 Scholars such as Dorothy Hosler suggest that ancient Mesoamericans were unique in their attention to the peculiar aesthetic properties of metals, such as the brilliant sounds and colors evoked through the movement of metallic objects.The rather late emergence of metallurgy in ancient Mesoamerica likely contributed to its novelty and subsequent role as a marker of elite status.It has been suggested that Mesoamerican metal smiths produced particular alloys with the chief aim of exploiting the alloys’ emergent color properties, particularly the vivid gold tones produced through infusion of tin, and the silver shades that develop at high arsenic concentrations.