Polished magnetite mirrors occur, though are not exactly common, from
Olmec times on, but there is NO evidence of the use of iron in Mesoamerica
at any time before the Spanish invasion of the early 1500's. In fact there
is no evidence of iron in the New World as a whole before European contact
other than (1) bits of hammered and annealed meteoritic iron and (2) a
very few enigmatic bits of smelted iron in western Canada and the Arctic
which are thought to have washed up in ship wrecks, driftwood etc on the
Pacific coast - possibly of Chinese origin? The earliest actual evidence
of iron smelting is at the Norse site of L'Anse aux Meadaux (spelling?) in
Newfoundland.
The expert on pre-European iron in the New World is Mike Wayman at the
University of Alberta - see in particular his excellent monograph
published by the British Museum.
----------------------
David Killick
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology,
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0030.
Phones: office (520)621-8685; laboratory 621-7986; fax 621-2088
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