Copper from the Lake Superior region — specifically, the native copper deposits of the Keweenaw Peninsula in what is now Michigan’s Upper Peninsula — was cold-hammered into sheets and fashioned into objects of extraordinary refinement: birds, serpents, abstract geometric forms, and human figures in the distinctive Mississippian style.

Copper objects appear in high-status burials across the Mississippian world, and the similarity of their production techniques and stylistic elements across widely separated sites suggests either a common production center or the movement of skilled metalworkers between communities.

Cahokia itself appears to have been a major production center for certain types of finished goods — particularly the distinctive stone tools called Mill Creek chert hoes, which were produced from a specific type of flint found in what is now southern Illinois and which appear in archaeological sites across a large area of the Mississippian world.

The production and distribution of these agricultural tools may have been one of the specific economic functions that gave Cahokia a role in the broader regional economy beyond its political and ceremonial importance.