West Mexican bronze and bells: metal for sound and color, carried by sea from Ecuador and Peru (West Mexico, 7th–16th centuries)

SUMMARYWest Mexican bronze and bells: metal for sound and color, carried by sea from Ecuador and Peru (West Mexico, 7th–16th centuries) [Connections: Tech of the Americas, Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDDorothy Hosler's The Sounds and Colors of Power (MIT Press, 2002), per its tDAR record: metallurgy developed in West Mexico "between the seventh and sixteenth centuries," focused on "metallic sounding instruments, especially bells," and on "reflective golden and silvery colors." Hosler traces the technology to two waves along a sea route "originating in Ecuador and extending as far south as central and southern Peru." Wikipedia adds that West Mexican bells were lost-wax cast, that some had tin content so high the bronze looked golden, and that West Mexican smiths used local ores. For the Andes, Wikipedia says Tiwanaku-period (about 600–1000) copper objects have "approximately 5% arsenic and 4% nickel," and that arsenic bronze was smelted from sulphide ores

PATTERNA deliberate alloy science aimed at sound and color, and a sea trade linking Mexico and the Andes before any European ship

LENS (WW9)The Americas were connected by their own navigators and smiths

OPENHosler's alloy data (copper-arsenic, copper-tin, copper-silver) is in the book, not on the fetched record. Read the book's chapters

SOURCEtDAR record, Hosler 2002; Wikipedia, "Metallurgy in pre-Columbian America".