The Aztecs had gold, silver, and copper and quite a lot of skill in metallurgy... (and there is also tin in Mexico) so I am surprised Aztec and Inca empires did not have more bronze. There is very little evidence of those metals being used in that manner.
The meteorite iron was always very rare, but it was not that long after bronze age started that iron followed. Obtaining iron from nature, once you know what you are looking for, is relatively easy. Widespread use of iron (and later steel) spread out of Europe, the Near East, and India around 1200 BC across Asia.
I must have been difficult to find meteorites in the jungle - thus the lack of iron? Early European iron seemed to come often from that source.
ReplyDeleteThe Aztecs had gold, silver, and copper and quite a lot of skill in metallurgy... (and there is also tin in Mexico) so I am surprised Aztec and Inca empires did not have more bronze. There is very little evidence of those metals being used in that manner.
DeleteThe meteorite iron was always very rare, but it was not that long after bronze age started that iron followed. Obtaining iron from nature, once you know what you are looking for, is relatively easy. Widespread use of iron (and later steel) spread out of Europe, the Near East, and India around 1200 BC across Asia.