The Prehistoric World: or, Vanished Races, page 539 by E.A. Allen
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as money. But we have already seen that the natives had not risen to the conception of money. They certainly had copper tools, and bronze ones. It seems, however, that their bronze was a natural production and not an artificial one--that is to say, the ores of copper found in Mexico contain more or less gold, silver, and tin. So, if melted, just as nature left them, the result would be the production of bronze.<41> They were then ignorant of the knowledge of how to make bronze artificially. This shows us that they had not attained to a true Bronze Age; and yet the discovery could not have been long delayed. Sooner or later they would have found out that tin and copper melted together would produce the light copper that experience had taught them was the most valuable.
Illustration of Yucatan Axes.---------------
The most important tool they made of copper was the ax. The ax, in both Mexico and Yucatan, was made as represented in this illustration. From their shape and mode of hafting them, we see at once they are simply models of the stone ax; and this recalls what we learned of the Bronze Age in Europe. At first they contented themselves with copying the forms in stone.
Illustrations of Carpenter's Ax, Mexican Carpenter, and Copper Tool.------------------------
Nature, everywhere, conducts her children by the same means to the same ends. This form of ax is a representation of a carpenter's hatchet. The next cut is from the Mendoza collection, and represents a carpenter at work. He holds one of these hatchets in his hand, and is shaping a stick of timber. The other cut represents a form of copper tool found in Oaxaca, where they were once used in abundance. The supposition is that this implement was used for agricultural purposes--probably as a hoe. The pieces of T-shaped copper said to have been used as money, are diminutive forms of this same tool. The statement is sometimes made that they had a way of hardening copper. "This," says Mr. Valentine, "is a hypothesis, often noted