate of silver. The fronts are slightly convex, with a depression like a cup in the centre, and measure two inches and a quarter across the face of each. On the back side, opposite the depressed portion, is a copper rivet or nail, around which are two separate plates, by which they were fastened to the leather. Two small pieces of the leather were found lying between the plates of one of these bosses; they resemble the skin of a mummy and seem to have been pre served by the salts of copper. The copper plates are nearly reduced to an oxyde, or rust. The silver looks quite black, but is not much corroded, and in rubbing is quite brilliant. Two of these are yet entire 5 the third one is so much wasted that it dropped in pieces in removing it from the earth. Around the rivets of one of them is a small quantity of flax or hemp, in a tolerable state of preservation. Near the side of the body was found a plate of silver, which appears to have been the upper part of a sword-scabbard; it is six inches in length and two inches in breadth, and weighs one ounce. It has no ornaments or figures, but has three longitudinal ridges, which probably corresponded with the edges or ridges of the sword; it seems to have been fastened to the scabbard by three or four rivets, the holes of which remain in the silver.
” Two or three broken pieces of a copper tube were also found filled with iron rust. These pieces, from their appearance, composed the lower end of the scabbard, near the point of the sword. No signs of the sword itself were discovered, except the appearance of rust above mentioned. Near the feet was found a piece of copper weighing three ounces [now in the Museum of the Antiquarian Society of Worcester]. From its shape it appears to have been used as a plumb, or for an ornament, as near one of the ends is a circular crease or groove, for tying a thread: it is round, two inches and a half in length, one inch in diameter at the centre, and half an inch at each end. It is composed of small pieces of native copper pounded together; and in the cracks between the pieces are stuck several pieces of silver, one nearly the size of a half-dime. A piece of red ochre or paint, and a piece of iron ore [hematite] which had the appearance of having been partially vitrified [polished.?], were also found.
“The body of the person here buried was laid upon the surface of the ground, with his face upwards, and his feet pointing to the south-west. From the appearance of several pieces of charcoal and bits of partially burned fossil coal, and the black color of the earth, it would seem that the funeral obsequies had been celebrated by fire; and while the ashes were yet hot and smoking, a circle of these flat stones had been laid around and over the body. The circular covering was about eight feet in diameter; and the stones yet look black, as if stained by fire and smoke. This circle of stones seems to have been the nucleus over which the mound was formed, as immediately over them is heaped the common earth of the adjacent plain. At the time of opening it, the height was 6 feet and diameter between 30 and 40. It has every appearance of being as old as any in the neighborhood, and was, at the first settlement of Marietta, covered with large trees. It seems to have been made for this single personage, as the remains of one skeleton only were discovered. The bones were much decayed, and many of them crumbled to dust on exposure to the air.”
Engravings of the silver-plated discs and also of the embossed silver plate, supposed by Dr. Hildreth to have been a sword ornament, are herewith presented. These articles have been critically examined, and it is beyond doubt that the copper ” bosses ” are absolutely plated, not simply overlaid, with silver. Between the copper and the silver exists a connection, such as, it seems to me, could only be produced by heat ; and if it is admitted that these are genuine remains of the mound-builders, it must, at the same time, be admitted that they possessed the difficult art of plating one metal upon another. There is but one alternative, viz., that they had occasional or constant intercourse with a people advanced in the arts, from whom these articles were obtained. Again, if Dr. Hildreth is not mistaken, oxidized iron, or steel, was also discovered in connection with the above remains ; from which also follows, as a necessity upon the previous assumption, the extraordinary conclusion that the mound-builders were acquainted with the use of iron the conclusion being, of course, subject to the improbable alternative already mentioned.
