Read Ebook: Mexican Copper Tools: The Use of Copper by the Mexicans Before the Conquest; and the Katunes of Maya History a Chapter in the Early History of Central America With Special Reference to the Pio Perez Manuscript. by Valentini Philipp J J Philipp Johann Josef P Rez Juan P O Contributor Salisbury Stephen Translator

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PAGE.

THE KATUNES OF MAYA HISTORY 45

NOTE BY COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION 47

PAGE.

COPPER AXES IN THE ARMS OF TEPOZTLA, TEPOZTITLA AND 12 TEPOZCOLULA

COPPER AXES, THE TRIBUTE OF CHILAPA 13

COPPER AXES AND BELLS, THE TRIBUTE OF CHALA 14

YUCATAN COPPER AXES 30

COPPER CHISEL FOUND IN OAXACA 33

COPPER AXE OF TEPOZCOLULA 36

MAYA AHAU KATUN WHEEL 72

MAP SHOWING THE MOVEMENT OF THE MAYAS, AS STATED IN THE 78 MANUSCRIPT

FOOTNOTE

YUCATAN AXE, FROM LANDA 17

INDIAN BATTLE AXE, FROM OVIEDO 19

BY PHILIPP J. J. VALENTINI, PH.D.

The subject of prehistoric copper mining, together with the trade in the metal and the process of its manufacture into implements and tools by the red men of North America, has engaged the attention of numerous investigators.

It was while listening to an interesting paper on prehistoric copper mining at Lake Superior, read by Prof. Thomas Egleston before the Academy of Sciences, of New York, March 9, 1879, that the writer was reminded of a number of notes which he had made, some time previous, on the same subject. These notes, however, covered a department of research not included in the lecture of that evening. They were collected in order to secure all the material extant in relation to the copper products of Mexico and Central America. Nevertheless, this treatment of a subject so germain to ours, could not help imparting an impulse to a rapid comparison of the results of our own studies with those of others. It brought to light striking agreements, as well as disagreements, which existed in connection with the copper industries of the two widely separated races. On the one hand it appeared that both of these ancient people were unacquainted with iron; both were trained to the practise of war, and, strange to say, both had invariably abstained from shaping copper into any implement of war, the metal being appropriated solely to the uses of peace.

But, on the other hand, whilst the northern red man attained to his highest achievement in the production of the axe, the native of Central America could boast of important additions to his stock of tools. He possessed copper implements for tilling the fields, and knew the uses of the chisel. Besides, when he wished to impart to the copper a definite form, he showed a superior ingenuity. The northern Indian simply took a stone, and by physical force hammered the metal into the required shape. But the skilled workman of Tecoatega and Tezcuco, subjecting the native copper to the heat of the furnace, cast the woodcutter's axe in a mould, as well as the bracelets and the fragile earrings that adorned the princesses of Motezuma.

Therefore, in view of the recently increasing interest shown in archaeological circles, respecting everything relating to Mexico, the writer deemed it worth while to revise the notes referred to.

As to the fact that the early Mexicans used instruments of copper, there can be no doubt. The brevity of the statements respecting these instruments is nevertheless very perplexing. The accounts of the Spanish chroniclers, indeed, afford a certain degree of satisfaction, but they leave us with a desire for fuller information. We should have felt more grateful to these authorities if, out of the thousand and more chapters devoted to the glorious deeds of the "Castellanos and Predicadores," they had written one in which they had introduced us to the Mexican work-shop, exhibiting the weaver, the paper-maker, the carpenter, the goldsmith, and the sculptor, and initiating us into the devices and methods respectively employed; describing the form and shape of the tools they used, and giving an account of all those little details which are indispensable for achieving any technical or artistical results.

Yet, as it exists, the desired information is incomplete, and, for the present at least, we can only deplore its brevity. In looking for aid from other quarters we feel still more perplexed. No specimen of any copper or bronze tool, apparently, has been preserved, and we are thus prevented from determining whether the axes or chisels mentioned by the Spanish authors were of the same shape as ours, or whether the natives had contrived to give them a peculiar shape of their own. Finally, no definite hint is given whether the kind of copper metal, which they called "brass or bronze," was copper with the natural admixtures of gold, silver, tin, or other tempering elements, or whether the Mexicans had themselves discovered the devices of hardening, and combined the elements in due conventional proportions.

