section_path: Americas
section_name: Americas
paragraph_text: Americas
  
  The Moche civilization of South America independently discovered and developed bronze smelting. Bronze technology was developed further by the Incas and widely used both for utilitarian objects and for sculpture. A later appearance of limited bronze smelting in western Mexico suggests either contact of that region with Andean cultures or separate discovery of the technology. The Calchaquí people of northwestern Argentina had bronze technology.