Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Mines, spoils, retention walls and pads are the most common material remains of pre-Hispanic mining activity studied by archaeologists. In this paper we will focus on yet another category, the mining ergology, defined as the material artefacts associated with day to day mining activities. Mining ergology seeks to document the technological equipment of the pre-Hispanic miner, which is seldom found in archaeological contexts due to poor preservation of organic materials. The arid conditions of the Atacama desert offer unique conservation possibilities which have shown a varied mining ergology that includes hafted stone hammers bound to wooden handles with rawhide and wool, lithic hammer heads, lithic and wooden shovels, baskets and capachos (rawhide sacks). The study of these components complements our knowledge of pre-Hispanic mining technologies and increases our understanding of the organization of mining operations, the diachrony of mining activity, the variability and continuity of the material record, and therefore of mining and its development in the Andes in general.Key words: Pre-Hispanic mining, Atacama Desert, ergology, copper.
Minas
Dentro del escenario sociopolítico de los Andes del Sur, parecen existir a lo menos dos tradiciones metalúrgicas que coexisten durante el Período Medio. La primera propiamente altiplánica, centrada en torno al Estado de Tiwanaku y la segunda en el noroeste argentino, caracterizada por la metalurgia Aguada. Paralelamente, desde el Período Medio se observa un notable aumento de la presencia de objetos metálicos en San Pedro de Atacama, los cuales aparecen en las tumbas en ciertos casos asociados con objetos Tiwanaku, tales como tabletas con iconografía estatal, cerámica altiplánica, textiles u otros implementos del complejo alucinógeno. Desde hace mucho tiempo la discusión sobre la metalurgia de San Pedro se ha centrado en el carácter exógeno de los bienes metálicos o bien ha supuesto una producción local sin aportar argumentos empíricamente consistentes para respaldarla. En función de estos antecedentes, pensamos que los análisis composicionales constituyen una primera entrada al problema de las procedencias y las tradiciones metalúrgicas de San Pedro de Atacama. En este artículo presentaremos una contribución preliminar a esta discusión, por medio del análisis químico elemental mediante ICP
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.