MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST 
to death closely regulated. Practically no such thing as 
private property existed for them. The state was every- 
thing, the individual nothing. On the other hand the state 
guarded the people against foreign invasion, protected 
them from injustice, and looked after them in sickness 
and in health. It relieved them of all personal responsi- 
bility and freed them from worry about their care in old 
age. Under such conditions obedience became a habit 
and the common people little more than animated ma- 
chines, constantly directed and supervised by the officers 
of the state. Often whole groups of people were shifted 
about and settled wherever needed, even in regions far 
distant from their original homes. In this way, the Incas 
spread their civilization and rendered it more homo- 
geneous throughout the empire. 
They established this in the first place, of course, by 
force. They raised armies, organizing and handling them 
with the same attention to detail which marked the con- 
duct of affairs in peace. The warriors carried the bow, 
the javelin, the sling, the ax, and the club—practically all 
of them made of stone, copper weapons being mainly cere- 
monial and not for use in actual warfare. 
They had developed mining and metal-working to a cer- 
tain extent and knew gold, silver, and copper. Some of 
their recovered implements made of the last-named metal 
contain tin, and hence are in reality of bronze. It seems 
almost certain, however, that they did not add this alloy 
intentionally, but that it resulted from the accidental pres- 
ence of tin in the copper ore. At all events, Peruvian 
civilization fell far short of developing a true Bronze Age. 
At most it was only Chalcolithic—that is, using both stone 
and copper implements. 
The Peruvians had developed pottery to an extraordi- 
nary degree, even though they knew nothing of that useful 
contrivance, the potter’s wheel. It consisted of plain, 
engraved, painted, and varnished ware (Fig. 109). Weav- 
ing was another art carried by the Peruvians to a very 
[ 342 ] 
