Evidencias de producción y uso de piezas de metal en la Puna de Jujuy: el aporte de las colecciones y los nuevos trabajos de campo

Abstract

Little is known so far about the production and use of metal objects in the Puna of Jujuy. In fact, while the presence of metalliferous ores in the region and the possibility of the pre-Columbian inhabitants exploiting those resources have been highlighted, the local metallurgy and the access to metal objects have been underestimated or discarded. However, the archaeological research carried out since the beginning of the XX century in different Puna settlements have recovered metal artefacts, although only few of them have been published or studied so far. In this paper we will present the findings made by previous scholars, recorded in publications and/or collection databases from national and international museums, and the data gathered by ourselves after more than a decade of work in the area. We also include the compositional analyses that have been carried out. This synthesis shows the possible evidences of local metallurgical production and the diversity of objects employed in the region, an essential basis to rethink the characteristics of metallurgy in the region and the role that metal artefacts played in pre-Columbian and colonial societies.