New World picks up Metalurgy earlier?

riggerrob

WI the Americas had a more vigorous version of iron bacteria, that created larger, purer bog iron deposits?Thio ferroxident.
 

riggerrob

WI the Americas had a more vigorous version of iron bacteria (thiobaccilus ferrooxidans) that created larger, purer bog iron deposits?
WI early Americans employed similar bacteria to leach/smelt/refine iron ore to forms pure enough to be beaten into plow shares, knives, etc .
 

Umbral

Really, America has plenty of iron. Especially at the western end of the great lakes. Start with bog iron, it becomes a valuable comodity, trade springs up.
 

173rd LRRP

We just returned from 12 weeks in Ecuador and Peru. We spent a lot of time in museums and well as at archaeological and naturalist sites. We saw one display at the Machu Picchu Museum in Cuzco that discussed the development of an effective bismuth allow of bronze. This alloy did not get re-invened until the 1880s in Germany. So I googled this and found a number of corroborating citations. The below is from "The Christian Science Monitor http://www.csmonitor.com/1984/0216/021617.html

The Late Horizon cultures (immediately Pre-Inca and Inca) developed an excellent bismuth-tin-copper alloy that was very strong and useful. This alloy was not re-discovered until the 1880s. Earlier attempts during bronze age resulted in an extremely brittle alloy.

"...rhis appears to be the first known use of bismuth in bronze anywhere in the world. Moreover, it is used in a way that takes advantage of the new properties bismuth confers without suffering the drawback of making the alloy brittle.

Gordon and Rutledge explain that this reflects the microscopic structure of the alloy. The metal is made up of microscopic grains. Ordinarily, bismuth-containing grains penetrate grains of copper-tin - a penetration which makes the metal brittle.

x In modern copper-based bismuth-containing alloys such as brass the addition of zinc prevents such grain-boundary penetration. In the Inca knife handle, the addition of an unusually high amount of tin also inhibits grain-boundary penetration.,,"
 

Bavarian Raven

Mail was expensive, and rare, for the Norse during the time of their Vinland expeditions. That is the important part - what was the case elsewhere, or in other times, doesn´t matter.
Click to expand...

FYI - they found Norse mail on Ellesmere (sp?) island in the north canadian arctic. Along with other remnants of a norse camp. If they were taking mail along on what would likely have been a hunting trip (that region has/had amazing hunting / ivory potential) with little chance of major opposition, one would think it wouldn't be worth that much.

That being said, there might have been a tiny trading settlement on Ellesmere island (akin to the one on baffin island), which would explain the mail being present. More research needs to be done and money is lacking.
 
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