Abstract

BECERRA, María Florencia; ANGIORAMA, Carlos I.  and  NIEVA, Nicolás. Archaeo-metric analyses on evidence of mining-metallurgical production during the colonial period at Fundiciones 1, Rinconada Department, Jujuy, Argentina. Intersecciones antropol. [online]. 2011, vol.12, n.1, pp.5-16. ISSN 1850-373X.

This paper contributes to the understanding of activities carried out at Fundiciones 1, a mining-metallurgical complex located in the current department of Rinconada, Jujuy. This site would probably have been active during the final decades of seventeenth century, in a context of general mining production. This paper discusses archaeo-metric analyses on samples of smelting slag and vitrified clay, the contextual information of the findings, and the study of the furnaces present at the site in order to identify, above all, the kinds of metals produced in the complex, the smelting redox conditions, the firing temperatures, and the efficiency of the processes. This study is particularly relevant due to the absence of information about mining and metallurgical practises during the colonial period in the area. To date, there is little research focused on the material evidence left by these activities. Moreover, travellers and metallurgists only wrote about colonial exploitation in the great mining centres with no reference to marginal areas such as the Puna of Jujuy.

Keywords : Mining; Metallurgy; Colonial times; Archaeometry; Slag.

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