PROTEIN RESIDUE ANALYSIS OF A COPPER TOOL FROM THE GRACE PENINSULA SITE, ISLE ROYALE NATIONAL PARK, MICHIGAN

The Grace Peninsula site is situated on Isle Royale in Keweenaw County, Michigan. Surveys, shovel tests, and metal detecting along the Nipissing shorelines recovered copper and lithic artifacts believed to correspond with Archaic cultures around 4,000–5,000 years ago. Of the 28 copper tools recovered from the site, two were submitted for protein residue analysis. As oxidized copper has the potential to limit the bonding of proteins to the surface of the artifacts a preliminary test of one of the artifacts was conducted.