WARSAW, POLAND—Science in Poland reports that a young man buried some 1,200 years ago at the site of Huarmey in northern coastal Peru may have been a metallurgist, based upon the well-worn bronze saw, ax, knives, and chisels with bone handles recovered from his grave by a team of researchers led by Miłosz Giersz of the University of Warsaw's Institute of Archaeology. A key additional clue to the man's profession was a sample of slag, or rocky waste produced during the refining of metal from ore. The young man, who was about 20 years old at the time of death, was placed in a sitting position, and wrapped in fabric decorated with a design imprinted with wet clay. The tools were also wrapped in fabric, some of which has survived. Giersz and Branden Rizzuto of the University of Toronto analyzed the content of the metal and concluded it is an alloy of copper and arsenic. “Arsenic alloy guaranteed that these were really hard tools that could be used for a variety of farm and carving jobs, as well as war weapons,” Giersz said. A pattern engraved on the saw may have been a maker’s signature, Giersz added. To read about another discovery at Huarmey, go to “A Wari Matriarchy?”
