Among documents, furnaces and slag: considerations around the study of colonial mining and metallurgy in the Puna of Jujuy

Abstract

A study case on colonial mining and metallurgy in the Puna of Jujuy, Argentina is presented to see the articulation -limitations, challenges and possibilities- between diverse research strategies linked to archaeology and history. Several research problems in which different variables and materialities were evaluated are discussed here. The written sources analyzed enhanced the understanding of the relationship among the mining and metallurgical complexes archaeologically recorded, and the identification of people who probably invested and worked there; moreover, were the basis to build a general chronological frame of the exploitations. Meanwhile, the archaeological research approached aspects not sufficiently mentioned in the documentation, like the impact on the landscape, the technology, the scale and other characteristicsof the mining work.