Leading, therefore, as they do, to such extraordinary conclusions, it is of the utmost importance that every fact and circumstance connected with these remains should be narrowly examined. If there is a reasonable way of accounting for their presence, under the circumstances above described, without involving us in these conclusions, un-sustained as they are by collateral facts, we are justified upon every recognized rule of evidence in adopting it as the nearest approximation to the truth.” From ANTIQUITIES STATE OF NEW YORK
“A tree had been cut down growing directly over the mound, upon the stump of which could be counted 230 concentric circles. Remains of rude specimens of earthen ware, pieces of copper, and iron instruments of rude workmanship were ploughed up within the area.” PIONEER HISTORY OF THE HOLLAND PURCHASE OF WESTERN NEW YORK: O. Turner, 1849
Below is information from Rod Meldrum’s #1 Best Selling LDS book on Geography, “Exploring the Book of Mormon in America’s Heartland”. Purchase Here
The following three quotes are from the Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of Ethnology, J.W. Powell, Director, Catalogue of Prehistoric Works East of the Rocky Mountains by Cyrus Thomas, 1891
- “Daughter’s Mound, on the west side of the Kissimmee River, in Florida, 4 miles northwest of Fort Bassenger… [it was] explored, contained quantities of beads, glass eardrops, a piece of silver, and two steel axes” as reported by J.F. LeBaron, Sm. Rep. 1882, p.778
- “Erie County New York was reported to have” Circular works, with skeletons, pottery, and iron axes, on two hills in the north part of Aurora: as recorded in French’s Gazetteer of the Stat of New York, 1861 p. 283 as recorded in History of Erie County, p. 121
- A “Deposit of Indian axes at Aurora, one of which was made of steel,” was reported by Obed Edson in American Antiquities Vol. 1, 1878 pp. 170-171
“This past summer (2010), Dr.Harold Alanen from Thunder Bay,Canada, experienced a rare and exciting adventure. Walking private property on Dog Lake, near the north shore of Lake Superior, he chanced upon a big ancient copper tool or weapon, see Fig. 1, Plate I. Nearby he found a cache of 11 smaller copper objects. Dr. Alanen sent pictures of the big artifact, asking me what it could have been used for?…
“The earliest date for pounding copper is unknown, but we have two clear carbon dates form the remains of wooden shafts preserved in a pair of socketed copper points, Vilas County Wisconsin, 1998 (Reardon 2004). These two dates are 7305 +/– 60 years BP University of Wisconsin Radiocarbon Laboratory, Madison, Wisconsin (1998) and 7,600 +/– 40 years B P Beta Analytic Radiocarbon Lab Miami, Florida (1999)…
We know that Dr. Alanen’s find is significant, but a common Straight Back Type, Thick Back Variety, of exceptional size and beauty. We know, too, it was produced by the Old Copper Complex technology, probably earlier than 1,500 BC, and most likely sometime after 5,600 BC. It is obviously too large for common domestic tasks, is longer than some Old World short swords, and could have served as such a weapon.” Ancient American by Wayne May Issue Number 90 The Big Canadian Knife (Sword?) by Don Spohn Ph.D. Great Lakes Copper Research
“Ether 10:22 And they were exceedingly industrious, and they did buy and sell and traffic one with another, that they might get gain.
23 And they did work in all manner of ore, and they did make gold, and silver, and iron, and brass, and all manner of metals; and they did dig it out of the earth; wherefore, they did cast up mighty heaps of earth to get ore, of gold, and of silver, and of iron, and of copper. And they did work all manner of fine work.
24 And they did have silks, and fine-twined linen; and they did work all manner of cloth, that they might clothe themselves from their nakedness.
25 And they did make all manner of tools to till the earth, both to plow and to sow, to reap and to hoe, and also to thrash.
26 And they did make all manner of tools with which they did work their beasts.
27 And they did make all manner of weapons of war. And they did work all manner of work of exceedingly curious workmanship.
28 And never could be a people more blessed than were they, and more prospered by the hand of the Lord. And they were in a land that was choice above all lands, for the Lord had spoken it.” Book of Mormon emphasis added.
Steel Swords during Nephite times
You will find it very interesting that the advocates of the Mesoamerican theory have been stumped by the talk about “steel swords” in the Book of Mormon. Most of the scholars claim there have been no steel swords found in Mesoamerica but they speak of something called a a Macana or Macuahuitl, a long, flat piece of hardwood embedded with sharp pieces of obsidian. As you see in the picture to the right, if there were steel swords in Jerusalem, it makes sense that similar swords would be found where Lehi landed. We find those in North America. See the article by Matt Roper a research associate at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at BYU here:
It seems there is proof of the ability of Joseph Smith to translate an ancient record which mentioned steel among the Jews in 600 B.C., long before such was ever thought to be true. According to Robert Maddin, James D. Muhly, and Tamara S. Wheeler, “How the Iron Age Began,” Scientific American (237/4 [October 1977]:127), who state: “It is increasingly apparent that the practice of hardening iron through deliberate carburization, quenching and tempering was well known to the ancient world from which Nephi came. ‘It seems evident,’ notes one recent authority, ‘that by the beginning of the tenth century B.C. blacksmiths were intentionally steeling iron.’” (Reported from NephiCode.com)
How is Iron different that Steel?
