Pre-Hispanic mineral cartography in mining districts of the Atacama Desert: a geoarchaeological tool for studying the provenance of copper
Abstract
This paper presents a synthesis of geoarchaeological information compiled by various authors for the mining districts of the Atacama Desert, between ~20°0’00’’S and ~24°0’00’’S, including the mining districts of Collahuasi, El Abra, Chuquicamata, Cerro Verde and San Bartolo. Some of these districts provide direct evidence of pre-Hispanic mining activity or are situated near archaeological sites relevant to the study of pre-Hispanic mining and metallurgy. The study incorporates previously unpublished mineralogical and geochemical data from specific samples, obtained through analyses carried out using 10 distinct and complementary analytical techniques, with the aim of producing a mineral map of the area. This map enables the reconstruction of the chronology of copper use at archaeological sites in northern Chile, from the Late Archaic Period to the Late Period.
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BibTeX
@article{sapiains2026prehispanic,
title = {{Pre-Hispanic mineral cartography in mining districts of the Atacama Desert: a geoarchaeological tool for studying the provenance of copper}},
author = {Pía Sapiains and Valentina Figueroa and Ariadna Cifuentes and Diego Salazar and José Berenguer and Benoît Mille and Thierry Bataille and Andrew Menzies},
journal = {Revista del Museo de Antropología},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.31048/eag69p31},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05764669v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-SA 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Pre-Hispanic mineral cartography in mining districts of the Atacama Desert: a geoarchaeological tool for studying the provenance of copper
AU - Pía Sapiains
AU - Valentina Figueroa
AU - Ariadna Cifuentes
AU - Diego Salazar
AU - José Berenguer
AU - Benoît Mille
AU - Thierry Bataille
AU - Andrew Menzies
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/31
JO - Revista del Museo de Antropología
DO - 10.31048/eag69p31
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05764669v1
AB - This paper presents a synthesis of geoarchaeological information compiled by various authors for the mining districts of the Atacama Desert, between ~20°0’00’’S and ~24°0’00’’S, including the mining districts of Collahuasi, El Abra, Chuquicamata, Cerro Verde and San Bartolo. Some of these districts provide direct evidence of pre-Hispanic mining activity or are situated near archaeological sites relevant to the study of pre-Hispanic mining and metallurgy. The study incorporates previously unpublished mineralogical and geochemical data from specific samples, obtained through analyses carried out using 10 distinct and complementary analytical techniques, with the aim of producing a mineral map of the area. This map enables the reconstruction of the chronology of copper use at archaeological sites in northern Chile, from the Late Archaic Period to the Late Period.
SN - 1852-060X
SN - 1852-4826
ER -