Standard Weights in Ancient Andes
SCIENTIFIC CORRESPONDENCE
ideal weights of 50 and 100 H (see table). Together, these weights and ingots sug Standard weights This accuracy is about what one would gest the existence of a system of standard expect for ingots made, as these were, ized weights used from Ecuador to Peru's in ancient Andes by remelting a carefully weighed quantity south coast. A late prehistoric date is indi 8 of copper prills . Some copper would cated by the late textile accompanying the SIR- New evidence suggests that a stan have been lost in the formation of crucible south coast ingot, and the late occupation dardized measure of weight was used in slag. Some impurities, notably iron, of Cerro Huaringa's smelting work the prehispanic Andes. Small, prehispanic accounting for a few per cent of the shops (AD 1100-1535) and Chan Chan beam balances have been found through prills' weight, would have segregated and (AD 1000-1470). The Chan Chan ingot 1 5 out the area - , but were thought to have been removed with the slag. These vari predates the Inca conquest of the Chimu been used with internally consistent ables would have made more precisely Empire in AD 1470, and so the system was unique weight sets to measure propor replicated ingot weights impossible. The not an Inca innovation. While the extent tions only. No standardization was two Cerro Huaringa ingots, found to and antiquity of the system are still 6 7 thought to have existed · • I have found gether, could reflect an ancient pairing to obscure, its very existence offers new that the weights of four copper ingots make up a mass of copper weighing insights into control of commodities, or from various locations on the Peruvian exactly 150 H. ganization of production and circulation coast correspond to regular multiples of a So far, only two additional copper of goods in the prehispanic Andes. Stephen M. Epstein PLANO-CONVEX INGOT WEIGHTS Department of Anthropology, --c-----: ------Ingot Metric weight Andean weight Approximation University of Pennsylvania, (g) (H) (H±%) Philadelphia, Cerro Huaringa Pennsylvania 19104, BG 80-1 182 47.9 50-4.2 USA BG 80-2 399 105 100 + 5.0 1. Nordenskiold. E. J. Soc. Am. Paris 13, 169-175 BG 80-1 + BG 80-2 581 153 150 + 1.9 (1921). 2. Rostworowski de Diez Canseco, M. in Aetas del II Chan Chan Congreso Nacional de Hist6ria 1953 Vol. 2, 102-115 AMNH B/5200 386 102 100 + 1.6 (Lima, Peru, 1960). 3. Baessier. A. Ancient Peruvian Art (transl. Keane, A. H.) La Lengua Plate 161 (Dodd, Mead, New York, 1902-1903) . Ref. 11 1,100 289 300 + 3.5 4. Schmidt, M. Kunst und Kultur von Peru 544 (Propylaen, Berlin, 1921). 5. Nordenskiold, E. Man 30, 215-221 (1930). 6. Bennett, W. C. in Handbook of South American Indians 5 unit originally proposed by Nordenski6ld ingots that closely resemble the Cerro Vol. 5 (ed. Steward, J.) 601-610 (Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1949). for prehispanic weights. Huaringa ingots have been found. Both 7. Rostworowski de Diez Canseco, M. in La tecnologia en Most known Andean weights date to approximate to ideal weights, 100 and 300 e/ mundo andino: Runakunap Kawsayninkupaq the Postconquest period and consist of H, respectively. The former, in the Ameri Rurasquankunaqa (eds Lechtman, H & Soldi, A. M.) 9 10 380-405 (Universidad Nacional Aut6noma de Mexico, simple pebbles carefully selected to corre can Museum of Natural History • , came Mexico City, 1981). spond to the Spanish colonial system of from a grave in the Chimu capital of Chan 8. Epstein, S.M. MASCA J. 2, 57--62 (1982). 9. Meand, C. W. Anthrop. Pap. Am. Mus. nat. Hist. 12 onzas and castellanos. Nordenski6ld, how Chan on Peru's north coast. Caley and (Pt 2) 16-52 (1915). 11 ever, identified 13 weights that did not Easby acquired the latter on the south 10. Petersen, G. G. Mineria y metalurgia en e/ antiguo PerU (Museo Nacional de Antropolog1a y Arqueolog1a, Lima, conform to the Spanish system: one set of coast, at "La Lengua", in the Ingenio val 1970). nine pebble weights in a cloth bag from ley of lea Province. It was wrapped in a 11. Caley, E. R. & Easby, D. T. Jr Am. Antiq. 25, 59-65 Pachacamac, Peru; and four individual warp-faced, plain-weave cotton cloth, with (1959). weights from various Andean locations. the alternating plain and barred stripes He found their weights to be multiples of most common in textiles between AD 1200 a unit he called H, perhaps for huarcu, the and 1535. The 'St Jude' word for weight in both Quechua and Aymani. The heaviest of the gambit nine pebble set weighs 25 H; the other eight together weigh 25 H. SIR - Oliver Goodenough and Richard The mean value of H is Dawkins (Nature 371, 23-24; 1994) have 3.80 ± 0.058 g. overlooked the fact that prior exposure to Nordenski6ld's other weights, an appropriate mind virus may be a pre unfortunately, are vaguely prov requisite for susceptibility to infection by enanced and perhaps selectively another mind virus. chosen. Nevertheless, they in They themselves report the "experi clude two pebbles (H = 3.71 and encing of waves of mild, irrational anxiety 3.89 g) from a "work-basket on on deciding not to comply" with the postal the Peruvian coast", a somewhat parasite's instructions. These symptoms oxidized lead weight (H = 3.75 g) disclose a prior infection, a 'meme', that from "Baranca", and a pierced was successfully implanted in them. It quartz stone (H = 3.88 g) required a challenge from the St Jude from Pinal, Ecuador. Including virus to uncover the meme. Perhaps fur these additional finds would yield ther taxonomic refinement will show that a mean H of 3.80 ± 0.067 g. all memes are mind viruses, but not all More recently, I found two mind viruses are memes. plano-convex ingots of arsenical lan Dunn copper at the late prehistoric - 48 Frederick Street, copper smelting site of Cerro Hornsby, A plano-convex ingot of arsenical copper found at Cerro Huaringa on Peru's north coast. Huaringa, Peru. The ingot is designated BG 80-2. Scale New South Wales 2077, These ingots approximate to bar, 1 em. (Photo by N. Hartmann.) Australia NATURE · VOL 372 · 3 NOVEMBER 1994 49