The rounded, half-moon shaped end of this tumi, or knife, is the blade. The long, trapezoidal end is the handle. Such knives were used during pre-Columbian times in the Andes for both ritual and surgical purposes. The best known examples are from the Sican culture, who perfected the technology for arsenic bronze, an alloy of copper and arsenic, and produced it on a very large scale.

When most people think of the Bronze Age, they think about Europe, Egypt, and the Middle East. However, the Americas had a Bronze Age, too. Metallurgy in the Americas was developed in the Andes sometime between 900 BC and 1 AD. From there, the technology spread to Panama, through Central America, and up into western Mexico.

If you look closely at the handle of this tumi you can see small fragments of cloth preserved on the surface. The knife was wrapped in fabric when it was buried. As the metal corroded, the corrosion encased and preserved the fabric.
– Ed Fleming, Curator of Archaeology