Discovery of small pieces of copper and gold foil at Mina Perdida, south of Lima, Peru, has pushed back the date of the earliest metalworking in the Andes to at least 1100 B.C., with Bruhns claiming as early as 2155 to 1936 B.C. Metallurgy in Mesoamerica, on the other hand, was not known before the Christian era 1st-Century A.D.)
The copper and gold artifacts were recovered in excavations at Mina Perdida shows that artisans hammered native metals into thin foils, in some cases with intermediate anneals. They gilded copper artifacts by attaching gold foil. The artifacts show that fundamental elements of the Andean metallurgical tradition were developed before the Chavín horizon, and shed light on the origins of the spectacular metalwork of the Chavín (900-200 B.C.) and Moche (A.D. 50-800) cultures, and that on the Peruvian coast the working of native copper preceded the production of smelted copper objects.
Excavations directed by Yale University archaeologists Richard L. Burger and Lucy Salazar-Burger have revealed a flat-topped 72-foot-high pyramid and two lower platform mounds in a U-shaped configuration around a plaza, as well as residential areas. The foil fragments were found on one platform mound, the pyramid's summit, and a terrace immediately behind the pyramid, but not in the residential areas. Radiocarbon dates of materials associated with the copper are between ca. 1500 and 1100 B.C.
Analysis by Robert Gordon of Yale's department of geology and geophysics showed the copper to be 99.5 percent pure. The presence of arsenic and silver (commonly found in native copper) and absence of iron (present in higher concentrations in smelted coppers) suggests the Mina Perdida metal is native copper. Small veins of gold and copper do crop out along the coast of central Peru. Elongated grains indicate that the metal was hammered into foil while cold. The artifacts suggest that an early metalworking stage, employing naturally occurring metals, was the basis for later developments in the region.
Richard L. Burger, Peabody Museum of Natural History and Department of Anthropology, Yale University, and Robert B. Gordon, Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, Archaeology, publication of the Archaeological Institute of America, Newsbriefs, Volume 52 Number 1, January/February 1999. An article by Mark Rose; picture by Richard L. Burger.
I have read that ancient Peru and Chile were full of such ore, especially gold, silver and copper, while Central America has very little by comparison.
ReplyDeleteRandy: Not only that, but Peru and Chile are the only places in the Western Hemisphere where three ores of gold, silver and copper are found within the same ore and in abundance. Thus, when Nephi wrote "And we did find all manner of ore, both of gold and of silver and of copper" (referring to both gold and silver as a single ore and copper as an additional ore)" (1 Nep 18;25) it would have to have been located in the Andean area.
ReplyDeleteI always wondered why Nephi (or Joseph Smith) used the word "both" to describe three things. Makes sense...gold and silver are both precious ores and one of a kind, while copper is a non-previous ore and of a different kind. You are such a teacher. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteRobert: In addition to that mentioned in the blog, Nephi also used the word "both" to describe three people: ”both men, women and children” (2 Nephi 9:21), obviously, men and women are adults, and children are not, again showing his use of both to describe two different ideas. Nephi also used the word "both" to describe two different people, “both Jew and Gentile” (2 Nephi 26:33).
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