As far as I know, Native Americans never independently developed ironworking. Why is that?
Why did Native Americans never develop ironworking?
- Thread starter Night Gaul
- Start date
They didn't have enough time. By 1492, a decent part of the americas had developed the ability to work bronze, even for weapons (although from what i've read it seems like only the tarascans had caught onto that specific innovation thus far)
If you have the natives start developing earlier, or have europe come later (or earlier, I think you could have alot of fun with vinland triggering a "lands of red and gold"-style renaissance in the americas, especially considering there were already some established states and nations by the time the vikings arrived) you could have a helluvalot of fun.
If you have the natives start developing earlier, or have europe come later (or earlier, I think you could have alot of fun with vinland triggering a "lands of red and gold"-style renaissance in the americas, especially considering there were already some established states and nations by the time the vikings arrived) you could have a helluvalot of fun.
Wheat was domesticated around 12,600 years ago, and spread pretty rapidly after that. Corn was only domesticated 10,000 years ago, and had a very long and difficult time spreading (only reaching southern Ontario around 500 AD).
So at best the natives had a developmental handicap of 2.6 thousand years. 2.6 thousand years before 1500, the old world was still in the late Bronze Age.
They chipped bits off meteorites. They didn't (AFAIK) actually do any smelting.
They did have beasts of burden kinda--dogs. Dogs are pretty hardy and able to carry a surprising amount and can also eat foods human might not want to touch, with their only drawback is they're suboptimal compared to other beasts of burden because they're mainly carnivorous.
Similarly, the Indians of the Pacific Northwest salvaged iron goods from Asian shipwrecks and reforged them into various tools, ornaments, etc. even before Europeans knew of them. They were also known for doing this to goods directly traded to them. Some Siberian groups had iron working (or traded with people who did, I can't recall) and rarely this was traded across the Bering Strait.
But yeah, not "true" ironworking.
Now if the llama could have been spread to North America and been bred up to a larger size.
In regards to North American metalworking in general, you had the Old Copper Culture that flourished during the Late Archaic Period in the Great Lakes Region, ~5000 BCE.
They were prolific metalworkers, with a significant amount of archeological finds attributed to them. But their expertise in copper working seems to have died out sometime by 3000 BCE, potentially by the emergence of more complex proto-states that valued jewelry and other fineries over tools and weapons.
They were prolific metalworkers, with a significant amount of archeological finds attributed to them. But their expertise in copper working seems to have died out sometime by 3000 BCE, potentially by the emergence of more complex proto-states that valued jewelry and other fineries over tools and weapons.
Mostly right, though the end of the Old Copper Complex is usually dated to 1500 BCE.
twovultures
Donor
Part of the issue (IMO) here is that there was no pressure on them to develop old-world style metallurgy. The copper they worked with was dug up in an almost pure form, and could be hammered into shape as is. There was no need to melt it to reshape it, which means that there was no system of hot ovens and metalwork set up that could develop more complex forms of smelting to make bronze or iron, whose utility would be much more competitive against stone tools than 'raw' copper.
The other thing is, as far as I know, that there was no preexisting hot kiln pottery tradition that could serve as a springboard for smelting. In the Old World, copper-working was an offshoot of kilns in which the temperature was hot enough to melt out copper from copper-rich clays. Were kilns hot enough for that widely used in the New World?
twovultures
Donor
I don't know for sure, but the Native Americans did have widespread pottery from at least the Eastern Woodlands to Patagonia, so it stands to reason that at least some of them had kilns which could potentially fire up high temperatures.
Riain
Banned
I once read that the farmer-planter/livestock herder divide 'supercharged' technological development in the old world and such a divide didn't exist in the new world. The theory goes that even before the horse was domesticated herders lived separately from farmers, grazing their animals away from arable land and often on the move, in the process picking up skills to hunt for food and protect their herds/flocks from predators and other herders. These lethal skills, combined with the inherent mobility of herders (even on foot), gave them the ability to raid farming villages to steal things they wanted or needed.
The farmers replied to these threats by forming a military caste, using better weapons and building fortifications against raids. This need for a military response is what drove the requirement for metal weapons and the constant development of metallurgy.
The farmers replied to these threats by forming a military caste, using better weapons and building fortifications against raids. This need for a military response is what drove the requirement for metal weapons and the constant development of metallurgy.
In north eastern US/Canada pottery was fired with mere open air fire pits.