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Mining and Quarrying in the Ancient Andes pp 157–182Cite as

The Organization of Mining in Nasca During the Early Intermediate Period: Recent Evidence from Mina Primavera

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Abstract

This paper considers mining in Nasca, south coast of Peru from the perspective of Mina Primavera, a prehispanic hematite mine located in the Ingenio Valley and exploited predominantly during the Early Intermediate period. Our work at the site has revealed the evolution and organization of mining in Nasca including its practice embedded within rituals most likely related to propitiation. Our principal conclusions are that (1) mining was an important activity for prehispanic south coast societies and it was embedded in other aspects of prehispanic life; (2) hematite mining at Mina Primavera was most active during the first few centuries of the first millennium ad coinciding with the Early Nasca phases of the Early Intermediate period; (3) we hypothesize that intensification during this time was due to the demand for high-quality hematite during Early Nasca.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This region is sometimes referred to as the northern Nasca region (see Chap. 14). We use the term CNR to distinguish the region from the Southern Nasca Region (SNR) and the Northern Nasca Region (NNR) as we have defined in previous work (see Vaughn 2009).

  2. 2.

    As this valley is part of the Central Nasca Region, we employ the extensively documented chronology used by Reindel (2009) and colleagues and that contrasts with the Southern Nasca Region chronology that we have used previously (see, for example, Vaughn 2009).

  3. 3.

    Note that Reindel and colleagues typically group phase 4 with 5 into Middle Nasca. In the SNR, phase 4 is grouped with Early Nasca. While geographically, the Ingenio Valley and Mina Primavera are part of the CNR, we continue to group phase 4 into Early Nasca as we typically find Nasca 4 ceramics with earlier phases. Indeed, this is the pattern that we have found at Mina Primavera.

  4. 4.

    Note that the mine is actually larger than this as the full extent of the mine’s boundaries have yet to be determined.

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Acknowlegments

We thank the National Geographic Society for funding to Vaughn and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for funding to Van Gijseghem to complete the fieldwork described in this paper. Many people have contributed to our fieldwork at Mina Primavera including Stefanie Bautista, Jessica Kaplan, Meghan Tierney, Jose Sereveleón, Luis Manuel González LaRosa, Craig Smith, John Kantner, Cynthia Hotujec, and Yoshiko Tsuji. We thank them for their efforts and for making the daily (and arduous) trek up to Mina Primavera! We also thank Rubén Garcia of the Ica INC and Susana Arcé of the Ica Museum for their assistance throughout this project. We greatly appreciate the comments of an anonymous reviewer who made helpful suggestions on an earlier draft of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, Purdue University, 700 West State Street, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA

    Kevin J. Vaughn & Verity H. Whalen

  2. Université de Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Hendrik Van Gijseghem

  3. University of California-Davis, Davis, CA, USA

    Jelmer W. Eerkens

  4. Arqueocare, Lima, Peru

    Moises Linares Grados

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  1. Kevin J. Vaughn
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Correspondence to Kevin J. Vaughn .

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  1. Archaeological Research Facility, University of California, Berkeley, College Building 2251, Berkeley, 94720-1076, California, USA

    Nicholas Tripcevich

  2. , Department of Anthropology, Purdue University, West State St 700, West Lafayette, 47907, USA

    Kevin J. Vaughn

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Vaughn, K.J., Van Gijseghem, H., Whalen, V.H., Eerkens, J.W., Grados, M.L. (2013). The Organization of Mining in Nasca During the Early Intermediate Period: Recent Evidence from Mina Primavera. In: Tripcevich, N., Vaughn, K. (eds) Mining and Quarrying in the Ancient Andes. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5200-3_8

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