Copper was obviously a vital commodity in the Bronze Age Atlantis described by Plato. The source of this copper has led to frequent speculation among Atlantologists. Frank Joseph proposed that copper was the foundation for the wealth of Atlantis. He is convinced that there is evidence of enormous copper mining activities in the Michigan’s Upper Peninsula around 1000 BC. He refers to these miners as Atlanteans^[102] and maintains that the extracted copper was brought to the Mediterranean, as there is no trace of it in North America.

Roger Jewell has written an important book^[243] on this same historical mystery but dates the early mining to 2500 BC and estimates the quantity of copper mined at 20 million pounds. Jewell offers a range of evidence that point to Minoan traders. The local Indians have folk-memories of the mines being worked by ‘light-skinned’ men, suggesting a possible European or Mediterranean connection. Joseph implies that these natives had little interest in copper although one of the cultures in the Great Lakes region were known as the Old Copper Indian because of their extensive use of copper for weapons, tools and ornaments. Furthermore as early as 1585 British settlers on Roanoke Island noted that the indigenous people there put a high value on copper.

A more conventional analysis of the Michigan copper mining mystery is presented by local archaeologists^(a). They point out that the views of commentators such as Frank Joseph are very generous with speculation but mean with evidence.

Supports of an earlier date for Atlantis can point to evidence of worked metal around 9000 BC discovered in Anatolia, Turkey. More recently there were metal beads discovered in Bulgaria tentatively dated to 6000 BC.

^(a) http://www.ramtops.co.uk/copper.html