All these questions are of the highest interest, and claim an answer. Our most renowned authorities for Mexican archaeology and history, Humboldt, Prescott and Brasseur de Bourbourg, pass over this subject without giving any desired satisfaction. They do not go much farther than to repeat the statements furnished by the writers in the same language as they received them.

These early statements will form the principal portion of the material out of which we weave the text of our discussion. In order that the reader may be better prepared to enter into our reasoning and judge of the correctness of our conclusions, we shall, in translation, place the statements of these authors below the text, in the form of foot-notes; though, in cases where it is believed that the reader may desire to see the originals, the Spanish text is given. Considerable help has been derived from a source hitherto very little consulted, that of the native paintings, which represent copper implements. As will be seen, they make up, to a certain extent, for the deficiency of the latter in collections. The cuts we give are of the same size as those we find copied in the Kingsborough Collection.

We shall speak first of those localities whence the natives procured their copper and their tin; secondly, of the manner in which they used to melt metals; thirdly, consider whether the metal was moulded or hammered; and fourthly, discuss the various forms into which their tools appear to have been shaped.

That the natives of the New World collected and worked other metals besides gold and silver, seems to have become known to the Spaniards only after their entrance into the city of Mexico, A.D. 1521. During the first epoch, in which the West India Islands and the Atlantic coasts of South and Central America were explored and conquered, no specimen of utensils, tools or weapons, made of brass or copper, was discovered to be in the possession of the inhabitants. So also in Yucatan, Tlascalla, and on the high plateau of Anahuac, where mechanics and industry were found to have a home, and where the native warrior exhibited his person in the most gorgeous military attire, their swords, javelins, lances and arrows, showed that concerning the manufacture of arms they had, so to speak, not yet emerged from the Stone-Age. And finally, when brass, copper, tin, and even lead, were seen exposed for sale in the stalls of the market-place of Mexico, it was noticed to the great astonishment of the conquerors, that these metals had exclusively served the natives for the manufacture of mere instruments of peace.

The Mexicans had the habit of giving a name to their towns and districts from the objects which were found in abundance in their neighborhood. Therefore, copper regions ought to bear a name which related to this mineral.

The cuts 1, 2, 3 and 4, are faithful reproductions of the coats of arms belonging to these towns.

There cannot be any doubt as to the meaning of the objects represented by these pictures. They mean axes. Their handles appear in a curved form, the blades at their cutting edges are somewhat rounded, and the tenons of the blades are inserted below the top of the handles. Both handles and blades are painted in a reddish brown color, the wood as well as the copper.

Let us accept these facts and see whether this picture for the symbol for copper does not return on other pages of the same Codex, and thereby gain more information on the subject. We notice the picture of the axe-blade reappearing on the pages 39 and 42. Both happen to bear the same number, that of figure 20, and both belong to the same section of the Codex which contains the pictures of the tributes paid by the conquered towns. Cut 5 is a reproduction of fig. 20, page 39, Codex Mendoza. It shows the metal axe without a handle hanging on a thread from a line upon which we see five flags are painted. Moreover, at the left side is a little picture. A flag in Mexican symbol writing signifies the number twenty.

Therefore, the towns of Tepoztla, Tepoztitla, Tepozcolula, and, besides, those of Chilapa and Xala, must be considered to have been connected, in one way or the other, with copper mining, copper manufacture, and the tribute of the same.

In the above report of Cortes, therefore, we are informed of the name of the locality where tin was found and dug by the natives. So we have the facts established that both copper and tin were dug by the natives, that there was a traffic, in them at that time, that Cortes himself succeeded in getting at the mines from which they were extracted, and that he had not been mistaken in his former recognition of their display for sale in the public market.

But before these ores could be shaped into the above named commercial forms, it is clear that they still needed to undergo a process of smelting. As to the peculiar mode of smelting pursued by the natives, we have not been able to find any distinct reference in the writings of the chroniclers. It does not appear that the ancient Mexicans understood the method of the Peruvians of melting their copper in furnaces exposed to the wind on the lofty sierras, but we may form for ourselves an idea of how they proceeded from a picture in Codex Mendoza, page 71, fig. 24.

Cut 7 gives a faithful reproduction.

The scanty knowledge we have of all these interesting technical details will not be wondered at, if we consider that we derive it from no other class of writers than from unlearned soldiers, and monks unskilled in the practical matters of this world. But still, the principal reason for this want of information is that the Mexican artist was as jealous in keeping his devices secret, as the European. They also formed guilds, into which the apprentices were sworn, and their tongues were bound by fear as well as interest. Let us quote only one instance. The Vice-King Mendoza reports to the Emperor that he offered to pardon one of those workmen, if he would disclose how he was able to counterfeit the Spanish coins in so striking a way. But the native preferred to remain silent and was put to death.

We pass on now to discuss the various tools which we have reason to think were cast in copper or in bronze, by the early Mexicans.

It would, however, be venturing too much to reject so important a statement merely on the grounds alleged. In order to save it, we could fairly say, that he omitted his references through carelessness. Accepting this position, let us then seek to ascertain, who his informants might have been, and chiefly inquire what they were able to tell him about the manufacture of bronze in Mexico.

The circumstances accompanying the arrival of the precious gifts from the capital at the Camp of Cortes, their shipping and unlading at Palos, and their registration at the custom-house, are perfectly known. From them we gather the following points: First, no Spaniard had yet set foot in the interior, they were still loitering on the shores of Vera Cruz, where the embassies of Motezuma made their appearance. Hence, they were still shut off from the opportunity of inspecting the workshops of Tezcuco, Mexico and Azcapotzalco, the centres from which this special class of merchandise was spread over the whole isthmus. Cortes, who had many reasons for hastening the transfer of the precious treasures to the ships, without much delay despatched one of them, intrusting two of his friends, Montejo and Puerto Carrero, with the mission of presenting to the Emperor the report of his startling discoveries and the presents coming from the new vassal-king. Petrus Martyr, indeed, mentions these two cavaliers, as being Cortes' messengers, and it is highly probable that it was from their lips that he gathered among other correct information also that about the manufacture of paper. The special kind of paper he describes, is one which was manufactured and used exclusively on the coast of Yucatan and Vera Cruz, not the paper of the maguey-plant which grows on the high plateaus, but that of the amatl-tree, a native of the tierra caliente. Being in the very country where this kind of paper was manufactured, the Spanish writers, therefore, had the opportunity of hearing how paper was made, even, possibly, of seeing the process itself, which they had not enjoyed in the case of bronze. Could they have got the information from the mouths of the embassadors? We know they held shyly aloof. The intercourse was very ceremonious, and difficult besides, since the conversation passed through the two native languages, and we cannot fairly imagine that the technical question of manufacturing bronze should have become one of the topics of inquiry. Moreover, we do not believe that special attention would have been paid to these bronze implements, if we consider the overpowering impression which the richness and rareness of the other objects must have caused them. Finally, would they not have believed the yellow metal to be gold? since they dreamt of nothing else, and were far from imagining that the opulent ruler of Mexico would have made their Emperor a present of poor bronze tools.

The passages which speak about the axes used by the natives are cited below. Three kinds are mentioned, stone, copper and bronze axes. The first of them must have been in use among such tribes as lived outside of the circle of Mexican trade and civilization, or among those which intentionally held themselves aloof. For its retention and use the complete absence of ores in certain districts may have had a decided influence, as for instance was the case with the peninsula of Yucatan. The shape of the Yucatecan blades and that of the handle and the adjustment of both, at least as far as is shown by the pictures of the Dresden Codex, which are of genuine Yucatecan origin, appear to have been identical with those of the interior of Anahuac.

Among the copper and bronze axes noted below, those of Nicaragua appear to have been of an uncommonly rich alloy of gold. The reader will smile at Herrera's account of the shrewdness shown by the native ladies in keeping for themselves the plates of pure gold they were attired with, and burdening the soldiers of Gonzales with heavy metal axes. The axes mentioned by Gomara, undoubtedly came from the mines of Anahuac, since their alloy was not only gold, but tin and silver. Gomara is the first who notes the chisel and the borer.

