>With this lost wax process -- why cannot the wax be tested to determine who
made it?

The short answer is: it's lost. That's why it's called "lost wax casting".

The long answer is: that was thousands of years ago. The Spanish melted down
most of the gold art treasures. The wax was considered inferior to European
beeswax, so no one would have kept it. There is a large amount of writing on
the art and culture of the first Americans. The idea that they could not
have come up with all of this without help from Europeans or Asians, is
pointless at best.

Michael D. Coe's excellent book, "The Maya" (4th edition, London: Thames and
Hudson, 1987), Coe discusses Mayan life based on the Spanish missionaries'
"first-class anthropological accounts of native culture as it was just
before they came" (p. 155). He states that "the Maya farmer raised the
native stingless bees, which are kept in small, hollow logs closed with mud
plaster at either end and stacked up in A-frames, but wild honey was also
much appreciated" (p. 156). Honey was a valuable export from the Yucatan (p.
157). Coe also refers to Classic Maya rituals to increase animal life and
honey (p. 172).

According to Alexander von Humboldt, the Spanish conqueror Cortes found
honey being sold by Native Americans in their market places when he came to
the New World. Here is the passage from Alexander von Humboldt, Political
Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, translated by John Black, London, 1811,
vols. 1 of 3 volumes (accessed in the Special Collection Department at Iowa
State University, Ames, Iowa): Cortez . . . told Emperor Charles V of the
commodities sold in the great market of Tlaletolco--"There is sold," says
he, "honey of bees and wax, honey from the stalks of maize, and honey from a
shrub called maguey by the people. The natives make sugar of these plants,
and this sugar they also sell."

Since pre-Hispanic times the Mayan and Nahua ethnic groups of Central
America bred stingless bees for their honey and wax. This type of
beekeeping, which is called "meliponiculture", was a well-developed
enterprise at the time of the Spanish conquest. Bee stands with hundreds of
colonies of Melipona beecheii supplied honey and wax for exportation to
Europe. To this day, peasant farmers continue to keep stingless bees in
forest areas. Melipona beecheii is still the preferred species for
husbandry, while some eight more species are being kept in the home gardens.
The honey, wax and pollen of almost all the other stingless bee species are
collected in the forest.

Lost wax casting, a common metalworking method, typically found where the
inhabitants keep bees, was also utilized by the Maya. The wax from melipona
is soft and easy to work, especially in the humid Mayan lowland areas. This
allowed the Maya to create smaller works of art, jewelry, and other
metalsmithing that would be difficult to forge. It also makes use of the
leftovers from honey extraction. If the hive was damaged beyond repair, the
whole of the comb could be used, thus using the whole of the hive. But
hopefully, with experienced keepers, the honey pot can be removed, the honey
extracted, and the wax used for casting or other purposes.

Peter Borst
Danby NY

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