What is the difference between an iron and a steel sword? Primarily, iron is an element while steel is an alloy comprising of iron and carbon. However, in this alloy iron is present in a greater quantity. You can add various other metals to steel so as to produce alloys that have different properties. Iron was known to the humans from the beginning of civilization; however, steel was discovered at a later date. Many experts have thought carbon steel began to be used for the making of swords in about 300 BC, but the information below shows the knowledge and application of carbon steel was known and could have been used amongst the Jaredites and the Nephites who came to North America from the Old World.
“Historically, steel is the best material to make a sword out of but what is the oldest archaeological steel sword we have on record that started it all, where does it come from, how was it made, and what does it look like? I present to you the Vered Jericho Sword, an Israelite sword dating from 600BC on display at Jerusalem’s Israel Museum. Microradiographic x-ray examination and photography of the sword indicate that the hilt, ridge, and the blade were prepared separately and then forged together by hammering. Metallurgical analysis of a sample taken from the blade proves that it was made of mild steel, and that the iron was deliberately hardened into steel, attesting to the technical knowledge of the blacksmith.” Shadiversity Published on Sep 19, 2017. Here is a video about the Vered Jericho Sword. https://youtu.be/BG7YKl7tSfY
In 2005, metallurgical analysis by Hideo Akanuma of iron fragments found at Kaman-Kalehöyük in 1994 and dating to c. 1800 BCE revealed that some of these fragments were composed of carbon steel; these currently form the world’s earliest known evidence for steel manufacture. World’s Oldest Carbon Steel artifacts in Turkey- 1800 BC
“Scientists have determined that fragments of artifacts recovered from the Broxmouth Iron Age hill fort in the 1970s were forged from high-carbon steel. The objects, which date to between 490 and 375 B.C., may have been tools or weapons”. Archaeology, A publication of the Archaeological Institute of America. Carbon Steel in Scotland 490-375 BC
“Here is the description of the sword as displayed in Jerusalem’s Israel Museum, Iron Age Gallery: “This rare and exceptionally long sword, which was discovered on the floor of a building next to the skeleton of a man, dates to the end of the First Temple period. The sword is 1.05 meters long and has a double edged blade, with a prominent central ridge running along its entire length. The hilt was originally inlaid with a material that has not survived, most probably wood. Only the nails that once secured the inlays to the hilt can still be seen. The sword’s sheath was also made of wood, and all that remains of it is its bronze tip. Owing to the length and weight of the sword, it was probably necessary to hold it with two hands. The sword is made of iron hardened into steel, attesting to substantial metallurgical know-how. Over the years, it has become cracked, due to corrosion.” (Biblical Archaeology Review 12/4 [July-August 1986]: 33, 35) See the actual sword from Jerusalem’s Israel Museum here.
In 1987, the Ensign reported that archaeologists had unearthed this long steel sword near Jericho dating back to the late seventh century B.C., probably to the reign of King Josiah who died shortly before Lehi began to prophesy (“Iron Sword from the Time of Jeremiah Discovered near Jericho,” Ensign, June 1987, p57.)
Here is more information about ancient carbon steel. Carbon Steel in Trans Jordan 1250 BC
More about swords and hatchets from Annotated Book of Mormon page 251
“…we will hide away our swords, yea, even we will bury them deep in the earth…” (Alma 24:16).
To “bury the hatchet” is an American English idiom meaning “to make peace.” The phrase alludes to the figurative or literal practice of putting away the tomahawk when hostilities ceased during the formation of the Iroquois Confederacy. Weapons (tomahawks, hatchets, swords, etc.) were to be buried, or otherwise stored, in time of peace.
Samuel Sewall wrote in 1680: “I write to you in one [letter] of the Mischief the Mohawks did; which occasioned Major Pynchon’s goeing [sic] to Albany, where meeting with the Sachem the[y] came to an agreement and buried two Axes in the Ground; one for English another for themselves; which ceremony to them is more significant & binding than all Articles of Peace[,] the hatchet being a principal weapon with them.” (O Brave New Words!: Native American Loanwords in Current English [1994] by Charles L. Cutler Encyclopedia of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) [2000], edited by Bruce Elliott Johansen and Barbara Alice Mann.)
The Treaty of Hopewell, signed by Colonel Benjamin Hawkins, General Andrew Pickens and Headman McIntosh, in Keowee, South Carolina in 1795 established the boundary of the Cherokee Nation, and made use of the phrase “bury the hatchet.” Article XI reads, in part, “The hatchet shall be forever buried, and the peace given by the United States, and friendship re-established between the said states on the one part, and all the Cherokees on the other, shall be universal; and the contracting parties shall use their utmost endeavors to maintain the peace given as aforesaid, and friendship reestablished.” (Treaty with the Choctaw, 1786 [Jan. 3, 1786] 7 Stat., 21. Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties. Vol.II (Treaties). Washington, D.C.: Government Printing
Wow, this sounds familiar doesn’t it? Here it is from the “most correct” book, even the Book of Mormon.
Alma 24:19 “And thus we see that, when these Lamanites were brought to believe and to know the truth, they were firm, and would suffer even unto death rather than commit sin; and thus we see that they buried their weapons of peace, or they buried the weapons of war, for peace.”
Helaman 15:9 “And ye know also that they have buried their weapons of war, and they fear to take them up lest by any means they should sin; yea, ye can see that they fear to sin—for behold they will suffer themselves that they be trodden down and slain by their enemies, and will not lift their swords against them, and this because of their faith in Christ.”
The Onondaga at the great white pine tree in Syracuse NY on the shores of Onondaga Lake is where the message of peace was planted and the hatchets were buried. Similarly, the Lamanites , “…buried the weapons of war, for peace.” Alma 24:19
“The tree figure in this Hiawatha belt, signifies the Onondaga Nation, capital of the League and home to the central council fire. It was on the shores of Onondaga Lake where the message of peace was “planted”, and the hatchets were buried. From this tree four white roots sprouted, carrying the message of unity and peace to the four directions. The Hiawatha Belt has been dated to the mid-18th century. Near its center it contains a bead made of colonial lead glass. It is believed the design is as old as the league itself and that the present belt is not the original.” History of the Iroquois Confederacy
See Iron, Steel, and Copper Swords from Wayne May’s Ancient American Magazine. If you want to see hundreds of examples of swords in North America, subscribe to his magazine HERE.
I hope by now you realize that there is evidence of Iron, Steel, and Copper swords in North America. A special thanks to Wayne May for his incredible years of research and his love for the Book of Mormon. Email Wayne at: [email protected]
Additional information about [Metal, Coins, Swords, Scabbards, Furnaces, Soldering, Hebrew, Helmets, Iron, Steel, Copper, Nails, etc].
The natural and aboriginal history of Tennessee: up to the first settlements therein by the white people, in the year 1768 BY JOHN HAYWOOD, OF THE COUNTY OF DAVIDSON, THE STATE OF TENNESSEE. NASHVILLE : PRINTED BY GEORGE WILCOX, 1823. Page 341-349
First we will speak of the coins of the aborigines found in the neighboring countries, and then of metallic instruments and utensils also found there.
First. On the farm of Mr. Edward Payne, near Lexington, were found two ancient coins ; one was of gold, and sold for id dollars : the other was of brass. Each had a head reversed, and both were inscribed with characters not understood, but said to resemble Hebrew. The date of the gold coin was probably 1214, and the date of the brass piece 1009. A few miles below Mr. Payne, a gold piece “Was found, on the plantation of Mr. Chambers, who says it was sold at Lexington for 13 dollars. It was inscribed in unknown characters; and, as Mr. Chambers thinks, was unlike any coin he had ever seen. He says, that a small piece of copper was found on his farm at the same time. The date 1214 could not relate to the “hegira.” [Muhammad’s departure from Mecca to Medina in AD 622]. If it related to the Christian era, it must have come from some of the modern kingdoms of Europe, which bad adopted the use of the Arabic numerals. It is not known that the Persians ever used them. The most that can be made of the fact, is, a probability that these coins came to the country before the discovery of America by Columbus; for between 1214 and 1492, the time of his discovery, were 178 years, and before the Spaniards could have circulated it, many more years intervened prior to their intercourse with the nations on the continent. So that it must have circulated nearly 300 years, before it could have come hither from them, and by that time would have been worn out.
