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Andean Metallurgy in Prehistory

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Archaeometallurgy in Global Perspective

Abstract

The past four decades of research reveal the Andean zone of South America as a heartland of metallurgy in the prehistoric world. Complex metallurgy developed in what are today Colombia (northern Andes), Ecuador and Peru (central Andes), and Bolivia and northwest Argentina (south-central Andes). This chapter follows the central and south-central Andean contributions to this prehistoric development from its inception to its political use within the Inca state. The pan-Andean nature of metallurgy through time constitutes a major focus of the chapter with respect to extractive and production technologies and to the deeply rooted cultural components of the technologies. Distinctions between the central Andean preference for working metal and the south-central tradition of casting, or the simultaneous developments of arsenic bronze in the center and tin bronze in the south, arose within a shared framework for the appropriate social arenas in which metallurgy and its products performed: as indicators of social status, of political power, as manifestations of religious, and ritual behaviors and awe.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Given the experimentally measured changes in the mechanical properties of copper–arsenic alloys in which the arsenic concentration is 0.5 wt % or higher, I consider all such alloys bronzes (Lechtman 1996a). Binary alloys of copper and arsenic in which the arsenic concentration is below 0.5 wt % are arsenical coppers.

  2. 2.

    I have not included in this discussion, the breastplates uncovered near Huarmey, on the south coast of Peru, that are made of alternating color bands comprised of gold-silver-copper ternary alloys. Several of these items are in the collections of the American Museum of Natural History, New York. One of them, together with a compositional analysis of the component alloys, is illustrated and described by Burger and Lechtman (1996, pp. 71–75, Fig. 20). Given the absence of any context for this cache of gold-rich artifacts, I am reluctant to include the breastplates as definitively of Chavín or Early Horizon manufacture.

  3. 3.

    The discussion here of the cultural significance of gold, silver, and copper as represented in Moche burial paraphernalia follows arguments presented in Lechtman 2007.

  4. 4.

    Tumbaga is a term that refers to copper–gold alloys used predominantly in Colombia and in the Central Andean region. The term also often includes ternary alloys of copper, gold, and silver. For a discussion of the uses of this term see Lechtman (2007, pp. 344–345, endnote 4).

  5. 5.

    For examples of Moche III (ca. CE 300) artifacts and solder made from copper-arsenic alloys, see Lechtman (1979, pp. 3–4, 1988, pp. 363–365, 2007, pp. 317–318, endnote 3, Fig. 6); Hörz and Kallfass (2000, p. 400).

  6. 6.

    In view of the fact, that the ore mineral stannite (Cu2FeSnS4) has not been reported to be present in the metallic ore deposits of the valliserrana region, we can argue with some confidence that early bronze alloys were made by melting together copper and tin (González 2004) or by smelting a mixed charge of copper ore and tin ore.

  7. 7.

    In a manuscript Pablo Cruz submitted for publication to Mundo de Antes, Tucumán, Argentina (Cruz personal communication, 2011), he argues that the corpus of discs regularly ascribed to La Aguada was produced during the ensuing Regional Development Period (CE 900–1400). In his analysis of the complex iconography carried in high relief on each disc, Cruz has identified motifs that represent a variety of bronze axes and a unique style of bronze knife produced during the Regional Development Period but that are not known archaeologically as items of La Aguada material culture. González (1979, charts II and IV) provides helpful charts that distinguish La Aguada-style axes from Regional Development Period axes.

  8. 8.

    Superheating: Heating molten metal above the normal casting temperature so as to obtain greater fluidity (American Society for Metals 1985).

  9. 9.

    Cabanillas et al. (2007) mention that such high-zinc discs are associated with hispano-colonial contexts. Brass alloys were introduced to the Andean zone by the invading Spaniards in the sixteenth century, therefore these discs were likely made by metalworkers indigenous to Northwest Argentina who utilized the new material.

  10. 10.

    Lead–tin alloys are used commonly today as solders. This particular alloy begins to melt at a temperature of about 290 °C.

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  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue Rm. 8-437, 02139, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Heather Lechtman

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  1. Department of Archaeology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom

    Benjamin W. Roberts

  2. Asian Section, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    Christopher P. Thornton

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Lechtman, H. (2014). Andean Metallurgy in Prehistory. In: Roberts, B., Thornton, C. (eds) Archaeometallurgy in Global Perspective. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9017-3_15

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