The Origins and Development of Arsenic Bronze Technologies on the North Coast of Peru: Preliminary Results from Archaeometric and Experimental Investigations

Summary

This paper highlights the preliminary results of an ongoing study that aims to further characterize the origins and subsequent development of arsenic bronze technologies on the north coast of Peru. While the production of arsenic bronze on the north coast has been studied in detail over the last several decades, the spatial and temporal origins for the use/production of these alloys – and how they spread throughout the region during the Middle Horizon (600 – 1000 CE) period – are not yet fully understood. The study aims to address these questions through the synthesis of archaeometric data obtained from metallurgical materials/by-products from multiple Middle Horizon archaeological sites across the north coast, with a particular emphasis on diachronic and spatial analysis of the data so that a narrative of the use/production of arsenic bronze on the north coast of Peru can be written. Still in its early phases, the paper thus highlights the results of current archaeometric and experimental investigations of arsenic bronze use/production. Additionally, the Late Moche site of Huaca Colorada (600 – 900 CE; Jequetepeque Valley), and the Middle Sicán (900 – 1100 CE) site of Huaca Loro (La Leche Valley), are used as analytical case studies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Archaeometallurgy of the New World: Current Research, Approaches, and Methods

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14338