Mining, Extractive Metallurgy and Imperialism in the Inka Empire

Summary

The Inka empire directed significant resources and labor towards the extraction of metals from the provinces. Using the examples of Porco (silver), Viña del Cerro (copper) and the Tarapacá Valley (copper and silver), this poster explores Inka strategies for obtaining metallurgical wealth. These case studies show that, as suggested by ethnohistoric sources, large-scale silver extraction was directly overseen by the state. In contrast to models of more indirect state involvement typically proposed for copper production, these case studies demonstrate that the Inka actively invested in expanding production of this metal, despite the fact that it was not destined for use in the imperial heartland. I propose several ways that the production of silver and copper—both the sequence of activities and interactions implicated in its manufacture and the metals themselves—enmeshed local people in the relationships of hierarchy, obligation, and reciprocity that constituted them as subjects of the Inka empire.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 18825