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[Solomon]

The discover of tumis in situ is particularly exciting to scientists

Tomb find reveals pre-Inca city
Archaeologists working in northern Peru have discovered a spectacular tomb complex about 1,000 years old.

The complex contains at least 20 tombs, and dates from the pre-Inca Sican era.

Among the discoveries are 12 "tumis", ceremonial knives which scientists have not been able to study in a burial site before, as well as ceramics and masks.

The Sican culture flourished from approximately AD 800-1300, one of several metalworking societies which succumbed to drought and conquest.

Archaeologists working on the project say the find will help them understand details of the culture.
   
Sican was a very organised society
"It is a religious city, a sacred settlement, and at each excavation site is a cemetery," Izumi Shimada told Peru's El Comercio newspaper.

"That tells us that Sican was a very organised society."

Professor Shimada, based at the University of Southern Illinois in the US, has been excavating Sican sites for a quarter of a century. The latest dig was performed in conjunction with the Sican National Museum.

Trading goods
The burial site sits on Peru's northern coast, near the town of Ferrenafe.

Discoveries in the tomb complex include tumis formed from an alloy of silver, copper and gold; masks, breastplates and ceramics.


The site contains at least 20 tombs, making it a "religious city"

Buried in a pyramid 30m (100ft) long, archaeologists found the bones of a woman in her early 20s surrounded by figurines of Sican gods, ceramics and objects in copper and gold.

Another set of bones, clearly from a person of some stature, were found in a seated position accompanied by a metallic crown, part of a thorny oyster, and various ceramic objects including a vase.

The tumis are a prize find, because until now the knives have come to scientists from tomb raiders. Finding them in situ would allow a closer understanding of their role in Sican culture, researchers said.

One of the tumis features a representation of Naylamp, the mythical founder of Sican society who according to legend emerged from the sea and became a god.

The Sican were noted for producing gold, silver and copper in quantities which were substantial for the period.

They traded shells and stones with societies in what are now Ecuador, Chile and Colombia.

Their civilisation had already declined by the time that the mightiest of Peruvian cultures, the Inca, rose to prominence about AD 1200.

[Solomon]

Better Than Gold: A hidden Culture Comes to Light
The artifacts are stunning, but archaeologist Izumi Shimada prizes the knowledge he's gained even more

What's the trick to keeping a diverse group of people working harmoniously on a hot, dirty archaeological dig?

Let them eat cake, says Izumi Shimada.

Shimada, an associate professor of anthropology, isn't the only archaeologist to recognize the importance of good food in keeping up morale. But he's probably relied on this recipe?leavened well with humor and respect?longer than most.

For nearly 25 years, he has directed the Sic?n Archaeological Project on the north coast of Peru, the longest-running archaeological field project in South America. It has produced its share of treasure, from gold artifacts to a better understanding of the people who lived in Peru hundreds of years before the Inca Empire. It has involved dozens of local fieldworkers, as well as students and scientists from around the world, who live together during field seasons at the project headquarters despite differences in age, language, race, and nationality. And at the end of each grueling workday, Shimada makes sure his team gets tempting meals and pastries, not unappetizing grub.

Having grown up in Japan, Shimada originally was interested in the archaeology of central Asia. But as an undergraduate at Cornell University, he took classes with John Murra, a charismatic teacher who was a leading expert on the Incas.

"I was fascinated by the story he told about the Inca empire," says Shimada. By the time Shimada went on to graduate studies at the University of Arizona, he had set his sights on becoming a specialist in Andean civilization.

The two key areas of archaeological exploration in Peru are the southern highlands, home to the Incas, and the north coast, a major center of pre-Inca culture.

"Murra said that to fully understand how the Inca empire emerged, and its features, we needed to better understand the cultural development on the north coast," Shimada says. "He thought that the Incas learned a lot from these cultures."

The north coast, running about 200 miles along the Pacific, boasts fertile river valleys. "What you're looking at is agricultural productivity," says Shimada. "That typically means large populations, and it's inevitable there would be some sort of important cultural development. And that's exactly what you have in the north coast. It saw a succession of complex societies."

[Tayopa]

Pues, para venderlas hay que limpiar las en la imaginacion de muchos que no saben.

Tropical Tramp

[Diving Doc]

Discoveries in the tomb complex include tumis formed from an alloy of silver, copper and gold; masks, breastplates and ceramics.

