Archaeology and pre-Hispanic mining rituals in the south-central Andes (Puna of Salta, Northwestern Argentina)

Abstract

This article analyzes and discusses pre-Hispanic mining ritual practices in the south-central Andes, based on a novel record composed of a variety of interrelated archaeological indicators. It is a mining-ritual landscape in the highlands of northwestern Argentina (Ratones Basin, Puna of Salta), mainly related to the expansion of the Inca Empire in the region. This evidence is discussed in the general framework of archaeological information from various sites in other areas of the Andes as well as from ethnohistorical and ethnographic information. The results allow us to link the archaeological evidence of the Ratones Basin with important aspects of an Andean worldview, such as the wakas mines, production rituals, the worship of ancestors and the sacralization of landscape elements. In turn, the analyzed record indicates the importance that rituals had as a form of symbolic domination by the Inca Empire for the control of mining activities. This case is an example of the symbolic/ ideological domination developed by many empires.