Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Local Mining in the Atacama Desert, Chile

University Of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

Prehistoric empires in common with multiple countries in the world today face the problem of how to integrate "outlying" communities often of varying ethnicity into a functioning effective social system. From the reverse perspective "outlying" communities can function most successfully if they can determine how best to take advantage of their incorporation into a broader social system. Archaeological research has the potential to examine such interactions over extended periods of time and such is the goal of this research project. Under the guidance of Dr. Marc Bermann, Francisco Garrido will explore two factors underlying the success of the ancient Inca empire: its imperial infrastructure (the famous road system), and its impact at household and local levels in subject territories. Taking a "bottom up" perspective on the effects of Inca conquest on mining in the Atacama desert of Chile, the research will investigate localized responses to articulation with the imperial system. This research will address this topic through investigation of the relationship between the Inca Road, and a recently discovered, non-Inca, mining camp, isolated in the Atacama Desert. Preliminary research suggests that this camp could not have existed without use of the nearby Inca road, leading to two, inter-related, research objectives: (1) evaluating the extent to which the Inca Road functioned as an unrecognized growth factor, stimulating local craft industry; and (2) assessing whether the Inca Road served as a linear entrepot or exchange nexus, rather than simply as a highway servicing Inca imperial needs. A one-year project of survey, surface collection, and excavation will document: the nature of mining at Chinchilla and the use of a nearby section of the Inca Road. In the past, just as today, a major road can serve as an powerful economic stimulus or magnet, making possible economic enterprises along it that were not feasible previously. By connecting local Atacama populations to a much wider socioeconomic world, the research will be addressing issues of "globalization," albeit, using this prehistoric case study. One area of investigation is to document how people chose to use a new and foreign infrastructure (even one that represented imperial hegemony) to their own ends. Part-time, supplemental, or seasonal mining as a small scale kin-based activity with low capital investment is still common in many parts of the world today, including South America, and its organization and goals can be very similar to prehispanic examples. A better understanding of the history and dynamics of small scale mining in the Atacama remains relevant today, where there is still a juxtaposition of large, profit-driven, multinational mining operations and community based, risk minimizing, community-level mining. The theoretical issues addressed in this research thus parallel contemporary issues discussed in Chile today about mining and household and community autonomy, resource access and utilization, and economic coping strategies. The broader impacts of this research include documenting understudied components of the archaeological heritage in the Atacama Desert - increasingly a tourist destination. Chilean students from several universities will participate in the fieldwork, and receive training in current survey and excavation techniques. Collections will be stored at the Regional Museum of Atacama, and available, with complete documentation, to other students and scholars. An important component of the research will be working with existing museum collections and with unpublished reports, bringing data from these hidden sources to public light. The project will result in Mr. Garrido's dissertation, and the findings will be disseminated through the Center for Comparative Archaeology electronic data base, conference presentations and peer-reviewed publications.