Now I find this bit intriguing as the Spanish found the Amerindians, the Chibchas, Taironas, Muiscas, etc
in possession of ornaments and idols made from gold, silver, copper alloy. We wrote about Tumbaga a bit earlier. Apparently the Indians had risen to greater heights in metallurgy than the Europeans of the same time period. The same can be said for the jewelry of the Philippines that the Spanish sent back to Europe.
Primitive People?
LOL

Doc

My error here, in the second to last sentence. I should have said "Spanish".

[Solomon]

Doc,

Apparently the Indians had risen to greater heights in metallurgy than the Europeans of the same time period.

What is the reasoning for this claim?

Solomon

[Diving Doc]

Solomon,

The Spanish hadn't yet figured out how to make sophisticated alloys such as they encountered among the Indians in South America. We discussed this with references on the Tumbaga Article on our site.

Doc

[Solomon]

Doc: Apparently the Indians had risen to greater heights in metallurgy than the Europeans of the same time period.

Solomon,

The Spanish hadn't yet figured out how to make sophisticated alloys such as they encountered among the Indians in South America. We discussed this with references on the Tumbaga Article on our site.

Doc

The making of tumbaga is a singular achievement, though I am not sure that I would describe the alloy as sophisticated. An alloy of gold, silver and copper of varying proportions appears to me to be rather basic and probably belongs to a very early period of development in metallurgy.

Outside the Americas, civilisation is measured by technical development, specifically by the level of sophistication of the materials used: stone, bronze and iron. Spain had progressed beyond these Ages by a considerable margin by the time the Spanish encountered tumbaga. Amerindian societies did not reach the Iron Age, I think.

Incan metallurgy - among the most advanced of the Americas - was, to my mind, primitive, though on occasion, ingenious in its making of alloys of gold, silver, copper and tin. They valued plasticity over strength, for the emphasis was for decoration.

Of Incan bronze: Since these early metallurgists were unfamiliar with modern methods of heat treatment they were compelled to sacrifice the extra hardness and strength obtainable in casting axes and chisels by increasing the tin content in them. - ?Lost City of the Incas, The Story of Machu Picchu and its Builders? by Hiram Bingham

I read numerous descriptions of Sic?n as "skilled metallurgists" and no doubt they were good with what they were used to, but they were not, in my view, sophisticated. No Amerindian culture reached the technical heights in metallurgy of their European counterparts.

Solomon

[Diving Doc]

Solomon,
I believe that analysis of the Amerindian ornaments in the Museo del Oro has show an amazing consistency in this alloy. I am not speaking of the Incas but the Taironas, Muiscas, Chibchas, etc who inhabited the northern part of South America. An alloy of this type requires higher skill than making bronze, for instance and some of the pieces are dated 200 AD.

Muisca

The Muiscas were a well organized nation-state at the arrival of the Spaniards, and their region was chosen as the seat of government of the vast territories which are now Colombia. From a centralistic viewpoint the historical data gathered by the Spaniards on the Muiscas has been deemed of more importance and best suited to represent the antique roots of the country. Thus, more research and articles and books have been written on the Muiscas; and their importance is highlighted in the museums of the capital. Their goldsmith work was done mostly in tumbaga. The region was poor in gold but rich in copper. To produce the effect of gold Muisca goldsmiths used the technique known as "misse en couleur." The finished pieces were first washed on the juice of local plants, then they were heated by fire. The copper alloy oxidized to the surface. And was then cleaned out by a subsequent acid wash. The gold alloy came to the surface and the piece acquired a bright gilded look. "Tunjos" are the most representational pieces of Muisca goldsmith artisans. They represent gods and important rulers and persons in the realm. They are either hollow pieces or flat pieces made out of laminated gold. In both cases they were mass produced on hollow molds or stone molds to hammer the flat ones, which were then cut-out. Their finish is less individualized and of a rough nature in comparison to the art pieces of other pre-Columbian ethnic groups. The sex of the tunjos is always prominent, and the features of the head are always very well worked out, but the hands and legs are just delineated. The use of gold-thread to highlight the pieces is also typical of the Muisca. As observed by the conquistadores, and explained in the Museo del Oro: "the people [Muiscas] gathered together from time to time for rituals in which gold played a fundamental part. Idolos or tunjos, small rough figurines made by specialists who depicted human beings, animal and scenes of political and social life, were deposited in temples, caves and sacred lakes as offerings." One such figure is the famous Muisca raft of the Museo, representing the ceremony of the anointing of the heir at the sacred Guatavita lake. Over the golden raft made with thick gold thread tunjos represent the different dignitaries, and a prominent tunjo with a thin thread well adorned crown is the heir. Pretty sophisticated work in my opinion anyway.
Doc

[Solomon]

Doc,

As Amerindian metallurgists did not reach the level of technical development of the Iron Age, the claim that they had risen to greater heights in metallurgy than the Europeans of the same time period must, by definition, be wrong.

