What is the first thing you think of… Wiring? Coins? Plumbing? Police?
How about… Wealth, Prestige, Art, Fashion, and Spirituality/Well-being!
Copper, Gold, and Diamonds are Timeless
The best known, and most enduring materials in most peoples’ awareness are diamonds and gold. But in the last century the ‘first’ element in this Triple Crown was marginalized after 10 millennia of star billing.
For 10,000 years, until the Industrial Revolution, copper was very much a desired material until it became primarily a functional and ‘mechanical’ material, rather than appreciated for aesthetic, ceremonial, and medical purposes. In fact, even up to the early 1900’s, copper was considered in high esteem in what few remaining, less ‘complicating’ societies still existed, such as, some African, Amazonian, Indonesian, Philippine, Southeast Asian cultures, and in some cases you could consider ‘rural’ North America, which were sheltered from urban, techno-cultures such as ours. And, as a result of World War II, on the one hand, we were able to re-discover in ‘real-time’, and try to ‘understand’ these cultures, and on the other hand, bring the seeds of change, assimilation, and inevitable destruction, and the loss of value systems long forgotten by us. As we recognise powerful symbols in terms of diamonds and gold, and reward, or obsess with them, in days not long ago, copper was the ‘magick’ first member, in terms of use, of that pure, elemental group. (nb. Silver was given prestige in the past as well as now, but it oxidizes over time, and therefore is not included in this group)
In earliest pre-history, man has always looked outside of himself for security against the threats of nature, and soon developed a belief that there were non-threatening aspects of nature. There were then, obviously, ‘things’ that pleased them, that diverted their anxieties, made them feel good, and for lack of making these things for themselves, they found them. Things of ‘out-of –the-ordinary’ shapes, like eroded stone ‘figures’, also, and especially, things colourful!
Other
than their tools for
daily survival, these were
‘special’, and soon to believed that they contained spirits and powers
for personal protection (amulets) and control (ceremonial objects).
Diamonds we never hear about, or haven’t been found yet in an
archaeological context, but common sense would not preclude them, as
with other crystals. But two metals could be found in their native
states, copper and gold (relatively more abundant than native copper as
it occurs in more areas). And as metals, unlike sticks, stone and bone,
they discovered they could be ‘worked’ and re-worked. Their pure
metallic properties resisted ‘age’! If magick was a concept then, that
would probably best describe the wonder of these things that defied
nature!
- “For nearly 5,000 years, copper was the only metal known to man. Today, it’s one of the most used and reused of our 'modern' metals. Look closely at the next penny you see and consider these bright facts about copper:
The
copper on that penny
maybe as old as the pharaohs,
because copper has an infinite recyclable life. Copper, by itself or in
any of its alloys, such as brass or bronze, is used over and over
again.”
….According to Robert M. Payne, president of the Copper Development Association Inc., our ability to reuse copper extracted from recycled product is a tribute to an industry that’s environmentally conscious regarding its use of natural resources on behalf of consumers.”
(Copper: the World’s Most Reusable Resource - The Copper Development Association Incorporated (CDA) - “Scrap Value ""For thousands of years, copper and copper alloys have been recycled. This has been a normal economic practice, even if regretted by some. One of the wonders of the old world, the Colossus of Rhodes, a statue spanning the entrance to Rhodes Harbour, was said to have been made of copper. No trace of it remains since it was (likely – J.W.) recycled to make useful artefacts.
Sources and further reading:
Art
& Technology in the
Ancient World -
http://www.kibera.com/
The Copper Development Association Incorporated (CDA) - http://environment.copper.org/
Copper:
the World’s Most
Reusable Resource
http://environment.copper.org/g_recycl.htmlResource
Recycling
of Copper
http://environment.copper.org/uk/ukrecyc.html