ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Metallurgy in pre-Columbian America

Well kiddo, do you know what metallurgy means? It's like making things out of metal. In the past, people didn't have machines and factories to make metal things, so they had to figure out how to do it on their own.

In pre-columbian America, which means before Christopher Columbus arrived, people like the Aztecs and Incas were really good at making things out of metal, like gold, silver, and copper. They had special techniques they used to melt down the metal and shape it into things like jewelry, weapons, and religious items.

Some of these techniques included using fires to melt the metal, and hammers and molds to shape it. They also used something called smelting, which is when they separate metal from its ore (like digging up gold from the ground) using heat and special techniques.

These people were really skilled at metallurgy, and many of their metal creations are still around today. So next time you see something shiny made of metal, remember that people in the past had to work really hard to make it!