Your argument (as I understand it) is that this measure of development - Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age has to be wrong, because although Amerindians did not reach the Iron Age - or make steel - making tumbaga is so far in advance of making bronze (and by implication, iron) that it takes them to a new and unique level.

Although I do not know of any evidence to support the idea, it also strikes me as unlikely, for a number of reasons.

One I mentioned is that the purpose of their metallurgy did not demand a higher level of technical development, as it did in Europe and elsewhere.

Another is that - as far as I know - no Amerindian manuals and scientific texts were ever produced on any subject, let alone metallurgy. This would have restricted technical development severely, in my  view.

Still, these are just pieces of informed speculation by me. I did not know of tumbaga until you told me about it. It is a fascinating subject.

Like you, Doc, I am an admirer of the Sican decorative arts, which I find to be beautiful and in many cases, finely made. I would not describe it as sophisticated, though and if I did, that would not persuade me that the metallurgy used was more advanced than that of Iron Age in Europe, or anywhere else.

Solomon

[Diving Doc]

Solomon,
here is the level of the misunderstanding.

I was comparing the Amerindians jewelry making to the Spanish metallurgy of the same time period. Without a doubt, a much higher degree of skill has been exhibited by ancient European peoples. These skills were lost over the ages. I particularly remember a passage attributed to a Spanish jeweler who marveled at the first pieces brought back and said that they were not producing anything as fine. At the time I found that strange as the armor the Spanish Royalty  was wearing was a wonder in craftsmanship. Then again, the Spanish themselves weren't producing that armor and each suit took years to complete. The Spanish refining techniques were so crude and wasteful that they couldn't even isolate and refine platinum. They called it "Platina" or 'little silver' and considered it a nuisance.


http://www.loewejewelry.com/platinum.shtml

History: Over 3000 years ago ancient Egypt had remarkable metal smiths that became extremely skilled in the art of working with platinum. A 2500 year old coffin of an Egyptian High Priestess was discovered, that was decorated with platinum hieroglyphs. Their polish and luster were still perfect, giving dramatic proof of platinum's incomparable strength and durability.

The South American Inca Indians also used platinum, before the fifteenth century. They could not melt it, but developed a technique for sintering it with gold on charcoal, to produce artifacts. A pre-Columbian platinum ingot was found which contained 85% pure platinum. When the Spanish conquered South America, they discovered the Indians use of platinum, and called it "platina", a diminutive which means "little silver". The Spanish considered platinum to be a worthless nuisance and impurity. They even went so far as to throw great amounts of the metal into the sea, thinking that it might become a cheap imitation for silver.

Finally, during the eighteenth century, platinum's value as a metal supremely suited for jewelry started to take hold. Platinum was first used for coins in Russia in 1828. In 1865 some Spanish gold coins were counterfeited using gold plated platinum! Now the platinum fakes would be worth far more than gold originals. In the nineteenth century, platinum became the de-facto standard for setting the finest of the newly discovered gemstone, the diamond. In fact, the most famous of these gems, the Koh-I-Nor, the Jonker, and the Hope diamonds were all set in platinum.

Perhaps I can find the passage but it isn't important as there is no disagreement with your position. My mistake was using the word "European" in the same reference, it should have been "Spanish". Just for the record the Spanish mining methods, crude as they were, killed tens of thousands of miners and in 300 years did more to poison our atmosphere with mercury than all the coal burned in the last two centuries, in my opinion.
Cheers,
Doc

[Bart]

Ancient Peruvian metallurgy studied

A Canadian-led study has reported the first scientific evidence that ancient Peruvian civilizations in the central Andes Mountains smelted metals.

April 19, 2007

   The study by the University of Alberta's Colin Cooke and colleagues also determined that a tax imposed on local people by ancient Inca rulers might have forced a switch from production of copper to silver.

   The researchers said prior evidence of metal smelting was limited mainly to the existence of metal artifacts dating to about 1,000 A.D. and the Wari Empire that preceded the Incas. The new evidence emerged from a study of metallurgical air pollutants released from ancient furnaces during the smelting process and deposited in lake sediments.

   By analyzing metals in the sediments, the researchers recreated a 1,000-year history of metal smelting in the area, predating Francisco Pizarro and his Spanish conquistadors by 600 years.

   The findings suggest smelters in the Morococha region of Peru switched from producing copper to silver about the time Inca rulers imposed a tax, payable in silver, on local populations.

http://www.physorg.com/news96222703.html