Let us further ascertain, what Father Sahagun is able to tell us about Mexican metal tools. As a teacher of the young native generation, he made it his life's task to teach his pupils all that concerned the religious belief, the history and the industry of their forefathers. We extract from Lib. 10, Cap. 7, the following passages and translate them as literally as possible: "The goldsmith is an expert in the selection of good metal. He knows how to make of it whatever he likes and does it with skill and elegance. He is conversant with all kinds of devices, and all this he does with composure and accuracy. . He knows how to purify the ore, and makes plates of silver as well as of gold from the cast metal. He knows likewise how to make moulds of carbon , and how to put the metal into the fire in order to smelt it. The unskilful goldsmith does not know how to purify the silver, he leaves it mixed up with the ashes, and has his sly ways in taking and stealing something of the silver." Further on in Cap. 24: "he who is a trader in needles , casts, cleans, and, polishes them well; he makes also bells , filters , punches , nails , axes , hatchets , cooper's adzes , and chisels ."

In these two passages is summed up all that we sought to gather piecewise from the writers of the Conquest, on our special question. A few new features, however, are cropping out in this enumeration of implements, which give rise to the suspicion, that the goldsmith is described, not as he worked before the year 1521, but as he had perfected himself and enlarged his technical knowledge through the intervention of Spanish mechanics, in the year of Sahagun's writing, about 1550. We mean the moulds of carbon, the nails, and the cooper's adze, of which we read in Sahagun exclusively, and of which no pictures or other evidences of their ante-Spanish existence have been preserved.

Pictures of needles frequently occur in the Mexican paintings. But it is understood that they are without an eye, the introduction of our sewing needle having been an actual revelation to the natives. The head of a Mexican needle, or rather pin, was full, and split like that of an animal's bone. The borer, certainly, had no handle or spiral point. Of all these stitching, piercing and drilling instruments nothing has been preserved, in kind.

We do not know if this chisel is still preserved in the Museum of Mexico, to which it was presented by Captain Dupaix. If not, we hope to be somewhat indemnified by another specimen of bronze chisel, of which we are now in pursuit, and which according to description is similar in form and composition to the one spoken of. Se?or Andrez Aznar Perez, now in New York, ploughed up such a tool about twelve years ago, on his plantation near the river Tzompan in Tabasco, at the depth of nearly 12 inches. It was entirely solid, and had a slightly rounded edge, about an inch in length, and he offers to have it brought from Yucatan for further examination.

From the illustration of Captain Dupaix and the description of Mr. Perez, we can for the moment only conclude that the ancient Mexican chisel was similar in its form to that which our stone-masons now make use of.

Those acquainted with the practical handling of axes, and with felling trees, know that a curved handle must increase the swinging power of an axe to a considerable degree, and to have used this form is a remarkable instance of Mexican technical craft and cunning. It would be worth while to investigate whether this use of a curved handle was exclusively confined to the natives of Central America, or had passed beyond its boundaries, north as well as south.

We further learn from the pictures, that not the blade of the axe, but the handle had an opening at a certain distance from the top, into which the blade was fitted.

This instrument is of the most extravagant form. Were it not for the authentic interpretation of the picture and the accessories we should not be able to make out what kind of object it represented, and least of all that it was a hatchet.

There existed also a town, in which carpenter's work was the chief occupation of the inhabitants. This is to be inferred from the coat of arms belonging to the town of Tlaximaloyan, cut 12, Cod. Mendoza, pl. 10, fig. 5.

It is but natural to think that being in possession of the large chopping axe, the invention of the small hatchet would have become incomparably easier than that of this awkward carpenter's tool. We are, however, too little informed to judge or to criticize its construction and rather incline to think that these people had reasons of their own for giving it the form it has. It must have been the one which Sahagun called "destral," or carpenter's hatchet.

We can still offer another form of copper tool once used by the natives. Dupaix discovered the original near the same town where he had found the chisel. Below is a copy of his drawing in cut 13:

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