Old Copper Culture:

4000-1500 B.C. Between 4000 and 1500 B.C. an Archaic culture peculiar to the Great Lakes region developed out of the Clovis-type people that originally had settled the area. Although the Old Copper people depended on hunting, gathering, and fishing for their livelihoods and made tools of a wide array of materials to exploit the forest and lake environments, their ability to work copper set them apart from their Archaic counterparts across the continent. Initially they chipped at it like stone in order to fashion items, but over time they learned to heat the metal, which enabled them to make more elaborate and delicate decorative pieces. The value of copper goods to the region's trade is evident in the number of copper artifacts that turn up in other archaeological sites in the East.

Adena and Hopewell: