Why didn't the Andean Civilizations enter the Iron Age?

[Oba]

In a way it makes some sense that the Precolumbian Andean Civilizations never developed Ironworking - mainly, their isolation and their cultural view of metal as an artistic medium and a status symbol: See here and here for more information.

But that is still not enough to explain why, given the mountain range's vast mineral wealth and the great age of civilization in the Andes: For example, the Caral-Supe Civilization is around five thousand years old, older, for instance, than either Shang China or the Minoans of Crete.

Furthermore, another isolated - and otherwise less developed - cultural group, that of the Haya, developed steel independently at least 2 millenia ago.

Finally, the lack of widespread utilitarian metallurgy in the Andes is all the more striking, given that the cultural area was so advanced in other areas, such as:

• Civil engineering: Nasca underground aqueducts rivaled their closest contemporaries - the qanats of Persia; the city of Wari's urban planning was unrivalled in its day; and the Inka were the greatest civil engineers since the Romans and set a standard that would not be surpassed until the Industrial Revolution.
• Fabrics: Nålebinding, knitting and doubleweaving are all Andean inventions, while the best cotton in the world (extra long staple) to this has its origins in the Andes; Andean civilizations furthermore independently developed a form of tapestry, twining, felting and the famous quilted armour.
• Agriculture: While some would argue that the Andes were behind the West in agriculture due to their paucity of large domestic animals compared Eurasia, I would argue that this was more than overcome by several techinques, technologies and alternate, such as: The waru waru aquaponics of the Tiwanaku; the more efficient use of space, with terracing and such; a more varied diet than anywhere in the West (or the Middle East, for that matter), incorporating: A wider array of crops than used by any Western country and living off meats with a lower feed conversion ratio, such as cavies, Muscovy ducks, fish, shellfish, insects and frogs.
• Human welfare: The subjects of Andean states generally, if not always, on average enjoyed a longer life expectancy than any of their Western contemporaries, especially during the Inka Empire, thanks to an effective lack of famines, homelessness, better sanitation and better medical care. Women and sexual minorities also enjoyed much higher status in Andean civilizations compared to Westerners.

So, why did the Andeans never enter the Iron Age?

 

[katchen]

Maybe they simply did not have to. The Andes Altiplano is one of the few places in the world where tin (Bolivia) and copper (Chile's Atacama) can be found in close proximity to each other. In the Mediterranean region, vast trading networks were needed to get tin for bronze. Tin for places like Egypt came from as far away as Cornwall, Britain to be mixed with copper from the Sinai to make bronze. So when smiths discovered first that a forge with higher temperatures could melt meteoric iron and higher temperatures could smelt iron from hematite, it was convenient and made sense to do so. But in the Andes, the precusors to bronze are readily available--maybe more available than iron. People use what is near to hand.

 

[Escape Zeppelin]

It took Eurasia forever to leave the bronze age. The Bronze age there lasted for three thousand years and worked metal was much more common in the Old World than among the Andean civilizations. I suspect that iron working is just not an intuitive leap that's obvious or likely because of the high temperatures required and if the ore was known to the metal workers at all it was known as a red pigment rather than a metal. How often would they cook expensive paint at super high temperatures? And even then they'd have to understand they were looking at a new metal rather than an unfortunate waste of time and effort.

As you pointed out in the Americas metal was viewed much more as a status symbol rather than a tool. Copper, like gold was for decoration reserved for the higher ups, not for work or the common man. I think that's the biggest answer. The experimenter, the curious kid, the clumsy but lucky fool, the people who might have made the effort or mistake that would lead to discovery, all would have had limited or no access to the metal. Because of limiting access to metals to special workers and nobility it further reduces the change of accidental discovery of iron.

 

[The Kiat]

I'm not sure there were any iron deposits in the Andes that were accessible with the Inca's level of technology.

 

[RGB]

[*]Fabrics: Nålebinding, knitting are Andean inventions

Which is why they are attested by their Nordic-origin names in medieval documents, of course.

Unless you mean to say they also independently had them alongside many other cultures because it seems a natural thing to do with thick thread?

 

[eliphas8]

A mix of lack of time and the fact that the Andes don't have much Iron but have plenty of copper and thin that are easily accessible with their tech level, which makes Iron working really unappealing by comparison.

 

[Oba]

The abundance of copper and tin in the Altiplano probably had something to do with it, but even the most prized materials - like the Iron of the dagger from Tutankhamen's tomb, or the jade so prized by the Maya - have a tendency to become widespread if they are or become common enough - such as with iron and then steel in Africa and Africa replacing stone and bronze, respectively, or how the usually rare jade enjoyed general and utilitarian use by the Māori once their ancestors arrived in New Zealand, where it is unusually abundant.

The inverse is probably also true, however: As bronze is superior to iron in most instances, smiths of a copper- and tin-rich region would probably see little use in iron (unless steel was somehow stumbled upon), much as all Mesoamerican cultures saw little use for metallurgy at all until some peoples started to smelt non-ferrous metals relatively late in the Postclassic, due to the abundance of obsidian.

Which is why they are attested by their Nordic-origin names in medieval documents, of course.

Unless you mean to say they also independently had them alongside many other cultures because it seems a natural thing to do with thick thread?

While I realize you are indeed correct about knitting, not so for nålebinding. And the Paracas culture long predates the medieval era.

 

[Hrvatskiwi]

or how the usually rare jade enjoyed general and utilitarian use by the Māori once their ancestors arrived in New Zealand, where it is unusually abundant.

Actually, minor nitpick here: It's pounamu (greenstone), not jade. And pounamu was actually given a high status by Māori. It's just so iconic that there's a misconception that it was very common, which is not the case. It's considered "taonga" (treasure), and pounamu objects are traditionally believed by Māori to be imbued with "mana" (an abstract concept roughly equitable to honour).

 

[Whitewings]

Indeed. For many applications, bronze is superior to iron, even with modern iron-making techniques. And the altiplano is rich with deposits of all sorts of odd natural alloys, including electrum and, I kid you not, orichalcum. That's right. Orichalcum, known locally as tumbago, is a real, naturally occurring gold-copper alloy.

 

[Alternate History Geek]

For many applications, bronze is superior to iron

Such as???

 

[Corsair_Caruso]

Such as???

I've heard that too, somewhere, but I can't remember for what. My understanding, however, was that bronze was superior to cast iron, or iron made with early iron-working techniques. My understanding was that once steel came around, it replaced bronze because of its superior usefulness in weapons, armor, tools, etc...

But I know very little about metallurgy, so I may be talking out of my butt.

 

[Derek Pullem]

Such as???

Steel > Bronze > Cast Iron

Particularly for cannons, bronze was considerably better than early cast iron cannon but due to its cost, iron gradually displaced it.

 

[Simreeve]

Also, because smelting iron needs that higher temperature, it requires significantly more fuel than producing comparable quantities of bronze would, and unless I'm greatly mistaken neither the central Andes nor the Pacific coastlands to their west -- which, between them, were the seats of that continent's earliest & main civilisations -- are really fuel-rich...

 

[Elfwine]

Steel > Bronze > Cast Iron

Particularly for cannons, bronze was considerably better than early cast iron cannon but due to its cost, iron gradually displaced it.

But one can also (for many uses) use wrought iron, which is greatly superior to cast iron.

Swords and armor come to mind.

 

[othyrsyde]

Also, because smelting iron needs that higher temperature, it requires significantly more fuel than producing comparable quantities of bronze would, and unless I'm greatly mistaken neither the central Andes nor the Pacific coastlands to their west -- which, between them, were the seats of that continent's earliest & main civilisations -- are really fuel-rich...

They could have harvested trees from the Amazon, maybe? The Inca Empire did extend there.

 

[Derek Pullem]

But one can also (for many uses) use wrought iron, which is greatly superior to cast iron.

Swords and armor come to mind.

But bronze and wrought iron are not significantly different in properties. Wrought iron is cheaper to mass produce though given the raw materials. The Andean societies moved into the Bronze Age too late to change the impact of the conquistadores.

 

[KarneeKarnay]

We are sort of wandering off top right now. I think the issue has already been brought up. Why would you need to use Iron when you have easier to use and mine Copper?

I think if you want the Adean Civs to go onto the Iron Age what you need to do is increase the amount of trade between the Incas and other tribes. A fast track way to advancing any area, is to conquer it.

My reasons are based off the effect of Roman conquest in Europe.

1. The Romans brought a system of learning that is the basis of most of Europe's languages. This common tongue allowed the faster development and spread of technology.

2. Those that hoped to avoid war or defeat the Romans had to start buying their weapons. Those that were conquered adopted these weapons into their culture. For the Inca in this scenario it would make them very rich, as Amazonian tribes and even as far as the Maya and Aztecs began to buy or look for copper mines of their own.

3. This increased and larger trade networks, would further spread the technologies and culture of the Inca, just as it did for the Romans.

4. Increased trade and development of the Potato or something along those lines. Animal live stock will take second place as populations start to grow rapidly.

5. Necessity is the mother of all invention. The Aztecs are in perfect position to start looking for ores in the Mexican Mountains that are stronger than the Inca. They discover Iron and like how Copper spread before it, it will spread south.

6. The Inca will either adopt this new material and begin looking for it themselves or perish.

What you need for this to happen is essentially another 200 years (Before the Spaniards arrive.). You need a brutal and fast conquest of South America and Central America. Make it last three generations then let it implode. You have just jump-started the civilizations of America.

The end of all this will leave you with South America and Central America dark age level of civ. They are still going to take a pounding by the Europeans, but they might just survive.

 

[Odd_Numbered_Bonaparte]

It should be pointed out that wrought iron is actually weaker than bronze. The big advantage was that iron is far easier to find and, to some extent, work. The Inca, sitting on literal mountains of copper and tin, don't have any reason to adopt the inferior substitute. Atleast not until someone figures out steal.

 

[twovultures]

They could have harvested trees from the Amazon, maybe? The Inca Empire did extend there.

Harvesting from the Amazon probably wouldn't work. Whether they bring iron down from the mountains or timber up from the Amazon, that's an extremely arduous journey, only part of which can be done with pack animals as the Amazon's climate would kill of llamas pretty quickly. In addition, the Amazonian people aren't going to be any happier about the Quechua taking their trees than they are about Europeans doing it, so Incan loggers would probably find themselves dodging poisoned arrows every day they work.

They could potentially harvest trees in the cloud rainforests, but that's a recipe for massive erosion and landslides. The coast of Ecuador has trees IIRC and could work better for harvesting, but even then I don't think that the labor put into harvesting the timber would really be worth the effort compared to just bringing the tin and copper or tin and arsenic that is right next to each other in the Andes.

 

[eschaton]

It should be pointed out that wrought iron is actually weaker than bronze. The big advantage was that iron is far easier to find and, to some extent, work. The Inca, sitting on literal mountains of copper and tin, don't have any reason to adopt the inferior substitute. Atleast not until someone figures out steal.

Iron was not actually particularly easy to find in the Near East initially. It's thought the mass adoption was more because all tin deposits in the area had been mined out, leaving cultures to continually recycle and rework bronze. And they needed significant experimentation with adding carbon to come up with the first low-grade steel which made iron really useful in weapons and tools.