FIRE AS AN AGENT IN HUMAN CULTURE 75 



bellowH, which classical writers attribute to Daedalus and Anacharsis, 

 may have made possible the reduction of copper ores in the later 

 Bronze Age, and may have unlocked at another period the coming 

 metal, iron." 



The critical invention in metallurgy is the bellows (pi. 26), which 

 belongs exclusively to the Eastern Hemisphere, the western world 

 having only advanced as far as the blast of human breath through 

 tubes. In this respect it may be said that the metallurgy of Amer- 

 ica is more primitive than any reported in the Eastern Hemisphere. 

 The ridiculous blast furnaces of ancient Peru described by Garcilasso, 

 in which a circle of men blew through tubes into a central crucible, 

 is an example.^^ It appears that this method was employed in the 

 higher civilizations of America. Outside of these areas it is not 

 probable that any metal was worked by heat. 



Primitive metallurgy has attracted several students. The research 

 of R. Andree may be cited in going farther into the subject.^" 



The manufacture of bronze, which ushers in the new era, is so 

 complex that it must take place late in the history of metallurgy, 

 which itself begins long after man has become acquainted with some 

 of the free metals, especially copper, which was worked cold or with 

 a modicum of heat in America and elsewhere. A period, much limited 

 in extent, when copper was pounded, seems to have proceeded the 

 working of bronze, but copper is difficult to melt and cast, and it 

 is probable that bronze resulted from experiments with mixtures 

 to lower the melting point and to admit of casting in a closed mold. 

 Metalliu-gy, considered from the standpoint of the utilization of fire 

 probably follows the intensifying of heat for certain purposes, as the 

 heating of a pit oven for the roasting of roots (the pit furnace was a 

 device of ancient bronze workers), or in the various kilns by which 

 fire was confined for burning pottery. Thus, a heat has been observed 

 in the ancient potter's kiln discovered in Arizona which sometimes 

 fused and distorted the clay and produced vitreous slag." 



The discovery and use of fluxes must be considered. 



As mentioned in the article quoted, "the metallurgy of iron was a 

 distinct advance on that of bronze and made use of the experimental 

 knowledge and mechanical equipment acquired in the Bronze Age. ^* 



CERAMICS 



It is obvious that the ceramic art long antedated metallurgy. 

 The Bronze Age appeared as an inclusion in the later Neolithic, 

 while the earUest pottery is found in the beginning of the Neolithic. 



M Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. 2, 1916, p. 126. 

 » John Fiske. The Discovery of America, vol. 2, 1892, p. 360. 



" Die Metalle bei den naturvolkern mit berucksichtigung prahistorischer verhaltnisse, Lepzig, 1884. 

 *■ Walter Hough. Archeological Field Work in Northeastern Arizona, Ann. Kept., U. S. Nat. Mus., 

 1901, p. 334. 

 »« Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. 2, 1916, pp. 126-127. 



