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Question: What was known about iron in ancient America?
Question: What was known about iron in ancient America?
Iron is documented among the pre-Columbian peoples: They used exposed iron sources or meteorite iron
Iron is documented among the pre-Columbian peoples. Even if they did not practice smelting (extracting iron from ore), they used exposed iron sources or meteorite iron. Production of iron artifacts from such sources is documented in San Jose Mogote by 1200 B.C.[1] Several tons of Olmec-era iron artifacts are known:[2] "the Olmec were a sophisticated people who possessed advanced knowledge and skill in working iron ore minerals."[3] Mesoamerica did use quite a bit of iron ore, but much of it was used without smelting, establishing a cultural/religious connotation that would have retarded experimentation with the ore for any other purpose (ascription of religious value to any physical artifact delays changes in that artifact).
Notes
- ↑ John L. Sorenson, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book Co. ; Provo, Utah : Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1996 [1985]), 285.
- ↑ Richard A. Diehl, The Olmecs: America's First Civilization (Thames & Hudson, 2004), 93–94. FAIR link
- ↑ John B. Carlson, "Lodestone Compass: Chinese or Olmec Primacy? Multidisciplinary Analysis of an Olmec Hematite Artifact from San Lorenzo, Veracruz, Mexico," Science 189, No. 4205 (5 September 1975): 753-760.