Mining and the Inca Road in the Prehistoric Atacama Desert, Chile
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MINING AND THE INCA ROAD IN THE PREHISTORIC ATACAMA DESERT, CHILE by Francisco Javier Garrido Escobar Lic., Universidad de Chile, 2004 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2015 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Francisco Javier Garrido Escobar It was defended on April 27, 2015 and approved by Elizabeth Arkush, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology Robert D. Drennan, PhD, Distinguished Professor, Anthropology Bryan Hanks, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology James B. Richardson III, Phd, Professor, Anthropology Mark B. Abbott, PhD, Associate Professor, Geology Dissertation Advisor: Marc P. Bermann, PhD, Associate Professor, Anthropology ii Copyright © by Francisco Javier Garrido Escobar 2015 iii MINING AND THE INCA ROAD IN THE PREHISTORIC ATACAMA DESERT, CHILE Francisco Javier Garrido Escobar, PhD. University of Pittsburgh, 2015 Traditionally, treatments of the Inca Empire have sought to document its deep economic and political impact on local populations in the Andes. There has been less study of how subject groups might have independently negotiated opportunistic economic responses to the Inca Empire. This research explores this issue through the investigation of the relationship between the Inca Road and a recently discovered, non-Inca system of mining camps, isolated deep in the Atacama Desert, northern Chile. Study of the development of these camps, and of their relationship with the Road aimed at addressing whether the Atacama Inca Road, served as a linear exchange nexus, or only as a highway servicing Inca imperial needs. To address this objective, I conducted a one-year project of survey, surface collection, and excavation to investigate: (1) the social organization and chaîne opératoire of turquoise and malachite beads, and red pigment production at the Cachiyuyo de Llampos Mountain camps; and (2) the nature of settlement and associated artifact assemblages along a nearby section of the Inca Road. In contrast to Inca state-ruled mining sites from the Inca epoch, these Chilean camps lacked Inca architecture and production patterns, presenting instead a pattern of artisan household mining and craft production of copper ore beads, iron oxide red pigment, and the crafting of items with distantly acquired raw materials. This craft production predated the Inca, and was not greatly altered following Inca conquest. However, occupation and production did iv intensify following Inca conquest, as the Road became a logistical resource for the camps, facilitating provisioning and exchange. Local miners and artisans worked full time in the desert, far from agricultural areas; the Inca Road became their main connection for the acquisition and movement of goods, independent of the Inca Empire’s imperial purposes. The data generated on domestic and craft activities, and on local and long distance exchange, contributes to our understanding of the use of the Inca Road and to how populations respond to imperial infrastructure. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE ................................................................................................................................ XXX 1.0 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1 1.1 POLITICAL ECONOMY AND HOUSEHOLD RESPONSE ........................ 2 1.2 IMPERIAL ROADS: USAGE AND LOCAL CONSEQUENCES ................. 4 1.2.1 The Inca Road .................................................................................................. 7 1.2.2 Models of the Inca Road: Turnpike versus Entrepot ................................. 11 1.3 LATE PREHISPANIC MINING ..................................................................... 12 1.4 THE INCA ROAD IN THE ATACAMA DESERT ....................................... 14 1.5 THE CACHIYUYO DE LLAMPOS MINING SYSTEM ............................. 15 1.6 RESEARCH QUESTIONS: THE INCA ROAD AND LOCAL MINING .. 17 1.6.1 What was the time depth and organization of production at the CH1 (Chinchilla 1) mining camp? ..................................................................................... 17 1.6.2 How was the Inca Road used, and what materials actually flowed along it? ........................................................................................................................ 18 1.6.3 How did the Chinchilla mining camps relate to one another? .................. 19 2.0 RESEARCH AREA ................................................................................................... 20 2.1 GEOGRAPHICAL SETTING ......................................................................... 20 2.1.1 The southern Atacama Desert ...................................................................... 20 vi 2.1.2 Biodiversity of the Atacama Desert ............................................................. 21 2.2 COPIAPO PREHISTORY ............................................................................... 22 2.2.1 Pre-Inca sedentary groups in Copiapó Valley ............................................ 22 2.2.2 The Copiapó region during the Inca period ................................................ 25 2.3 THE INCA ROAD IN THE ATACAMA DESERT ....................................... 26 2.3.1 Routes in the desert before the Incas ........................................................... 26 2.3.2 The Qhapaq Ñan through the Atacama Desert .......................................... 28 2.3.3 Upper Loa River case studies ....................................................................... 30 2.3.4 Inca roadside structures in the Atacama Desert ......................................... 32 2.3.5 The Ethnohistory and previous archaeological research of the Inca Road to Copiapó ................................................................................................................... 37 2.4 THE RESEARCH AREA ................................................................................. 44 2.4.1 Cachiyuyo de Llampos Mountains ............................................................... 44 2.4.2 Previous research in the survey area ........................................................... 46 2.4.3 Rock art research in the survey area ........................................................... 47 3.0 METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................... 51 3.1 THE SURVEY ................................................................................................... 51 3.1.1 Surface collection units ................................................................................. 52 3.1.2 Survey goals.................................................................................................... 55 3.2 TEST PIT EXCAVATIONS AT TAMBO MEDANOSO AND CHINCHILLA 1 ................................................................................................................. 55 3.3 ARTIFACT ANALYSIS ................................................................................... 56 3.3.1 Copper Ores ................................................................................................... 56 vii 3.3.2 Pottery ............................................................................................................. 57 3.3.3 Lithics ............................................................................................................. 57 3.3.4 Animal Bones ................................................................................................. 57 3.3.5 Botanical Remains ......................................................................................... 58 3.3.6 Museum collection analysis........................................................................... 58 4.0 THE CACHIYUYO DE LLAMPOS INCA ROAD AND ITS SITES .................. 59 4.1 ROADSIDE SITES WITH STRUCTURES IN THE SURVEY AREA ....... 62 4.1.1 Isolated structure sites................................................................................... 64 4.1.1.1 Small structures directly attached to the road ................................. 65 4.1.1.2 Groups of semicircular structures ..................................................... 68 4.1.1.3 The rectangular structure QÑ2 ......................................................... 73 4.1.2 Major sites ...................................................................................................... 75 4.1.2.1 Exterior 9 ............................................................................................. 75 4.1.2.2 QÑ5 ....................................................................................................... 80 4.1.2.3 QÑ8 ....................................................................................................... 82 4.2 TAMBO MEDANOSO SURFACE COLLECTIONS AND EXCAVATION …………………………………………………………………………………..87 4.2.1 Surface artifact distributions at Tambo Medanoso ................................... 90 4.2.2 Tambo Medanoso test pit excavations ......................................................... 91 4.2.3 Tambo Medanoso radiocarbon dates .......................................................... 94 4.2.4 Features from Tambo Medanoso ................................................................. 96 4.2.4.1 A possible cancha at Tambo Medanoso ...........................................