At Circleville a copper coin was taken from the central mound, from beneath the roots of a hickory growing on the mound, seven or eight inches in circumference. It has no resemblance in its devices to any British or other coins to which it hath been compared. A hickory six to eight inches in circumference, might have grown up long since the French settlements were on the Ohio and its waters.
On the plantation of Colonel William Sheppard, in the county of Orange, on the river Enoe; 6 miles above Hillsborough in North Carolina, and near the remains of a town which had been deserted in very remote times, was picked up, about the year 1803 or 1804, a round piece of copper about the size of an American eagle. On both sides was a short line of letters, with parallel lines increasing in length till past the center, whence they decreased in length to the bottom, accommodating themselves to the rounded shape of the copper. It was neatly executed. The letters were of some unknown alphabet. This copper was dropped again on the same plantation, where probably it now is. It was about the thickness of the coins called coppers. Similar pieces were sometimes given by the Spanish friars to their proselyted Indians.
Gold and silver ornaments have been found in many of the tumuli in Ohio. Silver very well plated, has been found in several of the mounds : copper in many: pipe bowls of copper, hammered, and not welded together, but lapped over, have been found in them. A bracelet of copper was found in a stone mound at Chillicothe. It resembles the links of a common chain, the ends passed by each other, but were not welded together. Ornaments of silver and copper have not been found north of Newark. Below that place, vast numbers have been found. North of that place are no wells perforated in the rocks. Arrow heads of copper, some of them five or six inches in length, circular medals of copper, several inches in diameter, very thin, and much injured by time, have been found in the tumuli of Ohio. Iron has been found in some instances oxidized.
Out of a mound near t:he circle of the large fort at Circleville, was found the elk- horn handle of a small sword or long knife. Around the end where the blade had been inserted, was a ferule of silver; no iron was found, but an oxide remained. Also, charcoal and wood ashes in which those articles lay, which were surrounded by several bricks very well burnt. A skeleton appeared to have been burnt in a large and very hot fire, which had almost consumed the bones of the deceased. The skeleton was deposited a little to the south of the centre of the tumulus. And 20 feet to the north of it, was another. There was also a large mirror, three feet in length, one and a half in breadth, and one inch and a half thick. It was of “isinglass.” [mica or a similar material in thin transparent sheets]. Also a plate of iron, which had become an oxyde ; but before it was disturbed by the spade, resembled a plate of iron. This skeleton had been burned like the former and lay in charcoal and a considerable quantity of wood ashes.
An ornament of very pure gold was discovered, a few years since, in Ross county, near Chillicothe, lying in the palm of a skeleton’s hand, in a small mound. [Arch. Am. 176].
Not long since, a silver cup was taken from a mound at Marietta, on the Ohio. It is in the possession of Mr. Hill, of St. Clair county, Illinois. It is in the form of an inverted cone, measuring three and a half inches across at top, two and a half at bottom, and four inches in height. It is of pure silver, and so skillfully wrought, that no traces of the plating hammer are discernible. The bottom, which is circular, has been separately forged, accurately fitted to the sides, or barrel, and soldered on.
The line of attachment is plainly discernible. Its interior surface has been gilt, or washed, with a bright, yellow, untarnishable metal, which is undoubtedly gold ; but that gilding is impaired in some places. It was found in a mound at Marietta, half a mile east of those remarkable fortifications on the Muskingum. The mound is situated in woody plane, with a gentle declivity towards the river, and a small stream washes its base. During the autumnal rains, or the melting of the snow in the spring, it runs with the velocity of a current. Thus it has gradually washed away the earth, and laid open the mound for a considerable space, and in this situation the cup was discovered. It was then in a bruised or shapeless mass, and foul from adhering clay ; but being taken to a silversmith, was put into the shape it now presents, which was probably the shape it originally had. Its value by weight is about fifteen dollars. It bears no device or ornamental work of any kind, being a perfectly plain and heavy piece of workmanship. If it be not of European fabrication, the inference is inevitable, that some nation preceding the savages was formerly here, of far greater advancement in the arts of civilization than they ever possessed. But for fear of mistake, let us bear in mind that the French settled in Canada as early as the year 1608, and soon afterwards carried on trade extensively with all the Indians who lived on the waters of the Ohio.
