Highmountain
Hero Member
If we're to believe Bernal Diaz,
1] The Aztec arrived in great numbers from somewhere in the north within a century before the arrival of Cortez,
2] The Aztec had far more gold and of a better 'quality' than the other tribes along the route the Spaniards took to the Valley of Mexico.
The cultures to the south had been around for a long while and had large quantities of gold, which likely came from areas they occupied or they'd traded for it from outside areas for centuries.
The Aztec, on the other hand, had either come from, or traveled through [possibly huge] areas historically inhabited by cultures where gold, copper and silver is deposited in great quantities and where the occupants placed no particular value on those minerals and left no evidence of having mined or refined them. If the ancestors of the Aztec originated in those areas and lived in them long enough generations to have developed a complex, sophisticated society they'd almost certainly have discovered where the mineral deposits were [even if they weren't much interested in them until they'd moved south].
Alternatively, [if their origins were further north or elsewhere] they might have established firm relationships with the area residents who did know where the mineral deposits were located. For that matter, they might have absorbed such groups as the Anasazi, Mimbres, Mogollon, Hohokam during their migration and persuaded them to join their trek to a new homeland.
In any case, because the Aztec came from the north, while the eyes of the surrounding tribes in Mexico when they arrived had previously been clearly focused on the advanced cultures to the south, they might have been in the unique position of knowing locations of minerals to the north unknown to the Toltec and other nearby tribes.
The coincident of the vanishing southwestern cultures during the same period as the arrival of the Aztec in Mexico, the bloody civil war fought among them 1100-1150ce seems to me to offer a compelling suggestion of a connection between the two events. This, despite the fact those cultures left no evidence of having cared about gold and other metals and the pottery and other artifacts of the southwestern cultures bears little similarity to that of the Aztec.
I believe that whatever region the Aztec might have originated in, a strong case might be made they acquired their gold and silver in the Sierra Madre and northward after having learned the skills for refining it and developed a liking for the beauty of it for ornaments as well as for other uses.
Those are the fundamental premises of this thread. My hope is to maintain a relatively narrow focus in the discussion and share ideas, evidence and other information concerning possibly pre-Columbian mining and refining sites located in the southwestern US and northern Mexico.
1] The Aztec arrived in great numbers from somewhere in the north within a century before the arrival of Cortez,
2] The Aztec had far more gold and of a better 'quality' than the other tribes along the route the Spaniards took to the Valley of Mexico.
The cultures to the south had been around for a long while and had large quantities of gold, which likely came from areas they occupied or they'd traded for it from outside areas for centuries.
The Aztec, on the other hand, had either come from, or traveled through [possibly huge] areas historically inhabited by cultures where gold, copper and silver is deposited in great quantities and where the occupants placed no particular value on those minerals and left no evidence of having mined or refined them. If the ancestors of the Aztec originated in those areas and lived in them long enough generations to have developed a complex, sophisticated society they'd almost certainly have discovered where the mineral deposits were [even if they weren't much interested in them until they'd moved south].
Alternatively, [if their origins were further north or elsewhere] they might have established firm relationships with the area residents who did know where the mineral deposits were located. For that matter, they might have absorbed such groups as the Anasazi, Mimbres, Mogollon, Hohokam during their migration and persuaded them to join their trek to a new homeland.
In any case, because the Aztec came from the north, while the eyes of the surrounding tribes in Mexico when they arrived had previously been clearly focused on the advanced cultures to the south, they might have been in the unique position of knowing locations of minerals to the north unknown to the Toltec and other nearby tribes.
The coincident of the vanishing southwestern cultures during the same period as the arrival of the Aztec in Mexico, the bloody civil war fought among them 1100-1150ce seems to me to offer a compelling suggestion of a connection between the two events. This, despite the fact those cultures left no evidence of having cared about gold and other metals and the pottery and other artifacts of the southwestern cultures bears little similarity to that of the Aztec.
I believe that whatever region the Aztec might have originated in, a strong case might be made they acquired their gold and silver in the Sierra Madre and northward after having learned the skills for refining it and developed a liking for the beauty of it for ornaments as well as for other uses.
Those are the fundamental premises of this thread. My hope is to maintain a relatively narrow focus in the discussion and share ideas, evidence and other information concerning possibly pre-Columbian mining and refining sites located in the southwestern US and northern Mexico.
This is akin to the chicken and the egg argument. Perhaps the cultivated corn which we are now familiar with cannot grow in the wild, however the original corn species were indeed wild ones. If corn were not originally wild, then how could it have originated, my friend? And please, lets' not get into discussions about genetic engineering during pre-Columbian times. 
