Current silver smelting in the Bolivian Andes: a review of the technology employed
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Published
Nov 10, 2021
Abstract
Recent ethnographic studies by Proyecto Arqueológico Porco-Potosí of traditional silver smelting in the southern Andes have revealed the continuing use of huayrachinas, peculiar small wind-blown furnaces. This technology was believed to have become extinct at the turn of the 20th century. Historical literature cites the huayrachinas as being an indigenous technology local to the Bolivian Andes. This paper is an overview of the historical and ethnographic records of huayrachina use throughout the last 500 years. It also contains initial results of analyses from a current smelting site. The paper focuses on the history and technological efficiency of the huayrachina.
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References
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Van Buren M and Mills B H 2005, ‘Huayrachinas and Tocochimbos: Traditional smelting technology of the southern Andes’, Latin American Antiquity 16(1), 3–25.
Bakewell P 1997, ‘Technological change in Potosi: the silver boom of the 1570s’, in P Bakewell (ed), Mines of silver and gold in the Americas (Aldershot), 75–95.
Capoche L 1585, Relacion General de la Villa Imperial de Potosí (Madrid).
Craig A 1994, ‘Spanish colonial silver beneficiation at Potosí’, in A Craig and R West (eds), In quest of mineral wealth (Baton Rouge), 271–86.
Douglass R E and Mathewson E P (trans) 1923, Alvaro Alonzo Barba’s Arte de los metales en que se enseña el verdadero beneficio de los de oro, y plata por azogue, el modo de fundirlos todos y cómo se han de refinar, y apartar unos de otros (New York).
Hoover H and Hoover L (trans) 1950, Georgius Agricola’s De Re Metallica (New York).
Mills B H 2003, Flame and Fortune. Unpublished BSc dissertation, Institute of Archaeology, UCL.
Moseley M 2001, The Incas and their ancestors: the archaeology of Peru (London).
Nash J 1979, We eat the mines and the mines eat us: dependency and exploitation in Bolivian tin mines (New York).
Peele R 1893, ‘A primitive smelting furnace’, School of Mines Quarterly 15, 8–10.
Petersen G 1970, ‘Mineria y metalurgia en el antiguo Peru’, Arqueológicas 12 (Lima).
Sisco A G and Smith C S (trans) 1951, Lazarus Ercker’s Treatise on Ores and Assaying translated from the German Edition 1580 (Chigaco).
Smith C S and Gnudi M T (trans) 1959, Vannoccio Biringuccio’s De La Pirotechnia (New York).
Van Buren M 2001 Lead and silver smelting; Carlos Cuiza, Pucapuja, Porco (unpublished report).
Van Buren M 2003a, ‘Un estudio etnoarqueológico de la tecnología de fundicíon en el sur de Potosí, Bolivia’, Textos Antropológicos 14 (La Paz), 133–48.
Van Buren M 2003b, Smelts conducted by Carlos Cuiza in 2003, Pucapujra, Porco. Unpublished report.
Van Buren M and Mills B H 2005, ‘Huayrachinas and Tocochimbos: Traditional smelting technology of the southern Andes’, Latin American Antiquity 16(1), 3–25.
How to Cite
Cohen, C., Rehren, T., Van Buren, M., & Mills, B. (2021). Current silver smelting in the Bolivian Andes: a review of the technology employed. Historical Metallurgy, 44(2), 153-162. https://www.hmsjournal.org/index.php/home/article/view/155
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Cohen, C., Rehren, T., Van Buren, M., & Mills, B. (2021). Current silver smelting in the Bolivian Andes: a review of the technology employed. Historical Metallurgy, 44(2), 153-162. https://www.hmsjournal.org/index.php/home/article/view/155