Copper instruments and ornaments have also been found. In 1813 was found in a mound a piece of copper incrusted with “erugo” [mildew, plant rust], half an inch thick It consists of thin plates of copper rolled up, encircling each other. It was about three inches in length, and one fourth of an inch in thickness. The plates were remarkably pure and fine. In the same mound a beautiful piece of marble was taken up in the year 1814. It was undoubtedly made and used for an ornament, being perforated with loopholes for fastening, which must have been bored by some hard instrument. The marble piece is about five or six inches in length, flat on one side, oval on the other, having an increasing width in the middle, the ends are apparently cut, and with some hard implement used for the purpose. The marble is of a dark dun colour, but the veins of the stones are very distinct. The magicians of India are provided with many articles against witchcraft, which they distribute amongst those who consult them. There are certain enchanted beads, very thin plates of copper, on which extraordinary figures are engraved, with inexplicable words and unknown characters. Amulets also, of various kinds, all which are worn by the Hindoos to serve as talismans, and to preserve them from every species of incantation. No other circum-stance at present recollected, can account in the least degree for the plates of copper above mentioned.
In one of the tumuli on Grave creek, below Wheeling, near to the Ohio, were found, about 20 years since, sixty copper beads, made of a coarse “wire, hammered out, and not drawn and cut off at unequal lengths. They were soldered together in an awkward manner, the centre of some of them uniting with the edges of others. They were incrusted with “verdigrease” [A green patina or crust of copper sulfate or copper chloride formed on copper, brass, and bronze exposed to air or seawater for long periods of time], but the inside of them was pure copper.
Some copper pieces have been found in a mound near the Little Muskingum, four miles from Marietta, which appear to have been the front of a helmet, was originally eight inches long and four broad, and has marks of having been attached to leather. It is much decayed and is now a thin plate, and appears to have been attached to the centre of it by a rivet, the hole for which appears both in the plate and ornament. At this place the remains of a skeleton were found. No part retained its form but a portion of the forehead or scull, which lay under the plate of copper. These bones are deeply tinged with green, and appear to have been preserved by the salts in the copper.
In an ancient mound of the streets of Marietta, in the margin of the plane near the fortifications, amongst other things, in 1819 were discovered three large circular bosses [A shield boss, or umbo, is a round, convex or conical piece of material at the centre of a shield], or ornaments, for sword belts, or a buckler composed of copper, oval, and with a thick plate of silver. The front is slightly convex with a depression like a cap in the centre. The measure, two inches and a quarter across the face of each. On the back side, opposite the depressed portion, is a copper rivet or nail, around which are two separate plates, by which they were fastened to the leather. Two small pieces of the leather were found lying between the holes of one of the bosses. They resemble the skin of an old mummy. The plates of copper are nearly reduced to rust. Around the rivet of one of them is a quantity of flax or hemp in a tolerable state of preservation. Near the side of the human body was a plate of silver, the upper part of a sword scabbard, six inches long, two wide, weighing one ounce. Three longitudinal ridges were on it, which perhaps corresponded with the edges or ridges of the sword. It had been fastened to the scabbard by three or four rivets, the holes of which yet remain in the silver. Two or three pieces of a copper tube were also found, filled with rust. These compose the lower end of the scabbard, near the point of the sword. There is no sign of the sword itself, except this appearance of rust. Near the feet was a piece of copper weighing three ounces. It seemed by the shape to have been used for a plumb or for ornament. Near one of the ends is a circular crease or groove for lying a thread It is round, two inches and a half in length, one in diameter at the centre, and half an inch at each end. It is composed of small pieces of native copper pounded together; and in the cracks between the pieces, are several pieces of silver, one nearly of the size of a fourpenny piece or half a “disme” [ an American silver coin with a face value of five cents.] This copper ornament was covered with a coat of green rust, and is considerably corroded. A piece of red ochre or paint, and a piece of iron ore, which has the appearance of having been partly vitrified or melted, were also found. The trees upon the mound, as evidenced by the annulars, were between 400 and 500 years of age, and on the ground beside them were other trees, in a state of decay that appeared to have fallen from dotage.
