Ancient mining and metallurgy in the extreme Northwest of Argentina

Abstract

In the context of pre-Hispanic South Andes, the Argentinean Northwest became a very relevant center of metalworking production and innovation. This development is reflected on the variety and quality of the metal objects produced there and in the technological solutions applied to achieve items with the desirable characteristics. The Puna of Jujuy, in the southern extreme of the South-Andes high-plateau and part of the current Argentinean Northwest, is an area of great interest for studying the particular characteristics of ancient mining and metalworking technology: there, ores of the four metals employed during pre-Hispanic times, such as copper, tin, gold and silver, were available. Therefore, in 2004 we initiated a research project focused on generating new data on this subject by combining historical research on colonial documentation with intensive and large-scale archaeological surveys, excavations and records of pre-Hispanic and Colonial sites. As a complement, we have designed and implemented an archaeo-metric studies program on furnaces, slag, minerals, and metals found.As result of the activities done so far, we have registered a hundred sites dedicated during different times to mining and metalworking production in the area. There, we could identify pits and trenches for placer mining, adits to extract gold and silver ores, ?canchas? (courtyards paved with cobbles), ?marays? (grinding stones), furnaces for mineral processing and smelting, isolated shelters near the working areas and even small abandoned villages that were founded due to the mineral wealth of the area.The study of these evidences allows us to suggest that during late pre-Hispanic times (circa 900-1430 AD), mining was not developed on a large-scale, although at the same time the production of metal objects reached its peak in close areas (such as in Humahuaca Valley). The extraction of mineral ores, especially copper and tin, would have been carried out by herder-miners, who would have transported them until regional centers of metalworking, located in lower valleys but not in the current Argentinean high-plateau. In that scenario, Puna inhabitants would have developed mining but not metallurgical activities.At the beginning of 15th century, the Argentinean Northwest was incorporated to the Tawantinsuyu. Although several researchers have pointed out the special interest of the Inca Empire on controlling the mines and workers of the Puna of Jujuy, our investigation shows that the Inkas did not develop large-scale mining activities nor evidences of metalworking production has been identified in Inka contexts in this region. Once Spanish conquerors arrived to the Puna (1535 AD), the mineral ores in the region, especially gold and silver ones, became a great attraction. Such was the will for searching and working the ores, that this region, with rigorous weather conditions, at more than 3700 m.a.s.l., concentrated one of the largest population in Jujuy by 18th century.During colonial times, the landscape of the Puna was structured around mining activity. European and Indigenous people worked the gold placers, labored the gold and silver ores and smelted minerals in reverberatory furnaces. Villages and towns grew up fast but also were abandoned quickly, along with the discovery and depletion of the minerals available. However, some of these towns are still today inhabited, as landmarks that remind the presence of the underground wealth and the gold and silver fever of the past.