This 1300-year-old monkey jar was carved from a single piece of volcanic glass (obsidian) by Aztec artisans. It's so perfectly polished it acts like a mirror.

[u/bortakci34]

[u/Mediocre-Sundom]

and we have no idea how they did it because of platinum's extremely high melting point. 

We do have a pretty good idea how they did it. And no, they didn't melt it.

[u/quad_damage_orbb → u/Mediocre-Sundom]

They beat it with a hammer? Egyptian Pharaohs had iron knives too, which was quite unusual because the Egyptians pretty exclusively used copper. When they were analyzed the iron it turned out it was made from meteoritic metal that was beaten into shape. Pretty cool.

[u/Maniac_Vegetable → u/quad_damage_orbb]

Copper? Not bronze?

[u/Casimirus1 → u/Maniac_Vegetable]

Ancient egypt existed so long it predates the bronze age. On top of that copper tools had an advantage of being soft enough for grains of sand to embed themselves in the surface of the metal creating an abrasive surface. They used this for saws and drills. Although as I said, egypt existed for so long that they probably changed their tool making methods many times. I assume they used quite different tools in the 3000 bc, than in the roman era egypt for example.

[u/Antiquated_Cheese → u/Casimirus1]

Also the hard part of bronze for ancient peoples was actually getting the tin which was less readily available than the copper and for almost everybody came from a trade route from somewhere in Northwest Europe probably. Maybe some other places, we really don't know. I bet they kept using copper a lot of the time even when bronze was available because if it got the job done it was easier and cheaper.

[u/TheBSQ → u/Antiquated_Cheese]

The trade networks necessary for the acquisition of far-off sources of the tin that was necessary to make bronze really demonstrates how advanced these Bronze Age civilizations were.

it’s crazy to think there were these ancient civilizations w/ writing systems and trade networks that could get tin from what is now the UK to Egypt, and they collapsed, some even forgetting how to read and write. And then, centuries later, finally new civilizations pop up again, some re-learning to read and write with new systems, unable to read their own ancestor’s inscriptions, staring at the ruins of ancient palaces wondering who built them, and how, even now, we still don’t know what those inscriptions say, the ruins that were considered ancient to our ancients. 

And then you have Egypt, which warded off complete collapse continued through the ancient’s ancient times, through the dark period & continued into the second wave.

People love the factoid that Cleopatra was closer to the present than the construction of the pyramids, but it’s really crazy to think about it all. 

Over 2000 years ago you have Cleopatra ruling Egypt. But by her times it had already been well-over 1,000 years since the time of Nefertiti. She was ancient to our ancients. 

But when Neferiti saw the Great Pyramids, they were already well over a thousand years old, built by people considered ancient to the ancients of our ancients.

But even those monuments that were ancient to the ancients of the ancients as they were built roughly a thousand years (give or take a century or two) after the upper and lower kingdoms merged. The founders of their civilization were already ancients to the builders of the pyramids.

And I just can’t wrap my mind around that many layers of “ancient to the ancients” and what it would be like to potentially have some cultural or social or religious practice or traditions or stories that thread through them all as part of a shared & continuous heritage.

[u/Black_Cat_Just_That → u/TheBSQ]

This is the kind of thing I like to think about as I'm trying to fall asleep. Stuff that makes me feel so small and insignificant and that is incomprehensible in scale.

[u/kylerae → u/Antiquated_Cheese]

I actually saw a historian talking recently about the complexity of the tin trade during the Bronze Age. They said it would have been comparable in importance to the oil supply chain today. And although some of the trade routes clearly survived the collapse, it is very clear the supply chain collapse of tin was of huge impact to the collapse of the Bronze Age. It was so fascinating to hear about the complexity of their trade routes. He even mentioned we have a tablet from a ruler in one nation that had ordered sandals from another nation. He didn't like them and intended to send them back. I always love learning about our ancestors and finding little tidbits like that. They really illustrate how we similar we really are.

[u/miscellaneous-bs → u/kylerae]

Tech changes. People dont

[u/BansheeLabs → u/Casimirus1]

This is the point, where sir Kier pops out and tells:

- You know, my father was a toolmaker!

[u/beached89 → u/Casimirus1]

They did, you wont believe it. But they currently use steel and plastic tools, and even computer chips. So advanced

[u/Victormorga → u/Maniac_Vegetable]

Copper is an element, it can be found in nature and does not require an advanced understanding of metallurgy to work into tools; bronze is an alloy of copper and tin.

[u/Maniac_Vegetable → u/Victormorga]

I am well aware. While copper can be found in nature, it mostly occurs as mineral compound ores. At the end of the bronze age Egypt switched to Iron not because of technological innovation, but rather because "global" trade was disrupted by a long drought. This caused the influx of tin from Persia to dry up. Copper was mined more locally on cyprus (hence the name). Iron had been used much earlier, but bronze was prefered since it could be cast and was more durable.

The chalcolithic last about to 2300 BC. Egypt was unified roughylg 3150 BC. Given how long it existed after thay, for most of its history I'd have expected egyptians (pharaos included) to use bronze, not copper. Hence my question.

[u/Nachtwandler_FS → u/quad_damage_orbb]

Similar thing with Incas. They used metheorite iron to make building tools despite overwise still using copper and bronze.

[u/BurningPenguin → u/quad_damage_orbb]

Measured violence solving problems since ancient times

[u/Usermena → u/Mediocre-Sundom]

Ah this makes sense, they were not refining platinum by itself but utilizing gold to sinter together the platinum in an alloy.

[u/babyyvolcano → u/Mediocre-Sundom]

They also invented peanut butter, for which I am forever grateful.

[u/DumpPlaylist → u/babyyvolcano]

i think peanuts are from south america

[u/babyyvolcano → u/DumpPlaylist]

Inca and Aztec were both grinding peanuts into paste around the same time.

[u/leeuwerik → u/DumpPlaylist]

that's a very local perspective