File: <toolsbro.htm> <Migrations Index> <Bronze Age Index> Archeology Index <American Archeology>

ABSCENCE OR SCARCITY OF BRONZE AND

IRON AGE TOOLS IN AMERICA

[Contacts]

The scarcity of bronze tools among the artifacts found in America has not been fully explained, and this has argued against contacts with the Old World during the Bronze Age. Artifacts that have been found that may date back to the end of the Bronze Age may be viewed at (Photo). It may be that heavy objects of this kind were not regularly transported in the various sea craft used to cross the Atlantic, even though they certainly would have been desirable items of trade. As Bronze Age Magalithic people from Europe crossed the Atlantic by the northern island-hopping route during the period of milder and less stormy climate that ended about 1200 B.C., heavy, angular objects such as bronze tools, would be prone to puncture lightweight and frail watercraft made of animal skins that may have been used. By the beginning of the Iron Age and the development of sturdier wooden sea craft, transport would have been possible. This may account for the iron ax that has been found.(see Iron Ax)

Claus Oldag judged that because bronze especially does not rapidly corrode or deteriorate when buried in soil or submerged under water, tools made thereof will eventually be found if searched for in the right places. Also, the numbers of travelers to America from the Eastern Hemisphere in Pre-Columbian times would not have been large so that statistically the possibility of finding settlements or campsites where tools were mislaid on the huge American continents is very low.

Mike White has proposed the following on the subject of ancient tools in America. “The 'iron age' is an elusive term.  There is an excellent chance that the people of the golden age and the age of silver knew of iron, but rejected using it because they had better alloys.  Mainstream scholars deny that there was a golden or age of silver, but they are mostly aware that in prehistoric times metallurgy was advanced to the degree that they had a copper alloy superior to iron in many ways.  This technology has been lost.  Iron rusts and corrodes away, so it should be no surprise that few iron artifacts from ancient times are found. “

“Many prehistoric iron furnaces have been found in America, particularly in Ohio.  They outlasted the tools and weapons that were smelted and forged there.  The Etowah mounds of Georgia did contain iron relics.  South America had advanced metallurgy, and they could have had the lost copper alloy, plus bronze, and they were very skilled artisans in gold and silver works.   The walls of Puma Punko had sophisticated alloys holding the huge stones together.  Tons of silver alloys were holding the blocks of Tiawanaku together, causing the Spaniards to destroy much in search of them. “

“Iron diffusion would be impossible to prove or disprove.  Scholars can read of Desoto and other early Spanish expeditions, where they resmelted their iron for reuse.  Any early iron items would have been remelted several times thru the centuries for horseshoes and swords, or plows.  Early settlers would have placed utilitarian needs before keeping such in cabinets for historical purposes. “