Did The Americas Have A Bronze Age?

the Bronze Age is a very important part of ancient history the development of bronze working forever changed humanity for a number of reasons for this video I want to talk about something history seems to not focus on too much did America have a Bronze Age at all [Music] this video is a part of a large youtuber history collaboration all about the Bronze Age my video is towards the end of the series so in the description I'm going to link the playlist of all the videos involved be sure to give them all watch so when was the Bronze Age well usually people give it a rough time period of roughly 3300 - 1200 BC or so basically when the earliest civilizations were just getting started relatively speaking they started using bronze from any tools and objects simple enough except not really truth be told there is no consistent Bronze Age because it's not truly based on a specific block of years but based on when a civilizations start using bronze at all most people are aware of a rough progression of Ages based on what they used for tools and objects Stone Age copper bronze iron while it's the general trend for many parts of the world this wasn't the same for every civilization by any means and it certainly didn't happen around the same time for everywhere either especially if they didn't have high amounts of copper or tin the things that are used to make bronze in the first place the Middle East in India started roughly around 3300 BC you're up a little later at 3200 BC ancient Egypt around 3150 BC so roughly the same time period so far but Nubia and West Africa had their bronze ages at 2300 and 2200 BC then East Asia didn't have their Bronze Age until closer to 2000 BC then you have sub-saharan Africa which interestingly enough didn't have a Bronze Age at all and just went straight to their iron age at around 900 BC I'd kill to be able to skip bronze working and go straight to iron working when playing the Civilization game but you know I can't the point is to say the Bronze Age started in 3300 BC and ended in 1200 BC is only true if you have a Middle Eastern or Eurocentric view of history so the question of the video on whether America had a Bronze Age isn't about the Americas during the 3000th to 1200 s BC it's about did they ever get bronze working and did they use it did they perhaps skip straight to the Iron Age like Africa or did they have their own unique path let's find out so as mentioned earlier to make bronze you need copper and ten copper is relatively abundant around the world and always has been ten however is not there are many reasons why Bronze Age might not have appeared same time as others the first could just be based simply on levels of technological development but it could also be based off of proximity to ten for example from the evidence we've gathered the Middle East in ancient times actually didn't mind ten at all they actually traded for it with most of the ten coming from Europe so their technological advancement over Europe gave them the early lead but Europe still followed closely behind because they had ten right there it explains why northern and western parts of Africa eventually got it but southern Africa just had to skip over it and go straight to iron work after all the Sahara Desert and the rain forests have been trade barriers for a long time China had minor deposits of ten themselves India had Southeast Asia to trade for it Australia being more isolated couldn't get it so they never had a Bronze Age so for America to have a Bronze Age we need to see if they had access to copper or ten and win let's break it down between northern North America Mesoamerica and South America northern North America definitely had copper while we're not sure of the beginning dates by 1000 BC or so there were already trade networks for copper but it wasn't about smelting copper rather they hammered copper into objects for art cultural ceremonies and minor weapons complan was flat-out sacred for many Eastern North American tribes as well however there is no current evidence for smelting and making alloys within like bronze and in ancient times there was no evidence of mining ten in northern North America funnily enough North Western North America had access to iron around medieval times or so thanks to source iron from occasional Japanese wrecked ships that flowed across the ocean they used their own tools to mold it into weapons but still no smelting if only Gavin Menzies knew that wrecked ships floating across the ocean huh what about Mesoamerica well we all know that gold-medal ergy was really common after all the rumors of El Dorado were based on how much gold the Mesoamericans used but what about copper and ten copper metallurgy did occur in Mesoamerica unlike northern North America while there was of course metal sculptures just like in northern North America around a year 600 civilizations in Mexico more specifically in western Mexico did conduct metallurgy did Mexico have 10 yes they did they had to positive 10 and did in fact make bronze the oldest stuff we found is from around 1200 or so and a lot of it was actually used for making bowels the interesting thing is that in spite of achieving bronze working they still preferred silver and gold for metallurgy ironworking never occurred there until the Spanish brought it over to them so the Mexican Bronze Age is from roughly 1200 to 15 21 or so late to the game but you know it's still cool they had one what about South America well South America actually appeared to have developed metalworking on their own and quite early some evidence seems to point to copper smelting possibly happening as far back as 2000 BC and Bolivia but it wasn't widespread until closer to 800 BC did South America Hampton yes they did they did have some in Peru and as a result by roughly around the Year 100 bronze working did occur during the Moche civilization it would of course be continued onwards by the Inca interestingly enough though the majority of the bronze working was used not to make weapons but to make bronze objects to represent status and wealth weapons to them were just fine using other stuff but we can technically give them a Bronze Age due to the fact that South America developed bronze working first it is believed that they traded off their knowledge on how to create bronze to Mexico just like with Mesoamerica they never got hired working until the Spanish brought over but in a strange plot twist they also have the first platinum work just a few decades before the Spanish conquest so that's actually pretty cool so overall the Americas did have a Bronze Age but it was much later than in the old world civilizations why is that well there's a multitude of reasons firstly civilization simply arose later in the Americas than in the Middle East Asia Europe or Africa so of course they were going to develop it later but also as I've briefly mentioned they mostly preferred working with other types of metal for their weapons and tools gold silver and plain copper were just much more common and Mexico especially loved using Jade for stuff as well well they did use bronze it was much more for status or simply wanting a nice color even for their objects more than use in terms of weaponry they simply had other alternatives they preferred to use a Bronze Age as a signifier of technological status can work on rough approximations but it doesn't work altogether for example tactically the Maya are considered a Stone Age civilization because they use stone tools obsidian limestone Shore but not metal yet they were a very advanced civilization when it came to science mathematics and architecture so it feels weird in your head to call them a Stone Age civilization but technically speaking they were most people think of Stone Age is like living in cavemen times which the Maya clearly weren't living at and the same could be applied to the Bronze Age America's Bronze Age may not have impacted the world in the same way the Middle Eastern one did but it does in fact exist thanks for watching everyone if you like the video be sure to LIKE and subscribe but also remember to watch the other videos of this giant history collaboration on the Bronze Age I remember a tiger star and I'll see you guys next time

Channel: EmperorTigerstar

Views: 184,664

Keywords: history, geography, bronze, bronze age, tin, copper, archaeology, artifacts, ancient history, medieval history, america, native americans, South America, North America, Mesoamerica, Central America, Aztec, Maya, Inca, Toltec, iron

Id: HAZsFgAJSJE

Length: 7min 45sec (465 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 22 2019