Copper Rich, Water Poor: The Southern Atacama under Inka Rule

Summary

The hyperarid and thinly populated Atacama area of northern Chile seems an unlikely target of imperial interest. However, archaeological research has demonstrated direct control over this territory and its people by the Inka, who were drawn to the region by rich copper deposits that have been exploited at least since the Late Archaic (4500 BP). How did the Inka reorganize copper mining technology and labor? How were mining and metallurgical centers provisioned in this agriculturally marginal region? What role did ideology and ritual play in the imperial incorporation and administration of the Atacama and in mining? How was this area integrated into the state’s political economy? Historical sources on the region are scarce, but through extensive surveys, excavations and dating programs developed by different research projects during the last three decades, we now have a wealth of archaeological data to begin to address these questions. In this paper we attempt to synthesize this information, discuss transformations under Inka rule, and reflect on imperial expansion and provincial administration in this environmentally and demographically limited, yet copper-rich area.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Rethinking the Inka: the View from the South

Keywords

Spatial Coverage