Historical Gold Mining and Environmental Impact in the Ocoña Valley of Southern Peru

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Environmental and Social Issues within Historical Archaeology (General Sessions)" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Located at the heart of the ‘Nazca-Ocoña Gold Belt’, Corral Redondo represents one of the most enigmatic archaeological sites in southern Peru. While the site shot to fame after the well-publicized looting of spectacular prehispanic artifacts in the 1940’s, our recent archaeological project documented unexpected later occupation phases and a dense settlement pattern in the adjacent valleys. The presence of burials following Christian tradition suggest that Corral Redondo continued to serve as a sacred space to the local population well into the Colonial period. Drawing from archaeological, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic lines of evidence, in this presentation we attempt to interpret the site’s continuous prominence within the context of intensive gold mining activities from the Late Horizon through the Colonial period, and up to the present. We will further reflect on the ways such an extractive economy has impacted the environment and the resulting toll on the local population.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Environmental and Social Issues within Historical Archaeology (General Sessions)   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2021

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology