Relic the Copper Ax

BILL COPELAND, B.A, M.S. Cybernetic Systems, has an extensive technical and writing background. For his master thesis, he led a group which produced a detailed report on the development requirements for a space habitat. He led development groups at pioneering organizations, such as NASA, Hewlett-Packard, Tibco, and SAP. He managed multimillion-dollar systems development projects for government and industry, including 3-D rocket inspection systems, satellite signal acquisition, internet development, and financial control systems. He spent many years at pioneering world-class high-tech software and hardware companies in the Silicon Valley. He wrote a series of books which helped major corporations boot-strap the application of powerful financial systems, 3-D rocket inspection systems, satellite signal acquisition, and internet development. He has been a cybernetics engineer and holds a Patent "Airborne Stereoscopic Imaging System. He has also been a video producer and teacher. He has written two science fiction books, Birth of the Cosmic Swan and Cosmic Swan.. As the Silicon Valley Science Reporter, he produced science videos on astronomy and cosmology, including three on the Cosmology Revolution. These videos are available at CosmicSwan.com.

The story is set in central Europe 5300 years ago. It ranges from the northern Alps of Italy to the eastern lands along the Danube River to the earliest European Bronze Age Civilization, the Vinca. Otzi is the chieftain of a south Tyrollean late Stone Age tribe scrounging for a living in the high alps. To support his village and family he travels on foot to trade with the people on the north side of the mountains. He returns after a long trip to his village with a big backpack full of goods. But his wife Mara tells him that the wheat crop has failed. He and his son Anise must hunt to get through the winter.As a youth he took a trip down the Danube to Vinca lands where he met his uncle and family who prospered raising goats, farming, and hunting. There he meets his first wife and must join the hunt for huge wild bison to win her. From the Vinca he learns the secret of smelting copper and is given small ore stones to help him find more. He brought his bride back up the Danube but she died during the birth of his son Anise.Desperate to find a way to support his family after the failed wheat crop, he searched the neighborhood for copper ore but found none. A northerner agrees to get copper from Tuscany in the south in trade for goats. With the good ore he is able to make copper. But the shinny metal has never been seen before and the knowledge of it is regarded as evil, and results in a fight to save his life from the judgement of the shaman.