Thanks! The responses here already look like good leads for making connections. As for ancestors not doing it, that's actually the point... nobody in the eastern U.S. did metallurgy at all, even as a group, before Europeans arrived (and there's only a handful of possible examples in the Pacific Northwest which are inconclusive). That puts this continent at least 5,800 years behind Asia/Europe/Africa, which is GREAT fodder for changing the subject when someone asks me "so why again were you burning rocks all weekend?" I will definitely look into ABBG!! As for charcoal, I watched some videos o