Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com
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| Find Reported As Incan Funerary Mask. |
A couple days ago I reported on what was said to be an Incan funerary mask found on the beach somewhere near Melborne, Florida. As I said then, a lot of it didn't seem to make sense to me. It turns out that I was not the only one that felt that way. The ancient-origins.net web site also found the stories confusing and offered some corrections. It seems that the artifact is not as old as reported and is does not included metal from a meteorite.
The ancient-origins web site reports You are immediately forgiven if you have watched the News 6 video and are in a state of utter confusion, as was I. Sparvero’s introductory scene in the video confidently states the mask is “possibly 10 or 12,000 years old.” But in reality, the Inca formed in the Cusco area of modern Peru in the mid-12th century AD. Going with professor Torres’ suggestion that it’s an ‘Inca funerary mask’ it was forged no longer than 800 years ago, but other archaeologists claim “a native civilization smelted the mask possibly thousands of years BC” according to an article in Florida Today …
While Torres says the mask is Inca, right after that he says “it might be the first evidence of smelting” in South America. But that was thousands of years before the Inca formed. Searching for hard facts, clarity can be found in an excellent research paper, Metallurgy in Southern South America , written by three of the world’s leading scholars on ancient metallurgy; Colin A. Cooke, Mark B Abbott, and Alexander P. Wolfe. The scientists state , “The earliest evidence to date for smelting activity in southern South America comes in the form of copper slag from the Wankarani site in the highlands of Bolivia dating between 900 and 700 BCE (Ponce 1970).”
Thanks much to Dale J.. who sent me the ancient-origins link, which is probably closer to the truth than much of what has been said and reported about the mask.
Here is the link.
The ancient-origins web site reports You are immediately forgiven if you have watched the News 6 video and are in a state of utter confusion, as was I. Sparvero’s introductory scene in the video confidently states the mask is “possibly 10 or 12,000 years old.” But in reality, the Inca formed in the Cusco area of modern Peru in the mid-12th century AD. Going with professor Torres’ suggestion that it’s an ‘Inca funerary mask’ it was forged no longer than 800 years ago, but other archaeologists claim “a native civilization smelted the mask possibly thousands of years BC” according to an article in Florida Today …
While Torres says the mask is Inca, right after that he says “it might be the first evidence of smelting” in South America. But that was thousands of years before the Inca formed. Searching for hard facts, clarity can be found in an excellent research paper, Metallurgy in Southern South America , written by three of the world’s leading scholars on ancient metallurgy; Colin A. Cooke, Mark B Abbott, and Alexander P. Wolfe. The scientists state , “The earliest evidence to date for smelting activity in southern South America comes in the form of copper slag from the Wankarani site in the highlands of Bolivia dating between 900 and 700 BCE (Ponce 1970).”
Thanks much to Dale J.. who sent me the ancient-origins link, which is probably closer to the truth than much of what has been said and reported about the mask.
Here is the link.
https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/inca-artifact-0011370
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Today was the first day this year that made me want to run out to the beach. The weather was what I consider excellent metal detecting weather, as long as you have a metal detector that can take the rain. It was exactly the kind of weather I love for metal detecting - too bad I caught the flu and decided to stay in.
I don't know what happened to the beaches today. I heard there was both an on-shore and long-shore currents, making it even the more tempting.
As you can see, it looks like we'll have a four to six foot surf tomorrow, along with some north wind.
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| Source: MagicSeaWeed.com. |
That is all for today.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
