AMERICAS — Ancient mining site uncovered in Chile’s Atacama

Of all the deserts in the world, the Atacama in northern Chile is the most desolate. Little or no measurable precipitation is recorded annually. There are vast stretches where not a single blade of vegetation, a thorn of scrub brush nor any other visible sign of life can be found.

What we see today, however, is not as it was centuries ago. Much of the Atacama was once sparsely wooded with algarrobo and tamarugual. It was also populated, and archaeological studies indicate that some of the inhabitants were involved in mining and metal production.

The most recent evidence is from an archaeological excavation at Ramaditas, a 2,000-year-old village about 240 km southeast of the port city of Iquique. It was founded in the 1940s by the late Grete Mostny, a noted Chilean archaeologist. Last summer, three archaeologists and their students revisited the site and collected samples of copper ore, metal and slag, which indicated that the village was once a copper-smelting operation.

The archaeologists were Alvaro Carevic of the Universidad Arturo Prat in Iquique (the university holds the site excavation permit); Mario Rivera, a Chilean who is now working at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Ill.; and Gray Graffam, who works in the Department of Anthropology at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont. Their field work was sponsored in part by Cominco (TSE), Cominco Resources International and Teck (TSE), along with funds from the Canada Council and Trent University.

Mining has a long history in this part of Chile, dating back to at least 500 BC and perhaps as early as 1000 BC. Strictly speaking, Ramaditas is a small village and has never held more than 80-100 people. However, what makes it important is that the copper ore, slag and metal samples, which were removed from the lowest levels of the site last summer, have been dated to 50 BC (plus or minus 50 years).

These specimens provide the earliest direct evidence so far for copper smelting in Chile, and the slags are among the earliest in the Americas. They show clearly that Chilean natives were engaged in copper smelting in ancient times and that copper was not simply traded into the region. Archaeologists have long believed that copper was smelted in northern Chile during the Formative Period (1000 BC to AD 500), given the artifacts found at northern Chilean sites and the common knowledge of copper deposits in the area. These recent finds confirm that fact and further enhance our understanding of the science of ancient smelting.

Ruins of an ancient furnace have been found on the surface at Ramaditas; however, it postdates the original period of occupation. But the discovery of identical slags from the surface and from the lowest layers provides clear evidence that the same orebodies were being used over time and that similar furnace temperatures were being reached.

Theoretically, because metal production requires some degree of skill and special knowledge, it may be that the village of Ramaditas served some special purpose and that mining and metal production were part of its rationale for being. If this is the case, it may be that Ramaditas was a formative “colony” of sorts, that it had an intentional economic role relative to other sites with which it articulated.

Finds from the site corroborate, in a general way, discoveries from other sites of the period for northern Chile. They also give archaeologists a glimpse of how people lived.

Although metal was known, most cutting and chopping were done using stone tools. Large blades and flakes litter the entire site. Also in evidence is plain, undecorated pottery similar to that found at other Chilean sites of this period but strikingly unlike the highly decorated wares of the period from other regions of the Andes. Loop and twist bags made from twisted vegetable fibre (similar to today’s “net” shopping bags) were used to carry things.

Articulated sections of sea fish vertebrae have been found here — an indication that fish (probably in dried sections) were transported from the coast. Salt was used as a condiment. Today, the region is know for its salt pans, which are also a source of plaster of paris. Residents of Ramaditas gathered salt, presumably from the pans only a short distance away, and stored it in chunks to be ground when needed. Wooden spoons, not unlike those used today, are also in evidence.

The residents had access to wool, which was either spun directly at the site from animals on site or carried to the site by herders higher up in the Andes. Bright, green and iridescent feathers indicate that these people had access to bird (possibly parrot) feathers from the Amazon; these items were used to brighten attire.

Drugs were taken, presumably as part of a ritual or shamanic act. A hollow bird bone was used to snuff the substance. In later times, such snuff tubes were used at nearby San Pedro de Atacama to take hallucinogenic drugs, likely by people of privilege or religious status.

The bow and arrow was known during this period and projectile points found at Ramaditas fit into the general scheme that archaeologists have worked out for the Formative Period. (A finely worked, stemmed, projectile point of white chalcedony was typical of the type of item used to form a sharp arrow.) The copper samples are being analyzed at the University of Toronto’s Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science and at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Results are expected to be published this year. — This article, by Gray Graffam of Trent University’s Department of Anthropology, appeared in a recent issue of Cominco’s “Orbit” magazine.