From the ancient works where Circleville now stands, and from the mound there, were taken a few scattered human bones, a branch of a deer’s horn and a piece of earthenware containing muscle shells. At the distance of 500 feet from this pyramid, in the direction of north eight east, there is another. Nine feet high, of a circular figure, nearly flat on the top. In it were found some human skeletons, and a hand full of copper beads, which had been strung on a cravat of lint. There is another mound at the in tersection of Third and Main streets; whatever it contained was deposited a small distance below a stratum of loam which is common to the town. The first artificial layer was gravel, considerably raised in the middle; the next, composed of large pebbles, was convex and of a uniform thickness ; the last consisted of loam and soil. The strata were entire, and must have been formed after the deposites in the tumulus were completed. Amongst other articles were these : A bone ornamented with several carved lines ; the sculpture representation of the head or beak of a rapacious bird, perhaps an eagle ; a quantity of isinglass ; a small oval piece of sheet copper with two perforations ; a large oval piece of some metal with longitudinal grooves or ridges ; a number of beads of bone or shell; the teeth of a carnivorous animal, probably those of a bear; seven large marine shells, belonging perhaps to the genus buccinum, cut in such a manner as to serve for domestic utensils, and nearly converted into a state of chalk; several copper articles, each consisting of two sets of circular concave and convex plates. The. interior one of each sort connected with the other by a hollow axis, around which had been wound some lint. Other articles have been found there, consisting of pure copper, human bones of different sizes, sometimes enclosed in rude stone coffins, but oftener lying blended with the earth, surrounded by a portion of ashes and charcoal.
Iron and steel utensils and ornaments have also been found. There was dug up from the central mound at Circleville, a fragment of some culinary vessel. It was evidently of cast iron, and showed the marks of the mould. It was covered on the lower side with the black, smut contracted over the fire. It was found among ashes, and large pieces of charcoal.
In the large cemetery of Augusta were found four iron bracelets on the left arm of a female skeleton. They are formed with a loop at one extremity, and extend in an oval shape to a knob at the other end, “which hitches into the loop. The elongated central part of the oval is the thickest, from which it gradually tapers to the clasp. These bracelets are much corroded, and the loops destroyed; but even their present state of preservation can only be accounted for by the fortunate circumstance, that the alluvial soil of the burying ground was free from mineral acids. There are in this state some ancient ivory bracelets from Indostan, which exactly resemble in shape those iron ones. It is a well-known fact, that the dress and ornaments of the Hindoos have continued unchanged from the earliest periods of history.
The aborigines had some very well manufactured swords and knives of iron, and possibly of steel. A few years ago, near Blacksburg in Virginia, 80 miles from Marietta, was found about the half of a steel bow, which when entire would have measured five or six feet.
On the main branch of Paint creek in Ohio, near some very ancient works, and on the inside of a wall on the side of an elevated hill 300 feet high, which wall is of stone, around the brow of the hill there appears to have been a row of furnaces or smiths‘ shops, where the cinders now lie many feet in depth. The remains are four or five feet in depth even now in many places. SOURCE: https://archive.org/stream/naturalaborigina00hayw/naturalaborigina00hayw_djvu.txt
Was this an Iron Furnace?
Yes, it was. Welcome to archaeological mystery! The author is William D. Conner, avocational archaeologist of Columbus, Ohio. My archaeological odyssey begins August, 1963, as I pose (middle) with amateur archaeologist Arlington H. Mallery, and a neighborhood youngster. We sit in the remains of the bowl of the Overly furnace near the village of Austin, Ross County, Ohio. This furnace and others like it in South Central Ohio, excavated 1949-1992 by amateur investigators, represent an Old World technology 2,000 years old. How did it come to exist in Ohio?
Iron Age America before Columbus Overview ‘Crushing’ Evidence of Antiquity
Centuries before history began, someone left behind furnaces of ancient Old World Iron Age design buried deep inside “Indian mounds,” hillsides and the banks of creeks in and around the land that would become Ross County, Ohio. Prehistoric Iron Age people from the Old World built the furnaces to smelt bog iron ore into wrought iron, the metal blacksmiths shaped into tools and weapons. I will provide conclusive proof that all attempts to fit Ohio’s pit iron furnaces into the 18th century — before American settlers claimed the land — are unworkable. Instead, evidence indicates that these furnaces were constructed and used about a thousand years ago.
I was a teenage boy at Chillicothe High in Ross County when first I met Arlington H. Mallery in 1949. Scorned by professional archaeologists, Mallery, a bridge-building engineer, knew Iron Age furnaces when he found them, even if they occurred in Ohio, where they were not supposed to exist. He dug up several furnaces of ancient design along Ross County’s Deer Creek in 1949-50.
I have developed compelling evidence these furnaces are in fact prehistoric and this new evidence will be uncovered in my new book, Iron Age America Before Columbus.
