I’ve been reading (trying to read between income-based interruptions) my autographed copy — thank you, Fred — of Fred Rydholm’s Michigan Copper, The Untold Story, A History of Discovery

Fred makes the case that some ancient people mined many millions of tons of copper from Upper Michigan and from Isle Royale. Note that I didn’t say he poses the argument. No, Fred makes the case, quite definitively, I think. Most archeologists and historians completely discount or ignore the notion that there “was more copper used just to build the Great Pyramid than could be found in all the old world”. But just how many copper chisels were turned to dust shaping over two million granite blocks? My guess is about two million.As with anything, it boils down to: who, when, where, why

Only a couple tons of copper artifacts have been found in North America associated with indigenous peoples. Where did the rest of that ancient Michigan copper go? No, it wasn’t abducted by aliens. The short answer is: Across the ocean. When did it go? A very long time ago. Who took it? Why would they take it from Michigan? I want to address each of those questions in a little more detail.Across which ocean? Well, predominantly, the Atlantic. Fred’s theory (shared by a lot of folks) is that Michigan copper was the prime source of copper for the “ Bronze Age “. “The Bronze Age” spanned all of Eurasia and at least the northern parts of Africa (southern Africa is generally considered as going directly from neolithic culture to iron age culture). And across the Atlantic was, seemingly, the shortest water route. But the Berring Straits is actually a much narrower body of water. It’s dificult to see, however, how it would be more economical to transport all that copper overland to the shores of Alaska just to take advantage of the shorter sea voyage and then overland again all the way across Asia to power the Bronze Age in Asia, India, Europe and North Africa. And economics is what it was all about. As Fred says, copper was the Microsoft of the Bronze Age and whoever controlled it was that era’s Bill Gates. And, I think, whoever transported it was that era’s Intel.When was the Bronze Age?

Well, it depends on which Bronze Age you are considering. In the Near East, the Bronze Age is generally accepted as being divided into three stages:

* EBA – Early Bronze Age (c.3500-2000 BC)

* MBA – Middle Bronze Age (c.2000-1600 BC)

* LBA – Late Bronze Age (c.1600-1200 BC)While in Scandinavia, the “Nordic Bronze Age” didn’t begin until 1,500 BC and lasted until at least 500 BC.In East Asia, bronze culture spanned 3,300 BC to 100 AD