Copper Smelting at the Archaeological Site of El Manchón, Guerrero

From Indigenous Practice to Colonial-Scale Production

Bibliographic Data

ID4374248
AuthorsJohan García Zaldúa, Dorothy Hosler (0000-0002-6270-7832)
Year2020
Volume31
Issue3
Pages558-575
Publication date2020-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLatin American Antiquity (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1045-6635 • E-ISSN: 2325-5080
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/laq.2019.105
OpenAlexW3011267460
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited15

We examined copper production at the archaeological site of El Manchón, located in the Sierra Madre del Sur of Guerrero, using archaeological, historical, ethnographic, and materials engineering data. Thirty-six AMS wood charcoal samples from El Manchón, analyzed using Bayseian statistics, date the two domestic sectors of El Manchón from cal AD 1250-1440 (Sector 1) and cal AD 1280-1680 (Sector 3). The smelting sector (Sector 2) contains copper ore and slag and dates to cal AD 1630-1825. Historical sources show that the Spanish had no experience smelting copper metal and were forced to negotiate with indigenous specialists to acquire smelted copper. These specialists provided it in return for tax exemptions and other economic privileges. The indigenous specialists requested iron tools for mining; the Spanish suggested introducing bellows to smelt copper in volume. In the smelting sector we excavated the stone foundations and a slag cake that conform to the dimensions of a hand-powered bellows-driven furnace in which the copper ore was smelted in a circular depression known as acendrada. Thus far, this furnace design has only been excavated at El Manchón. This bellows-powered furnace was likely operated by indigenous Manchón specialists, who probably initially smelted copper using the more ancient blowpipe technology. The dates for the smelting and occupation of El Manchón overlap

Archaeology · Charcoal · Copper · Copper mining · Geography · Indigenous · Metallurgy · Slag (welding · Smelting · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Cultural Heritage Materials Analysis · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · Materials Science · Ecology

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