Archaeology of Architecture and Production in Industrial Sugar-Mill Contexts. Technological and Productive Changes in the Ingenio Lastenia Site (Tucumán, Argentina) During the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Abstract

On industrial archaeological sites, architectural structures like machinery are a fundamental piece of the technical systems involved in productive processes. In turn, the archaeological study of these systems can provide information about the sociocultural transformations linked to technological changes. In this article the archaeological analysis of architectural structures is combined with the study of documentary sources in order to trace the evolution of technical systems in the sugar factory of Ingenio Lastenia in Tucumán, Argentina, between 1880 and 1922. First, a chronological sequence is defined for the construction of the production unit and the various materials used in the factory buildings during different periods are presented, and, second, the links between architecture and production are identified and discussed. The analysis paves the way for the understanding of sugar-mill architecture as one material manifestation of industrial capitalism in northwest Argentina toward the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries.